Aircraft design - present and future

Abstract

This paper on the state of the art of airplane design is directed primarily to defining today's challenge to the aircraft designer. The project designer's tasks are design and synthesis, and these require the understanding and use of engineering data in distinctly different ways from the forms that normally are taught in schools or that result from analysis and research. Design requires the accomplishment of a competitive and optimum compromise among all the specialties and technologies, within the limits of the available time and money. The engineering department must also accomplish the research and analysis that provides, and advances, the state of the art in each of the functional specialty areas and see to it that the engineers and designers on all the projects are always up to date. The relationships between and the responsibilities of these functional organizations in accomplishing the successful systems engineering or design integration are discussed. Several areas in aircraft design are presented in which the engineer faces challenges, and it is suggested that design is a field, too often given too little attention by educational institutions and technical societies, that offers even greater personal satisfaction to the individual than achievements in research and analysis.