Life cycle engineering in preliminary aircraft design

In preliminary aircraft design, the assessment of aircraft life cycle is mainly focused either on life cycle costs, or on economic and environmental analysis of certain life cycle phases. This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach for life cycle engineering during preliminary aircraft design enabling the evaluation of costs and environmental impact of the entire aircraft life cycle. The developed sustainability analysis modules are integrated in a platform together with an aircraft design suite. This allows for feeding back economic, ecological and social impact into the aircraft design synthesis, hence enabling future optimization of aircraft designs for sustainability.