Ongoing work in unconventional air-vehicles - featuring deformable rotors/mold-lines, bio-mimetic lift/propulsion, and/or nonstandard configurations - is beginning to provide the insight necessary to exploit performance benefits associated with unsteady flow phenomena. However, the current generation of conceptual design/analysis tools, based on empirical and heuristic models, is incapable of analyzing advanced concepts with confidence, and a new approach, which exploits recent developments in unsteady aeromechanics, is needed. This paper presents the first elements of a hierarchical system of validated variable-fidelity physics-based aeromechanical tools for designing, analyzing and evaluating advanced concepts and reliably performing "virtual expeditions" through the design space. Validated subcomponents of this suite - including fast-turnaround unsteady potential flow solvers, fully-coupled non-linear fluid-structure interaction tools, and highly efficient CFD solvers with automated grid generation - are configured as retrofittable modules (i.e. software libraries) for current design environments. Key elements of this suite of tools are demonstrated on a range of unsteady fluid-structural dynamics problems arising in the design and evaluation of several unconventional flight vehicle concepts.
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