3317. Weights and Materials Considerations in the Design of an Ultra Heavy Lift Aircraft

Paper

Abstract

Abrams Haulers Incorporated (AHI) presents the AHI-10, an Ultra Heavy Lift Aircraft (UHLA) designed in response to the 2002-2003 AIAA Undergraduate Team Aircraft Design Competition. The AHI-10 fulfills the military?s need to transport massive amounts of equipment in a short period of time, allowing them to deploy entire army battalions within days, satisfying the Rapid Global Mobility Requirements of Joint Vision 2020. The 2002-2003 AIAA request for proposal (RFP) requires designing an aircraft capable of transporting a payload of 1.2 million pounds. Other payload requirements include ten M1A2 Abram tanks, 60 463L pallets, 300 medical litters, as well as 1000 paratroops. The performance requirements include an unrefueled range of 5000 nautical miles at 500 knots at a cruise altitude of 25,000 feet. The aircraft is also required to take off and land in a distance less than 9,000 feet. The vast amount of cargo requirements along with the strict performance requirements set by the RFP requires in-depth analysis of structures and mass properties. The mass properties analysis plays an important role in the aircraft?s design, due to the necessity of reducing aircraft weight in order to achieve the maximum performance necessary to satisfy the RFP requirements. After thorough design analysis, the aircraft has a length of 311 feet and a wingspan of 300 feet, incorporating an all-surface lifting configuration. The AHI-10 uses eight GE 90-115B power plants producing a takeoff thrust of 128,000 pounds force per engine.