Synthesis of an Aircraft Featuring a Ducted-Fan Propulsive Empennage

A study is done to investigate the feasibility of the conceptual design of the Delft University Unconventional Configuration (DUUC), an aircraft featuring a ducted-fan propulsive empennage. This research is focused on ducted-fan performance analysis and aircraft longitudinal static stability and balance estimation. The aircraft design Initiator...

Modelling the Propeller Slipstream Effect on the Longitudinal Stability and Control

As the aviation industry continues to strive for improvements in fuel efficiency throughout the entire aircraft design, interest has been renewed in propeller engines. New research into advanced turboprop engines, so-called open rotor engines, seems promising as they combine the inherent high propulsive efficiency of ordinary turboprop engines,...

Accelerating aircraft design using automated process generation: An experimental architecture for aircraft design software

The aircraft industry has seen many evolutionary changes in the past decades. Since the Boeing 707 however, the general shape and configuration of transport aircraft have remained similar and so has the aircraft design process. Since the aviation community is about to face a revolutionary breakthrough featuring new aircraft concepts like blended...

A methodological approach for optimisation of product development processes by application of design automation

In the past decades a clear transition can be seen from fully human-based production techniques towards more automated systems. With the Product Development Process (PDP) being a potential source of competitive advantage the same trend of adopting more automation can be seen in the PDP. The application of automation can lead to large reductions...

Optimization strategy for conceptual airplane design

Due to the ever growing demand for more efficient aircraft novel aircraft concepts have to be explored. By improving design tools the potential of unconventional configurations can be further studied. This requires improvement of conceptual design tools such that more knowledge can be gathered on alternative solutions as early in the design...

Landing gear design in an automated design environment

The design of the landing gear is one of the prime aspects of aircraft design. Literature describes the design process thoroughly, however the integration of these design methods within an automated design framework has had little focus in literature. Landing gear design includes different engineering disciplines including structures, weights,...

Synthesis of Novel Aircraft Concepts for Future Air Travel

In the last 60 years many new technologies have entered the aerospace industry, but the overall aircraft design remained virtually unchanged. If we compare an aircraft built in the 1960's with the latest generation, they look strikingly similar. Only small evolutionary changes entered the commercial aircraft market. A lot of these changes are...

A Semi-Analytical Weight Estimation Method for Oval Fuselages in Novel Aircraft Configurations

Research in aircraft design is focusing on novel aircraft configurations in search for a step change in terms of overall transport efficiency. Aircraft design relies heavily on empirical methods, so-called Class 2 methods, to evaluate the performance of a design. Since these methods are based on statistical data their validity is limited when...

Knowledge based engineering techniques to support aircraft design and optimization

Since the 1960s, the demand for air transportation has doubled every 15 years, resilient to every oil crises and international events. However, the current capability of the air transport management system, the demand of increasingly growing levels of quality, comfort, safety and security, and, above all, an environmental sensitivity as high as...

Aircraft Fuselage Design Study: Parametric Modeling, Structural Analysis, Material Evaluation and Optimization for Aircraft Fuselage

The strong search for lightweight materials has become a trend in the aerospace industry. Aircraft manufacturers are responding to this trend and new aerospace materials are introduced to build lighter aircrafts. However material manufacturers, like Tata Steel, are unfamiliar with the determination of running loads and the behavior of materials...