Application of the MCA method to determine in-flight drag of a propeller driven aircraft

The Mass Consumption Acceleration (MCA) method has been used successfully to determine the in-flight drag of a jet aircraft with fixed area nozzles. The purpose of this study was to apply the method to an aircraft with a reciprocating engine turning a constant speed propeller. The aircraft and engine were modeled with a computer program to generate simulated flight test data. The data were then analyzed with the MCA method. The method is shown to be both theoretically and analytically valid for application to a propeller driven aircraft.