UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering


AE 441: Aerospace Design Spring 1996


Design Proposal Requirements:

The overall format of the design proposal is left to the discretion of the design team. This is the document which is used to evaluate the proposed design and upon which a decision to continue the product development process would be based. It should be complete, comprehensive and consistent. Significant effort will be required in the review and editing by all members of the team in order to produce an acceptable document. Reference to previous reports will be useful but caution should be exercised since the requirements for this report are rather different from past years.

The proposal will be critically evaluated based upon its ability to comply with the following requirements:

  1. A concise description of your proposed product and manufacturing process describing goals and objectives, as well as strengths and weaknesses of the product and process. The Executive Summary described below is a key part of the proposal.
  2. Technical validation of your design and manufacturing process based upon your group's engineering analyses and parametric trade studies. Various issues will be treated with different levels of detail and you are responsible for selecting and identifying the most critical issues for your particular design.
  3. Adequate details so that the document will be of use to future design studies.

The proposal must include at least the following sections presented in a readily identifiable manner.

  1. Executive Summary - Stand alone section which overviews current status of the Final Design and a tabular summary of Specifications and Performance Estimates. This section must describe in detail those factors which had the most significant influence on the final design. The discussion must highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the design and indicate all critical technical areas. The text should be approximately 1000 words. It must include a 3 view external and 2 view internal drawing of the final design. It is strongly recommended that these drawings be consistent "CAD" drawings developed using software of your choice.
  2. Detailed Description of the Quantitative Design Requirements and Objectives - Evaluation of each phase of the "mission" emphasizing primary design requirements and objectives as presented in the original DR&O. Any exceptions from the original DR&O must be clearly identified and justified.
  3. Concept Selection Studies - Detailed discussion of all appropriate competing concepts considered by your group with justification for the final design concept. Sketches of each concept are required as well as a table which states the specific strengths and weaknesses of each concept. The group concept as described at the beginning of the design study is required and it should be compared with the others considered.
  4. Proposed Concept Technical Description
    1. Aerodynamic Design Validation
      • Airfoil selection and characteristics, including Cl, Cd and Cmac .
      • Wing design and detailed characteristics must include a spanwise load distribution at cruise and stall and a stall prediction (w and w/o high lift devices).
      • Complete drag prediction with component contributions and sources for each component's drag contribution, clean and high lift configurations.
      • High lift system design, stall characteristics for takeoff and landing configurations
    2. Propulsion System Design Validation
      • System selection studies and performance predictions
      • Propeller selection/design studies and performance characteristics
      • Engine control, "fuel" (batteries, capacity, weight, etc.), installation
    3. Preliminary Weight Estimation
      • Component weight estimates
      • C.G. location and travel
    4. Stability Assessment and Control System Design
      • Control surface location and sizing
      • Control surface actuation mechanisms and radio system integration
      • Static stability longitudinal analysis
      • Cruise trim conditions
    5. Payload Integration
      • Internal Layout for all components
      • Video system installation, operation and control
    6. Performance Estimation
      • Take-off and landing estimates
      • Range and endurance estimates
      • Power required and available summaries
      • Design mission performance verifications (loiter and cruise)
    7. Structural Design Detail
      • V-n Diagram with gust requirements
      • Maneuvering flight and ground load estimation
      • Basic structural components, primary substructures and assembly drawings
      • Material Selection
      • Stress analysis with margins of safety for primary load carrying components, must include shear force and bending moment diagrams for the main wing and carry-through structure.
      • Landing gear design include ground loads estimate
  5. Production Plan - A proposed production staff and facility and process plan to achieve proposed monthly production rates. This should include plant layout, tooling and machinery requirements and staffing and production schedules. This section should also detail the assembly process as proposed, including details on fixtures and other support equipment, assembly sequencing and estimates for staff and times.
  6. Economic Analysis - A cost analysis should be conducted using the best estimates for all appropriate economic factors. The parameters - System Sales Price, Cost to Produce 100 A/C per month and Cost per flight as defined in the "Cost Data and Economic Analysis" handout must be included in order to provide a good assessment of the vehicle economics. Preliminary estimates of the technology demonstrator fabrication costs should be included.
  7. Crew Training and Operation Requirements - This section should detail training methods or aids developed to assist in novice crew training for your aircraft system. Details on in-field assembly, deployment and other operating issues should be included at your discretion.
  8. Appendix containing the "data base" used in the concept studies and all other pertinent data used in the design study. The data base should include the source and an assessment of the reliability of the data.

The following item will be added to the proposal after final form submission and it is intended to document the validation phase of this project. (It should be consistent with the quality of the Final Proposal.)


The following Figures or Tables MUST be included in the proposal on SINGLE PAGES and must be readily identifiable.

  1. Detailed three view external drawing to scale
  2. Detailed two view internal drawing to scale indicating all major internal components
  3. Airfoil lift, drag and moment curves with Clmax indicated for wings and empennage surfaces.
  4. Aircraft Lift Curve with CLmax indicated (w and w/o any high lift devices).
  5. Aircraft drag polar - for basic and high lift configuration - must include tabular component drag breakdown
  6. L/D curve for the complete aircraft in cruise configuration
  7. Pitching moment coefficient vs. alpha for most forward and aft c.g. positions
  8. Power required and power available vs. flight speed for entire flight regime - should include a full range of power settings
  9. Propeller efficiency vs. Advance ratio
  10. Weight/Balance Diagram
  11. Weight estimate for each component
  12. V-n diagram - for all extreme weight configurations

The draft report should be submitted on 8.5"x11" paper, printed single sided in a ring binder. All pages must be numbered. Section by section numbering of pages and figures is recommended.

The final submission must be printed on 8.5"x11" white paper, single sided without hole punches, staples or binding (i.e. loose pages). All pages must be numbered. Section by section numbering of pages, figures and attachments is recommended.