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This work aims to deal with a comprehensive review of design methods for aircraft directional stability and vertical tail sizing. The focus on aircraft directional stability is due to the significant discrepancies that classical semi-empirical methods, as USAF DATCOM and ESDU, provide for some configurations because they are based on NACA wind tunnel (WT) tests about models not representative of an actual transport airplane.

The authors performed viscous numerical simulations to calculate the aerodynamic interference among aircraft parts on hundreds configurations of a generic regional turboprop aircraft, providing useful results that have been collected in a new vertical tail preliminary design method, named VeDSC.

The reviewed methods have been applied on a regional turboprop aircraft. The VeDSC method shows the closest agreement with numerical results. A WT test campaign involving more than 180 configurations has validated the numerical approach.

The investigation has covered both the linear and the non-linear range of the aerodynamic coefficients, including the mutual aerodynamic interference between the fuselage and the vertical stabilizer. Also, a preliminary investigation about rudder effectiveness, related to aircraft directional control, is presented.

In the final part of the paper, critical issues in vertical tail design are reviewed, highlighting the significance of a good estimation of aircraft directional stability and control derivatives.

This paper aims to deal with the experimental estimation of both longitudinal- and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of a new twin-engine, 11-seat commuter aircraft.

Wind tunnel tests have been conducted on a 1:8.75 scaled model. A modular model (fuselage, wing, nacelle, winglet and tail planes) has been built to analyze both complete aircraft aerodynamic characteristics and mutual effects among components. The model has been also equipped with trailing edge flaps, elevator and rudder control surfaces.

Longitudinal tests have shown the goodness of the aircraft design in terms of aircraft stability, control and trim capabilities at typical clean, take-off and landing conditions. The effects of fuselage, nacelles and winglets on lift, pitching moment and drag coefficients have been investigated. Lateral-directional stability and control characteristics of the complete aircraft and several aircraft component combinations have been tested to estimate the aircraft components’ interactions.

The experimental tests have been performed at a Reynolds number of about 0.6e6, whereas the free-flight Reynolds number range should be between 4.5e6 and 9.5e6. Thus, all the measured data suffer from the Reynolds number scaling effect.

The study provides useful aerodynamic database for P2012 Traveller commuter aircraft.

The paper deals with the experimental investigation of a new general aviation 11-seat commuter aircraft being brought to market by Tecnam Aircraft Industries and it brings some material on applied industrial design in the open literature.