(note: future editions will categorize this list)
William F. Ballhaus, "Clear Design Thinking Using the Aircraft Growth Factor," SAE Paper #377, Oct. 1954. This is one of the first papers providing a technical discusion of the growth factor.
"Charts Offer "First Pass" Design Check", Aviation Week, May 20, 1957, pp. 78-93.
Robert F. Mawhinney, "How Computers Speed Preliminary Design," Aviation Week, Jan. 6, 1958, pp.64-74.
Vernon A. Lee, H. Glenn Ball, E.A. Wadsworth, W.J. Moran, and J.D. McLeod, "Computerized Aircraft Synthesis," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 4, No. 5, Sep.-Oct. 1967, pp. 402-408.
Richard Q. Boyles, "Aircraft Design Augmented by a Man-Computer Graphic System," AIAA Paper No. 67-898, October 1967. also, Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 5, No. 5, Sept-Oct. 1968, pp. 486-497. Strong description of the lofting issues.
R. A. Werner and G. F. Wislicenus, "Analysis of Airplane Design by Similarity Considerations," AIAA Paper No. 68-1017, October 1968.
Richard E. Wallace, "Parametric and Optimisation Techniques for Airplane Design Synthesis," AGARD-LS-56, 1972. This is a good paper on sizing emphasizing thumbprint plots. It also has an excellent bibliography on the aircraft design methodology for initial sizing and design through 1972.
Gregory, T.J., "Computerized Preliminary Design at the Early Stages of Vehicle Definition," in Aircraft Design Integration and Optimization, AGARD CP-147, 1974. The first inkling of ACSYNT is described here. R.R. Heldenfels, "Integrtated Computer-Aided Design of Aircraft," AGARD CP-147, 1974. This paper describes the system known as IPAD.
D.L.I. Kirkpatrick and M.J. Larcombe, "Initial-Design Optimisation on Civil and Military Aircraft," AGARD CP 147, 1974. This is a very good paper. In hindsight we could have learned a lot more from their experience. They obtained results using a number of different objective functions, including noise and cost.
Michael J. Healy, Janusz S. Kowalik, and James W. Ramsey, "Airplane Engine Selection by Optimization on Surface Fit Approximations," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 12, No. 7, July 1975, pp.593-599. This describes a method for searching for optima without computing every possible case. Instead, the statistical theory of experiments is used to select certain combination of parameters and construct, in effect, a contour plot from a few analysis case results. Recently it has become popular again.
Ian H. Rettie, "Computer-Aided Aerodynamic Design for Supercruise," Presented at Super Cruise Military Aircraft Design Conference, Colorado Springs, February 17- 20, 1976.
Vanderplaats, G., "Automated Optimization Techniques for Aircraft Synthesis," AIAA Paper 76-909, Sept. 1976. This is the AIAA paper describing ACSYNT.
Albert C. Kyser, "An Elementary Analysis of the Effect of Sweep, Mach Number, and Lift Coefficient on Wing-Structure Weight," NASA TM 74072, Sept. 1977. This title is misleading, the report really address the optimum combination of aerodynamics and structures for transport wing design.
C.S. Dixit and T.S. Patel, "Multivariate Optimum Design of a Subsonic Jet Passenger Airplane," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 17, No. 6, June 1980, pp. 429-433. This paper was brought to my attention by Eli Livne at the Univ. of Washington. It turns out to be very similar to the analytic technology models approach Bret Malone and I developed.
Loftin, Laurence K., Jr., "Subsonic Aircraft: Evolution and Matching of Size to Performance," NASA RP 1060, Aug. 1980. (Also, excellent review of aircraft development as linked to technology development.)
Steven M. Sliwa, "Impact of Longitudinal Flying Qualities Upon the Design of a Transport With Active Controls," AIAA Paper 80-1570. This is an important paper that uses the code described in his other papers to investigate the role of controls in the initial sizing of aircraft.
