AE 401 Aircraft Design I

Design Process: An Overview

Prepared by : Dr. Ercument Turkoglu

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Conceptual Design
• Design is an iterative process
• First sketch “ Dash-One”/ layout is never the final design
• Design requirements may be iterative, whether internal or external: can updated during the course of
the project
• Requirements include:
• operational / functional/ safety/ performance
• customer specifications (range, payload, speed, etc)
• Operator:
- Defence (Military)
- Civil
- Commercial
- Pilot
• aircraft life and maintenance requirements
• regulations category
• internal (company) design experience and best practise
• overall cost target
• Close Communication between company designing the aircraft and potential customers- paves the
way for a successful design.
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Conceptual Design- Cont’d
• If requirements are not given – the designers need to “make them up”
- Based on the objective of the design
- Past requirements or experience
• Example: Rockwell-MBB X-31 – requirements changed between initial design “Dash-One” and final
design

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Regulations
• A set of specifications that outline
 Fixed Wing Air Vehicles
• Federal Aviation Regulations- FAR 23
- Airworthiness Standards: Normal, Utility, Acrobatic, and Commuter Category Airplanes
• Federal Aviation Regulations - FAR 25
- Airworthiness Standards: Transport Category Airplanes
• U.S.A: MIL - US military specifications (MIL-C- 8785 Aerodynamics, Stability and Control; MIL-F-8785 B Flying
Qualities of Piloted Airplanes; MIL-A-8860 Loads for A/C Structural Analysis)
• European Union: CASA - Civil Aviation Safety Authority / CASR - Civil Aviation Safety Regulations
- Similar to FAR
- EASA CS - European Aviation Safety Agency Certification Specifications
 Rotary-Wing Air Vehicles (Helicopters)
• Aeronautical Design Standard (ADS-33 C/D/E)

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Means of Compliance (MoC)
• Propose the means of compliance and verification for each objective/requirement to the certification
authority through certification plans, detailed plans and standards.
• MoC 0 (Means of Compliance 0)
• Compliance Statement
• Reference to design change documents
• Election of methods, factors
• Associated Documents: Type Design Documents, Recorded Statements:

• MoC 1 (Design Review)

• Associated Documents: Description, Drawings

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Means of Compliance (MoC)
• MoC 2 (Calculation / Analysis)
• Associated Documents: Substantiation Reports

• MoC 3 (Safety Assessment)

• Associated Documents: Safety Analysis:

• Tests
• MoC 4 (Laboratory Tests)
• MoC 5 (Ground Tests on Related Products)
• MoC 6 (Flight Tests)

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Means of Compliance (MoC)
• MC 8 (Simulation)
• Associated Documents: Test programmes, Test reports, Test interpretations

• Inspection
• MC 7 (Design Inspection)
• Associated Documents: Inspection / Audit Reports

• Equipment Qualification
• MC 9 (Equipment Qualification)
• Associated Documents
• Note: Equipment Qualification is a process that may include all previous means of compliance:

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Means of Compliance (MoC)
• Demonstration of Compliance
• MoC 2 – 9 (excluding MoC 7)
• Analysis (e.g. Stress report)
• Test (e.g. EMI test)
• Assessment (e.g. Equipment assessment)
• All documents must list the requirements to which they show compliance
• All must be signed by a CVE (Compliance Verification Engineer)
• The following would be typical documents:
• Stress report
• Electrical Load Analysis
• System Safety Assessment
• Weight and Balance
• Equipment Assessment
• Flammability
• (Test plans/reports)

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Phases of Aircraft
Design

• Can be considered in three major

phases
- Our main focus: Conceptual Design
Phase

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Phases of Aircraft Design
• I Conceptual Design:
• Configuration concepts
• Trade studies (concepts and requirements)
• Overall design arrangements selected
• II Preliminary Design:
• Selected concept refined to give enough detail and business case (costings) that the company and
customers can commit
• III Detailed Design:
• Actual parts, assemblies, tools designed

• Prototype Fsabrication and Testing:

• Initial aircraft manufactured
• Significant test schedule
• Flight tests

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Cost of Design Stages
• Expended Cost:
• Expended cost is minimal in the earliest stages of
design
• As design effort increases, the number of people
and commitment increase, and therefore the
design costs increases
• Detailed design is the most expensive part of the
design phase, with high number of people involved,
and extensive test programs (including flight tests)
• Therefore it is crucial that if there is a possibility
that a design is not going to meet requirements, it
is best to determine this early (design reviews)
PDR and CDR.

