TASOPT.jl: A Julia package for conceptual commercial transport aircraft design

Abstract

Aircraft design is a multidisciplinary field that spans aerodynamics, structures, thermodynamics and propulsion. Prior approaches to this problem have consisted of historical correlations, em- pirical drag and simplified propulsion system models (Raymer, 2018; Roskam, 2002; Torenbeek, 1982). TASOPT, originally written in FORTRAN and developed by Mark Drela (Drela, 2011; Greitzer et al., 2010), took the approach of basing the aerodynamic, propulsion, and weight estimates on low-order models built on first-principles structural, aerodynamic, thermodynamic theory to the extent possible. This approach gives confidence that optimized aircraft designs generated by the program are not spurious artifacts of inappropriately extrapolated empirical data. This package, TASOPT.jl, is a modern, Julia based implementation of the same principles, written with the goal of extensibility in mind. The current package leverages open source Julia packages where useful to provide an easy-to-read and maintain software. TASOPT.jl also introduces additional functionality such as capability to model some forms of hydrogen fuel aircraft. In addition, the software allows users to connect it with other aircraft propulsion system tools (such as NPSS) and aircraft environmental impact assessment tools (such as Aviation Emissions Inventory Codes) (Simone et al., 2013).