Aircraft Mass Estimation Methods

Weight minimization of an airplane design is a subject of extreme importance considering the aspect of cost estimation. While considering the design of large airplanes reduction of weight is done at some high performance designs. In various cases reduction of weight in one component leads to added weight in the other, leading to the snowball effect of the weight growth. The prospect to achieve a weight reduction and the costs depend upon the phase of the design process. The aircraft's mass is required to calculate flight performance and to assess the design. Individual masses are required to determine the centre of gravity and the positioning of the landing gear and the wings. In this paper various weight estimation techniques has been reviewed. This review does not consider getting into details of particular method, rather a brief description of various methods and interesting features have been presented here. The focus has been given on commercial transport airplane.