The aircraft design process is aimed to balance different requirements and produce a light weight, strong and economical aircraft which is safe to fly. The design process is very complicated and requires a large team of engineers, designers, project managers, finance department and many other contributors.
Previously, design teams were small and headed by a chief designer. Today the complexity of aircrafts has increased exponentially. Now each design aspect of the aircraft is assigned to different teams which are then brought together
In this blog we will look at the factors upon which the design process depends.
Purpose Of The Design
There are different aircrafts designed for different purposes. The passenger plane is designed to accommodate many passengers and has greater fuel efficiency. Fighter jets on the other hand are designed to perform at very high speeds.
Thus the first step in the designing process is to identify the purpose of the design.
Regulations
There are many regulations set out by airports which have to be complied with, for example airports impose limits on the maximum wingspan of planes.
Another regulation is the Type Certificate which shows the airworthiness of an aircraft. It confirms that a particular aircraft is in compliance with the safety and stability requirements of air laws of a particular country.
All of these regulations are mandatory to consider before making a design.
Financial Factors
The financial constraints behind each design have a great influence over which designs are acceptable. The design team has to look for such designs that are cost-effective, safe, strong and lightweight.
In order to create a suitable design for a company, designers come up with various designs whose utility is then evaluated.
Competition
Competition forces companies to come up with better designs without compromising their quality and performance by incorporating new technology. Designers in today’s age use more advanced and sophisticated tools for designing.
The advancement of such designing tools has led to a more efficient designing process with much faster results. There are many softwares which can predict the faults and problematic interactions of designs early in the process.
Nowadays, 3D printing has revolutionized the designing process.
Environmental Factors
The increase in the number of aircrafts has led to greater carbon emission and noise pollution which has drawn heavy criticism from scientists, thus making it necessary to create environmental policies regarding aircrafts.
Aircrafts have been known to create noise pollution. When the direction of airflow is changed in the air frame, it creates a lot of sound. Thus such airframes are required which cause less sound pollution.
Designers are now working to make such designs which comply with the environmental policies.
Safety
To ensure higher safety standards, the designs are built on crashworthiness.
Crashworthiness is the qualitative evaluation of the survival of an aircraft in an accident. The main objective is to protect the passengers and the cargo from any damage by the crash.
About Acorn Welding
Acorn Welding has a product design team with a combined experience of over 100 years. Each member of the team has over 20 years experience in Aerospace Manufacturing. As technology progresses the experience of our product design team is preserved and passed on to new members.
We are always striving to improve our quality. We have four full-time quality personnel on staff that monitor all our products and repairs with a Transport Canada approved quality control program.
