CLIMB PERFORMANCE

PSB KIRUBAKARAN (MS)

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ABSOLUTE CEILING

The absolute ceiling is the altitude at which the (maximum) rate of climb goes to zero.

SERVICE CEILING

The serv ice ceiling is the altitude at which the maximum rate of climb is 100 ft/min.
( 0.5 m/s) for piston powered aircraft or 500 ft/min (2.5 m/s) for jet powered aircraft.

CRUISE CEILING

The cruise ceiling is the altitude at which the maximum climb rate is 300 ft/min.

COMBAT CEILING

The combat ceiling is the altitude at which the maximum rate of climb is 500 ft/sec or 2.5 m/s.
Sometimes this is called as “serv ice ceiling” for jet powered aircraft.
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In order to increase altitude, the energy need to be added to the aircraft.

This can be done by increasing the thrust or power available.

If the power available or the thrust is increased, the following will be incurred by the aircraft:

• The aircraft will increase kinetic energy (accelerate).

• The aircraft will increase potential energy (climb).

• The aircraft will do both, accelerate and climb.

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If the aircraft to climb, then the aircraft should hold the airspeed constant and use all excess power to increase the
potential energy.
Consequently, if the airspeed approximately constant (called the quasi-steady assumption),
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From the abov e diagram,

From the first equation, we can write that,

The angle of climb is related to the excess of thrust available ov er the thrust required.

The rate of climb can be obtained by substituting the abov e for the sine term in the rate of climb equation,
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For the general case of an arbitrary drag polar, the angle and rate of climb using graphical techniques can be obtained.
To find the angle of climb at any given flight speed the thrust and drag vs airspeed plots are obtained and just read off the
thrust available and the thrust required (drag) at that giv en airspeed, take the difference, and div ide by the weight.
The result will be the sine of the climb angle.
To find the maximum climb angle the location on the graph must be found where the biggest distance between thrust
av ailable and thrust required is located.

The differences between the two curves and determine at what speed the distance is the greatest. That speed will be the
max angle of climb speed with the corresponding v alue of being the max angle of climb.
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• For a giv en weight a throttle setting, the thrust and drag, and power available and power required are functions of
altitude and v elocity, and
• At a specific altitude, thrust and drag depend on airspeed only.
• Consequently the problem of maximizing the rate of climb at a giv en altitude can be giv en as follows,

• In order to solv e this equation, some of the mathematical models for T and D are required.
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• There are special cases where the solution to the above equation can be found either directly or by taking another
approach
• One such approach is a special case where the thrust equals constant and the velocity & Drag is said to follow the
characteristics of Parabolic Drag Polar

• If we assume that thrust is independent of airspeed, i.e.,

• we can actually solv e for the best rate of climb airspeed. For the case that thrust is assumed to be a constant with
airspeed.

• Also the Drag polar can be written in terms of arbitrary constants A & B,

• Differentiating the abov e equation w.r.t V, we hav e,

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• Differentiating the abov e equation w.r.t V, we hav e,

• Sub the abov e v alue and Drag polar expression in the maximized thrust equation as follows,

• Solv ing for the V after sub, we hav e,

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• Solv ing for the V from the quadratic formula yields

• Also the rate of climb can be written in the following functional form,

• We know that,
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The deriv ative of with respect to the lift coefficient can be written from the abov e equation as,

The abov e equation can be written in functional form of co-efficient of Lift and set to zero to find the maximum rate of climb
assuming thrust independent of airspeed,

Solv ing for the CL from the quadratic formula yields,

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Time to Climb Between Two Altitudes

The time to climb between two altitudes can be determined from the following,

Approximate Methods for Estimating the Time to Climb

Generally we must select a climb schedule and then generate a plot of altitude (h) v s rate of climb (R/C).
Typical climb schedules would be
→ Climb at constant airspeed,
→ Climb at constant Mach number,
→ Climb at constant equivalent airspeed,
→ Climb at the airspeed for maximum rate of climb.
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Approximate Methods for Estimating the Time to Climb
Generally we must select a climb schedule and then generate a plot of altitude (h) v s rate of climb (R/C).
Typical climb schedules would be
→ Climb at constant airspeed,
→ Climb at constant Mach number,
→ Climb at constant equivalent airspeed,
→ Climb at the airspeed for maximum rate of climb.

Each straight line segment will intersect the x axis (R/C axis) at some point , and the y axis (h axis) at some point H , the straight
line ceiling.
Therefore associated with each straight line segment is the straight line ceiling, H, and the straight line sea-lev el rate of climb,

the slope is determined from,

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Sub the v alue in the integral, we hav e,

multiplying and div iding by H, the integral can be put in the form of dx / (1-x), and can be integrated to giv e

Hence,

Time to Climb is giv en as follows,

END OF LECTURE