CHAPTER VII

C.G CALCULATION
7.1 DESCRIPTION:
The weight of an airplane changes in the flight due to consumption of fuel and dropping
off / release of armament or supplies. Further, the payload and the amount of fuel carried by
the airplane may vary from flight to flight. These factors lead to change in the location of the
centre of gravity (c.g.) of the airplane.

The shift in the c.g location affects the stability and controllability of the airplane.
Hence, this chapter deals with the methods to obtain the weights of various components of the
airplane and calculation of the c.g location under various operating conditions. The weight of
entire airplane can be sub divided into empty weight and useful load.

The empty weight can be further subdivided into weights of:

(i) Structures group
(ii) Propulsion group and
(iii) Equipment group.

The weights in the above three groups can be further subdivided as follows.

1) The structures group consists of the following components.

wing
horizontal tail /canard
vertical tail
fuselage
landing gear (main and nose/tail wheel)
arresting gear and catapult gear for ship based airplanes
nacelle, engine pod and air intake
2) The propulsion group consists of the following components:
engine as installed; reduction gear for turboprop engine
propeller for piston and turboprop engines
exhaust system
cooling provisions
engine controls
starting system
fuel system and tanks

3) The equipment group consists of the following items:

flight controls
auxiliary power unit (APU) instruments
hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, armament, air conditioning, anti-icing and
other systems
avionics
furnishings in passenger airplanes
photographic equipment in reconnaissance/patrol airplanes; weapon
deployment equipment and armament loading and handling systems in
 military airplanes.
The sum of the weights of structures, propulsion and equipment groups
constitutes the total empty weight.

4) The useful load consists of :

Crew
Fuel (usable and trapped)
Oil
Payload ( passengers, cargo and baggage in transport airplane)
Ammunition, expendable weapons and other items in military airplanes

Table 7.1 Component weights and c.g values of various aircrafts

ITEMS FIGHTERS TRANSPORTS GENERAL MULTIPLIER APPROXIMATE
AND C.G LOCATION
BOMBERS
WING 44 49 12 Sexposed m2 40% MAC
HORIZONTAL 20 27 10 Sexposed m2 40% MAC
TAIL
VERTICAL 26 27 10 Sexposed m2 40% MAC
TAIL
FUSELAGE 23 24 7 Swetted m2 40-50 % LENGTH
LANDING 0.033 0.043 0.057 TOGW
GEAR 0.045
NAVY
INSTALLED 1.3 1.3 1.4 ENGINE
ENGINE WEIGHT
ALL ELSE 0.17 0.17 0.10 TOGW 40-50% LENGTH
EMPTY

The aim of estimating the weights of individual components and their c.g. is to
obtain the location of the c.g. of the airplane. Then, the shift in the airplane c.g.
is examined under various conditions.

At this stage of preliminary design, the weights of individual components are

estimated using simpler method like using the table above.

The gross weight of the airplane estimated is 84907 kg

The weights and c.g. locations of various components are estimated below:

Wing:
S = 142 m2
b = 36.63 m
bsemi = (36.63/2) – (3.76/2) = 16.435 m
cR = 6.2 m
cT= 1.55 m
Fuselage width = 3.76 m
mac = 4.34 m
Location of L.E of mac from L.E of wing = 0.45 m
S(exposed)wing = 142 – (6.2x3.76) = 118.7 m2
From the table, the weight of the wing is,
Wwing = 118.7 x 49 = 5816.3 kg
Wwing / W0 = 6.8%
From the table, c.g of the wing is at 40% of mac
Hence, the location of the c.g. of wing from the leading edge of the root chord
is, 0.45 + 0.4x4.34 = 2.186 m

Horizontal tail:
btail = 14.35 m
Stail = 32.8 m2
cR ,h.tail = 3.38 m
cT, htail = 1.18 m
mac, htail = 2.29 m
S(exposed)tail = 27.88 m2
From the table,
Weight of Horizontal tail = 27 x 27.88 = 752.76 kg
Wht / W0 = 0.887%
From the table, c.g of the H.tail is at 40% of mac.
Hence, the location of the c.g. of H.tail from the leading edge of the root chord
of H.tail is, 0.45 + 0.4 x 2.29 = 1.37 m