Steven M. Sliwa, "Sensitivity of Optimal Preliminary Design of a Transport to Operational Constraints and Performance Index," AIAA Paper 80-1895, Aug. 1980.
Steven M. Sliwa, "Economic Evaluation of Flying-Qualities Design Criteria for a Transonic Configured With Relaxed Static Stability," NASA TP 1760, Dec. 1980. This also belongs in the configuration section, but it does relate aircraft design to cost.
Steven M. Sliwa, "Use of Constrained Optimization in the Conceptual Design of a Medium-Range Subsonic Transport," NASA TP 1762, Dec. 1980.
Jensen, S.C., Rettie, I.H., and Barber, E.A., "Role of Figures of Merit in Design Optimization and Technology Assessment," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 18, No. 2, Jan. 1981, pp. 76-81. This is primarily for a military transport. It includes cost analysis.
A. F. Vachris and F. A. Dellamura, "LEONARDO Computer Aided Aircraft Configuration Development," AIAA Paper No. 81-1626, August 1981. This describes the Grumman effort at a geometry system for conceptual and preliminary designers.
P.D. Arbuckle and S.M. Sliwa, "Parametric Study of Critical Constraints for a Canard Configured Medium Range Transport Using Conceptual Design Optimization," AIAA Paper 83-2141, Aug. 1983. This work optimizes using cost as the objective function.
W.E. Eckels, "Civil Transport Aircraft Design Methodology," AIAA Paper 83-2463, Oct. 1983. A nice description of the design process. we have no good category to fit this paper. It has a quantitative comparison of twin vs. single aisle aircraft.
P.D. Arbuckle and S.M. Sliwa, "Experiences Performing Conceptual Design Optimization of Transport Aircraft," in "Proceedings of Symposium on Recent Experiences in Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization," NASA CP-2327, April 1984, pp. 87-101.
McCullers, L.A., "Aircraft Configuration Optimization Including Optimized Flight Profiles," in "Proceedings of Symposium on Recent Experiences in Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization," NASA CP-2327, April 1984, pp. 395-412. (describes the FLight OPtimization System, or FLOPS)
J.E. Chacksfield, "Multivariate Optimisation as Applied to Aircraft Project Design," ICAS-84-4.8.2, pp. 954-959, 1984. The usual very good British paper.
D. Simos and L.R. Jenkinson, "The Determination of Optimum Flight Profiles for Short-Haul Routes," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 22, No. 8, August 1985, pp. 669-674.
G. Kidwell and M. Eskey, "Expert Systems and Their Use in Augmenting Design Optimization," AIAA Paper No. 85-3095, October 1985.
Coen, P.G., and Foss, Willard E., Jr., "Computer Sizing of Aircraft," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 23, No. 5, May 1986, pp 353-354.
Antonio L. Elias, "Knowledge Engineering of the Aircraft Design Process," in Knowledge Based Problem Solving, edited by Janusz S. Kowalik, Prentice-Hall, 1986, pp. 213-226. This is an AI approach to the conceptual design problem. Elias became one of the principal engineers in the Orbital Sciences Corp., which operates the Pegasus launch vehicle.
Roskam, J., "Rapid Sizing Method for Airplanes," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 23, No. 7, July 1986, pp 554-560.
James L. Parker, "Mission Requirements and Aircraft Sizing," AIAA Paper 86-2622, Oct. 1986. (possibly more of an operations analysis paper)
J. Alsina, J.P. Fielding and A.J. Morris, "Progress Towards an Aircraft Design Expert System," in Computer Applications in Aircraft Design and Operation, T.K.S. Murthy and J.P. Fielding, Ed., Computational Mechanics Publications, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1987, pp. 229-247. In describing the effort at building an expert system they describe the steps they consider important in design the airplane.
Mattingly, J.D., Heiser, W.H., and Haley, D.H., Aircraft Engine Design, AIAA, New York, 1987. Emphasizing engine selection, this book also covers aircraft sizing and mission analysis.
