An Approach to the Life-Cycle Analysis of Aircraft Turbine Engines

A paper prepared for the AGARD/NATO Lecture Series, "The Application of Design to Cost and Life-Cycle Cost to Aircraft Engines," scheduled for May 1980. A methodology is described for life-cycle analysis of aircraft turbine engines from historical data. The methodology enables the weapon-system planner to acquire early visibility of cost magnitudes, proportions, and trends associated with a new military engine's life cycle, and to identify "drivers" that increase cost and can lower capability. The methodology is applied at the engine subsystem and aircraft system levels for a military fighter aircraft to demonstrate that decisions about engine performance/schedule/cost must be made at the system level. Commercial considerations are discussed, as is limited historical experience in engine monitoring, an approach to obtaining the necessary information, and procedures for performance and cost feedback to the engine designer. This Note presents portions of previously published RAND work on life-cycle analysis of aircraft turbine engines and engine monitoring systems, together with some recent unpublished work applying the earlier efforts at the aircraft system level.