Tishchenko’s Method – 1

Preliminary Sizing of Helicopters

1
 Preliminary Sizing of Helicopters
Tishchenko’s Method

Given Quantities
Payload, Range, Cruise speed, Service Ceiling,
Temperature (ISA+…), Use of a Specific Engine,
Customer’s Special Requirements (e.g.,
Environment)
Required
Take-off Weight, Payload, Engine power (Take-off
and Cruise), Fuel required, Empty weight, Rotor
geometry, Fuselage Configuration, Transmission
size, Performance, Cost,….
2
 Definitions

Empty Weight
Operating Weight
Useful Load
Gross Take-off Weight
Landing Weight

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Ref: AMCP 706-201.
Engineering Design Handbook. Helicopter Engineering.
U. S. Army Materiel Command, August 1974

Weight Empty
+ (Unusable fuel & oil, guns and other fixed equipment)
= Basic Weight
+ (Oil, crew, special mission equipment, ..(”Fixed useful load”))
= Operating Weight
+ (Usable fuel, cargo, ammunition, stores, drop tanks..)
= Gross Weight (Gross Take-off Weight)
- (Expendable items: fuel, oil, stores and external drop tanks)
=Landing Gross Weight

Empty Weight + Useful load = Gross Weight

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 Constituents of Empty Weight
Main Rotor Blades Fuel System
Main Rotor Hub Oil and Cooling System
Swash Plate Fire Fighting System
Tail Rotor Blades Fuselage
Tail Rotor Hub Horizontal Tail
Main Gearbox Undercarriage
Intermediate Gearbox Manual Control
Tail Gearbox Upper Controls
Transmission shaft Auxiliary Hydraulic System
Engines Electric Power System
Engine Installation Air conditioning & Anti-icing
APU Special Equipment
Unusable Fuel Basic Instruments, Avionics

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 Initial Data Required for Calculations
1. Weight of Payload, Number of crew and
Passengers, weight of each member of crew
and each passenger (including baggage
allowance)
2. Required Flight Range, time allowances for
idling and hover.
3. Reserve Fuel (Usually 20 minutes at VBE)
4. Service Ceiling
5. ISA +….. Requirement
6. Required Cruise Speed and Cruise Altitude
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 Initial Data Required for Calculations – 2

7. Weight of Special Equipment (Armament,

Armor protection, IR signature reduction
equipment, Sand filter, Mission equipment,
Medical Rescue Equipment…..)
8. Requirement for Category “A” Flights
9. Requirements for De-icing of rotors and
air intakes, Air conditioning, Cooling of
Avionics Equipment

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 Initial Data for Complete Helicopter

1. Initial Estimate of Drag area of Helicopter

2. Electric Power Required for onboard
Equipment
3. Estimate of Transmission Efficiency
4. Overload Factor for Tail Shaft (Arises out
of rapid pedal movements, especially at
VNE; Typical values are between 2.0 and
2.6)
5. Initial Estimate of Ratio of Main rotor and
Tail Rotor Diameters 8
Flat Plate Area

1
Drag  V2 f
2

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 Initial Data for Main Rotor -1
1. Initial Estimate of (CT/sigma)
- 0.065 to 0.07 for high speed helicopters
- 0.07 to 0.075 for modern transport and
military helicopters
- 0.075 to 0.08 for heavy lift helicopters
2. Rotor Tip Speed
- 200 to 205 m/s for helicopters with
Take-off Mass of up to 2000 kg
- 205 to 215 m/s for helicopters with
Take-off Mass: 2000 – 10,000 kg
- 210 to 220 m/s for helicopters with
Take-off Mass > 10,000 kg
[Possible to vary rotor RPM]
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 Initial Data for Main Rotor-2
3. Initial Estimate of Figure of Merit
4. Initial value for the Vertical Drag Area of the
Helicopter (to estimate hover power)
5. Initial guess for the number of blades (In the
calculations, the number of blades can be varied
from 2 to 8 or more)
6. Limits for the value of Blade Aspect Ratio
(Range: 14 to 21)
7. Initial value of the Lift-to-Drag Ratio and
Propulsive Efficiency
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 Initial Data for Tail Rotor
1. Initial Estimate of Figure of Merit
2. Initial value CT/sigma for tail rotor
3. Initial guess for the number of blades
4. Limits for the value of Blade Aspect Ratio
5. Initial value of the Loss due to Tail Rotor/
Vertical Fin Interaction

