A well-educated aeronautical engineer needs a good program and sound training in aircraft design education, which is highly dependent on the study of gasdynamics-related courses. A curriculum reform of gasdynamics-related courses for aircraft design education is proposed in this study. The course contents are described, and the concepts and teaching process are suggested and implemented on these courses. Engineering concepts of system and integration are emphasized, creative and innovative ideas are stressed, and the analytical methods and computation skills to solve practical problems are encouraged. Finally a national competition on Aircraft Design is suggested. It is expected that, this curriculum reform on gasdynamics- related courses would produce a better aeronautical engineer to work in this high technology world.

The main objective of engineering education is to educate the students, utilizing the past experience and new science and technology, to design a real thing which can improve the welfare of mankind. There are many subjects on engineering education. Every engineering program must have its own design training as the terminal educational goal. Take the curriculum of aeronautical engineering education as an example, the terminal or check point for the aeronautical engineering students is naturally the Aircraft Design course, because of its multi-disciplinary nature, synthesis of major subjects and integration of engineering applications.

The development of engineering education must keep in pace with the blooming society and its culture, especially to face the challenge of the 21st Century. It is well known that, in the past decades, engineering education made two great impacts: one is the coming of the space age in 1957, and the other is the great progress of computer technology and communication science in the 1980's. Accordingly, there had been two engineering education reform activities, one in the 1960's and the other in the 1980's, to train college students with creative and analytical thinking, computer skills utilization, and engineering concepts of system and integration. These two education reforms directed the engineering students away from an emphasis on empirically-based engineering judgment and creativity, but stressed on more theoretically-focused analytical methods and solutions. But due to the impact of new technology, the knowledge and design skills of college graduates nowadays fail to meet the needs of the industrial world. As pointed out by Ladesic and Hazen [1]⁽¹⁾ in 1995 that, due to over emphasis on theoretical models and analytical methods, the creative concepts of solving real world problems for industrial needs become severely handicapped. This viewpoint was also pointed out by Nicolai [2] and proposed that universities in the United States must stop turning out graduates who make great scientists but mediocre engineers.

Encountering the high technology and competitive industrial world, and facing the challenging 21st Century, the current engineering education program should be re-evaluated and reformed effectively to meet the real industrial world.

The airplane is a flying vehicle which is strongly interacting with the surrounding air flow. The ultimate objective of aeronautical engineering education is to train students to be able to evaluate and design well-performed airplanes, and to work on other related engineering problems. Therefore, the aircraft design course is the central theme and the terminal subject of a sound aeronautical engineering program. Designing an aircraft requires the knowledge of aerodynamics, flight mechanics, materials and aircraft structures, and propulsion systems. Hence, aircraft design covers at least four major subject areas, which are mutually related and interacting under the engineering system concept and trade-off studies. Among these four subjects, aerodynamics is the most fundamental to aircraft design.

To face the impact of new technology and challenges of the 21st Century, a special report was published in the April 1992 issue of AEROSPACE AMERICA journal to discuss the crisis of aerospace engineering education and the necessity of curriculum reform in the United States. Its recommendations are summarized as follows.

1. Setting a curriculum broad enough to meet industry's needs poses challenges [3].
2. Design must pervade the engineering curriculum if graduates are to understand the vehicle as an integrated system [4].
3. Schools must stop turning out graduates who make great scientists, but mediocre engineers [2].
4. Most curricula are under constant review as demands for additional material, more flexibility and mastery of fundamentals increase [5].

Therefore, the current aeronautical engineering curriculum needs to be re-examined and reformed into a more balanced program to bridge the gap between industry and academe. How to produce a well-trained aeronautical engineer, who is able to meet the current industrial needs, is widely discussed in many Countries and in international conferences on education reform nowadays. Based on the past experiences and the future demands to work in the high technology world, an aeronautical engineering education reform should focus on the following aspects.

1. A curriculum should be broad enough to cover science, mathematics and modern aeronautical engineering subjects, and the courseware should be arranged in proper sequence to make the learning easy and smooth.
2. The course material should keep in pace with the current progress in science and technology.
3. Fresh pedagogical approaches on course instruction, such as incorporating with experiments, educational videotapes and films in lectures, and computer-aided-instruction (CAI) are encouraged.
4. A project assignment on both analysis and design in each course study is necessary, and the skills of utilization existing computer software system and communication on the information highway are very important for cultivating a modern engineer.
5. The assessment and improvement of the academic training can be judged through the showcase of courseware materials, student's homeworks and project reports, and joint research projects as well as the exchange of professors and students between institutions.

A qualified aeronautical engineering graduate should be well trained to acquire the knowledge of designing a high-performance aircraft, and the methods and techniques related to the design process. In response to the unique feature of educational objectives of each individual university, such as the required number of credits for graduation, and the specific educational programs to meet the government's industrial policies, a good program of aircraft design education for aeronautical engineering students should receive good training in the subject of aerodynamics, or more precisely, the gasdynamics-related courses, i.e., Fluid Mechanics, Aerodynamics, Gasdynamics and Aircraft Design.

