Recent Advances in Establishing a Common Language for Aircraft Design with CPACS

Abstract

Today's aircraft design projects are characterized by interdisciplinary collaboration between a large amount of heterogeneous disciplines. Each discipline contributes with specialized knowledge and software tools which are integrated in automated simulation workflows. The utilization of a common data model significantly reduces the number of possible interconnections between the modules and ensures a consistent source of information. This paper presents the Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema (CPACS) and discusses the progress of establishing it as a common language for aircraft, spacecraft and rotorcraft design. With increased flexibility of the aerodynamic performance maps, a reformulation of the wing component segments for defining the wing internal structure, a new definition for engine nacelles and pylons and the possibility to include individual tool-specific schemas, the current enhancements and the corresponding development process of the latest CPACS release are presented. The paper concludes by showing that publishing CPACS and its corresponding libraries under an open-source license has been the enabler for a wide adoption of the data format in the aeronautical research and industry.