Conceptual Aircraft Design

21Miscellaneous Design Considerations

21.1 Overview

Although the main task of the aircraft configuration is now complete, there are few more topics of interest that require design understanding. Aircraft design is not confined only to the classical aeronautical subjects of aerodynamics (Chapter 3), propulsion (Chapters 12 and 13), materials and structures (Chapter 19). There are many other issues, for example, concerning environment, safety, operational matters, ‘end of life’ valorisation, some emerging new scenarios and so on. These affect design considerations at the very conceptual stage of the project. Most academic institutions offer separate courses on some of the topics but these can escape attention as the undergraduate curriculum is already packed with the main aeronautical subjects, for example, aerodynamics, propulsion, materials and structures.

This chapter gives a brief overview on the impact made by all round technological advances that need to be considered at the conceptual stages to arrive at a ‘satisfying’ design. It offers an easy entry to gain some understanding of the specialised topics, some of them may appear out of context during conceptual phase, but these do contribute to design considerations. Detailed study of the topics of this chapter is beyond the scope of this book.

The environmental issues of noise and emission are to comply with the standards specified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) (USA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ...