Browsing by Author "Kelly, John H."

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    Rule-based fuselage and spine and cross-section methods for computer aided design of aircraft components
    Kelly, John H. (Virginia Tech, 1993-05-04)
    In recent years, the use of computer-aided design (CAD) systems for conceptual aircraft design has greatly increased. As a result, new and better methods for creating surface models of aircraft geometry using dimensional parameters are needed. One such method, the Rule-Based Fuselage method, was suggested by Lockheed. The Rule-Based Fuselage method allows an aircraft designer to define complex aircraft fuselage geometry by specifying the fuselage profile and individual parametric cross-sections along the fuselage. This thesis describes the Rule-Based Fuselage method and discusses the implementation of the method in an interactive, object-oriented environment. Also included in this system is the Spine and Cross-Section method for creating arbitrarily shaped aircraft components. The design and implementation of both the Rule-Based Fuselage and Spine and Cross-Section methods are described. The integration of these methods with the conceptual aircraft design code, ACSYNT, is also discussed.