Mission and Economic Analysis of Aircraft with Natural Laminar Flow

Abstract

The objective of this paper is the analysis and assessment of a natural laminar flow (NLF) aircraft with forward swept wings on air transport system level. In particular, the impact on fuel efficiency on single missions and on airline operational level as well as economic metrics like the net present value are of special interest. The net economic benefit for an aircraft operator gained by the operation of a NLF aircraft concept is shown, considering real-world route network conditions including existing flight routes with their respective frequencies. The focus will be on short-to-medium haul operations, i.e., aircraft similar to current state of the art 150 passenger seated aircraft. During the analysis process tools for aircraft design, mission simulation and computation as well as life-cycle cost assessment will be used.