Multidisciplinary Integrated Preliminary Design Applied to Unconventional Aircraft Configurations

A preliminary aircraft design tool is presented as a means of performing multidisciplinary, integrated preliminary design of unconventional aircraft configurations. Higher fidelity numerical methods for some of the involved disciplines are discussed as key elements of this process. A noise propagation module is described as a first step toward introducing aircraft noise analysis into the preliminary design process. Application of the tool to a specific unconventional aircraft concept is shown. The results of this study provide an understanding of why multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization, as well as higher fidelity methods, are required for the design of unconventional aircraft configurations.