Fig.1.1 Lloyd R. Jenkinson & James F. Marchman

III, Aircraft Design Projects for Engineering
Students, Butterworth- Heinemann, 2003

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Conceptual Design

• Minimal detail presented in conceptual

design
Example: Front (Main) Wing Spar
• Potential for a number of conceptual designs
to be considered for the mission
requirements,
• As analysis develops, this number can be
narrowed to a preferred design

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Conceptual and Early Preliminary Design
Design arrangements considered in conceptual and early preliminary design:
• Size and weight
• Geometry of:
- Main Wing
- Tail Wing
• Fuselage shaping
• Type of engine(s) and location(s)
• Landing gear arrangement (Main and Front)
• Internal locations for crew
• Internal locations for passengers
• Payload amount and location
• Mission equipment location (Radar, Camera, Ammunition etc.)
• Other features as required by Request for Proposal (RFP)

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Preliminary Design

• Major configuration already selected

• Increasing the detail in the design
• Further the understanding of the design
• Revisions for design improvement – possible but minor
• This phase is also a Confidence build up: the design will fulfil mission requirements
• Once confidence sufficient – design freeze (no further changes to overall design arrangement)

• Following the design freeze:

• Specialists from Structures, Flight Control Systems, Aerodynamics, Landing Gear, Propulsion, Stability and Control) work on more detailed design
analysis in their areas.
• Lofting – mathematical modelling of outside of the aircraft to ensure designed components work together, i.e. different aspects fit (don’t conflict)
• Review and Confirm that the aircraft could be manufactured, on time, and within budget estimates
• Enough detail to ready the design for detailed design stage
• Decision point given – to enter full scale design

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Detailed Design
• Full scale development initiated

• Actual parts to be manufactured are now designed

• Detailed calculations on individual components
• Detailed dimensioned drawings suitable for manufacture
• Small parts designed (including flap tracks, connections, structural load paths and clips, doors, cut
outs, avionics racks, etc)
• All systems (mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, avionics, pneumatic, power, fuel, control, etc.)
designed in detail

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Detailed Design Cont’d
• Significant test regime in progress:

• Testing of manufactured parts and assemblies

• Test of Flight control systems (FCS) via simulation
• FCS connected to control surface assemblies- confirmation of correct actuation
• Aircraft or (more likely) prototype manufactured and flight tested

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Conceptual Design Process

• Requirements:

• Given design brief or Request For Proposal

• Someone’s concept / idea

• Technology availability:

• Expected service entry date

• Near future - current technology, existing
engines and avionics systems
• More distant future - estimate what emerging
technologies will be mature for use at that time.
(If technology not ready, it will delay
development; if use existing / older technology
could underperform or be too heavy.)

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Technology Readiness
Level (TRL)
• Which technology is best to
utilise:
- existing technology that is low
risk, vs.
- State-of-the-art technology that
is a higher risk but may lead to
better performance outcomes.
• Technology Readiness Level
(TRL) can be utilised to give clear
indication of status of
incorporated technologies.
• TRL 1 = basic principles
observed and reported only, TRL
9 = demonstrated successfully in
flight missions.

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Conceptual Design Sketches

• As a starting point for Conceptual Design: Use multiple

Sketches of potential aircraft designs
• This approach provides rough idea of potential design
options and key design concepts:
- such as approximate wing and tail geometries
- engine number and locations
- landing gear configuration, etc.

• The advantages/disadvantages of the concepts can then be

compared to create a preferred initial configuration.
• From the preferred initial configuration, first sizing estimates can be made
of required total weight, fuel weight for mission, etc.
• Estimations from research of previous aircraft with similar mission
requirements may form inputs into initial sizing.

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Conceptual
Design
Sketches

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Conceptual Design Sketches
• Design is iterative: Note design is typically varied and optimised significantly from the original
selected concept, as more detailed analysis is performed.
• Concept and initial sizing allow the initial configuration layout to be developed
• Configuration layout includes significantly more internal detail, and should include outer
geometry, and large items that will affect the size and shape of the aircraft, i.e. engines, inlet
ducts, fuel tanks, cockpit, passenger seating, payload compartments, landing gear, major
avionics systems, specific mission systems, etc.

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Initial Configuration Layout
• Example configuration layout

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Conceptual Design Process

• Iterated designs (drawings):

• Reviewed by technical staff across
different specialties for conformance to
requirements
• Stability and control experts assess control
surface sizing at this stage to ensure they
are sufficient for all required maneuvers and
flight conditions
• Any changes required have to evaluated to
ensure they do not conflict with other areas
of the design (i.e. fuel compartment
capacity in the wing if larger control
surfaces were required)

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Sizing and Trade Studies
• Trade studies are important in the early stages of a new design:
- to allow estimation of realistic design parameters, which feed design
decisions
- to reduce the weight and cost of an aircraft to meet all performance
requirements
• Sensitivity to any design requirements can be defined.
- If one design requirement causes large increases to weight and cost, this
may be used to negotiate a relaxed requirement
• During design iteration, it is important to re-visit trade studies if anything
significant changes (i.e. payload, passengers, etc) to adjust estimates
• One common trade study - Thrust to Weight Ratio vs Wing Loading (T/W-
W/S) carpet plot helps estimate the minimum weight of an aircraft to meet all
design requirements

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Sizing and
Trade
Studies
• Various common trade studies
in Aircraft Design.

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