Diploma in Aircraft Design and Configuration

This course examines how aerospace engineers and aeronautical engineers fabricate aircraft to meet the market and operational requirements by first considering the aircraft configuration’s economic impact and mission specificity. Explore how technological developments influence aircraft design feature specifications while you acquaint yourself with the purpose of airworthiness regulations that ensure adherence to safety standards. We will elucidate the three phases of aircraft design and the conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design evolutionary processes. You will consider the concepts of initial sizing by adopting parameter values from user specifications and operational constraints to estimate the gross aircraft weight. Next is the concept of the design spiral and how to develop an aircraft manufacturing template at the conceptual design phase. This concept prevents idea sterility and avoids the absence of product knowledge in the long run. Study the requirement capture tools and techniques while using the house-of-quality-chart (HoQ) to foretell the key customer attributes. We will also demonstrate the clausing 4-level house of the quality model and rough order of magnitude analysis.

The course will then show you the features of short-range, medium-range, and long-range airliners. We compare the design configurations used to classify airliners into three groups based on the feature properties of the design model. You will understand the geometric properties of aircraft like fuselage sizing, powerplant, and wing settings, examining how you can adjust these properties and other features of a plane via shrinking and stretching to construct new aircraft. The key design considerations for future airliners will include concepts for reduced drag, provision of natural laminar flow, and other trade-offs. These theories will aid in building future aircraft with better fuel economy and strut-based wings. The unique features of a supersonic transport aircraft, including the Ogive shaped wings, fly-by-wire flight control systems, and drooping nose, will be covered in the sessions. Then, we will reveal the precepts behind the wingtip devices such as spiroid-winglets and novel aircraft shapes such as Flying V and Airbus Maveric.

Finally, we present the concepts of active laminar flow and innovative models for achieving and maintaining natural laminar flow in an aircraft. You will also get to know the various types and applications of military aircraft used for combat and surveillance. Aircraft configuration design considers the payload, lifting surface arrangement, propulsion system selection, etc., while we illustrate an aircraft’s key technologies and major layout assemblies. We disclose the concepts of wing sweep, canards, and flying wings and the countless advantages of applying these components during aircraft fabrication. The options for an aircraft layout configuration entail the conceptual shape, relative position, and functional characteristics of the components. The possibilities for wing layout will include the high, low, and mid-wing configurations, and the propulsion systems will comprise the tractor and pusher engines. Other layout selection models will consider the tailplane layout and landing gear types. We will introduce you to the OpenVSP parametric tool for enhanced model creation and geometry manipulations in conceptual design. Then, you will study refined sizing and how to estimate an aircraft’s design, engine, and weight parameters via the parameter equations and knowledge of the historical data. If you are interested in pursuing a career in aeronautical engineering or aerospace engineering, we have designed this course for you. So why wait? Start this course today!