The aim of this chapter is to give a brief overview on airports, as they are a fundamental facility to facilitate intermodal transportation and ensure that flights are performed in a safe way. Section 9.1 is devoted to define what airports are, providing a brief overview of their history, introducing their naming nomenclature, describing the variables that potentially affect the demand of air transportation, and thus the necessity of building an airport, in a determined location, and finally giving a description of the master plan, the set of official documents for the design and construction of an airport. Section 9.2 is devoted to provide a description of the configuration of a modern airport, including air-side and land-side elements. Finally, Section 9.3 analyzes airport operations. Some introductory aspects suitable for this type of course can be consulted in Franchini et al. [2]. Two thorough references on the matter are De Neufville and Odoni [1], García Cruzado...

Air transportation plays an integral role in our way of life. Commercial airlines allow millions of people every year to attend business conventions, go home for the holidays, take vacations around the globe, or travel to other important events. Air transportation also represents the fastest way to ship most types of cargo over long distances. Air transportation must be seen both as a business and as a technical and operational activity. Therefore, how an aircraft is operated and exploited, and what is the cost of operating and maintaining an aircraft are questions to be assessed. First, we need to understand the complex regulatory framework needed for reliable and safe air transportation. ICAO and IATA will be studied in Section 8.1.1 and Section 8.1.2, respectively. Second, for air transport economy we need to consider the performances of the aircraft studied in Chapter 7 and the particular characteristics of air transportation. Thus, this chapter will briefly focus on the types of aircraft and manufactures in Section 8.2, on the structure of costs of a typical airline in Section 8.3, and on aviation’s environmental fingerprint in Section 8.4. A good introductory reference is Navarro [8]. Thorough overviews are given, for instance, in Pindado Carrión [11] and Belobaba et al....

Mechanics of atmospheric flight studies aircraft performances, that is, the movement of the aircraft on the air in response to external forces and torques, and the stability and control of the aircraft’s movement, analyzing thus the rotational movement of the aircraft. The study of performances, stability, and control plays a major role in verifying the design requirements. For instance, one must be able to analyze the required power for cruise flight, the required power settings and structural design for climbing with a desired angle at a desired velocity, the range and autonomy of the aircraft, the distances for taking off and landing, the design for making the aircraft stable under disturbances, and so on and so forth. The reader is referred to Franchini and García [2] and Anderson [1] as introductory references. Appendix A complements the content of this...

Aircraft require to thrust themselves to accelerate and thus counteract drag forces. In this chapter, we look at the way aircraft engines work. All aircraft propulsion systems are based on the principle of reaction of airflow through a power plant system. The two means for accelerating the airflow surrounding the aircraft that are presented in this chapter are through propellers and jet expansion, which give rise to the so-called propeller engines and jet engines to be studied in Section 6.1 and Section 6.2, respectively. In Section 6.3 the different types of jet engines are studied. A third type of propulsion systems are the rocket engines, but they are used in spacecrafts and lay beyond the scope of this course. An introductory reference on the topic is Newman [3, Chapter 6]. Thorough references are, for instance, Mattingly et al. [2] and Jenkinson et al....

In this chapter the goal is to give a brief overview of the different instruments, systems, and subsystems that one can find in a typical aircraft. First, in Section 5.1, the focus will be on the instruments. Notice that modern aircraft are becoming more and more sophisticated and classical instruments are being substituted by electronic displays. Aircraft systems are briefly analyzed in Section 5.2. Again, classical mechanical (pneumatic, hydraulic) systems are being substituted by electronics. Therefore, in modern terminology, the discipline that encompasses instruments (as electronic displays) and electronic systems About the CourseComedy school-delays.com is the funniest traffic school in California! Take the online traffic school course from the comfort of your own home or office, not in a distant classroom. is referred to as avionics. Nonetheless, still many small aircraft use instruments and also some important aircraft systems are not based on electronics, e.g., fuel system. A introductory reference is Franchini et al. [1], in which this chapter is inspired. Thorough references on aircraft systems are Moir and Seabridge [4], Kossiakoff et al. [2], Tooley and Wyatt [5], and Langton et al....

A Structure holds things together, carries loads, and provides integrity. Structural engineering is the application of statics and solid mechanics to devise structures with sufficient strength, stiffness, and longevity to fulfill a mission without failure with a minimum amount of weight. Aerospace engineers pay particular attention to designing light structures due to the strong dependence of weight on operational costs. The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of aircraft structures. The chapter starts with some generalities in Section 4.1. Then material properties are analyzed in Section 4.2 focusing on aircraft materials. The Loads that appear in an aircraft structure will be described in Section 4.3. Finally, Section 4.4 will be devoted to describe the fundamental structural components of an...