An MBSE Methodology for the Pre-Concept Design of a Fast Rotorcraft

Future military operations are expected to take place in highly dynamic, contested and multi-domain environment, where speed, flexibility and survivability are essential. Fast rotorcraft are emerging as critical asset to meet future operational requirements, offering a hybrid solution that bridges the gap between conventional helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Given the increasing complexity of both operational requirements and system architectures, a Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) approach has become fundamental to support concept design. However, MBSE is often neglected in the earliest phases of aircraft concept definition and proposal process, when business and mission requirements are agreed between Contractor and Supplier, due to the fast pacing of Parties interactions with respect to the time and effort required to perform modelling activities. This prevents nurturing the benefits of MBSE in this crucial phase, and it generates omissions in the systems engineering data to perform design validation in future phases. This paper describes a tailored methodology to make MBSE feasible to support project requirements agreement and initial aircraft sizing.