MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
From Air Force Magazine:
Paul Niewald, Boeing's T-X chief engineer, said the company was preparing for the T-X long before the competition even got underway. Company leaders believed modern, computer-driven design and manufacturing could dramatically shorten the development cycle, saving time and money with 3-D modeling and precision manufacturing that would reduce labor and accelerate software development.
The 3-D models translated into parts so precisely tooled that pieces fit perfectly together on Day One. "This allows us to have a shimless design," Niewald said. "We had one master tool on the program, and the parts were self-locating. This allowed us to have something like a 75 percent increase in first-time parts quality." Among parts suppliers, "everybody knew what their interfaces were."
Computer-aided design and modeling has existed for decades, but the level of fidelity possible today is greater. By applying "dimensional management and dimensional analysis on the parts, we knew with certainty that when the parts were manufactured and came together, they would come together just as we had modeled," Niewald said.
Overall, T-X requires 80 percent less touch labor than traditional manufacture, and rework has been reduced to 0.03 percent, he claimed.
So confident was Boeing in its new approach that it priced its offer to the Air Force about $9 billion below what service officials anticipated.
Partnering with Saab made sense because both have a "similar mindset" about innovation, Niewald said.
The T-X benefits from "a little bit of Swedish design philosophy," said Parker. The aircraft draws some inspiration from Saab's fourth-generation fighter, the Gripen, such as built-in stand-on doors, access panels that can be reached without a ladder, and maintenance that doesn't require specialized tools.
The design went from drawing board to first flight in three years, skipping the prototype stage and going directly to "production representative jets." The second T-X to be built flew within 24 hours of the first, he added, and they are "the most identical jets we've ever built."
These first two aircraft racked up 71 flights during the evaluation period, at one point flying four times in one day. That's comparable to what the Air Force expects to do with operational aircraft, and "unheard of" on brand-new aircraft, Niewald said. The first two aircraft expanded the flight envelope and demonstrated high angle-of-attack performance, as required.
"Probably the most significant stats that we had, we went through the first 14 flights without a pilot squawk," Niewald said. That is a testament to how we went through this journey, [we] had a robust design."
Paul Niewald, Boeing's T-X chief engineer, said the company was preparing for the T-X long before the competition even got underway. Company leaders believed modern, computer-driven design and manufacturing could dramatically shorten the development cycle, saving time and money with 3-D modeling and precision manufacturing that would reduce labor and accelerate software development.
The 3-D models translated into parts so precisely tooled that pieces fit perfectly together on Day One. "This allows us to have a shimless design," Niewald said. "We had one master tool on the program, and the parts were self-locating. This allowed us to have something like a 75 percent increase in first-time parts quality." Among parts suppliers, "everybody knew what their interfaces were."
Computer-aided design and modeling has existed for decades, but the level of fidelity possible today is greater. By applying "dimensional management and dimensional analysis on the parts, we knew with certainty that when the parts were manufactured and came together, they would come together just as we had modeled," Niewald said.
Overall, T-X requires 80 percent less touch labor than traditional manufacture, and rework has been reduced to 0.03 percent, he claimed.
So confident was Boeing in its new approach that it priced its offer to the Air Force about $9 billion below what service officials anticipated.
Partnering with Saab made sense because both have a "similar mindset" about innovation, Niewald said.
The T-X benefits from "a little bit of Swedish design philosophy," said Parker. The aircraft draws some inspiration from Saab's fourth-generation fighter, the Gripen, such as built-in stand-on doors, access panels that can be reached without a ladder, and maintenance that doesn't require specialized tools.
The design went from drawing board to first flight in three years, skipping the prototype stage and going directly to "production representative jets." The second T-X to be built flew within 24 hours of the first, he added, and they are "the most identical jets we've ever built."
These first two aircraft racked up 71 flights during the evaluation period, at one point flying four times in one day. That's comparable to what the Air Force expects to do with operational aircraft, and "unheard of" on brand-new aircraft, Niewald said. The first two aircraft expanded the flight envelope and demonstrated high angle-of-attack performance, as required.
"Probably the most significant stats that we had, we went through the first 14 flights without a pilot squawk," Niewald said. That is a testament to how we went through this journey, [we] had a robust design."
