Aircraft Variable Configuration Item Design Evolution Based on Maturity Fuzzy Evaluation

It is difficult to consider all corresponding factors during the design cycle of aircraft. There is no effective way to control the design of evolutionary process at present. In this paper, the maturity idea and gate control are used to manage the evolution of variable configuration item (VCI) design which is the basic unit of aircraft. Index system of aircraft VCI design maturity evaluation is established. Mathematical models and evaluation algorithm of comprehensive evaluation of VCI design maturity are studied. 32 key evaluation factors are used to calculate 5 maturity gates which control the evolution of VCI design. The method is used to evaluate dynamically the evolution of VCI design in the development of some helicopter co-designed Chinese Helicopter Research & Development Institute and her partners. Compared with the traditional design pattern of flight control system, the frequency of demotion from high level to low level is decreased from 46% to 28% and the average number of part version is reduced from 2.3 to 1.4.