Relationship Between Wingspan and Fuselage Length in Aircraft According to Engine Types

Abstract

The study aims to explain the size relationship between wingspan and fuselage length, which are the two basic design parameters that a designer is most curious about. Within the scope of the study, the relationship between take-off mass, fuselage length and wingspan of a total of 601 aircraft was questioned for single-piston, twin-piston, turboprop, and jet aircraft types. Power correlations were used for mass-based sizing of wingspan and fuselage length. In mass-based sizing, bad correlations were found for fuselage length for single-piston airplanes and good correlations for turboprops and jets. In terms of wingspan to fuselage length ratio (b/lfus) jets showed a more pronounced trend, ranging from 0.7 to 1.1, while other aircraft types showed different trends, ranging from 0.9 to 1.7. In general, racer, homebuilt, aerobatic, and light transport aircraft have low b/lfus ratios, while motor gliders, firefighters, patrol, and agricultural aircraft have high b/lfus ratios. The study is valuable in that it fills a gap in the literature by considering the relationship between wingspan and fuselage length both with correlations over mass and by revealing statistics according to aircraft types over proportional relationship.