Conceptual Aircraft Design

Individual Acknowledgements By Ajoy Kumar Kundu

No work on aircraft design can be done alone. Over time, throughout my passionate engagement in this fascinating subject, I have been advised, taught, supported, shared, allowed to see rare documents and even taught to become a private pilot, which exposed me to aeronautics in a fortunate manner. One‐third of my career has been spent in academia and two‐thirds in industry. I owe a lot to many. Now, after my retirement with time in hand. I am now in an age group that bridges more than half a century of aerospace progress. My aerospace career started in 1960 and now this is the twenty‐first century. I have had the good fortune of witnessing many aerospace achievements, especially putting man on the Moon.

There is a clear gap between academic pursuits and what industry expects from fresh graduates as finished university ‘products’. Both the USA and the UK are aware of this problem and both make periodic recommendations. One of the reasons could be that there appears to be a misconception within certain sectors of academics/research that how engineers generate good designs is a ‘mystery’. All aircraft books outline methodologies devoid of any mystery; the differences are in the content. Keeping an undergraduate curriculum simple may ease teaching but could mask the rigours of the industrial practice when the gap appears. In fact, engineering design is a process and today's practices are so mature that they demonstrate systematic patterns. ...