A Theoretical Foundation, Methodology, and Framework for Aircraft Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

This work documents the development, theory, methodology, and goals of an aircraft life cycle family of models for aviation sustainability assessment. This family of models estimates sustainability outcomes from the inputs and outputs of an aircraft program throughout its life cycle. The stages of an aircraft program considered are design, manufacturing, operations, maintenance, and end of life. Unlike existing tools, this framework integrates quantitative engineering models with qualitative sustainability knowledge across five interconnected domains: engineering, policy, economics, society, and environment. The framework employs a life cycle model that covers design, manufacturing, operations, MRO, and end of life, with iterative feedback loops to capture emergent sustainability effects such as the economic rebound phenomena (Jevons Paradox). A qualitative case study using the Boeing 737-200 demonstrates the framework's abilities to to capture sustainability metrics and reveal how aircraft can produce vastly different sustainability outcomes due to differences in operation. This paper closes with a discussion of challenges within sustainability integration to aircraft design.