Conceptual design for aerospace vehicles

The designers of aircraft and more recently, aerospace vehicles have always struggled with the problems of evolving their designs to produce a machine which would perform its assigned task(s) in some optimum fashion. Almost invariably this involved dealing with more variables and constraints than could be handled in any computationally feasible way. With the advent of the electronic digital computer, the possibilities for introducing more variable and constraints into the initial design process led to greater expectations for improvement in vehicle (system) efficiency. The creation of the large scale systems necessary to achieve optimum designs has, for many reason, proved to be difficult. From a technical standpoint, significant problems arise in the development of satisfactory algorithms for processing of data from the various technical disciplines in a way that would be compatible with the complex optimization function. Also, the creation of effective optimization routines for multi-variable and constraint situations which could lead to consistent results has lagged. The current capability for carrying out the conceptual design of an aircraft on an interdisciplinary bases was evaluated to determine the need for extending this capability, and if necessary, to recommend means by which this could be carried out. Based on a review of available documentation and individual consultations, it appears that there is extensive interest at Langley Research Center as well as in the aerospace community in providing a higher level of capability that meets the technical challenges. By implication, the current design capability is inadequate and it does not operate in a way that allows the various technical disciplines to participate and cooperately interact in the design process. Based on this assessment, it was concluded that substantial effort should be devoted to developing a computer-based conceptual design system that would provide the capability needed for the near-term as well as framework for development of more advanced methods to serve future needs.