Cornelis Bil, Development and Application of a Computer-based System for Conceptual Aircraft Design, Delf University Press, 1988, Ph. D. Thesis.
Farrokh Mistree, Stergios Marinopoulos, David M. Jackson, and Jon A. Shupe, "The Design of Aircraft Using the Decision Support Problem Technique," NASA CR 4134, April 1988. This is an approach to aircraft design from the design theory point of view. It should be considered in developing new design methods.
Dimitri Simos and Lloyd R. Jenkinson, "Optimization of the Conceptual Design and Mission Profiles of Short-Haul Aircraft," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 25, No. 7, July 1988, pp. 618-624.
E.E. Bouchardm G. H. Kidwell, and J.Edward Rogan, "The Application of Artificial Intelligence Technology to Aeronautical System Design," AIAA Paper No. 88-4426, September 1988.
Mark A. Kolb, "A Flexible Computer Aid for Conceptual Design Based on Constraint Propagation and Component-Modeling," AIAA Paper No. 88-4427, September 1988.
I. Kroo and M. Takai, "A Quasi-Procedural, Knowledge-Based System for Aircraft Design," AIAA Paper No. 88-4428, September 1988.
Wampler, S.G., Myklebust, A., Jayaram, S., and Gelhausen, P., "Improving Aircraft Conceptual Design - A PHIGS Interactive Graphics Interface for ACSYNT," AIAA Paper 88-4481, Sept. 1988.
Jan Roskam and Seyyed Malwaek, "Automated Aircraft Configuration Design and Analysis," SAE Paper 891072, April 1989. Describes the AAA Program
Jaroslaw Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, "Multidisciplinary Optimization for Engineering Systems: Achievements and Potential," DFVLR Symposium on Optimization, Bonn, W. Germany, June 1989.
Hays, A.P., "Spreadsheet Methods for Aircraft Design," AIAA Paper No. 89-2059, July 1989.
J. Smith and C. Lee, "The RAE Combat Aircraft Multi-Variate Optimisation Method," AIAA Paper 89-2080, July 1989.
C. Bil, "ADAS: A Design System for Aircraft Configuration Development," AIAA Paper No. 89-2131, July 1989.
J. Gee, "The Role of Interfaces in Design Integration," AIAA Paper No. 89-2133, July 1989.
Grossman, B., Haftka, R.T., Kao, P. J., Polen, D.M., Rais-Rohani, M., and Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J., "Integrated Aerodynamic-Structural Design of a Transport Wing," AIAA Paper No. 89-2129, Aug. 1989.
J. Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, "Sensitivity of Complex, Internally Coupled Systems," AIAA Journal, Vol 28, No. 1, January 1990, pp. 153-160.
Johnson, V.S., "Minimizing Life Cycle Cost for Subsonic Commercial Aircraft," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 27, No. 2, Feb. 1990, pp. 139-145.
M. Levine, H. Ide, and S. Hollowell, "Multidisciplinary Hypersonic Configuration Optimization," 3rd Air Force NASA Symposium on Multidisciplinary Design Optimization, Sept. 1990, pp. 412-417.
Y. Murotsu and C. Park, "An Expert System for Instruction of Preliminary Aircraft Design," AIAA Paper No. 90-3261, September 1990. (I don't think this is a useful paper, only included here to identify all papers written associated with AI methods)
W.H. Mason, "Analytic Models for Technology Integration in Aircraft Design," AIAA Paper No. 90-3262, September 1990.
J. Cousin and M. Metcalfe, "The BAe (Commercial Aircraft) Ltd Transport Aircraft Synthesis and Optimization Program," AIAA Paper 90-3295, Sept. 1990. This is another in the series of papers from the RAE and British Aerospace that provide considerable insight into the problems of initial aircraft sizing and optimization. Unfortunately, no references are included.
Jaroslaw Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, "Sensitivity Analysis and Multidisciplinary Optimization for Aircraft Design: Recent Advances and Results," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 27, No. 12, December 1990, pp 993-1001.
