Supercritical Wing Preliminary Design Study

This analytical effort was applied to a supercritical wing box with provisions for variable camber leading and trailing edge devices. The wing geometry and criteria are consistent with requirements for the FB-111 aircraft or its growth versions. Cost and weight reduction of the wing box was realized thru concept innovation and application of a systematic design approach that utilizes a quantative evaluation system for selecting the most promising concepts from a broad array of alternate designs. Twenty-one metallic and twelve composite concepts were considered and two metallic and one composite concept were ultimately selected and developed into preliminary designs of complete wing boxes. Evaluation of the 13 designs showed weight savings of up p to 27 and cost savings of up to 12.3 when compared to a baseline of the same size but configured to FB-111 construction and materials. These advanced designs meet static strength, fatigue, fracture, thermal and flutter requirements for the FB- 111 aircraft.