Collaborative Design of a Business Jet Family Using the AGILE 4.0 MBSE Environment

Abstract

This paper presents the collaborative model-based design of a business jet family. In family design, a trade-off is made between aircraft performance, reducing fuel burn, and commonality, reducing manufacturing costs. The family is designed using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods developed in the AGILE 4.0 project. The EC-funded AGILE 4.0 project extends the scope of the preliminary aircraft design process to also include systems engineering phases and new design domains like manufacturing, maintenance, and certification. Stakeholders, needs, requirements, and architecture models of the business jet family are presented. Then, the collaborative Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) capabilities are used to integrate various aircraft design disciplines, including overall aircraft design, onboard systems design, wing structural sizing, tailplane sizing, mission analysis, and cost estimation. Decisions regarding the degree of commonality are implemented by optionally fixing the design of a shared component when sizing an aircraft.