As the Ukraine-Russia war continues, countries across the globe are looking to optimise their air force fleet. In this backdrop, the recent visits by US-based Boeing Company representatives to India and their meetings with Indian Air Force and Navy officials indicate keen interest by both sides to explore ways to optimise IAF & Navy fleets.

In an exclusive interaction with Financial Express Online on the sidelines of the ongoing DefExpo 2022, Torbjorn (Turbo) Sjogren, vice president, International Government and Defence, Boeing Global Services, says, “We have been talking for a while. We had a team over here in the beginning of this year in the first quarter.”

Boeing has been talking about digital and aerospace for a long time. One of the big developments that is in play already is how an aircraft is designed, how it is built, how it is supported, and how the people are trained.

What exactly is digital engineering?

“Number one, if you have designed and developed an aircraft with a strong digital background, meaning you have a digital twin of the aircraft, you are then able to assess as you go forward for that aircraft, as it evolves by tail number, not just for one type, but five tail numbers. You can assess that aircraft goes through different environments, as it goes through different missions, as it’s utilized in a different manner,” Turbo explains. 

He adds, “You can use that digital twin and do analytics and determine what it means for the aircraft. What that is in our vernacular is model base design engineering. The way we design and develop our aircraft. And we are doing that already on the defence side of the house – our T7 and the other one is down in Australia the MQ 28, they have called it the Ghost Bat.”

“So how we design and develop our products, we have a very significant digital framework for model-based design engineering. Now the way we build our aircraft is particularly interesting. But a big part of our production, our digital approach to production is full size determinant assembly. And again, you have probably heard about it on the T7.  A lot of what is being done is being done so quickly because the way the parts are produced that you are able to put those components together in a fraction of the time you did before,” he elaborates.

More about T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer

T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer and is among the US Air Force’s first aircraft, weapons, satellites and assets to be designed and built along a digital thread, embracing advanced manufacturing techniques to improve quality and enhance performance.

Using model-based engineering and 3D design tools, the T-7A represents an aircraft with a 75 percent increase in first-time quality, an 80 percent reduction in assembly hours and a process that cuts software development time in half. The aircraft moved from computer screen design to first flight in just 36 months.

Also Read: Breaking Barriers: Taking Manufacturing Digital

Is it more like a 3D?

“We will provide a package, a build to print package, but it is done in a manner with a degree of digital inputs to the producer that they can produce that part with tolerances that are considerably greater than they were ever before. That is going to revolutionize the production of aircraft. Right now, it’s revolutionizing how we produce our training aircraft as well as our Ghost Bat. We expect that it is going to continue to revolutionize how we build aircraft. And ultimately, we expect this is going to come on the commercial side,” he adds.

(3D printing is a manufacturing process where a 3D printer creates three-dimensional objects by depositing materials layer by layer in accordance with the object’s 3D digital model.  In digital engineering, it is a complete digitization of product development – from planning, through the creation of 3D models and digital prototyping, to testing of various scenarios before a physical prototype is built.)

Sustaining the aircraft

Turbo points out, “It is an evolution, the way we design, develop and then sustain the aircraft. Now come back to sustaining because you asked the question about why we call the mission accelerator. That is our vernacular we have been using. It’s the way we have described to our customers when they are having to operate on a mission, whether it’s a Chinook, Apache, P-8, C17. We are able to provide them a degree of insight into how to run the mission, how to optimize for whether it’s climate, for fuel, how to make sure that the condition of the aircraft predictive analytics, how to make sure that when that aircraft comes back they know exactly what to do so that you can increase the readiness of the aircraft.”

Because of the ongoing Ukraine Russia war, a lot of those countries that are around Ukraine want to make sure that the readiness of their fleets is really up in case there are issues that they need to look at. So those countries are very focused on getting the readiness of their aircraft up. If they have 24 aircraft, they need to make sure that 16 or 18 are available for mission capability, not just ready, but fully mission capable.  

“When you need your aircraft up, you need to have the full mission capability and again, our digital analytic suite,” he says.

With Digital Engineering is it easy?

 “It will allow us to get it back in the air quicker, more affordably if we get it right in a more sustainable manner. We don’t have as many issues with having to scrap parts, but then most importantly for our customers, predictably, in other words, they know that every day when they need one of those 11 C-17s or when they need one of those Apaches or one of those Chinooks, they are going to know what they have got available. And we have spent a lot of time working on that.”

Meeting in India

“We were here earlier this year. We had a team come out and met with a number of members of the Air Force, as well as the Navy, and went through our mission accelerated demos. These are the same demos we do around the world. We do them in the Middle East, we do them in a number of places, really demonstrating how those mission accelerated tools can increase readiness. There’s a lot more interest in that today because of the needs, particularly in Europe. And then also actually think about those customers in the Taiwan Straits. If you are concerned about activity in the Taiwan Straits and you can do the math on who those customers are, they want to make sure that they’ve got readiness for their F-15s. That will help you understand what other countries or if their Apaches or if their Chinooks are ready to go,” he signs off.