Simultaneous Assessment of Requirements and Technologies in Rotorcraft Design

Abstract

Recent emphasis in the design and acquisition of complex systems has focused on the requirements that drive the design process. Most fundamental to the rotorcraft designer is the effect that requirements have on the system design. Requirements drive initial design studies, procurement decisions, and ultimately operational effectiveness and cost. However, it is often the case that design processes (and designers) overlook the impact of changes and/or ambiguity in requirements and fail to understand the relationships between requirements, technologies, and the design space. Increasingly, the decisions made early in the design time line involve the choice of new technologies or combinations of new technologies that will ensure the system meets customer requirements. Providing the designer/decision maker with knowledge of these relationships enhances the ability to find a technically feasible, economically viable, robust solution for the customer. In this paper, the authors present a design environment for the simultaneous assessment of technologies, requirements and design space. The creation of this environment is described along with the tools for its implementation. Examples of the various design spaces are presented for a civil tiltrotor. The requirements space for the civil tiltrotor is further examined. Finally, the benefit of applying this environment to the Joint Transport Rotorcraft is discussed.