Use Case 1: Aircraft Design Challenge

Part A: Aircraft MDO concept design study

As part of the Aircraft design challenge, use case 1 Part A reflects the objective of Airbus Defence and Space to improve the established processes for early aircraft design by including multidisciplinary design optimization as well as increasing the degree of automation. As a result of this new process an improved aircraft design with geometric, mass and performance data ready to enter the next development phase is expected. The future state will include a new, IT supported aircraft design process to be developed within IDEaliSM, which shall be devised and applied to the problem of performing a conceptual design for a light /medium fighter aircraft with a target weight class as depicted below.

aircraft_design_part_a

The use case involves applying multidisciplinary optimization techniques (i.e. MDO) to the conceptual aircraft development phase, which also includes providing input to the Rudder design use case (part B). This helps guiding the design and implementation of the integration framework by providing requirements from the industrial point of view. Finally, the implemented advanced integration framework developed in this project will be validated based on the provided use case.

The results of IDEaliSM will be used to revise and streamline the current aircraft development process in the conceptual and preliminary phases. This involves converting the process from a human-centric approach to a collaborative, knowledge based design process using an integrated IT framework. Thus, the findings of the IDEaliSM project will be used to devise and implement a new aircraft development process within the company that yields increased product quality while lowering development time and resources. This leads to significantly improved competitiveness of European aerospace industry.

Part B: Rudder in a month

As part of the Aircraft design challenge, use case 1 Part B reflects the vision of Fokker Aerostructures: to develop an aircraft rudder within the timespan of a single month to a level that corresponds to the normal results of the Full-Scale Development (FSD) phase up to the Critical Design Review (CDR). IDEC contributes as Tier 2 supplier with excellence in the Design and Build of Resin Transfer Moulded parts.

aircraft_design_part_b

IDEaliSM will provide the development and selection of technologies capable of transforming basic input from an OEM to optimized empennage components. The system(s) should be applicable throughout the aircraft development process, from the proposal phase to design improvement phases. IDEaliSM aims to contribute to this vision by realizing a 50% efficiency gain.

The results of IDEaliSM will be the starting point for the radical new way of working (High Performance Engineering) within the company. The resulting methods and toolsets will be used by the lead designs in their work with the business developers. The lead will work closely together with future knowledge engineers within its design teams to continuously develop the system to follow IT technologies, its own aerospace Key Technologies and the market developments in aerospace structures and engineering services.