Aircraft Design: Synthesis and Analysis

This material is based on course notes for the class AA241A and B, a graduate level course in aircraft design at Stanford University. The course involves individual aircraft design projects with problem sets and lectures devoted to various aspects of the design and analysis of a complete aerospace system. Students select a particular type of aircraft to be designed and, in two academic quarters, define the configuration using methods similar to those used in the aircraft industry for preliminary design work. Together with the vehicle definition and analysis, basic principles of applied aerodynamics, structures, controls, and system integration, applicable to many types of aerospace problems are discussed. The objective of the course is to present the fundamental elements of these topics, showing how they are applied in a practical design.