A knowledge-based methodology for the initiation of military aircraft configurations

Abstract

This paper presents an automated tool for the initialization and synthesis of military aircraft configurations. Within the software, a large knowledge base containing empirical correlations from a multitude of disciplines is combined with an automated constraint analysis as well as a mission analysis capability. The military aircraft configuration initiator is completely parametric and uses the object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigm to flexibly combine components and their disciplines. With this, the analysis of a large variety of configurations is enabled. This paper aims at describing the way in which the tool and its knowledge-base is built-up and verified, providing the corresponding lessons-learned and showing its application within large-scale sensitivity study and pareto-front generation for conceptual aircraft design. A calibration and connected verification of the results show configurations can be initiated with an uncertainty margin staying well within the 5-10% range. With its short runtimes and capability to initiate aircraft configurations using sparse amounts of data and the capability to synthesize the effects of promising technologies on overall aircraft level, the methodology provides a solid basis for supporting the decision-making process in the early stages of aircraft design.