Comparative Study of Advanced Turboprop Aircraft with Wing and Rear Mounted Propulsion System in the Agile EU project

The present paper describes the comparison of two variantof the sameregionalturboprop aircraftusing the AGILE’s collaborative MDO process. The two turboprop aircraftareboth characterized by the same Top Level Aircraft Requirements,but with a different engine positions.The requirements are provided by the industrial partner (Leonardo –Aircraft Division) leading to twoaircraft configurationswith wing and rear mounted propulsion system.A complete aircraft preliminary design is carried out to understand the effect of engine position considering all the main design disciplines. 13 engine design cases related to differentflight conditions and engine ratings are considered to select engine cycle and size. Baseline engine size isdefined by high shaft power requirements at max continuous conditionsand by power and thrustrequirementat other design cases. Improvement of cruise installed SFC of baseline engine by 6-7% is shownto reach given preliminary requirement on cruise SFC level.The results ofthe twoaircraft are obtained and compared, showingthatthe rear mounted engine configuration can reach higher cruise speeds, despiteslight incrementsof on-board systems weight and required mission fuel.