Aviation System Design I & II — Syllabus
Draft — subject to revision at the start of each academic year.
Course Identity
| Course | Aviation System Design I & II (capstone design) |
| Credits | 6 in total: 3 credits per semester, taken in sequence over one academic year |
| Format | Group design project with weekly studio sessions and design reviews |
| Prerequisites | Aerodynamics, Flight Mechanics, Aircraft Structures, Propulsion (or concurrent enrolment by consent) |
| Alignment | AIAA Aircraft Design Competition — the class responds to the current year’s Request for Proposal (RFP) |
Course Description
Aviation System Design is the two-semester capstone of the Aviation Engineering programme. Working in teams, students answer a real Request for Proposal by carrying an aircraft from a blank sheet through the two initial phases of the design process:
- Semester I — Preliminary Sizing. Requirements analysis, market and comparative study, design requirements and objectives (DR&O), generation and trade-off of several competing concepts, initial weight and performance sizing, configuration and propulsion selection.
- Semester II — Conceptual Design. Subsystem design and integration: aerodynamics, structures, propulsion integration, landing gear, cockpit and avionics, aircraft systems, mission-specific and payload systems, stability and control, performance, and cost — closing the loop against the RFP with a compliance matrix.
The year ends with a competition-grade design report submitted to the AIAA competition and defended before a review panel.
Learning Outcomes
On completing the two-course sequence, students are able to:
- Translate a customer RFP into quantitative design requirements and objectives, supported by market and benchmarking analysis.
- Generate several credible competing concepts, perform initial sizing — weight estimation, constraint analysis, and configuration trade studies — and defend a concept down-selection.
- Design and analyse the major subsystems of an aircraft (aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, landing gear, cockpit and avionics, aircraft systems, mission and payload systems) at conceptual-design fidelity.
- Verify a design against requirements through stability and control analysis, performance prediction, and cost estimation, and document compliance to the RFP.
- Work effectively in an engineering team — planning, configuration control, interface management between subsystems — and communicate the design in professional reports and reviews.
Team Organisation
Students work in one or more teams of at most 10 members (per AIAA competition rules). Each team appoints a chief engineer (system integration, schedule, configuration control) and subsystem leads; every student owns at least one technical chapter of the final report.
The subsystem work runs in parallel, not in sequence: once the baseline is set, the aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, systems, and stability engineers all work concurrently on their disciplines. Each weekly studio session therefore follows a fixed format: a short topical briefing by the instructor, followed by scheduled progress reports from the respective engineers, with interface conflicts between subsystems resolved on the spot and decisions recorded in the shared design logbook.
Semester I — Preliminary Sizing
The outlines below list the theme of each week’s briefing and the milestone reviews — they are not a serial workflow. Subsystem work proceeds in parallel throughout, and every weekly session includes progress reports from the responsible engineers. The detailed schedule is finalised at the start of each semester.
| # | Topic / Activity |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction: the aircraft design process; reading the year’s RFP |
| 2 | Team formation; work-breakdown structure and design logbook |
| 3 | Market analysis: market condition, demand projections, competitive landscape, forecast |
| 4 | Comparative / benchmarking study of reference aircraft |
| 5 | Design requirements and objectives (DR&O) |
| 6 | Initial weight estimation (mission fuel fractions, empty-weight trends) |
| 7 | Constraint analysis: wing loading and thrust/power loading |
| 8 | Mid-semester design review — requirements and sizing baseline |
| 9 | Concept generation: 3–4 competing configurations (fuselage, wing placement, tail arrangement) |
| 10 | Propulsion system selection and rubber-engine sizing |
| 11 | Concept evaluation: trade matrix and down-selection |
| 12 | Refined sizing of the selected concept; initial three-view |
| 13 | Report integration and internal review |
| 14 | Preliminary Design Review (PDR) — presentation and report submission |
Semester II — Conceptual Design
| # | Topic / Activity |
|---|---|
| 1 | PDR action items; freezing the baseline configuration |
| 2 | Aerodynamics I: airfoil selection, wing design, high-lift devices |
| 3 | Aerodynamics II: drag buildup and drag polar, fuselage aerodynamics |
| 4 | Structures I: load cases, V–n diagram, material selection |
| 5 | Structures II: structural arrangement; internal volume — fuel tanks, payload accommodation |
| 6 | Refined weight estimation and centre-of-gravity envelope |
| 7 | Propulsion integration (engine selection, inlet/nacelle); landing gear: geometry, tires, shock absorbers, retraction |
| 8 | Mid-semester design review — subsystem status and interface issues |
| 9 | Cockpit and avionics: cockpit and seat arrangement, crew visibility, avionics integration |
| 10 | Aircraft systems: hydraulics, electrical, environmental, emergency; mission-specific systems (e.g. firefighting system, cargo loading — per the RFP) |
| 11 | Stability and control: empennage and control-surface sizing, trim, stability derivatives, handling qualities |
| 12 | Performance: mission profiles, payload–range, airfield performance, service ceiling |
| 13 | Cost analysis (life-cycle, production, and operating costs); RFP compliance matrix |
| 14 | Critical Design Review (CDR) — final defence; report submission to the competition |
Deliverables and Assessment
Provisional weighting — confirmed in the first week of each semester.
| Component | Semester I | Semester II |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly progress reports, design logbook, peer assessment | 15% | 15% |
| Mid-semester design review (presentation) | 20% | 20% |
| Final design review (PDR / CDR presentation) | 25% | 25% |
| Written report (team, with individually-attributed chapters) | 40% | 40% |
Team marks are moderated by individual contribution, assessed through the weekly progress reports, the logbook, chapter ownership, and peer evaluation.
Main References
Past IULI reports illustrate the expected scope and depth of the final deliverable: the 2021–2022 firefighting aircraft report and the 2023–2024 heavy-lift transport report (4th place of 38 teams). Standard texts for the design phases: