Aircraft design cycle time reduction using artificial intelligence

In this work we show how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could effectively be used to expedite the decision making process in the early stages of the aircraft design process. We employ both Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Neural Network (NN) as two different schemes of the AI. The developed tools are intended to help to select the proper combination of engine thrust, wing area and the aircraft weight without going through elaborate details of other direct approaches. We further show how the AI could be applied to the specific class of light business jets which serves to validate these schemes. The results indicate the effectiveness of the AI approach in the preliminary aircraft design process. The actual and approximated values for the take-off wing loading and the take-off thrust loading are in agreement within ten percent. The developed design tools, therefore, prove to be effective to decrease aircraft design cycle time.