Trade-Off Studies with an Interactive Engine/Airframe Life-Cycle-Cost Model

The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of interactive connections between the engine and airframe sections of an aircraft life-cycle-cost model in performing trade-off studies. A model is defined that can accept engine descriptions at the part level, and aircraft mission descriptions for each segment. An important feature of the model is airframe and engine resizing as a result of changes in mission and engine design parameters. Three different trade-off studies are shown to illustrate the versatility of this type of model. The effects of not resizing the airplane and engine are also shown.