Critical Analysis Of Preliminary And Detailed Design Phases For Boeing 787

Increasing Trends in Aviation Industry

Over the past years, the aviation industry has witnessed a lot new and emerging trends and growth that can be attributed to the ever developing technology as well as the need to meet the requirements and standards of the customers. According to data collected from the industry, it is evident that there has been a major increase in the number of passengers travelling on air to different countries across the globe (Blanding, 2012). The increasing numbers implies that there are more customers with different wants or requirements. This therefore means that there has to be several adjustments within the industry in order to meet the customer’s different needs. The main idea for several airlines is to offer a completely exceptional travelling experience that will be appreciated by all the customers. One of the common ways of doing so is to purchase aircrafts that will offer additional comfort and perfect travelling experience as well as one that will accommodate a good number of the customers that intend to travel on air (Brosius, 2015).

One of the latest aircraft acquisitions that help improve the travelling experience is the Boeing 787. It is among the largest commercial aircrafts that have the ability to travel for very long distances without making any stop. Besides that, it is commonly known for its large passenger carrying capacity meaning it can fly hundreds of passengers across the globe in any given trip. In order to ensure that the Boeing 787 perfectly meets its efficiency and expected performance, it is proper to have a perfect design for the aircraft. The design process is the most critical and challenging part of any given system. This will ensure that the system, the Boeing 787 in this case, is safe, meets the required comfort, is more resource efficient, performs as expected and is able to last long.

This report therefore performs a detailed analysis evaluation of both the preliminary design and the detailed design of the Boeing 787. It also analyses the requirements for design as well as the criteria used during the design of this aircraft. It presents a very expressive detailed design of the different sections of the aircraft and process and cost of putting up the whole body. For any system to operate effectively, an initial test has to be carried out and proper evaluation done in order to determine whether the aircraft will meet its intended objectives as well as how to fully optimize the functional ability of the aircraft (Diedrich et al, 2016).

In accordance to the key stakeholders’ team that includes the engineers, clients, designers, regulators and scientists, the Boeing 787 must have a clear difference and an upper hand over the already existing aircrafts. Most importantly, its design and development has to adhere to the set guidelines within the aircraft industry. The design of the Boeing 787 to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines as well as the statutes within the Civil Aviation Acts. The Federal Aviation Administration is a body that is in charge of all the aspects that are related to civil aviation. These may include airport construction and operation, aircraft certification and monitoring of aircraft safety (Goldhammer, 2015).

Designing the Boeing 787

 The preliminary design of the Boeing 787 was basically based on coming up with an aircraft that would travel to any part of the world as well as be able to transport a largely increased number of passengers to different destinations. This means that the design also largely focused on the size and carrying capacity of the aircraft. There are a lot of factors that had to be put into consideration in order to achieve the required design of the Boeing 787. Given that aircrafts do account for a good percentage of carbon emittance into the environment, the design of this specific aircraft was to ensure that it had reduced carbon emittance. The design also had to focus on reducing the resources that were required during manufacturing and operation of the aircraft. The resources also include the amount of fuel that will be required to operate the aircraft. In order to improve the customers’ satisfaction, the aircraft also had to major on comfort and wellbeing. Proper comfort and wellbeing should be achieved for both the passengers and the plane crew. This factor considers the types of seats, bigger windows, a bigger overhead luggage space, a state or the art cockpit, improved hygiene features etc. an effective boarding system that allows for easy boarding of the plane also has to be put in place. Improved features such as tools that enable passengers and flight attendants change the external views, interior colors of the plane, the seats position, improved interaction with others etc. should be included in the design.

Further, the aircraft design has to consider the safety and durability of the aircraft given that it will be carrying several passengers and flight attendants at a time. The materials for building the aircraft should be safe to the users and environment. Besides being durable, they should also not have toxic compounds (Harrison, 2010). Most importantly, the design has to come up with a very elaborate state of the art emergency system. This a major part that should be given much attention. The emergency system should be able to enable safer landing in case of an emergency.

This section outlines the step by step approach that was used to put up the Boeing 787.  The initial design was carried out using a conventional design in order to allow for further modifications for the final design (Hawk, 2012). The final detailed design provides a clear view of how the aircraft is built clearly showing all the parts of the aircraft and how they are assembled.

To begin with, the aircraft is purposefully built for success. It is designed to mainly revolutionize the aviation industry. The Boeing 787 is built to carry a variation of 242 to 335 passengers in a typical 3-class seating configurations.

 Some of the basic features of a Boeing 787 include the following;

• Large cargo capacity
• A breakthrough passenger cabin
• Enhanced flight deck
• Advanced engines and nacelles
• Overhead crew rests
• Advanced wing design
• Composite primary structure
• Innovative systems technologies

In order to effectively facilitate proper air conditioning in the cabin, the aircraft has;

• Two air conditioning packs
• An air source that is provided by the cabin air compressors.
• Adjustable passenger count

It has the following engine and nacelle features.

• Interchangeable engine types at the pylon/ wing interface.
• Advanced coatings and materials.
• High-flow low speed fan
• Increased pressure ratio compressor
• Increased bypass ratio
• Architecture based on the No-engine-bleed systems

The Boeing has composite solutions applied all over it as shown in the figure below;

Safety and Durability of the Boeing 787

Figure : Composite application in the 787

The Boeing 787 has a broadband connectivity that links it with the ground. The broadband connectivity is connected to the cabin systems, the flight deck, onboard maintenance of health and the crew information system (Karimi, 2011).

The energy management system serves the purpose of generating, distributing and consuming energy in an efficient and effective way.

