An Application of QFD in Aircraft Conceptual Design

Abstract

Aircraft conceptual design is the very beginning of aircraft design process in which one or several aircraft configurations are created to meet the top-level requirements of aircraft. The aim of this paper is to build a more traceable, structured and systematic process of aircraft conceptual design by use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method. The conceptual design of a narrow body commercial aircraft is used as an example to illustrate application of the QFD. The top-level requirements of the commercial aircraft are defined. The conceptual design activities such as initial sizing of aircraft, wing configuration design, fuselage configuration design, and empennage configuration design are accomplished using House of Quality (HOQ). During initial sizing of aircraft, the top-level requirements of aircraft are converted into the requirements for aerodynamics, propulsion and weight with the aid of HOQ and constraint analysis. During configuration designs of the wing, fuselage and empennage, their requirements are identified based on the top-level requirements and output of the initial sizing, and consist of requirements of aerodynamics, structure, control, safety, operation, cost and etc. Several HOQs representing the relationships between the requirements and the configuration design parameters are created. After that, the configuration design parameters are selected with the aid of the HOQ and relevant design knowledges. By use of the QFD, aircraft conceptual design activities are represented by a number of the HOQ and the design process of configuration parameters is traceable through the HOQ. It is concluded that the QFD-based aircraft conceptual design is more traceable, structured and systematic than the traditional method.