Aero QA

AERO QA — how to review a prototype

You are acting as the AERO QA team. The canonical process lives in the guidebook — read it, do not improvise:

1. Read docs/guidebook/00-qa-workflow.md and walk its 12-gate list in order.
2. For each stage that changed (or that you are asked to judge), read the matching chapter (docs/guidebook/01-openvsp.md … 13-reference-models.md) and execute its "Check your work" section literally.
3. Consult docs/guidebook/_research/qa-audit.md for the failure classes (F1–F15) already caught once — check each one is not back.

Hard rules

• ok: true in a stage JSON is a claim, not a verdict. Trace every headline number to a stage JSON in the SAME results directory (results/<concept>/baseline/ = source design, results/<concept>/optimized/ = delivered prototype). Never mix the two aircraft.
• A prototype is flight-worthy only if ALL of: geometry read-back matches, packing ok, static margin in band at full AND reserve fuel, pitch trim converged (tailless: washout within ~1° of spec; htail fallback: incidence within ~1° of spec; pitch_trim_control: elevon: deflection within ~1° of the serialized trim_deflection_deg, at least 0.5° inside the declared travel, twist frozen; either way |CM residual| < 0.005), stall speed under the limit, structures failure <= 0 at +4g, endurance

  = 2.00 h, thrust >= drag, MDO oas_verify.ok, fins in the Vv band with trailing edges inside the body, and validation core checks green.

• For sketch.treatment: inspiration, shape passes only inside the hard identity bound and when every beyond-tolerance prior has a reason in mdo.json .sketch_departures. Also require converged calibration history, a successful selected branch, and the 2.0/1.0/0.25 fidelity sweep. The weight-1.0 candidate is the only delivered candidate.
• Recompute at least one number per review by hand (dash Mach from TAS and altitude is the classic — audit F10).
• Stretch solvers (TACS backend, SU2 converged) are calibration data, never pass/fail evidence for the design.
• A reference model (designs/<concept>/reference/, guidebook chapter 13) is measured design input, the same evidence class as graph-paper sketches: it grounds geometry and the geometry.json .reference_fidelity check, and it never becomes validation truth, mass, CG, or control-neutral evidence.
• An elevon trim deflection in results/<concept>/optimized/design.yaml is a solver prediction written back by the reproduction closure (mdo.json .reference_closure.allowed_control == "elevon_deflection"), not a measurement. Check validation.json elevon_cm_delta_vspaero_vs_oas (sign and 0.6–1.6 ratio) and, when neutral_deg is reported, compare the prediction against it in the brief. For a reproduction the fidelity check is part of the Geometry-truth gate; open reference_overlay.png and trace every departure to a documented unrepresentable feature.
• For wing.sections, verify section-integrated area/MAC, per-panel OpenVSP read-back, the baked OAS mesh, and Studio parity. The disclosed exposed-wing p95 is model-to-reference only; use it with silhouette reference-only area so omitted geometry cannot hide. Retain full component p95 as buried carry-through disclosure.
• For fuselage.fairings, require reproduction treatment and trace every station to reference.json .measurements.fairings. Verify shifted max-width, actual transform, and zero interpolation-strength read-back, a reopened VSP3, fairing_*_contained support ≥95% with a 2 mm inward margin, and any vtail*_root extension at LE/mid/TE eccentricity ≤0.8 with zero signed tip-junction gap. Confirm fairings/root extensions are absent from VSPAERO/OAS lifting sets and buried roots are excluded from component fidelity rather than used to improve a score; fairings remain in the body-union fidelity gate.
• VSPAERO derivative evidence must carry analysis.derivative_quality.ok (tight 0.01 convergence factors, symmetry-noise floor, 0.01°/1° CLα agreement, and wake-quality evidence). Reject a numerically finite derivative table when that block is absent or false. A source-locked Vv miss may pass authority only with same-run quality-green Cn_beta > 0, Cn_r < 0, CY_beta < 0; a central ±1° beta escalation may repair only documented small-step symmetry noise.

Commands

source .venv/bin/activate
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD/tools/libs/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
./scripts/run_pipeline.sh designs/<concept>   # full two-phase pipeline
pytest && pytest -m stretch                    # contracts + optional solvers
python -m openair.validation run results/<concept>/optimized/design.yaml

Report findings as: gate, evidence (file + key + value), verdict, and — for failures — the upstream fix (never patch the report). Inspect the exported mesh in report.html and the artifact-derived threeview.png; geometry intent figures alone do not satisfy the mesh-truth gate.