Multi-agent-based conception of modern aircraft design

An airplane design is undoubtedly an extremely complex technical problem. The complexity of the problem is hundred times over a complexity of e.g. T.V. and a car design. Manufacturers have to consider many different customers ́ requirements. Practically it means that every piece of manufactured aircraft has specific and different requirements. In an aircraft design the changes usually involve substitution, not just omission of a simple part. Manufacturers try to adopt a certain level of standardization to cope the complexity problem. However, an aircraft design process is still exhausting and extremely complex process that involves many designers working together on one aircraft design. Recently there exist numbers of collaborative tools to support aircraft design. The designing process afford knowledge, both formalized (standards, rules, etc.) and un-formalized (experiences). That is why many collaborative design tools contain also some kind of knowledge management. The problem is what kind of knowledge can be and how to formalize knowledge obtained and required in the process of an aircraft design.