MDO applications to conventional and novel turboprop aircraft within agile European project

In this paper, multidisciplinary design optimization within the AGILE European project is applied to two turboprop aircraft. The first one is a conventional configuration characterized by wing mounted engines, while the second one is an innovative configuration with rear engines installation on the horizontal tail tip with an innovative power plant architecture. Both configurations are suited for 90 passengers, a design range of 1200 nautical miles and a cruise Mach number equal to 0.56. The methodologies used to analyze both configurations include aerodynamic performance in clean, landing and takeoff configurations, mission performance, weight and balance, stability and control, emissions, in terms of Global Warming Potential parameter, and Direct Operating Cost estimation. The latest two will be considered as objective functions for the optimization loop. Aim of this paper is to compare both configurations highlighting benefits and limits. Particular attention has been posed on the innovative approach used to analyze the use cases. The whole design process is made up ofdifferent tools belonging to a specific partner. Each partner is specialized in a specific discipline. The design process has been setup to be completely automated so that, partners, distributed worldwide are able to communicate and exchange results through remote connection. In this way each discipline has been assigned to the suited specialist.