In the last decade, Taiwan has achieved one of the highest economic growth in the world. As a result, the industry in Taiwan has transformed from labor-intensive mode to technology-intensive mode. Since the demand for a large number of modern engineers to meet the needs of the high technology industry is growing, intensive discussions on the engineering education in Taiwan and the urges to reform the curriculum have emerged in recent years [6,7]. A reform of undergraduate gasdynamics-related curriculum to enhance Aircraft Design education has been attempted at the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University (IAA/NCKU) in Taiwan. This reform program covers four successive courses, namely, Fluid Mechanics, Aerodynamics, Gasdynamics and Aircraft Design. The goals and processes of this program are:

• Integration and continuity of subject materials, and emphasis on system engineering concept.
• The topic or theory learned in the previous course should be succeeded or applied in the next following courses.
• No overlapping of materials in classes or among courses.
• Design exercises and hands-on projects are assigned in each course, and some of these exercises and projects are designed to merge into their successive courses. That is, some of the hands-on projects and design practices are working successively toward an integrated problem.
• Numerical flaw simulations and aerodynamics computational results are compiled on floppy disc and used a as computer-aided-instruction (CAI) tool on student's personal computer (PC).
• Fluid mechanics experiments and wind tunnel testing are emphasized to help students understanding the principles and applications of fluid motion.
• Three categories of design projects on low-speed, high performance small aircraft, subsonic transport jets and supersonic fighters are given to senior students in the Aircraft Design course. Each design group or team is composed of 5 students, with a chosen group leader to hold the group meeting, chair the discussion, and to handle the trade-off studies.
• Before proceeding with the design study, each group needs to collect the current market information and mission drivers from existing reports or by retrieving from the information highway, such as the employment of new technology and new design methodogy, and finally decide upon the aircraft's mission specification and design requirements.
• Two stages or results should be achieved for current undergraduate aircraft design practice. The first stage is the selection of configuration and the design of a baseline aircraft, which is the same as the result obtained in classical conceptual or configuration design course . The second stage is to utilize an aircraft analysis software system with a large data bank of aerodynamic analysis, which enables fast iteration computation for optimization or tradeoff study. The cost analysis of the baseline aircraft obtained in the first stage is also performed. Finally a detailed three-view geometric features of the aircraft is produced. That is, designing a feasible system is emphasized.

IMPLEMENTATION OF GASDYNAMICS-RELATED CURRICULUM AT IAA/NCKU

Based on the goals and processes as outlined above, a reform program of undergraduate gasdynamics-related curriculum to enhance aircraft design education has been proposed by the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University (IAA/NCKU) in Taiwan. This program consists of Fluid Mechanics (3 units of semester hours in sophomore year), Aerodynamics (6 units of semester hours in junior year), Gasdynamics (3 units of semester hours in senior year) and Aircraft Design (6 units of semester hours in senior year). The main features of each course are listed below for references.

1. Fluid Mechanics (3 units of sem. hrs)
   Physics of the statics, kinematics and dynamics of fluid motion; theory and applications of inviscid, irrotational as well as viscous flow problems are introduced. Specific features of this course are the integration of fluid flow experiments and the numerical computations with the lectures to help students to better understand the principles and applications of fluid motions. The flow experiments are: flow visualization; Pitot-tube pressure measurement; forces and moments on airplane by wind tunnel testing. The numerical computations are the flow simulations of pathlines, streamlines and streaklines of fluid motion; source, sink and Rankine body; and flow past Karman axisymmetric body.
2. Aerodynamics I (3 units of sem. hrs)
   Topics include the atmosphere and its therrnodynamic properties; the geometric characteristics of airfoil, wing and airplane, and their interactions with flow; inviscid, incompressible flow and source panel method; low-speed airfoil theory; vortex panel method; Prandtl's monoplane wing theory; the vortex-lattice-method. The accompanying CAI (computer-aided-instruction) modules are flow past a two-dimensional body; flow past an airfoil; and lift distribution on a finite wing.
3. Aerodynamics II (3 units of sem. hrs)
   Introduction to compressible flow; waves, normal shocks and oblique shocks; Prandtl-Meyer flow; Subsonic airfoil theory; supersonic airfoil theory; transonic flow, dynamics of viscous flow; compressible boundary layer flow; hypersonic flow. The accompanying CAI modules are the solutions of one-dimensional isentropic flow; shock waves; and Prandtl-Meyer flow to help students in compressible flow analysis and numerical computation.
4. Gasdynamics (3 units of sem. hrs)
   Containing topics of dynamics of compressible flow; wave propagation and isentropic perfect gas flow; engineering applications of normal shocks, oblique shocks and Prandtl-Meyer expansion flows; compressible flow with friction; compressible flow with heat addition; method of characteristics; and compressible viscous flow theory. The accompanying CAI modules are the one-dimensional isentropic flow; Fanno line flow; Rayleigh line flow; and supersonic nozzle wall design.
5. Aircraft Design I (3 units of sem. hrs)
   Containing topics of introduction to aircraft design; performance analysis of aircraft and the flight envelope; mission specification and design regulations; take-off weight estimation; airfoil and wing selection; fuselage sizing; high-lift device; and take-off and landing analysis. The specific features of this study is to divide a class of about 60 students into 12 design groups or teams to work on three categories of aircraft design projects. The three categories are a low-speed, high performance small aircraft, a subsonic transport jet, and a supersonic fighter. Each design group may choose or be assigned to work on one design project, and proposes a mission specification for the design after a study of current needs and future trends. At the end of this semester each group should complete the takeoff weight estimation, airfoil and wing selection, and fuselage sizing as the basic data for the following detailed aerodynamic considerations. Data from digital DATCOM [8] or from some other available references, such as Jane's yearbook on aircrafts are vastly consulted .
6. Aircraft Design II (3 units of sem. hrs)
   Containing topics are an introduction to AAA (Advanced Aircraft Analysis) software system [9]; estimation of wing and body aerodynamic data; horizontal and vertical tail sizing; characteristics of aircraft engines and engine selection; static stability and control analysis; maneuvering and control surface sizing; iteration and optimization of specific aspects of the design; and the cost analysis. In this semester, a baseline aircraft is proposed and the AAA software is intensively used to help the design iteration and the optimization of any specific aspect of the aircraft. The educational goals of training students to work together as a team, to share ideas, to apply modern technology, and exposing students to the project design synthesis process are hopefully achieved.

