![]() Technology limitations are hampering widespread adoption of predictive maintenance, such as problems with older information systems and a lack of digitized maintenance manuals.Īn artist’s rendering shows the potential LMXT tanker refueling a Next Generation Air Dominance fighter. “And so being able to make decisions that you couldn’t normally make before, because you didn’t have that amount of information this early in the process, really is a game changer,” continued White, who oversees the NGAD program.īy having a single digital trail following an aircraft through its entire life cycle, officials argue, it will be easier to carry out techniques such as predictive maintenance, which helps track exactly how long parts have been on a plane and leads to their replacement before they are likely to fail.Ĭertainly, the concept can work, but the Government Accountability Office found in a December 2022 report that the military hasn’t taken full advantage of it. ![]() We all know the majority of the funding is spent on the sustainment tail.” If you just look at digital through the lens of design and development and test, you’re going to limit yourself. Dale White, the Air Force’s program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft. “We’re playing the long game,” said Brig. In a June whitepaper, Air Force Materiel Command said digital materiel management aims to dramatically accelerate and streamline the processes of designing, creating and sustaining aircraft or other systems by using digital methods throughout their life cycles, from the initial idea to retirement. 1 in Ohio, officials described how the service is trying to expand its approach to digital engineering by spreading the benefits throughout the entire life span of an aircraft - in a concept it calls digital materiel management. In roundtables with reporters at the Air Force’s Life Cycle Industry Days, held July 31-Aug. Penney said blame for the T-7′s problems, like those with its ejection seat system, can’t be laid at the feet of digital engineering - but notably, digital modeling failed to catch the T-7′s issues in advance. You still have to get the engineering right.” “What our experience with the eT-7 has been is that digital engineering is just a tool. Now, Penney said, digital engineering can include everything from 3D models of individual aircraft parts - fuel pumps, hydraulic lines, electrical system bundles and more - to models of how an aircraft’s various systems interact with one another or the aircraft as a whole.įor “the eT-7, digital engineering was going to make this airplane go fast, the design was going to go fast, it was going to knit everybody together, it was going to be a bumpless design process,” Penney said. The concept evolved as processing, algorithms, modeling and simulation improved, she explained. Computer-aided design helped shape many aircraft in use today, including the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, F-22 Raptor jet and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. … They don’t replace testing entirely.” ‘Not a magic wand’ĭigital engineering has been around in one form or another since the 1970s, said Heather Penney, a senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. ![]() “More integrated digital designs, better modeling all help, but they’re not revolutionary. “It is a significant improvement, but it has been overhyped,” Kendall told reporters. In a May breakfast, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall made clear the extent to which digital engineering had lost its luster in the wake of the T-7′s troubles. Since then, a series of missteps and delays have pushed back key milestones on the T-7 - and caused a bit of the shine to rub off from its much-heralded digital design approach. The service was so bullish on the potential benefits of a future built on digital aircraft engineering that in 2020 it made a short-lived attempt to rebrand the trainer the “eT-7,” and also dub future aircraft designed in this way with an “e” prefix. ![]() ![]() During the service’s last major new jet acquisition, the T-7A Red Hawk trainer, the Air Force and manufacturer Boeing promised the program would lead to a fresh way of designing and building future aircraft. This isn’t the first time the Air Force looked to a digital design revolution to usher in a new generation of aircraft. And with digital engineering expected to play a central role in the NGAD effort, experts say the service will have to ensure the technique lives up to its promise. The concept allows engineers to create designs or models to test assumptions more quickly and accurately. But in recent years, the advanced digital engineering techniques the Air Force once thought would lead to a revolution in rapid aircraft development and fielding have not always panned out. ![]()
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