Regional jet retrofitting design: from stakeholders’ needs and system’s requirements to MDAO workflow formulation

n this paper, a process useful for the verification of economic, environmental and performance requirements related to the retrofit of 90 passengers regional jet aircraft is described. The requirements are defined according to the stakeholders’ needs involved in the process. Multiple scenarios are put in place, ranging from environmental restrictions to volatility of fuel price, aircraft fleet to be retrofitted to passengers’ comfort level. Two retrofitting packages are considered: the re-engining of conventional power-plant platform with advanced geared turbofan and the on-board-system modernization, considering different level of electrification. Starting from the definition of the architectures, which represent the starting and the target points of the design, a multidisciplinary collaborative aircraft design workflow is generated and executed to analyze the retrofit solutions. Results coming from the disciplinary competences introduced for the analysis are exploited to verify the fulfilment of profits, costs, performance, and emission requirements. The overall process is implemented in the framework of the AGILE 4.0 research project, moving towards a thorough Model Based System Engineering problem definition.