Những mô tả ở trên chỉ ra rằng có rất nhiều công việc và nỗ lực được tác dụng trước khi nó có thể bắt đầu đặt ra của hình dạng máy bay. Mỗi dự án đều là khác nhau vì vậy nó là không thể để sản xuất một mẫu để sử dụng cho quá trình thiết kế. Các yếu tố phổ biến chỉ là rằng nếu bạn bắt đầu thiết kế mà không có một kiến thức đầy đủ của vấn đề thì bạn sẽ, lúc tốt nhất, . | Preliminary design 11 Summary The descriptions above indicate that there is a lot of work and effort to be exerted before it is possible to begin the laying-out of the aircraft shape. Each project is different so it is impossible to produce a template to use for the design process. The only common factor is that if you start the design without a full knowledge of the problem then you will at best be wasting your time but possibly also making a fool of yourself. Use the comments and questions above to gain a complete understanding of the problem. Write out a full description of the problem in a report to guide you in your subsequent work. An excellent way for design teams to begin this process of understanding the design problem is the use of the process known as brainstorming . This is discussed in more detail in section . Brainstorming is essentially a process in which all members of a team are able to bring all their ideas about the project to the table with the assurance that their ideas no matter how far-fetched they may at first appear are considered by the team. Without such an open mind a team rarely is able to gain a complete understanding of the problem. Information retrieval Later stages of the design process will benefit from knowledge of existing work published in the area of the project. Searching for such information will involve three tasks 1. Finding data on existing and competitive aircraft. 2. Finding technical reports and articles relating to the project area and any advanced technologies to be incorporated. 3. Gathering operational experience. Existing and competitive aircraft The first of these searches is relatively straightforward to accomplish. There are several books and published surveys of aircraft that can be easily referenced. The first task is to compile a list of all the aircraft that are associated with the operational area. For example if we are asked to design a new military trainer we would find out what .
