Although civil aircraft environmental performance has been important since the beginnings of commercial aviation, continuously increasing air traffic and a rise in public awareness have made aircraft noise and emissions two of the most pressing issues hampering commercial aviation growth today. This, in turn, has created the demand for an understanding of the impact of noise and emissions requirements on the design of the aircraft. In response, the purpose of this research is to explore the feasibility of integrating noise and emissions as optimization objectives at the aircraft conceptual design stage, thereby allowing a quantitative analysis of the tradeoffs between environmental performance and operating cost. A preliminary design tool that uses a multiobjective genetic algorithm to determine optimal aircraft configurations and to estimate the sensitivities between the conflicting objectives of low noise, low emissions, and operating costs was developed. Beyond evaluating the ability of a design to meet regulations and establishing environmental performance trades, the multidisciplinary design tool allows the generation of conventional but extremely low-noise and low-emissions designs that could, in the future, dramatically decrease the environmental impact of commercial aviation, albeit at the expense of increased operating cost. The tool incorporates ANOPP, a noise prediction code developed at NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Glenn Research Center's Engine Performance Program engine simulator, and aircraft design, analysis, and optimization modules developed at Stanford University. The trend that emerges from this research among the seemingly conflicting objectives of noise, fuel consumption, and NO x emissions is the opportunity for significant reductions in environmental impact by designing the aircraft to fly slower and at lower altitude.

The objective of this research is to investigate the trade-off between operating cost and environmental acceptability of commercial aircraft. This involves optimizing the aircraft design and mission to minimize operating cost while constraining exterior noise and emissions. Growth in air traffic and airport neighboring communities has resulted in increased pressure to severely penalize airlines that do not meet strict local noise and emissions requirements. As a result, environmental concerns have become potent driving forces in commercial aviation. Traditionally, aircraft have been first designed to meet performance and cost goals, and adjusted to satisfy the environmental requirements at given airports. The focus of the present study is to determine the feasibility of including noise and emissions constraints in the early design of the aircraft and mission. This paper introduces the design tool and results from a case study involving a 250-passenger airliner.

The objective of this research is to investigate the trade-off between operating cost and environmental acceptability of commercial aircraft. This involves optimizing the aircraft design and mission to minimize operating cost while constraining exterior noise and emissions. Growth in air traffic and airport neighboring communities has resulted in increased pressure to severely penalize airlines that do not meet strict local noise and emissions requirements. As a result, environmental concerns have become potent driving forces in commercial aviation. Traditionally, aircraft have been first designed to meet performance and cost goals, and adjusted to satisfy the environmental requirements at given airports. The focus of the present study is to determine the feasibility of including noise and emissions constraints in the early design of the aircraft and mission. This paper introduces the design tool and results from a case study involving a 250-passenger airliner.

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