Development of a Methodology for the Determination of Technical Feasibility and Viability of Affordable Rotorcraft Systems

This paper describes a probabilistic design approach which has been formulated from an affordability viewpoint for the assessment of rotorcraft systems. This method places emphasis on the ability to rapidly examine the design space, identify constraint violations and provides insight as to how the feasible design space could be enlarged through the infusion of new technologies. The paper also provides a rationale as to why a probabilistic design approach is needed to properly examine and facilitate these assessments. The steps required to assess and provide for a technically feasible and viable design space are also outlined. Furthermore, thoughts as to how this technique could be used to investigate and account for tool fidelity modeling, technology readiness impact and benefit/risk/cost tradeoffs are also presented. Descriptions of candidate statistical and probabilistic techniques such as the Response Surface Method, Robust Design Simulation and Fast Probability Integration are provided as needed. Finally, the steps needed for the implementation of this methodology are presented for the design of a notional Civil Tiltrotor Transport.