Aerospace Design en Systems Engineering Elements

This course addresses the design of aerospace systems in general and, more in particular, the preliminary design of airplanes, spacecraft, and rocket launch vehicles. The following topics are addressed:

Aerospace design:

- Design process (in general and with application to airplanes, spacecraft, and launch vehicles)

- Role of Systems Engineering in the design process

- Functional en operational analysis, requirements generation

- Design concept selection en description

Airplane design:

- Design requirements

- Analysis of aircraft configurations

- Fuselage design

- Preliminary weight estimation

- Preliminary sizing of wing area and engine power/thrust

- Wing and propulsion system design and integration

- Tail and landing gear design and integration

Spacecraft design:

- Spacecraft mission objectives and requirements,

- Preliminary sizing of the spacecraft subsystems:

• Structures and mechanisms,

• Thermal control,

• Electrical power generation,

• Propulsion,

• Attitude determination and control,

• Command and data handling, and

• Telecommunications

Launch vehicle design:

• Launch vehicle mission, main functions, main requirements

• Launch vehicle concepts

• Single- and multi-staged launch vehicles

• Preliminary sizing of rocket stages and launch vehicle subsystems

The material treated in this course will be applied in later thematic projects (BSc year 2) and the Design Synthesis Exercise (BSc year 3). Follow-up courses are scheduled in years 2 and 3 of the aerospace engineering bachelor curriculum.