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How do aeronautical engineers study aircraft and design new ones?

As the use of the scientific method became increasingly important, it also became clear to aircraft designers that testing their hypotheses with human subjects was too risky. Wind tunnels were the first tool of aeronautics to be developed. In the very early 1900s designers built models of their aircraft and placed them in tunnels through which air could be blown to simulate flight. While wind tunnels did provide valuable information and were certainly safer than human flight, there were many questions that were left unsolved simply because the interactions of all the forces on an aircraft were too complex for the analysis methods of the day.

The advent of the computer changed everything. Now massive quantities of data could be gathered from wind tunnel tests and analyzed quickly and efficiently using the computer. In addition, new tools were developed.

Next came flight simulators which enabled a pilot to fly without ever leaving the ground. Flight simulator cockpits were designed to be exact duplicates of real aircraft cockpits. Motion systems were added and have evolved to the point where it is very hard to tell the difference between an airplane ride and a simulator ride.

As computers became more sophisticated, they became able to handle vast amounts of data. Aeronautical researchers began simulating airflow in a computer. Computational Fluid Dynamics was born. As advances in computer graphics have been made, it is now possible to sit at a desk and watch a computer-generated airplane fly - complete with the ability to visualize airflow and pressures as well as fly the airplane from takeoff to landing.

However, even with our increased ability to use computers, simulators and wind tunnels, the final and most definitive test of an aircraft is whether or not a pilot can fly it. Flight test, in which a human climbs into the cockpit and flies the aircraft, was originally the first tool of aeronautics but now remains the final and most important test that an aircraft must undergo. Vast improvements have been made in the safety of flight test and the ability of ground engineers and pilots to predict and avoid hazardous situations. All the tests using the other tools of aeronautics result in an aircraft being far more flight-worthy by the time it reaches flight test than it has in the past.

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