Aircraft Product Development Research Articles

Alliance performance and subsequent make‐or‐ally choices: Evidence from the aircraft manufacturing industry

AbstractResearch SummaryWe examine how the performance of a firm's prior alliances influences its propensity to persist with the alliance mode or switch to independent operations in the context of new product introductions (NPIs). Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), we argue that a firm's alliance performance has a U‐shaped effect on its likelihood of undertaking the subsequent NPI independently and that competitive intensity strengthens this U‐shaped relationship. We also predict that firms with above‐aspiration alliance performance are more likely to achieve breakthrough performance in the subsequent NPI if they switch to independence than if they continue to ally. Data on NPIs in the global aircraft manufacturing industry (1944–2000) support our hypotheses. Our study extends the alliance literature and contributes to research on how firm performance influences subsequent strategic choices.Managerial SummaryThe dilemma of whether to continue or exit an alliance or relationship is a common one for individuals, countries, and firms. Our study examines firms' strategic decision to switch to independent operations after having partnered with other firms. Using the aircraft product development context, we show that firms that make such a change in their strategy are the ones that performed either much better or much worse than what they expected. Firms with alliance performance close to their expectations tend to persist with their current strategy. Of the firms that change their strategy, the high performers benefit much more from changing their strategy than low performers. We provide insights regarding when it is preferable for managers to continue to ally or to switch to independence, especially in launching new products.

Lightweight Design of Aircraft Virtual Scene and Wireless Transmission

The concept of virtual reality, which is an important role in aircraft simulation training, was first proposed in the aerospace field in the 1960s. In recent years, with the development of hardware technology, virtual reality technology has been widely used in games, entertainment, medical and other civilian fields. In the field of civil aircraft, virtual reality technology mainly focuses on simulated flight, cockpit pilot training, aircraft maintenance training, etc. This article proposes a customer-oriented aircraft virtual scene design and implementation method, and describes the design process from aircraft 3D model construction, lightweight processing, virtual scene rendering, and WebRTC-based wireless video streaming. The main technical difficulties solved in this paper include two parts: one is to convert the existing aircraft 3D engineering model into a polygonal model that can be used for VR rendering, and the other is to realize the problem of multi-user online interactive access to virtual scenes. Through this system, users can do engineering evaluation and experience evaluation during the whole process of aircraft product design, development and sales. The application scenarios designed in this paper further expand the application of virtual reality technology in the field of civil aircraft development and lay the foundation for the development of more application scenarios in the future.

A Pixelation Method for Loads Transfer on Fluid Structure Interface

Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) is widely applied in aircraft aerodynamic and aeroelastic analysis. Iteration between the CFD and FEA will solve the aerodynamic force, flow field, structure stress and deformation under equilibrium state simultaneously. In aircraft product development, the CFD mesh and Finite element model normally do not match each other because the goal of CFD and FEA are different. To connect between unmatched interface, a pixelation method is developed to transfer the aerodynamic loads onto the finite element model correctly. The pixelation method is also easy to be implemented and parallelized.

Stakeholder’s Needs Analysis Methodology For Civil Aircraft Projects

Aircraft product development process is quite complex, involving many stakeholders. Therefore, aircraft owner manufacturers need to fully capture the needs of stakeholders at the beginning of design, establish analysis methods of stakeholder’s needs, and transform “customer voice” into aircraft development requirements, so as to ensure that the aircraft products can meet the needs of stakeholders. This paper introduces stakeholder’s needs analysis methods such as quality function deployment (QFD), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and analytic network process (ANP). This paper establishes a Stakeholder’s needs analysis model, which can be used to carry out stakeholder’s needs analysis of civil aircraft.

Conceptual design and sizing of airframe panels according to safe-life acoustic fatigue criteria

AbstractThis paper presents a methodology that permits accounting for acoustic fatigue effects when sizing safe-life structural skin-stringer panels at the conceptual design stage of aircraft product development. The approach is based upon estimation of the maximum noise radiated from an entry-into-service year 2020 turbofan. Sonic fatigue endurance is assessed for different skin-stringer panels having different values of skin thickness, rib pitch and stringer pitch. Three different materials were considered in this study: aluminium 2024-T3 alloys (Al 2024-T3); carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP); and, glass reinforced fibre metal laminate (Hybrid Glare-3). The study resulted in CFRP having the most favourable sonic fatigue performance. In order to link economic considerations into technical decision making, the sonic endurance methods were coupled with an industry grade costing analysis tool (SEER-HTM) to examine the impact of safe-life design on the panel cost and weight. The presented methodology has been shown to be sufficiently generic in nature and robust. This will not only assist in identifying acoustic fatigue as a potential critical design scenario, but will also increase throughput during conceptual design sizing and optimisation.

A semantics-based approach for collaborative aircraft tooling design

Based on the analysis of semantic transmission scenarios in aircraft tooling design as well as the combination of software agent, PDM and CAD technologies, a semantics-based approach for collaborative aircraft tooling design is proposed. This approach combines heuristic reasoning with semantic web ontology to facilitate the knowledge representation and reuse, and solve challenging issues such as semantic transmission between aircraft components and related tooling, between aircraft tooling and inventories, and among users participating in a new aircraft product development process. A pilot software system has been developed and partially deployed in a large-scale aircraft manufacturing enterprise.

Airbus optimizes aircraft product development with CATIA V5 from IBM and Dassault Systemes

Airbus optimizes aircraft product development with CATIA V5 from IBM and Dassault Systemes

Scheduling approach for concurrent product development processes

A heuristic scheduling approach is proposed for the concurrent product development processes, in which some crucial parameters are determined using the genetic algorithm (GA). Scheduling concurrent activities is of great significance to shorten development lead-time and minimize costs, since it can eliminate unnecessary redesign periods and guarantee that serial activities can be executed as concurrently as possible. To ensure the optimal concurrent scheduling and the effective utilization of resources along with efficient delivery of information, some key factors such as time order, information, resources, lead-time and overlapping time of activities, which enable concurrent activities to be executed successfully, are taken into account. Their weighting factors are fixed by the GA. In addition, the scheduling module includes role allocation and feedback revision. A simulation example, which is part of an aircraft product development process, shows the feasibility of the algorithm.

Dimensional control as an integral part of next-generation aircraft development

The next generation of both military and civil aircraft are now being designed and developed. Research undertaken by the authors has highlighted particular product and process characteristics that are becoming more critical in the design and manufacturing processes of modern and future aircraft structures. A particular requirement is for reduced assembly variation. This requirement emerges, for example, from design strategies seeking to maximize the structural use of carbon fibre composite materials, from the increasing requirements for low observability in military aircraft and from the need for flight cruise efficiency in civil aircraft. Large companies such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and BAE Systems and Industrie have all performed studies in dimensional control. One theme, that emerges is that dimensional control must be exercised with design and manufacturing departments working in close partnership. This is particularly true when considering the introduction of advanced material technologies such as carbon fibre composites and in the application of automation to major aircraft subassemblies. Such challenges are found to occur across both military and civil sectors. This communication highlights some such challenges and identifies a seven-point response for the basic technological infrastructure to support the deployment of an effective dimensional control methodology as an integrated part of the next-generation aircraft product development process. Further work is in progress on detailing and demonstrating such a methodology.