Open Information and Computer Integrated Technologies

Heavy transport aircraft are built and operated by US airlines (C-5A, C-5B, B-747-400), the European Concern Airbus (A-380), and the ANTONOV domestic state-owned enterprise. Such heavy aircraft as An-22, An-124 and An-225 have received worldwide recognition as the most efficient in their class [1, 2, 3]. It should be noted that such outstanding compatriots as O. K. Antonov, P. V. Balabuev, S. A. Bychkov, V. I. Tolmachev, V.F.Eroshin, O.K.Bogdanov made a decisive contribution to their improvement (including formation of mass characteristics).

The main path of development of domestic heavy transport aircraft is to create modifications that meet the ever-increasing requirements of the time and customers to improve their transport and economic performance.

The article shows that one of the ways to improve this type aircraft efficiency is the formation of their mass characteristics (i.e., mass of the aircraft modification itself and its individual units), which significantly affect all flight technical and economic parameters.

It is proposed to take into account possible changes in four groups of parameters when assessing the starting mass (formed at the initial stages of creating a modification):

T - a group of parameters that determine the level of requirements for a new modification;

U - a group of parameters that determine the achievement of the stated goals at the stages of creation and operation of the modification;

O - a group of parameters that determine the appearance of the future modification;

P - a group of parameters that determine the mass and its density in the created modification.

Division of the parameters into four groups makes it possible to evaluate and minimize the effect of the objective "square - cube" law on the mass gain in the design, production of a prototype and its flight tests and to represent it in the form of the starting mass of the modification (m₀).

The effectiveness of using the proposed approach to the formation of mass characteristics is shown on examples of the development of modifications of the
An-124-100M and An-124-100M-150 airplanes.

A distinctive feature of these modifications are: they were developed twenty years after creation of the base An-124 aircraft, carrying capacity has been increased by 30 tons, takeoff weight has been increased by 7%, the wing area, as well as the takeoff roll and landing run remained unchanged. The empty aircraft mass also remained unchanged, which indicates a special approach to the formation of mass characteristics. At the same time, in these modifications, the carrying capacity and flight performance increased by 25%, which is the highest achievement in the practice of creating aircraft of this type

heavy aircraft of the transport category; modifications; weight characteristics; the method of forming the starting mass

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