Aerodynamic Guidelines in the Design and Optimization of new Regional Turboprop Aircraft

This paper aims to provide some guidelines in the aerodynamic design and optimization of future regional turboprop aircraft with about 90 passengers. Currently there are no configurations on the market of this type, thus a typical 70 passengers turboprop aircraft is taken as reference starting point. The most critical areas in terms of aerodynamic behaviour are highlighted and an automatic procedure manageable through Matlab is described: this interface allows to import and modify geometries using interpolating curves and surfaces via NURBS. Within the optimization loop, each new geometry is analyzed trough a panel code solver until optimized shapes are found. Wing-fuselage junction, undercarriage pod, cockpit and wing-tip device are investigated. Design of the winglet is presented highlighting performance improvements during the entire mission profile. Finally two different fuselage configurations are shown: the first with a 4-abreast fuselage arrangement and the second with 5-abreast, highlighting pros and cons of each configuration.