In this study, an efficient methodology capable of systematically constructing an aircraft design database is developed and its application is discussed. The database focuses on fighter and attack aircraft because their design is a particular challenge compared with the design of other types of aircraft. For small conventional aircraft, historical information accumulated over many years on countless previous designs is freely available to designers. Such data for fighter aircraft design are, however, difficult to obtain or are insufficient. The database developed can contribute to the design of fighter and attack aircraft on a conceptual level. In addition, decision-making models are developed by means of data mining as well as approximation models based on the developed database to facilitate initial aircraft configuration decisions. The efficiency and simplicity of the proposed method are described in a case study, which also describes a sample process of conceptual design optimization using initial design information extracted from the developed database.