The design synthesis exercise forms the closing piece of the third year of the Bachelor degree course at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft. Before the students progress to first year of their 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 approximately 10 people, for a period of approximately 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 the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, but also the external experts and industry, 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 2004, based on summaries of each of the projects. This year two international teams took part in the exercise. One group was formed together with the School of Aeronautical Engineering of Queen's University Belfast and another group was formed together with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.