A Roadmap for Twin-Fuselage Aircraft Conceptual Design

Unconventional aircraft configurations show significant potential to reduce aviation’s environmental footprint. Computerized conceptual design environments enable the design of unconventional aircraft concepts and the comparison of their performance and environmental impact against conventional Tube-And-Wing aircraft and other competing unconventional layouts. However, no environment has yet been specifically developed to support the Twin-Fuselage configuration. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing the advantages of the Twin-Fuselage configuration, identifying a potentially relevant design space, and compiling the existing conceptual-level design methods applicable to this layout. Building on these results, a roadmap for the conception of computerized conceptual design environments supporting Twin-Fuselage aircraft is presented. A structured environment architecture is proposed considering current trends and limitations of state-of-the-art environments supporting other unconventional configurations. The proposed modules for each discipline are also outlined. Finally, the main research gaps in Twin-Fuselage aircraft conceptual design are identified, highlighting and prioritizing the developments needed to enable a fully operational Twin-Fuselage-supporting computerized conceptual design environment.