The Effect of Engine Dimensions on Supersonic Aircraft Performance

Paper in proceeding, 2013

In aircraft design a critical part of the design is the engine selection. This is typically making a selection from exiting engines. Looking at a next generation future fighters, however, where the time of deployment may be 20-30 years in the future this is not a valid approach as there will be an evolution in the engine designs. E.g. a new European fighter aircraft will most likely be a collaborative project also involving the development of an engine for that aircraft. In this study conceptual engine-airframe co-design is demonstrated, using models of comparable fidelity for both the engine design and the aircraft design. This co-design leads to a deeper understanding of the tradeoffs from both sides, and means that also more radical designs and innovations can be evaluated in a fair way.