![]() Travel shutdowns worldwide also led to problems, he said, as experts weren’t able to travel to other countries overseas to help with engineering, inspections or processing for needed parts. Niewald said the program lost about seven months due to a variety of supply chain issues, including shortages of microchips needed for the T-7′s avionics. It was particularly challenging because the program relies on a brand new supply chain that was just starting up as the pandemic erupted. Supply chain woesĪs with the rest of the defense industry, supply chain problems spawned by the pandemic have complicated and delayed T-7 production, Niewald said. Other aircraft’s training devices usually get upgraded software a year or two after the plane, creating a gulf in what pilots are learning on versus what they actually fly. This means in the future, when the aircraft gets a software update, the simulator’s software will be updated in a single push, Niewald said. The simulators used to teach pilots how to fly the T-7 were built using the same engineering data as the aircraft itself, as well as running the same operational flight program software. That way they can quickly look up, for example, what size clamp is needed on a certain hose instead of walking over to consult paper blueprints on a table. Older planes often had the door panels covering avionics swing up, which forced maintainers to stoop down to make repairs or modifications.īut maintainers asked the T-7 designers if the avionics doors could instead swing down, allowing easier access and giving their backs a break.īoeing’s mechanics also use touch-screen tablets to guide them as they build the T-7, so they have work instructions and specifications at the tap of a finger. That paid off in a simple, but effective, ergonomic change in how mechanics and maintainers access the T-7′s avionics, Niewald said. Saab’s Swedish facility has three more fuselages to build, after which it will ship its remaining equipment to Indiana.īoeing mechanic Will Helton inspects a T-7A Red Hawk trainer aircraft. Saab is moving its production of the T-7 aft fuselage to a newly-opened facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, to make the shipments to St. Louis, to be quickly and easily combined with the aft sections built by Saab in Sweden, Niewald said - far faster than a traditional build would. The precision of the model-based design also allows the T-7′s forward fuselage sections, built in St. Towards the end of the visit, someone piped in AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” echoing throughout the cavernous factory. The factory was also relatively quiet the day of the reporters’ visit, aside from conversations and the hum of machinery as mechanics worked on T-7s, MQ-25s and other aircraft. When Boeing built its first two T-X airplanes for the competition, Niewald said, the hangar was so quiet the mechanics could even, for the first time, ask for music to be played over the loudspeaker. Pre-drilling parts before they reach Boeing’s facility also yields another benefit: A significantly quieter workplace. 1 defect that you usually find in a traditional line.” ![]() “By having a fastener-ready design, we’ve eliminated a lot of the touch labor and the defects that go along with that,” Niewald said. Concerns about FOD are omnipresent, with signs urging mechanics to watch out for debris posted throughout the facility. If there’s no drilling on the line, Niewald said, there’s less risk of metal shavings or other debris that need to be swept up afterwards and could cause problems if missed. That meant the supplier could pre-drill all the holes so they’d be fastener-ready upon delivery to Boeing’s factory - meaning no need for drilling on the T-7 line.īoeing said this approach allows it to both improve the quality of its build and cut down on mistakes such as incidents of foreign object debris - a problem that plagued the company’s production of the KC-46 in 2019 and led to a temporary delivery halt and grounding of the Pegasus on Boeing’s production line. The digital design process meant Boeing could know exactly how the parts would align and fit together and precisely where all the holes needed to go. It wasn’t the first time model-based engineering and 3D tools were used to design a plane, but Boeing used them to a greater extent than ever before.
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