Abstract
Aircraft design is a highly nonlinear problem and inherently multidisciplinary activity that involves a large number of design variables and different models and tools for various aspects of design. A spreadsheet based genetic algorithm (GA) approach is presented to optimize the preliminary design of an aircraft. A domain independent general purpose genetic algorithm is proposed to implement the optimization routine. Breguet range equation is used as the objective function for the design evaluation. A total of sixteen design variables are considered in the optimization process. It has also been demonstrated that the proposed approach can be adapted to any objective function without changing the optimization routine. The model is applicable to commercial airliner as well as a multirole jet fighter. The proposed model has been validated against known configurations of various aircraft.