The environments in which an airliner operate
We can single out several environments in which a passenger airliner can operate: flight, support and maintenance, and landing (Kossiakoff et al, 2003, p 43). While being in flight environment, the airline has to interact mostly with air communicators: it receives information about weather conditions and air traffic and tells its current location. The main external interfaces are communication and navigation systems which enable flow of information between the plane and IRS beacons. Due to this necessity, system designer continuously works on the improvement of navigation systems.
The second environment is maintenance. At this stage, the maintenance experts need to assess the functions of different systems. They need to obtain quantitative and qualitative data about the performance of sub-systems. The main external interfaces are numerous information systems and software that enables the personnel to test the work of equipment. This system must allow the so-called built-in-tests. Support is the third environment of a passenger airliner. At this point, it is necessary to replenish the supplies of fuel and energy. Electrical system and fuel delivery system are the most important external interfaces.
The designer has to make them accessible and consistent with already-existing fuel stations and power grids. The fourth environment is landing. To some extent, this environment is similar to flight because at this stage the most important external interfaces are navigation and communication systems. The airliner has to interact with IRS beacons and flight command unit. It is of the crucial system that traffic controller can reach the pilot through communication devices installed at the plane. Thus, we have discussed major environment in which an airline can operate. This analysis shows that external interfaces are indispensable for reliable work of such system as an airplane.
The faults in the design
On the whole, one can think of different faults in the design of airplane which can put the lives of pilots and passengers at risk. For instance, inappropriate design of flight management system can eventually lead to air crash. In this cases, we can speak primarily about those software solutions which identify current location of an airplane and give this information to the pilot. Provided, this information is inaccurate, the pilot can make a fatal error while navigating or lending the aircraft. This software has to integrate every element of the plane. Lack of integration is the pitfall that an engineer has to avoid while designing this entire system.
Search and evaluation of different options in design engineering
Design engineers have to comply with different requirements that are related to the performance, reliability and cost of the product. As a rule, these people do not evaluate and consider different options as frequently as it is done by conceptual engineers. However, these people should remember that by sticking to only to one solution, they can overlook a great number of flaws in the design. Moreover, we should mention that assessment of different alternatives is quite possible in design engineering.
This practice is usually observed in such industries as electronic industry, and aerospace manufacturing. It has to be admitted that it is not always possible to propose various options in design engineering, especially in those cases when the component has to fit other parts of the system. Still, one should always search for alternatives, even if the available solution seems to be impeccable. The thing is that this approach allows pinpointing the flaws in design.
Reference List
Kossiakoff. A.Sweet. W & Biemer S. (2003) Systems engineering: principles and practice (1st ed) Wiley-IEEE.