ASE 261K/161M
Aircraft Conceptual Design

 Course Page on UT e-reserves (password required)

Class Meets: 261K: TTh 9:30 - 10:45 AM, WRW 113 
161M: T 5:00 - 6:00 PM, WRW 312 + 2 hrs to be arranged
Instructor:  Dr. Philip L. Varghese
Office:  WRW 201B
Office Hours: M-F: 11-11:45, and by appointment
Phone:  471-3110
e-mail: varghese@mail.utexas.edu 
Home page: http://www.ae.utexas.edu/~Varghese/ 
Text: Airplane Design Parts I & II, Jan Roskam
Additional References: See below

Important dates (Spring 2002)

Tuesday, March 5 Mid term 5:00-6:30 PM
Tuesday, March 26 Preliminary Design Presentations, 5:00-8:00 (?) PM
Friday, March 29 Preliminary Design Reports due by 12 noon
Tuesday, April 30 Final Design Presentations, 5:00-8:00 PM
Monday, May 6 Final Design Reports due by 12 noon
Monday, May 13 Final Exam (2:00- 5:00 PM) 

Note: No alternate date for the final. Please do not schedule job interviews, plant trips, etc. which conflict with test dates.

Grading
261K
161M  
Homework & weekly reports 10% Design notebook 15%
Midterm 20% Peer review 10%
Preliminary design presentation  10% Final design report 75%
Preliminary design report 25%

Final design presentations 10%

Final Exam 25%

2000-2002 Catalog Data

261K
Application of aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, stability, and performance principles to the design of aircraft; mission requirements; configuration selection; cost; ethics and liability.
161M
Computer-aided aircraft design; trade-off analyses, conceptual and preliminary design reviews.

Goals

Understand why airplanes designed for different missions look the way they do; integrate basic knowledge of aerodynamics, structures, propulsion and controls to carry out the preliminary design of an airplane that has a specified performance; understand the many constraints (legal, financial, social, ethical, environmental) that operate in addition to technical constraints.

Additional References

There is an enormous amount of material that can be useful to the aircraft designer. I list a few books that I like and web-sites that are good starting points.

* Books

Aircraft Performance and Design John D. Anderson WCB/McGraw Hill Airplane performance and design philosophy - generally very readable
The Elements of Aircraft Preliminary Design Roger D. Schaufele Aries Publications, Santa Ana, CA 92705 Appears to be self-published. Focused on commercial transports. Very methodical, step-by-step presentation. Presents the essentials with no fluff.
The Anatomy of the Aeroplane Darrol Stinton Available through 
AIAA		 Light reading, good introduction from a non-academic viewpoint.
The Design of the Aeroplane Darrol Stinton Available through 
AIAA		 Focus on light aircraft.
Synthesis of Subsonic Airplane Design Egbert Torenbeek Kluwer Boston Inc. Emphasizes commercial aircraft
Design for Air Combat  Ray Whitford Jane's Publishing Focus on fighters, obviously. Unfortunately, recently out of print. If you see a second-hand copy, buy it! 
Modern Combat Aircraft Design Klaus Huenecke Naval Institute Press Good book on military aircraft with lots of pictures and a fair bit of technical information
Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, 2nd Edition Daniel P. Raymer AIAA Education Series, 1992. General design text
Airplane Design, Parts I-VIII Jan Roskam DAR Corporation 
Lawrence, Kansas 
http://www.darcorp.com		 Encyclopedic coverage but many correlations are presented in unnecessarily complex form. 
Jane's All the World's Aircraft
(new edition published annually)		 Mark Lambert (Ed) Jane's Publishing The standard reference for aircraft with some engine data.
Engineering Analysis of Flight Vehicles Holt Ashley Dover Publications, Inc. Handy, inexpensive general reference; Somewhat dated (1974) but the fundamentals haven't changed
Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, and Flight Mechanics , 2nd Ed. Barnes W. McCormick John Wiley Good general reference with lots of computer program exercises
Dynamics of Flight: Stability and Control, 3rd Ed. Bernard Etkin and Lloyd D. Reid John Wiley Focus on stability and control
The DC-10 Case: A Study in Applied Ethics, Technology, and Society John H. Fielder and Douglas Birsch, Eds. SUNY Press An excellent discussion of ethics in the context of aircraft design

* Websites

FAR regulations

Title 14 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Federal Aviation Regulations This is the official source with links to Federal regulations. Airworthiness standards regulate aircraft design:
Part 23 General Aviation (normal, utility, aerobatic, commuter category)
Part 25 Commercial (Transport category)
Part 27 Rotorcraft, i.e. helicopters (normal category)
Part 29 Rotorcraft (transport category)
Part 31 Manned free balloons

Aircraft Design Information Sources

Aircraft Design: Synthesis and Analysis This is a link to a set of notes for a two quarter graduate level course on Aircraft Design at Stanford taught by Ilan Kroo and Richard Shevell. I haven't had a chance to read it all, but it seems to be an excellent source. I don't know how long it will remain freely available on the web.

VPI Aircraft Design Series, W.H. Mason, Editor. A good place to get a variety of design related information.

UIUC Airfoil Coordinates Database Coordinates of over 1000 airfoils for a wide variety of applications

AIAA Design competition If you are interested in the AIAA National Student Design Competition look here. They also provide additional design information to contest participants

Here are some links to aircraft manufacturers' websites that provide useful data (performance, dimensions, pictures, occasionally prices) on aircraft. Obviously this list is not exhaustive
Airbus   Boeing  Bombadier (Canadair, Lear)   Embraer  Lockheed Martin   Sino Swearingen

Aircraft price index data (Sep 2000 download). For the latest data go to  Bureau of Labor Statistics and select series ID WPU142 (aircraft and aircraft equipment).

Return to top