Question

Modern commercial airliners are largely made of aluminum, a light and strong metal. But the fact that aluminum is cheap enough that airplanes can be made out of it is a bit of historical luck. Before the discovery of the Hall-Héroult process in , aluminum was as rare and expensive as gold. What would happen if airplanes had to be made of steel? The fuselage of the Airbus A380, which can carry passengers, is approximately a hollow aluminum cylinder without ends, long, wide, and thick (see sketch at right). The fuselage of an airplane Suppose this fuselage was made of steel (density ) instead of aluminum (density ), and let's say the average passenger has a mass of . We'll also assume the engines can't lift any greater mass than they already do. Calculate the number of passengers that the Airbus A380 could carry if its fuselage was made of steel.

Answer 1

Answer:

The plane with aluminium can lift more mass of passangers than the plane of steel.

Explanation:

The total mass the airplane canc lift is:

$m_{tot}=m_{fuselage}+m_{passangers}$

For aluminium:

$m_{tot}=m_{fus-Al}+m_{pas-Al}$

$m_{fus-Al}=\delta _{Al}*V_{fuselage}$

and

$V_{fuselage}=\frac{\pi *L}{4}*[D^2-(D-e)^2]$

where:

• L is lenght
• D is diameter
• e is thickness

$m_{tot}=\delta _{Al}*\frac{\pi *L}{4}*[D^2-(D-e)^2]+m_{pas-Al}$

For steel (same procedure):

$m_{tot}=\delta _{Steel}*\frac{\pi *L}{4}*[D^2-(D-e)^2]+m_{pas-Steel$

Knowing that the total mass the airplane can lift is constant and that aluminum has a lower density than the steel, we can afirm that the plane with aluminium can lift more mass of passangers.

Also you can estimate an average weight of passanger to estimate a number of passangers it can lift.