The Boeing 787 has an electric system that operates as shown below;

Figure : Electrical system of the 787

It has circuit breakers that operates electronically through controls that are display-based and that indicate the state of the breaker. The circuit breakers can also be accessed on the multi-function displays (MFDs) as well as maintenance access devices (King, 2010).

	787-8	787-9	787-10
Range nm 9(km)	7355nmi (13620km)	7635nmi (14140km)	6430nmi (11910km)
Length	57m(186ft)	63m(206ft)	68m(225ft)
Wingspan	60m(197ft)	60m(197ft)	60m(197ft)
Height	17m(56ft)	17m(56ft)	17m(56ft)
Engine	GEnx-1B/ Trent 1000	GEnx-1B/ Trent 1000	GEnx-1B/ Trent 1000

It has a cooling system that is based on power electronics as shown below;

Figure : The cooling system

It has 5000 psi systems that have common pumps.

Figure: Hydraulic system

It involves a leading edge as well as a trailing edge kinematic motion.

Figure : the high lift function system

It involves the following systems.

• Brake Control

Involves electric brake actuators, control by wire for brake, anti-skid functions and autobrake (Kotha et al, 2013).

• Steering Control
• Landing Gear Actuation

Has sensors that have dedicated proximity in order to monitor the door and gear position as well as for sequencing control.

It has alternate landing gear extension that are controlled electronically and are also released hydro-mechanically.

• Brake Temperature Monitoring System
• Tire Pressure Indication System

Figure : Landing gear system

The wings have 6 heater mats in each heated slat. They are enclosed with an aluminum cap that is very vital in protecting the leading edge surface. The heater mats are bonded to interior surface of the composite slat leading edge skin (Lu & Wang, 2010).

The final nose has 4 windows non-opening with fewer posts. The vision of the pilot is more enhanced. There are vipers that are vertically stowed and a windshield washer. Besides that, it also has a crew escape door.

The Boeing 787 flight deck is designed as follows;

Figure : The Boeing flight deck

The flight deck has large format displays with familiar Boeing controls and display formats.

For effective environmental control, the aircraft is designed as follows;

• A cabin air distribution located overhead it
• Both lower and upper recirculation
• Electric air conditioning
• A maximum cabin altitude of 6000 foot
• An integrated galley refrigeration
• An optional air conditioning for forward cargo
• Electric heating for the door and floor areas
• A basic personal air outlet system
• An optional system for flight deck humidification

Figure : Features of the fly-by-wire controls system

Fuel economy relates to the ratio of distance covered by the plane to the amount of fuels it consumes.

It is given by

The aircraft is designed from strong lightweight components. The main idea behind the lightweight components is to use the composite materials, which makes up to 50% of the materials used. The materials allow for a much lighter system that is also simple. This will help reduce the weight-based maintenance and the fuel consumption materials. The aircraft also boasts of a groundbreaking use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP).

The cabin of the aircraft is pressurized to a new maximum level of 6000 feet. This indicates a reduction of up to 2000 feet as compared to other aircrafts. This means the travelers will experience reduced fatigue levels and headaches.

Step-by-Step Approach for Building the Boeing 787

The overhead cabins are much larger. The cabins are designed to fit up to 4 regulation size hand baggage for each cabin, that is it can accommodate a size of 10in*12in*24in / 25cm*30cm*61cm.

These are processes that are carried out during the conceptual design stage of system building life cycle (Miller, 2014). To carry out tests and evaluation, a number of individuals are looked into separately and then the whole system also looked into as an integrated entity. In order to make a validation, a number of procedures and processes are looked into to determine whether how the system has been configured meets the customers’ wants.

The aircraft provides improved aerodynamic features. The features were validated by carrying out detailed and extensive wind tunnel test program that are performed at both high and low Reynolds number of facilities (Norris et al, 2010).

The Boeing 787 is able to connect more than 450 new city pairs very efficiently. The figure below shows the new possible root pairs that will reap from the emergence of the Boeing 787.

The aircraft has 85 dB noise contours at Heathrow that makes impressively quiet for the airport communities.

The aircraft offers a state of the art 3-D aerodynamic tools which offer the following-

• Improved performance and mechanically simplified high system of lift that results to increased reliability and lower cost of maintenance (Pritchard & MacPherson, 2015).
• Improved transonic design of wing that enhance the speed and lift
• The packaging of systems are tightly integrated in order to lower the size of aerodynamic fairings that lead to reduced drag and weight.

Figure; Aerodynamics system

• The aircraft offers increased availability of fuel quantity.
• It has a scavenge system of center tank fuel that is highly capable.
• There is improved correction of lateral balance without necessarily having to close the fuel pumps (Ramsey, 2012).

Conclusion

The paper presents a detailed analysis of both the preliminary design phase and the detailed design phase of the Boeing 787 aircraft. The detailed design presents a step by step information on how the major parts of the aircraft are designed in order to meet the desired objectives of the aircraft. A further system test is carried out in order to find out whether the aircraft meets the desired levels in terms of safety as well as the set standards (Tang, Zimmerman & Nelson, 2011). Once the system test has been carried out on the aircraft, it is then evaluated in a bid to ensure that the how the aircraft has been configured meets the specifications by the customers. The sole purpose of making further developments in any given field is to ensure that the customers’ requirements and needs are fully satisfied. An optimization process is further carried out in order to determine whether the stakeholders involved in the aircraft development are able to fully reap from it. As discussed above, the Boeing 787 has greatly revolutionized the aviation industry as it takes care of basically all the customers’ needs (Toensmeier, 2013).

References

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