Aerospace design is a complex task requiring access to large amounts
of specialized information. Consequently, intelligent systems that
support and amplify the abilities of human designers by capturing and
presenting relevant information can profoundly affect the speed and
reliability of design generation. This article describes research on
supporting aerospace design by integrating a case-based design support
framework with interactive tools for capturing expert design knowledge
through "concept mapping." In the integrated system, interactive
concept mapping tools provide crucial functions for generating and
examining design cases and navigating their hierarchical structure,
while CBR techniques facilitate retrieval and aid interactive
adaptation of designs. Our goal is both to provide a useful design aid
and to develop general interactive techniques to facilitate case
acquisition and adaptation. Experiments illuminate the performance of
the system's context-sensitive retrieval during interactive case
adaptation and the conditions under which it provides the most
benefit.