Overview

We will first discuss a design strategy which finds the optimum aircraft design in the analysis parameter space for a given mission. This parameter space is determined by the various discipli­nary groups. The individual disciplines supply robust and physically correct modular analysis methods and the enabling technologies. Non-linear optimization techniques arc then used to find the best design using these modules in this parameter space This strategy reduces the number of design cycles and allows us to evaluate more configurations.

This strategy is applied to the design of supersonic transports. The main assumptions of the analysis routines will be described as well as the objective function. Several near-term technology supersonic configurations w ill be compared as a function of their mission specifica­tions.