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 Initial Data for Engine
(This Depends upon whether we use an existing
engine or a “Rubber” engine)
1. Number of Engines
2. Losses due to Installation, IR suppressors, Sand
Filters
3. Specific Fuel Consumption
4. Power loss due to altitude
5. Power loss due to temperature
6. Ratio of Maximum Continuous Power to Take-
off Power
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INITIAL SET OF CALCULATIONS

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To obtain WFUEL:
Start with the definition of the
specific fuel consumption:
sfc = Ce = fuel consumed per hp of
engine power per hour

Units of Ce = [kg/hp/hr]
O O
The total time of flight Flight Profile
=(Range/Block speed) = L / Vcr

(L = range and Vcr = cruise speed)

(Block speed should make allowance for
idling, take-off, hover and landing times) 15
 Main Rotor

Main Gear Box

Engine

Transmission Output Power

 Engine Power x Transmission Efficiency   ( Engine Power )

Rotor Output Power

 Transmission Output Power x Rotor Efficiency
  ( Transmission Output Power )

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 Fuel required =(sfc). (time of flight) . (engine
power) L L
WFUEL = e Vcr
C . .( EnginePower )  C e z ENG PENG
Vcr

[kg/kW/hour].[hour]. [kW]=[kg]
XMSN output power Engine output power
Engine Power  Rotor output power . .
Rotor output power XMSN output power

Rotor output Power Rotor output Power

 
[ Rotor Propulsive efficiency ][ XMSN efficiency ] 

Rotor power required = [Helicopter Drag] . [Cruise velocity]

 D Wcruise
Helicopter Drag= Dhelicopter   
 L  Helicopter
LHelicopter 
 L
 D
  Helicopter

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 Wcruise Wcruise
Engine power= .Vcr  .Vcr
 L K Helicopter 
  
 D  Helicopter

 L
K Helicopter    = Lift–to-drag ratio of helicopter
 D  Helicopter

L L Wcruise
Fuel Required  C e . .( Engine Power )  C e .Vcr
Vcr Vcr K Helicopter  

Ce L
 .Wcruise
K Helicopter 

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 This formula can be improved as follows:

a) include a reserve fuel for flying at cruise

speed for a time of TRES hours (say, 20 minutes);
b) make an allowance of 0.5% of the Take-off weight
to account for the fuel required to start the
engines, idling, taxiing, take-off and landing .
  L  TRES  VCR   C e 
WFUEL  WTO   0.005
 K Helicopter     
  L  TRES  VCR  
 WTO   0.005
 E 
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 K Helicopter     WTO Leq
Energy Efficiency E 
Ce W fuel

Energy Efficiency = “Range of 1 lb of vehicle for 1 lb of fuel”

Formula for Take-off weight:

W PL  W FUEL  WCREW  W FURN
WTO 
k we

Substitute for WFUEL

W PL  WCREW  W FURN WTO   L  TRES VCR  

WTO     0.005
k we k we  E 
WTO  W Empty
[ Note : Weight Efficiency  k we  ]
WTO
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 W PL  WCREW  W FURN WTO   L  TRES VCR  
WTO     0.005
k we k we  E 

W PL  WCREW  WFURN
WTO 
L  TRESVCR
k we   0.005
E

Note:
It has been assumed that Wcruise  WTO
When the range is large, a better approximation is
WFUEL
Wcruise  WTO 
2 21
EC 120 Payload – Range Diagram

