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The catapult process of a carrier-based aircraft includes multiple links such as catapult tensioning, separation of the holding rod, dragging and running, separation of the catapult and drag shuttle, and free running. The connection relationships between the front landing gear of the carrier-based aircraft and other related components in each link are different, therefore, it is necessary to adjust the topological relationships of the dynamic model in real time, when solving the catapult dynamics of a carrier-based aircraft. In this paper, a dynamic model of the multibody system of the catapult take-off is established, and a variable topology solution is carried out for the dynamic model by adjusting dynamic augmentation equations; in addition, a dynamic analysis of a carrier-based aircraft catapult and take-off process is carried out. A catapult dynamics model and variable topology solution method were established, which solved the changes at the moment of the restraining rod separation, catapult rod separation, and catapult tackle during the aircraft catapult take-off. After the restraining rod was separated from the front landing gear, the catapult force was transmitted to the rear strut, which instantly increased the load of the rear strut by 238.5 kN. In addition, after the carrier-based aircraft reached the end of the catapult’s stroke, the catapult rod was separated from the catapult tow shuttle then unloaded, and the load of the rear strut was reduced from 486.2 kN to −20.3 kN. Under the protruding effect of the nose gear, the pitch angle of the carrier-based aircraft increased rapidly from −0.93° and reached 0.54° when the carrier-based aircraft rushed out of the deck.

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Carrier-based unmanned aerial aircraft (UAV) structure is subjected to severe tensile load during takeoff, especially the drawbar, which affects its fatigue performance and structural safety. However, the complex structural features pose great challenges for the engineering design. Considering this situation, a structural design, fatigue analysis, and parameters optimisation joint working platform are urgently needed to solve this problem. In this study, numerical analysis of strain fatigue is carried out based on the laboratory fatigue failure of the carrier-based aircraft drawbar. Taking the sensitivity of drawbar parameters to stress and life into account and optimum design of drawbar with fatigue life as a target using the parametric method, this study also includes cutting-edge parameters of milling cutters, structural details of the drawbar and so on. Then an experimental design is applied using the Latin hypercube sampling method, and a surrogate model based on RBF neural network is established. Lastly, a multi-island genetic algorithm is introduced for optimisation. The results show that the error between the obtained optimal solution and simulation is 0.26%, while the optimised stress level is reduced by 15.7%, and the life of the drawbar is increased by 122%.