Methodology for Ballistic Performance Enhancing at the Aircraft Conceptual Design Stage

Аuthors

Shilin P. D.^*, Vetrov V. V.

Tula State University, TulGU, 92, Lenin av., Tula, 300012, Russia

*e-mail: pvl.shilin@yandex.ru

Abstract

Modern requirements for the aerospace technology development necessitate creation of new approaches to the aircraft design. Under conditions of the traditional extensive approaches potential exhaustion, associated with launch mass and dimensions increasing, the development of knowledge-intensive methods at the early, least costly stages of the life cycle is becoming increasingly relevant. This work deals with this problem solving by creating a comprehensive methodology for systemic improvement of the aircraft ballistic efficiency precisely at the conceptual design stage.

The core idea of the research is a transition from a fragmented analysis of individual aircraft systems to a holistic, systemic approach that interprets ballistic efficiency as a comprehensive indicator of technical perfection, reflecting the rationality of the formation and utilization of the aircraft's energy potential in flight. The proposed methodology is a scientific and methodological framework that integrates analytical models, algorithms for structural-parametric synthesis, and criteria for comparative evaluation and optimization of design solutions into a single iterative process.

A system concept represented in the form of an aggregate of interrelated trends for the efficiency improving serves as a theoretical basis of the methodology. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the development and integration into the end-to-end design process of a number of techniques, which application yields the maximum characteristics improvement with limited resources.

The most important element of the methodology is a universal tool for the integral assessment of proposed solutions, namely the ballistic efficiency indicator. This indicator is being derived from the transport efficiency indicator by normalizing it with a scale coefficient that characterizes the effect of mass-and-size characteristics increasing. This allows for an objective quantitative assessment of the specifically innovative technical solutions contribution to the flight qualities improvement.

In conclusion, the authors formulate findings on the practical effectiveness of the proposed technical solutions, and blueprint promising directions for further research, including the extension of the methodology to other classes of aircraft and development of the specialized software suite to support conceptual design.

Keywords:

conceptual design, ballistic efficiency, systems approach, transportation efficiency, structural-parametric synthesis, bicaliber configurations, transformable nose fairing, base bleed unit

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