NASA awards Virginia Tech $5.8m to embed certification in aircraft design

NASA has awarded Virginia Tech and its partners $5.8 million for a three-year research project that aims to build certification and safety requirements into aircraft design from the start. The work is funded through NASA's University Leadership Initiative and involves Auburn University and Tuskegee University alongside Virginia Tech.

The goal is to cut the costly redesigns that can arise late in a development programme, when meeting certification demands becomes harder to accommodate.

The project targets emerging configurations such as hybrid-electric and distributed-electric-propulsion aircraft. These designs offer the prospect of lower fuel burn, emissions, noise and operating costs, according to the source, but they remain difficult to certify. Researchers said limited historical data and regulations that are still developing make it hard to handle uncertainty at an early stage.

Darshan Sarojini, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech who leads the project, said managing uncertainty early in design is one of the biggest challenges. Components become more expensive and slower to change as development moves forward, he said.

The team plans to combine three computational methods that are normally kept in separate workflows: model-based systems engineering, multidisciplinary design optimization and uncertainty quantification. These would be brought together in a single design method, paired with experimental work.