Aircraft Requirements and CONOPs

[DrRansom]

Does anyone have any references or examples about how aircraft requirements and CONOPs are generated? A great deal of aircraft design boils down to "don't write the wrong specifications" but there's no description about how those specifications are derived from market / operational research. There are loads of books (see the pinned thread in this section) about designing aircraft to different specifications but few about developing them.

 

[red admiral]

I just make them up... experience helps. But the important thing is that it's an iterative process.

Think about which requirements have most impact on the design and focus on these. Both impact on performance and cost. Generally you do analysis on how performance relates to effectiveness, and then run through create design concepts and sensitivities from which to derive cost forecasts. You can then relate cost to performance to make trade offs (e.g. look at CAIV to get one method). Any specific questions? e.g. how do you set a maximum speed requirement?

CONOPs development is even more experience based as it is more complex. It also requires understanding of the existing organisation it needs to fit into.