Vertical tail:
The contribution of dorsal fin to the weight of vertical tail is ignored at this
stage of preliminary design.
Sv. tail = 26.40 m2
From the table,
Weight of vertical tail = 27 x 26.40 = 712.8 kg
Wvt/W0 = 0.84%
From the table, c. g of the V. tail is at 40% of mac.
Mean aerodynamic chord of V. tail = 3.7 m
Hence, the location of the c.g. of V. tail from the leading edge of the root chord
of V. tail is 1.45 + 0.4 x 3.7 = 2.93 m
Engine:
The weight of each engine is 3796 kg
From the table, the installed weight of two engines is,
Wengine = 1.3 x (2 x 3796) = 9869.6 kg
Wengine / W0 = 11.62 %
For gas turbine engines the location of c.g. from the engine inlet is between 30
to 45% of engine length.
In the present case the engine length is 3 m.
The engines are located at 3.06 m from the wing root and the inlet is at 2.5 m
from wing leading edge.

Hence, the location of c.g of engine from L.E of the wing is,
= -2.5 + (0.4 x 3) = -1.3 m i.e., 1.3 m ahead of the L.E of root chord of wing.

Landing gear:
From the table, the weight of the nose wheel plus the main landing gear is 4.3%
of W0. i.e., 0.043 x 84907 = 3651 kg
Out of this total weight, the nose wheel and main wheel account for 15% and
85% respectively.
Hence, nose wheel weighs 0.15 x 3651 = 547.65 kg
And the main wheels weigh 0.85 x 3651 = 3103.35 kg.
With regard to the locations of the c.g.’s of nose wheel and main wheels, it is
recalled that the nose wheel and main wheels share respectively 10 % and 90 %
of the airplane weight.
Wheel base is 17.17 m.
Hence, the c.g. of the nose wheel is 0.9 x 17.17 = 15.45 m ahead of the c.g. of
the airplane.
The c.g. of the main wheels, as a group, is:
= 0.1 x 17.17 = 1.717 m behind the c.g. of the airplane.

Fuselage:
An approximate estimation of fuselage wetted area is,
= 0.75 x perimeter of fuselage x length of fuselage
= 0.75 x π x 3.76 x 42
= 372.1 m2
(Wfuse + Wsyst)/ W0 = (Wempty/W0) – [(Ww/W0) + (Wht/W0) + (Wvt/W0) + (We/W0)
+ (Wlg/W0)]
(Wfuse + Wsyst)/ W0 = 0.5375 – (0.068 + 0.00887 + 0.0084 + 0.1162 + 0.043)
(Wfuse + Wsyst) = 0.2932 x 84907 = 24894.73 kg
From the table, the c.g. of fuselage and systems is, 0.45 x length of fuselage
= 0.45 x 42 =18.9 m from the nose of the fuselage.

Wing location and c.g. of the airplane:

The wing is chosen such that the c.g. of the entire airplane with the gross weight
is at 25% of the mean aerodynamic chord of the wing.
The distance of the leading edge of the root chord of the wing from the nose of
the fuselage is denoted by xlew. The 25% of the mean aerodynamic chord (mac)
of wing is 1.5 m behind xlew.
Hence, the chosen location of the c.g. of the entire airplane is at (xlew + 1.5) m
from the nose of fuselage.

Item W (kg) x (m) W.x (kg.m)

5816.3xlew +
Wing 5816.3 xlew +2.186
12714.43
752.76xlew
H.tail 752.76 xlew+1.37
+1031.28
712.8xlew +
V.tail 712.8 xlew + 2.93
2088.5
9869.6xlew –
Engines 9869.6 xlew - 1.3
12830.48
547.65xlew –
Nose wheel 547.65 xlew – 15.45
8461.2
3103.35xlew
Main wheel 3103.35 xlew + 1.717
+5328.45
Fuselage &
24894.73 18.9 470510.4
system
20800.9xlew +
∑ 45696.89
512964.34