Stephen J. Morris and Ilan Kroo, "Aircraft Design Optimization with Dynamic Performance Constraints," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 27, No. 12, December 1990, pp 1060-1067.
T. R. Logan, "Strategy for Multilevel Optimization of Aircraft," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 27, No. 12, December 1990, pp. 1068-1072.
Brett Malone and W.H. Mason, "Multidisciplinary Optimization in Aircraft Design Using Analytic Technology Models," AIAA Paper 91-3187, September 1991(to appear in the Journal of Aircraft).
Larry Edington and R. M. Williams, "PAYCOS, A Multidisciplinary Sizing Code for Hypersonic Vehicles," AIAA -92-4564-CP, 1992, pp. 517-541. M. Hutchison, E. Unger, W. Mason, B. Grossman and R. Haftka, "Variable-Complexity Aerodynamic Optimization of an HSCT Wing Using Structural Wing-Weight Equations," AIAA Paper 92-0212, Jan. 1992 (to appear in the Journal of Aircraft).
S.S.Tong, D. Powell and S. Goel, "Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Numerical Optimization Techniques for the Design of Complex Aerospace Systems," AIAA Paper No. 92-1189, February 1992.
I.M. Kroo, "An Interactive System for Aircraft Design and Optimization," AIAA Paper 92-1190, Feb. 1992.
Jayaram, S., Myklebust, A., and Gelhausen, P., "ACSYNT - A Standards-Based System for Parametric Computer Aided Conceptual Design of Aircraft," AIAA Paper 92-1268, Feb. 1992.
E. Livne, P. P. Friedmann, and L. A. Schmit, "Integrated Aeroservoelastic Wing Synthesis by Nonlinear Programming/Approximation Concepts," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 15, No. 4, August 1992, pp. 985-993.
Yechiel Crispin, "Adaptive Optimization of General Aviation Aircraft," AIAA Paper 92-4195, Aug. 1992.
Brett Malone and W.H. Mason, "Aircraft Concept Optimization Using the Global Sensitivity Analysis and Parametric Multiobjective Figures of Merit," AIAA Paper 92-4221, August 1992.
Mark Gonda, Kenneth W. Fertig and Ronald J .Teeter, "Aerospace Conceptual Vehicle Design Using an Intelligent Design and Analysis Environment: Design Sheet," AIAA Paper 92-4222, August 1992.
M. Hutchison, X. Huang, W.H. Mason, R. Haftka, and B. Grossman, "Variable-Complexity Aerodynamic-Structural Design of a High-Speed Civil Transport," AIAA Paper 92-4695, September 1992.
Ilan Kroo and Masami Takai, "Aircraft Design Optimization Using a Quasi- Procedural Method and Expert System," Stanford, CA. pp. 464-469. MDO Mtg 1992????
Anthony P. Hays, "Zen and the Art of Airplane Sizing," AIAA Student Journal, Winter 1992, pp.2-6.
M.G. Hutchison, E.R. Unger, W.H. Mason, B. Grossman, and R.T. Haftka, "Aerodynamic Optimization of an HSCT Configuration Using Variable-Complexity Modeling," AIAA Paper 93-0101, January 1993.
E. Livne, L. A. Schmit, and P. P. Friedmann, "Integrated Structure/Control/Aerodynamic Synthesis of Actively Controlled Composite Wings," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 30, No. 3, May-June 1993, pp. 387-394.
Eric R. Unger, Raphael T. Haftka, Bernard Grossman and William H. Mason, "Integrated Aerodynamic-Structural Design Optimization of Aircraft," in Control and Dynamic Systems, Advances in Theory and Applications, Vol. 57: Multidisciplinary Engineering Systems: Design and Optimization Techniques and Their Applications, C. T. Leondes, ed., Academic Press, San Diego, 1993, pp. 55-107.
