The double-fuselage layout: A preliminary case study of a possible way of reducing the development costs for new high-capacity aircraft

Abstract

The double-fuselage layout, sometimes proposed in the past, is considered to be an alternative (by utilizing a great number of components of an existing aircraft) to a new aircraft (with the traditional layout) of about twice the size of the existing aircraft. The development cost reduction is attractive if the technical performance of the double-fuselage is comparable with that of the hypothetical new aircraft. The first aim of the present work is to sketch a double-fuselage layout with similar values of wing loading, thrust-weight ratio and aspect ratio to the reference new aircraft of increased size. On the basis of this sketch, some other topics are discussed, such as the landing gear and tail surface configurations, ground operations, etc. Particular attention has to be paid to structural problems related to the double-fuselage layout, especially the different modes of stress in structural elements of the original aircraft.