MASS PROPERTIES - FLOW OF INFORMATION

摘要

Product development is a challenging process for any product, because aircraft are highly complex, interconnected, and should take into account a multiplicity of requirements, their design represents a challenge of the highest order. Hence, among the various requirements to be met by a new aircraft there are: cost, performance and sustainability requirements. The mass properties of the aircraft are intrinsically related to the fulfillment of these three requirements, consequently it is crucial that realistic estimates of aircraft mass properties be used during early conceptual design, and that it be strictly controlled during later stages of design. The mass properties management has different characteristics depending on the product development phase; it has to be adjusted as the maturity of the aircraft increases and also depends on the technical integration status of the development. The main objective of this paper is to analyze how the mass properties flow of information should be between specialized groups and managers, in order to guarantee that the information on the lowest level of the system will be able to answer on the aircraft level. The integration has to give accurate and timely mass properties data for making design optimization decisions. The primary result of this work is the development of an integrated and user-friendly tool to track the achievement of the local target weight and impact on the global weight.