DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED DESIGN SYSTEM FOR HIGH ALTITUDELONG ENDURANCE AIRCRAFT FOR MICRO-COMPUTERS

IN RECENT YEARS, INCREASING ATTENTION HAS BEEN GIVEN IN THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY TO THE INTEGRATION OF AIRCRAFT DESIGN DISCIPLINES. THIS IDEA HAS BEEN APPLIED THEORETICALLY TO THE DESIGN OF SAILPLANES AND TO SOLAR POWERED HIGH ALTITUDE LONG ENDURANCE (HALE) AIRCRAFT. MORE RECENTLY, IT HAS BEEN APPLIED TO THE DESIGN OF MICROWAVE POWERED AIRCRAFT. THESE STUDIES DESCRIBE ATTEMPTS AT ARRIVING AT INTEGRATED DESIGNS OF ONE CLASS OF AIRCRAFT USING THEN-EXISTING STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPUTER CAPABILITIES. NO ATTEMPT WAS MADE IN ANY OF THE CASES TO USE NEW PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES DERIVED FROM ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TO DEVELOP MORE FLEXIBLE SYSTEMS FOR THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF HALE AIRCRAFT. THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY IS TO DEVELOP A GENERAL PARAMETRICSIZING CAPABILITY FOR MICRO-COMPUTERS USING INTEGRATED DESIGN METHODOLOGY IMPLEMENTING THE HALE METHODOLOGY AS A TEST CASE. THIS METHODOLOGY WILL INCORPORATE SOME DETAILED CALCULATIONS, MANY QUALITATIVE RULES-OF-THUMB AND CONSTRAINTS WHICH ARE NOT EASILY QUANTIFIED EXCEPT BY THE ACCUMULATION OF DESIGN EXPERIENCE. IN THIS REGARD, THE RESULTANT SOFTWARE WILL BE AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF HALE AIRCRAFT.