The IPAD System: a Future Management/Engineering/Design Environment

The design of a new aerospace vehicle is a complex, long-term process. At the onset, a set of objectives is identified in the areas of mission, weight, performance, payload, etc., which are specified with a fairly good knowledge of the available design technology and constraints. The designer possesses a fund of accumulated experience and knowledge that he applies, with imagination and intuition, to meet the requirements and constraints he has been given. The knowledge and experience of the designer are more and more frequently being delegated to the computer; intuition and imagination can never be. In spite of the extensive use of computers in portions of the design process, total turnaround times are long; drudgery interrupts and stalls the engineer. The total project data is segmented and scattered throughout the design team to such an extend that accessing, coordinating, and updating become difficult and complex. The team gets the job done, but only after painfully tedious effort.