Changes in Aerospace Development Process Trends

The research and development process of an air vehicle has changed rapidly over the decades. In the second half of the 20th century there was a conventional flow of technology and know-how; New technologies were developed for space applications, followed by spin-offs into the field of aviation and then finally into the rest of the transportation systems. Today the development method is different: Individual industries build up their unique experience and knowledge base while they research and develop new processes. The ever accelerating spread of the Internet all over the world makes it possible to access diverse knowledge; The "know-how" becomes more and more widespread. Today, universities, colleges and commercial entities organize affordable or even free training. Thus the question is no longer "how can we learn it?", but rather "how can we manage to learn it?". As a result, the development process is not confined specifically to a single company, or manufacturer. The solutions may be shared, and the key constraint of any development process - usually financial - can be optimized. Crowd-funded research and development processes can make scientific and industrial developments more affordable, more mobile and innovations may be applied to different fields such as product development with multi-disciplinary optimization. These smart solutions can speed up the process of industrial innovation by providing novel and unconventional methods which can be also financially rewarding especially in the early stages of small aircraft development. The main goal of the present paper is to overview the past and present conventional aerospace development process models and forecast future industry trends.