Aircraft family design using decomposition-based methods

This paper explores the use of decomposition-based methods for aircraft family design. The traditional approach in multidisciplinary design optimization is to decompose a problem along disciplinary lines. For aircraft family design problems, a more natural approach is decomposition by individual aircraft. This decomposition facilitates the concurrent development of several aircraft variants, providing substantial autonomy to individual aircraft development programs. Two decomposition-based methods are applied to the aircraft family problem: collaborative optimization and analytical target cascading. This paper marks the beginning of a collaborative effort to clarify the distinctions between these two methods, and to identify how these differences impact the relative performance and applicability of these methods. Initial product family results illustrate how decomposition-based methods can be applied to the aircraft family problem.