RELIABILITY, MAINTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT COST IMPLICATIONS OF VARIABLE CAMBER WINGS

A computer assisted conceptual aircraft design methodology (CACAD) has been developed to size turbofan powered transport aircraft. New modul es for predicting the maintenance costs of each airframe system and su bsection of structure, were developed and incorporated into CACAD. Man y aspects of variable camber wing technology (VCW) were modelled. Thes e included different types of drag saving due to chordwise, as well as spanwise camber variation. Models were also derived for mass, mainten ance cost, and extra development cost increments for wing trailing edg e devices, flight control, and hydraulic systems. These were incorpora ted into CACAD, and then a multidisciplinary trade-off study resulted in predicted savings of up to 3.5% in direct operating cost (DOC). The technology was evaluated for DOC improvement against a number of exis ting, future, and derivative aircraft, under different sensitivity con ditions. Reliability, maintainability, and development (R, M&D) predic tions were shown to be decisive in determining the feasibility of VCW technology. The study showed that long range, low to medium capacity, derivative aircraft are the most suitable applications for VCW technol ogy.