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The purpose of this paper is to present research into reducing the aircraft design cycle period, by reducing the necessary number of design cycle iterations. The design cycle period is one of the main characteristics of the design process and design cycle iterations play a major role in the design cycle period.

To achieve the above‐mentioned goal, the paper presents a mathematical model of iterations for the aircraft design process. This model describes the design coupled tasks as a discrete‐linear time invariant dynamic system. This model also helps identify tasks which are the most important for generating iterations. This new method basically helps break information cycles that create iterations among important tasks.

Studies conducted on a general aviation (GA) airplane (FAJR‐3) design process show the success of the suggested approach. This procedure eventually leads to an expedited convergence rate for the design iterations. That is, through proper breaking of information cycles, the convergence rate of the most dominant design mode could be increased by up to 31 percent. The process also leads to decoupling of the so‐called “coupled parts of design process,” which in turn leads to a more modular design with relatively easier management.

This method offers a new way of managing aircraft design processes while having to deal with constraints such as time and resources. The approach could be easily implemented as it manages any complex design‐process based on its resemblance to a dynamic system. The method can also be used as a component of an Integrated Airframe Design (IAD), as a tool for “Cycle time reduction”.

The advantage of this new approach, over other existing ones, lies in its ability to distinguish the important information cycles in a systematic manner. This helps to break the design process in a way that guarantees the increase in convergence speed of the whole design process.

The purpose of this paper is to present the development of an optimal design framework for high altitude long endurance solar unmanned aerial vehicle. The proposed solar aircraft design framework provides a simple method to design solar aircraft for users of all levels of experience.

This design framework consists of algorithms and user interfaces for the design of experiments, optimization and mission analysis that includes aerodynamics, performance, solar energy, weight and flight distances.

The proposed sizing method produces the optimal solar aircraft that yields the minimum weight and satisfies the constraints such as the power balance, the night time energy balance and the lift coefficient limit.

The design conditions for the sizing process are given in terms of mission altitudes, flight dates, flight latitudes/longitudes and design factors for the aircraft configuration.

The framework environment is light and easily accessible as it is implemented using open programs without the use of any expensive commercial tools or in-house programs. In addition, this study presents a sizing method for solar aircraft as traditional sizing methods fail to reflect their unique features.

Solar aircraft can be used in place of a satellite and introduce many advantages. The solar aircraft is much cheaper than the conventional satellite, which costs approximately $200-300m. It operates at a closer altitude to the ground and allows for a better visual inspection. It also provides greater flexibility of missions and covers a wider range of applications.

This study presents the implementation of a function that yields optimized flight performance under the given mission conditions, such as climb, cruise and descent for a solar aircraft.