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AGATE DESIGNTEAM STRUCTURE |
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The
VenTure’s design team faced the challenges of designing an aircraft
that would meet the goal of revitalizing the general aviation industry
while maximizing the aircraft's performance, comfort and appearance.
To accomplish this goal, students from AE, ISE, and ME worked closely together
within smaller sub-groups to make sure the final design exceeded general
aviation and AGATE requirements.
The team was divided into groups following the well-known concurrent engineering and integrated product team (IPT) approaches, where each IPT included one or more student(s) representing each discipline. Each IPT focused on a particular aspect of aircraft design: aerodynamics, ergonomics, hydrodynamics, structural mechanics, propulsion, and manufacturing. The progression through various design stages ensured that each IPT would meet the requirements for their specific discipline, while also making compromises in order to meet the design requirements of the other IPT's. For example, the cabin of the airplane ideally would be sized by ergonomic considerations to comfortably accommodate all possible sizes of pilots and passengers. However, the requirements of the structures, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics placed limits on the size of the cabin, creating a design that optimized both IPT's requirements. By using concurrent engineering and the IPT approach, each member of the design team provided support in different areas of the aircraft's design in addition to their particular discipline of expertise. The VenTure reflects compromises and efforts of each member of the team while producing a comfortable, high performance, and aesthetically pleasing general aviation aircraft. |