Alex Van der Velden, "Multi-Disciplinary SCT Design Optimization," AIAA Paper 93-3931, August 1993. (includes serious consideration of the oblique wing concept)
Robert D. Braun and Ilan Kroo, "Post-Optimality Analysis in Aerospace Vehicle Design," AIAA Paper 93-3932, August 1993.
P. Gage and I. Kroo, "A Role for Genetic Algorithms in a Preliminary Design Environment," AIAA Paper 93-3933, August 1993.
R. Martinez-Val, E. Perez, T. Munoz and C. Cuerno, "Design constraints in the payload-range diagram of ultra high cpacity transport airplanes," AIAA Paper 93-3951, August 1993. This paper provides conceptual sizing relations with applications to large aircraft.
Walter C. Engelund, Douglas O. Stanley, Roger A. Lepsch, Mark A. McMillan and Resit Unal, "Aerodynamic Configuration Design Using Response Surface Methodology Analysis," AIAA Paper 93-3967, August 1993.
Arvid Myklebust and Paul Gelhausen, "Improving Aircraft Conceptual Design Tools: New Enhancements to ACSYNT," AIAA Paper 93-3970, August 1993. Ernest D. Eason, "Non-Hierarchic Multidisciplinary Design of a Commercial Aircraft," AIAA Paper 94-4406, Panama City Beach, Fl., September 1994.
John W. Gallman, Randy W. Kaul, Reuben M. Chandrasekharan and Michael L. Hinson, "Optimization of an Advanced Business Jet," AIAA Paper 94-4303, Sept. 1994. This paper compares results using both ACSYNT and Gallman's own program from his PhD thesis on joined wings, SPARROW. Comparing results provided some extra insight into the problem, and improved the confidence in the design compared to results from a single code.
David L. Grose, "Reengineering the Aircraft Design Process," AIAA Paper 94-4406, Panama City Beach, Fl., September 1994.
Ilan Kroo, Steve Altus, Robert Braun, Peter Gage, and Ian Sobieski, "Multidisciplinary Optimization Methods for Aircraft Preliminary Design," AIAA Paper 94- 4325, 1994.
A.A. Giunta, J.M. Dudley, B. Grossman, R.T. Haftka, W.H. Mason, and L.T. Watson, "Noisy Aerodynamic Response and Smooth Approximations in HSCT Design," AIAA Paper 94-4376, Panama City, Fl., September 1994.
X. Huang, J. Dudley, R.T. Haftka, B. Grossman and W.H. Mason, "Variable-Complexity Interlacing of Weight Equation and Structural Optimization for the Design of the High Speed Civil Transport," AIAA Paper 94-4377, Panama City, Fl., Sept. 1994.
P.E. MacMillin, X. Huang, J. Dudley, W.H. Mason, B. Grossman, and R.T. Haftka, Trim and Control Effects in Variable-Complexity HSCT Design," AIAA Paper 94- 4381, Panama City, Fl., September 1994.
P.J. Martens, "Airplane Sizing Using Implicit Mission Analysis," AIAA Paper 94- 4406, Panama City Beach, Fl., September 1994.
Gerard W.H. van Es, "Estimation of the Cruise Lift-Over-Drag Ratio of Jet Transports as Applied in the Initial Sizing Phase," AIAA Student Journal, Fall 1994, pp. 16- 20. This paper provides some new relations between fundamental design variables and aircraft size. It illustrates the difference in fuel volume constraint effects between metallic and composite wings. The relations have been compared with existing modern aircraft. It may be a very useful contribution for back of the envelope estimates.
Jane Dudley, Ximing Huang, Pete MacMillin, B. Grossman, R.T. Haftka and W.H. Mason, "Multidisciplinary Optimization of the High-Speed Civil Transport," AIAA Paper 95-0124, January 1995. This paper is an overview of the entire process we've developed at Virginia Tech known as variable complexity modelling.
return to the table of contents ?
direct comments and suggestions to W.H. Mason, mason@apollo.aoe.vt.edu