The Design Process

The design of a modern aircraft is a phenomenal undertaking involving the co-operation of many individuals with expertise in a range of disciplines, many of which in themselves take a lifetime to master. Yet new aircraft are designed and each generation improves upon the last, in performance, economy, and safety. Such progression and success is due to the well-ordered process that governs how an aircraft is designed. This chapter provides a summary of that design process, describing the traditional point design and following through the key steps in conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design. The iterative, hierarchical nature of the design process, and the flow of data and parameters through the evolving design, is brought out in the context of design as a multi-disciplinary problem. Once the basic process is understood it is possible to review the industrial implementation of the process in the context of systems engineering considering the issues needed to manage a large enterprise. Keywords: aircraft design; design processes; systems engineering; spiral model; conceptual design; preliminary design; detailed design