Aircraft design is on the threshold of a new supersonic era in which aerodynamic heating will be a primary consideration in conjunction with the older design concepts of structure, aerodynamics, and propulsion. Thermal effect on structural design and thermal protection of personnel, equipment, fuel, etc., can not be appended to the supersonic aircraft but must be considered in the original basic design.
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The “Weight Penalty Evaluation” concept for structural weight estimation is presently being used at Chance Vought Aircraft in preliminary design. This concept is a semi-analytical procedure for the quantitative evaluation of structural weight increments. The structural weight is estimated by the summation of the major weight contributing components. This approach enables the evaluation of weight effects of temperature, stiffness requirements, material types, etc. Although this concept is not a new approach to weight estimation, presented herein are some new evaluation procedures including recent test data.