Military Aircraft Development Cost Control Problem

Chinese military aircraft design and construction have for a long time suffered from the influences of the planned economy, design and production are separated. Although design does consider the aircraft construction costs and the composition of its overall life time costs, however, if you don' t manage both the aircraft construction costs and its life time costs as design objectives it will result in high costs. In fact an aircraft' s costs are intrinsic and are determined during design. This paper through linking research of value engineering and management study principles with aircraft design and construction science, brings together my years of aircraft design and construction experience. This paper advances the necessity for aircraft research institutes to be reformed and raises two ways for such reformations, so that the current situation of separated design and production can be improved. It also put forward that, in addition to the reformations mentioned above, the management mode in aircraft research institute should be recreated, especially for that of military aircraft cost, which should be managed and controlled by taking it into account as a key factor for design. This paper discusses the ways and methods to reduce the cost to design an aircraft (centering on structure design). Based on the research and application of this subject, it is possible to decrease the cost for military aircraft development in a valuable engineering way, and it is possible to raise up steadily the cost-effectiveness in military aircraft research institutes and the manufacturers.