A well-educated aeronautical engineer needs a good program and sound training in aircraft design education, in which the course work of aerodynamics, or gasdynamics-related courses should be examined first. In the study on reform of gasdynamics-related curriculum (which is consisting courses of Fluid Mechanics, Aerodynamics, Gasdynamics and Aircraft Design) for aircraft design education is proposed and implemented at IAA/NCKU in Taiwan. Each course contents are described, and the concepts and process of teaching are presented. From the final reports and presentations of aircraft design projects and the course evaluation reports by students, some valuable conclusions and suggestions resulted from the reform and implementation of gasdynamics-related curriculum for aircraft design education can be made as the following:

1. Due to proper courseware and lectures incorporating with the experiments and educational films or videotapes, students are interested in class work, doing well on their home work assignments, and clear of what they are learning in classes.
2. Some complicated flow simulations and aerodynamic computation results are collected in floppy disc and given to students as CAI tools for practicing, do impress and help students in their studies.
3. Students are freely to express their comments, asking questions and exchanging ideas. That is, they are trained to share their creative and innovative ideas, and easy to work with others.
4. Students are good at computer and communication techniques, and analytical methods of doing complicated engineering problems. This capability can be realized from the projects they completed.
5. AAA software is a very powerful computer system for aerodynamic analysis and aircraft design work. Each aeronautical engineering student at present time should be familiar with this system that may help him become a better aeronautical engineer in this high technology world.
6. Since aircraft design is a synthetic and an integration training of aeronautical engineering education, it is suggested that, to start the National Competition on Aircraft Design would certainly help students in their studies, stimulate the innovative ideas, learn the systematic engineering approach, and finally rest in the research and development of aeronautical science and technology.

This research was supported by the National Science Council, Republic of China, under Contract NSC 84-2512-S-006-003. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would also like to extend their sincerely thanks to Prof. F. M. Yu and Prof. D. L. Sheu for their participation in this study. Their comments, suggestions and teaching experiences on Fluid Mechanics and Aircraft Design are very much helpful to this research work.

1. Ladesic, James G. and Hazen, David C., "A course correction for engineering education", Aerospace America, AIAA, May 1995, pp. 22-27.

2. Nicolai, L. M., "Designing a better engineer", Aerospace America, AIAA, April 1995, pp. 30-33, 46.

3. Covert, Eugene E., "Engineering education in the '90s: back to basics", Aerospace America, AIAA, April 1995, pp. 20-23, 46.

4. Roskam, Jan, "Facing the crisis in aircraft design education", Aerospace America, AIAA, April 1995, pp. 24-27.

5. Yechout, Thomas R., "Degrees of expertise: A survey of aerospace engineering programs", Aerospace America, AIAA, April 1995, pp. 34-35, 42.

6. "Engineering education for the 21 st Century", Proceedings of 1994 International Conference on Engineering Education, May 25-27, 1994, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

7. "Impact of new technology on engineering education", Proceedings of 1995 International Conference on Engineering Education, May 18-20, 1995, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

8. Hoak D. E., Ellison, D. E., et al., "USAF Stability and Control Handbook (DATCOM)", 1968 edition, Flight Control Division, Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright Petterson Air Force Base, Ohio, U.S.A.

9. Roskam, Jan, "An Advanced Aircraft Analysis (AAA) Computer System Version 1.7", Feb. 1996. DAR corporation, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.

¹ Number in square brackets designates sequence in references.

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