Aircraft Conceptual Design
Izhar H Kazmi
Assistant professor
Kazmi_izhar@[Link]
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Institute of space Technology
Islamabad, Pakistan
FEB 2018
Chapter 1
Design: A Separate Discipline
Chapter 2
Overview of Design Process
Airplane Design Taxonomy
Design Objectives
• Conceptual Design • A “configuration concept” that
appears to meet requirements
and constraints – as a system.
• Preliminary Design • An optimized system, defined in
sufficient detail to
– Offer to customers for sale
– Allow performance, cost, etc. guarantees
to be written into legally binding contracts
• A complete design [the “drawings” ]
• Detail Design including manufacturing
requirements, etc. that meets
guarantees and allows production of
the required hardware
• Design Support • Derivatives, modifications, up-
grades, in-service deficiency
corrections, etc.
Design Phases: Front Wing Spar
The Conceptual/Preliminary “Design Process”
“ A problem properly posed
is half solved”
Design Resources
Requirements
(“musts”)
&
Objectives
(“wants”)
Meets Systems Manufacturing
DR&Os ??
Trade
The Studies Controls Other
Design Integration & external
Software Testing Propulsion factors
Yes !
Proceed Aerodynamics
No !
Structures
Reject ? What would
happen if:
or
Marketing • Requirements change
• Constraints change
• Change assumptions
DESIGN PROCESS YOU WILL FOLLOW
Tech:
Yesterday: heavy,
cheep, under
perform
Today
Future: light,
expensive, exceed
performance
Your case Ref
aircraft in
combination
with concept
sketch if you
want to make
one
Given Requirements and
Mission Profile
Typical Mission Profile are:
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What You have to do to start with
List of various aircraft provided with requirements
Select an a/c from list
Expression of interest (From my side) Ref end of your book
Quotation (From your side)
Select a reference aircraft which is close to your a/c
Show comparison of your a/c and reference a/c with % differences
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10/18/23 AE 281: Chapter 5 (Part A) 12
A Good Aircraft
• Aerodynamically efficient, including propulsion integration (streamlining!)
• Must balance near stability level for minimum drag
• Landing gear must be located relative to cg to allow rotation at TO
• Adequate control authority must be available throughout flight envelope
• Design to build easily (cheaply) and have low maintenance costs
• Possibility of upgrades
• Today: quiet, low emissions, Fuel efficient
A Key Thought on Design
You may never design an airplane, but:
• “shaping up” the problem, figuring out the right questions
• collecting the key information
• making quantitative/qualitative trade studies
- pro/con tables with quantitative ranking
- carpet plots/parametric analysis
• using engineering-based analysis to make decisions
• recognizing social, legal and financial considerations
• selecting and refining the preferred concept
These are universally valuable, this is engineering
Typically taught only in design?
10/18/23 AE 281: Chapter 5 (Part A) 14
10/18/23 AE 281: Chapter 5 (Part A) 15
Some Basic “Laws” of Airplane Design
• Innovation for mere innovation’s sake can be a great
waste of time (and money) – never invent anything if you don’t
have to
• You never get something for nothing – someone,
somewhere always pays for lunch
– While the laws of economics are somewhat malleable, the
laws of physics are not; thus
– “If it looks good, it will fly good” is a myth that is sometime
true
• Simplicity is the essence of true elegance – it can
also save weight and/or cost
• If you can’t build it, you can’t sell or use it
• They who control the purse strings control the policy
– to avoid exercises in futility, learn how to close a business case
• Grand concepts are easy – The devil is always in the details !
Conflict Among Aircraft Design
Special Interest Groups
A completed airplane in many ways is a compromise
of the knowledge, experience and desire of the many
engineers that make up the various design and
production groups of an airplane company.
It is only being human to understand why the
engineers of the various groups feel that their part in
the design of an airplane is of greater importance and
that the headaches in design are due to the
requirements of the other less important groups.
This cartoon “Dream Airplane” by Mr. C. W. Miller,
Design Engineer of the Vega Aircraft Corporation,
indicates what might happen if each design vs.
production group were allowed to take itself too
seriously.
Dream Airplanes
(One Person’s Dream may be Another’s Nightmare)
..after dining with Airbus.. Boeing
Sauna Piano lounge
Payloads Schizophrenia
Marketing
Aft
Super
Aerodynamics
computer
Fwd
Super
computer Structures
Weights Flight Controls
The Boeing Company
Propulsion
Manufacturing
Noise
Hecho en México y Chile
J.H. McMasters (circa 1985)
Engineering (Design) Isn’t Done For Its
Own Sake, It Is Practiced in a Context
The “Design Onion”
Societal
Needs &
Implications
Tastes
Philosophy &
Economics Fashion
• Why are we here? Politics Manufacturing
• Why are we doing
this ?
Business
&
Engineering
(Design Marketing
Finance &
Analysis)
Customers
(Operational
History Resource
Considerations)
Availability
Nationalism
Theology Environmental
Tribalism
Impact &
Consequences
“Everything in this world is connected to everything else”. Think “system of systems”.
Perspectives on Airplane System Design
(With the specific or implicit objective of improving the air transportation system.)
Traditional System View A “System of Systems” Approach
If one doesn’t
Design requirements, consider the
Airplane objectives and Life, the whole system,
System constraints jumping to the
Universe conclusion that a
And particular sub-
Everything system is the
Wing
best solution
Sub-system may result in a
World Economic
dumb or futile
System
design effort.
High-Lift
Sub-system
World Transportation
System
Flaps
? New Airplane
System ?
Flap
Actuators Alternative
Somewhere System ?
down here is
a sub-system A Suite of
an individual Systems ?
designer can
deal with. Design requirements, objectives, and constraints.
German Aeronautical Progress (1944-45)
Messerschmitt Me 262 First operational jet fighter Arado Ar 234 First operational jet bomber
Heinkel He 162 Messerschmitt (Lippisch) Me 163
Junkers Ju 287 Swept-forward wing jet bomber
Heinkel He 280 Messerschmitt P. 1101
DFS 228 Horton Ho 229
German Aeronautical Progress to 1945
Focke-Wulf Ta
283 Blohm und Voss P. 188 W-wing bomber
Ramjet fighter
Focke-Wulf Ta 183
Messerschmitt variable sweep fighter
Blohm und Voss P.202
Oblique-wing fighter
Lippisch P.13a Delta wing fighter
Focke-Achgelis Fa 269 Tilt Rotor
Sänger Antipodal Bomber
[Link]
McDonnell XP-67 “Moonbat”
Fokker’s Rule: “If it looks good, it will fly good”
is a myth that is sometime true…..
McDonnell XP-67 “Moonbat” Dornier Do 335 “Anteater”
To disparage a camel as a “horse
designed by committee” is to completely
ignore the obvious advantages of the
camel over the horse in the environment
in which the camel is intended to operate.
Antonov An 2 A-10 “Warthog”
(over 12,000 built since 1947)
Boeing F-32 “Angry Frog”
Dreams of Leonardo da Vinci
Fathers of Human Flight
Otto Lilienthal Wilbur Wright Orville Wright
1867-1912 1871-1948
1848-1896
THANK YOU