 Range
 Payload

 Payload  Fuel Consumed

Leq  Range
Energy Efficiency  E  WTO  WTO
WFuel  Payload
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 WTO L Wfuel W L
E  TO
Helicopter lb Nm lb W fuel

Robinson R22 Beta 1370 209 128 2237

Robinson R44 2400 224 216 2489
Schweizer 300c 2050 195 180 2221
Sikorsky S61N 20500 440 2975 3032
Sikorsky S76C 11700 430 1897 2652
MD 500N 3350 210 432 1628
MD900/902 6250 292 1067 1710
Eurocopter BK117C 7385 283 1230 1699
Eurocopter EC120B 3780 395 717 2082
Eurocopter EC135P1 6250 332 1182 1755
Eurocopter EC 155B 10580 516 2176 2509
Eurocopter SA315B Lama 4300 278 998 1198
EH 101 32118 610 7408 2645
Bell 430 9300 353 1680 1954
Bell 412SP 11900 349 2228 1864
Bell 206L
Longranger 4450 324 743 1941
Bell 206
Jeteranger 3200 311 509 1955
Augusta 109C 5996 300 970 1854
(Units of E: nautical miles) 23
 Values of E for Helicopters
3500
S61N
3000
SA315BLama
2500
EC 120B
2000

1500

1000

500

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

E = Range of 1 lb of vehicle for 1 lb of fuel 24

 Values of E for Aircraft, Helicopters and Automobiles
20000
Honda
18000
Airbus
16000

14000 Boeing

12000

10000

8000

6000
Helicopters
4000

2000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
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E = Range of 1 lb of vehicle for 1 lb of fuel
Rotor Lift- to- Drag Ratio
Rotor Propulsive Efficiency

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 Isolated Rotor in Wind Tunnel Fz

Vcr
Fx

Fx
AA o Vcr  Constant P = Shaft Power
Fz1
M tip  Constant
Fz1
Fz 2 P K
Fx A
Fz 3
o
B

( FxA  FxB )Vcr


( PB  PA )

Useful Power

Input Power 27
 ROTOR LIFT TO DRAG RATIO VS SPEED
AND MACH NUMBER AT CT/ = 0.075 AND  = 0.075

(Mo = Hover Tip Mach Number)

(Advance Ratio)

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29
 Tishchenko’s Method
Generation of Design Choices
Mission Requirements: Payload, Range, Cruise speed, Altitudes,
Number of passengers, Crew, Equipment…

Assume: Rotor Disk loading, blade AR, Tip speed, CT/sigma

Take off weight, Main and Tail Rotor sizes, Power for hover and
cruise, Fuel required for each mission leg, FUEL WEIGHT

Weights of components and engines EMPTY WEIGHT

Update Take-off Weight

(Repeat till converged)
REPEAT ABOVE FOR EACH SET OF ROTOR PARMETERS
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Tishchenko’s Methodology has been used
for the design of:
 Single Main Rotor/Conventional Tail Rotor
 Single Main Rotor/Fenestron
 Co-axial Helicopter
 Tandem Rotor Helicopter
 Compound Helicopter (Lift compounded
and Thrust compounded)

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VASCOMP Structure

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 R44
R22
Item Weight (lb)
Main Rotor (incl. Hub) 71 168
Swashplate 8 11
Tail Rotor 5 8
Fuselage (incl. Seats and Interior Trim) 133 314
Landing Gear 35 60
Main Rotor Controls* 15 40
Tail Rotor Controls 8 10
Fuel System 11 18
Powerplant Controls 4 5
Main Rotor Gearbox (incl. Mast) 68 112
Tail Rotor Gearbox 5 8
Drive System (Clutch, Cooling Fan, etc.) 49 84
Electrical, Instruments 69 109
Powerplant Installation (Includes Engine) 313 506
Miscellaneous 0 19
Empty Weight 794 1472
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Engine Oil 16 18