AOE 4065-4066 Design (Aircraft)

Lecture Overheads and Supporting Material

These are Adobe Acrobat Documents of the original PowerPoint presentations. Note that the lectures may contain many more overheads then were actually used in class. It should be valuable to study the full presentation. Each lecture has two versions, one full screen and one two per page (2pp)

1. Introduction to the class: Describes how the class works, general organization. full page, two per page,

2. The design process: A very general overview of how design is approached, followed by a description of the typical approach used in aircraft design. There are two separate lectures. The first is on the process, full page, or two per page. Some comments on Systems Engineering by Matt Sexstone are available as a pdf file of the seminar he gave to the class. The second lecture is specific to aircraft design, either as a full page, or two per page. As an example, we have a case study of the design process and decision making that that occurred in the development of the X-1.

3. Why airplanes look like they do: Describes the reasons why different configurations are chosen, and when I think various architectures should be used. full page, two per page. [Sept. 2008 versions] Some additional material on stealth considerations from the Configuration Aerodynamics Class is also available.

3A. Design Methods: What Size, What Shape? by Sam Wilson. This presentation describes real-world case studies in primarily V/STOL aircraft concepts. These are examples of how design work is done and presented. full page

4. Teams, Teamwork and Planning: I'm trying to provide some insight into the team and project process. full page, two per page [Oct. 11, 1999 versions]

5. Typical Aerospace Teams and Tasks: This is an example of how typical aircraft design teams are organized, and what the key tasks for each team member are. full page, two per page

6. How to Develop the Project Plan: Schedules and milestones are important, even if many of us hate them. Rather than reinvent them, this discussion describes typical tools that are used.

7. Aircraft Sizing I: So how do you begin to figure out how big an airplane has to be to do the mission? Whats the role of advanced technology? This presentation describes one approach to getting started. full page, two per page. These are a few supplementary notes on the sizing method for the case where there is a weight discontinuity.

8. Aircraft Sizing II: Here we cover FAR and MIL Spec issues, the wing size dilemma, and connections to contraints on sizing. We cover thrust to weight and wing loading in terms of thumbprint and carpet plots. The presentation concludes with examples of sizing studies using carpet plots. full page, two per page [version of Sept. 12, 2006]. Also, Sidney Powers has been kind enough to allow us to post his writeup on The Generation of Carpet Plots. This should be extremely useful to students.

9. Aircraft Layout. The presentation version of Nathan Kirschbaum's Aircraft Design Layout Guide (a 3.1M pdf file) is available and also in a 2 per page version. Also, we have the layout steps article from an issue of the old Aircrafft Design Education Newsletter. Then we have a mini case study of the AVRO Vulcan, illustrating how the design evolved from the first sketch by Roy Chawick to the final B.2 version. In 2009 we've added some charts by Mike Butler, demonstrating the more modern CAD approach to layout.

10. Communications. Report and proposal writing, presentations, and design reviews. full page, two per page. We also include a Cal Poly Presentation, as an example of an effective powerpoint presentation. You might also find it worthwhile to look at some tips on preparing written material that I prepared for the Applied Computational Aerodynamics class.

11. Cost. A very brief overview of the various cost measures used in airplane design. full page, two per page. Because our in-house capability is weak, I invite you to investigate the NASA Johnson Center Cost Estimation Group Page, or look at a new RAND Corp. Book, Military Airframe Costs: The Effects of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Process

12. Design Lab Computing Systems and Software. This overview provides a starting point for understanding the design lab computing hardware and software capabilities. full page, two per page. The lab setup changes frequently. We try to keep the html description of the lab up to date.

13. Control and Stability in Aircraft Conceptual Design. This lecture describes the issues that the controls person has to address in the early stages of the design process. Some comments on high alpha and thrust vectoring are included. full page, two per page

14. An MDO Example.

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