The design synthesis exercise forms the closing piece of the third year of the Delft Aerospace Bachelor degree course. Before the students progress to first year of the Master degree course, in which they join one of the Faculty's disciplinary groups in preparation for their second year MSc thesis project, they learn to apply their acquired knowledge from all aerospace disciplines in the design synthesis exercise. The object of this exercise is to improve the students' design skills while working in teams with their fellow students, to apply knowledge acquired in the first years of the course, to improve communication skills and to work methodically according to a plan.
In the design synthesis exercise, students work in groups of 10 people, for a period of 10 weeks on the design of a (part of an) aircraft or spacecraft.
Despite the fact that the final designs result from a design process executed by small groups of students with limited experience, it may be concluded that the designs are of good quality. Not only the scientific staff of Delft Aerospace, but also the external experts and companies, which have supported the design projects have expressed their appreciation of the results.
This book presents an overview of the results of the Design Synthesis Exercise 2003, based on summaries of each of the fifteen projects. This year for the first time an international team took part in the exercise. Six students from the School of Aeronautical Engineering of Queen's University Belfast joined with six students from Delft via a distance learning project.
The Design Synthesis Exercise Co-ordination Committee, responsible for the organization and execution of the exercise, has produced this book with the aim to present an overview of the diverse nature of the various design topics, and of the aerospace engineering course itself. In addition, the book is intended as an incentive for further improvements to the exercise.