Aircraft design
development effort intended to provide the
Several significant milestones and a “first ever”
occurred in the field of aircraft design this year.
In addition, advances in computer science have
been harnessed to improve the art of concep-
tual aircraft design.
In January, the F-22A Raptor successfully
completed follow-on test and evaluation and
was declared mission capable by the Air Force.
The Lockheed Martin F-22 design team had re-
ceived the 2001 AIAA Aircraft Design Award,
whose citation stated that “Team Raptor” demon-
strated excellence by designing the world’s
most advanced air dominance fighter, represent-
ing a significant advance in aircraft design tech-
nology. The design has been validated, and the
world’s first operational fifth-generation stealth
fighter operates out of Langley AFB, Va., in the
1st Fighter Wing’s 27th Fighter Squadron. The
F-22A was declared “overwhelmingly effective”
in its air-to-air performance during operational
testing and will ensure air superiority for the
U.S. during any future conflicts.
Another fifth-generation stealth aircraft, the
F-35 Lightning II, is scheduled for first flight be-
fore the end of this year. First flight of the con-
ventional takeoff and landing variant was sched-
uled for August but has slipped to as late as this
month. The X-35 Joint Strike Fighter design
team had received the 2002 AIAA Aircraft De-
sign Award, and the first flight milestone will
represent a significant step toward transforming
the successful X-plane into an operationally
suitable and effective weapons system.
At the other end of the spectrum from
fifth-generation stealth fighters, an interesting
first-ever event took place in May: A UAV made
the first fully autonomous landing on water in
the U.S. The Sea Scout UAV has been under de-
velopment for nearly two years by Oregon Iron
Works, under a Small Business Innovative Re-
search Phase III contract from the Naval Air
Systems Command. The UAV flew at a gross
weight of 300 lb and carried 25 lb of ballast to
simulate a payload. Powering the vehicle, which
has a 10-ft wingspan, is a 38 HP Wankel engine.
The Sea Scout program is planned as a spiral
Navy with a sea-based tactical UAV that mini-
mizes the need for extensive launch and recov-
ery equipment.
Contemporary advanced military aircraft
development programs are complex and chal-
lenging. Cost increases and schedule slips seem
to occur inevitably, on both these and many
other types of acquisitions programs. Indepen-
dent program reviews repeatedly identify a com-
mon theme: a lack of up-front technical fidelity
underlying cost, schedule, and technology as-
sumptions, resulting in program requirements
that are out of step with budget and schedule
realities.
An F-22A Raptor from the
1st Fighter Wing cruises
over Fort Monroe in
Hampton, Va.
In an AIAA paper, CFD Needs in Conceptual
Design, James R. Snyder wrote, “In a very real
sense, the conceptual design process is a tool
that is used to ‘design’ an acceptable set of mis-
sion and airplane requirements.” Aircraft design
tools and methods, particularly those that are
applicable to the early conceptual phases, are
the focus of ongoing R&D aimed at improving
our ability to provide critical up-front technical
fidelity to the decision-makers.
This year brought many advances in design
tools and methods, notably in the area of inte-
gration frameworks. One example is the release
of Phoenix Integration’s Unified Toolset, Phoenix
Suite 2006 software. Other companies such as
Engineous Software and Technosoft offer simi-
lar products.
Aircraft conceptual design organizations are
now utilizing these software integration envi-
ronments to connect their in-house design and In May a Sea Scout made the
analysis tools to support rapid multidisciplinary first autonomous landing on
and multifidelity analysis and optimization. Im- water for a UAV.
proving up-front technical fidelity by itself cer-
tainly cannot mitigate all acquisition program
mishaps. However, by improving the concep-
tual design process, programs should be able to
build more solid foundations through better by the AIAA Aircraft Design
cost, schedule, and technology assumptions. Technical Committee
AEROSPACE AMERICA/DECEMBER 2006 25