Abstract: Because of varied disciplines and complex processes in airplane design,this paper presents an awareness model to achieve cooperative awareness in airplane cooperative design.To conform to the awareness information involved in airplane cooperative design and its hierarchy,the model is attached with engineering contexts,such as design resource allocation,product structure,design mission in work flow and design intention.The concept of design resource space is introduced,in which the conflict of some physical quantity among varied disciplines is demonstrated.Then the representation modes and data format for transmitting are designed for various depth of awareness requirements.And then,a prototype based on the CATIA software is developed to provide intuitive displaying of design objects with consistency and locally controlled viewpoint.At last,an example is used to show that the model satisfies cooperative awareness in airplane design and can boost airplane design with more smoothness and efficiency.