Concurrent engineering and integrated aircraft design

Abstract

With the increasing size and complexity of development projects at large companies and organizations in the aviation industry, concurrent engineering (CE) and integrated aircraft design has become of crucial importance in the design process of new products. In order to remain a competitive position and achieve a customer driven approach, aspects of the product’s life cycle should be adopted at an early stage in the design process. These aspects include, among others: the overall cost performance and the ability of new system integration. This chapter discusses the implementation of CE in the life cycle of aircraft and systems in general. Challenges related to process parallelization and multidisciplinary design, involving the exchange of knowledge and information throughout the design process, are covered. Supporting techniques along with practical case studies are presented to illustrate the implementation of CE and IAD in real life. Expected future developments with respect to CE as applied to aviation conclude this chapter.