Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems has a new weapon in its battle to win the contract to build the United States government's Joint Strike Fighter: real-time networked 3-D design.
The company announced today that it has selected Engineering Animation, Inc. to provide networked collaborative engineering capability.
"We've set out to leapfrog any current capabilities here," said Joe Stout, director of communications for Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems. "What this amounts to is completely changing the way we do business here, to take advantage of the best technology that's available today."
Lockheed Martin hopes that virtual product development will give it the competitive edge it needs to win the contract to produce planes for the Joint Strike Fighter program - the new breed of tactical aircraft being created for the US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. Lockheed Martin is competing for the contract with Boeing.
These are juicy contracts. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were allotted US$661,802,071 and $718,800,000 respectively for the concept demonstration phase, in which they'll each design, build, and flight-test two prototype planes. The winner of the contract, to be announced in 2001, will provide not only the jet fighters but upgrades, parts, and maintenance over the 30-year life of the planes. The total cost of the program, including work by other vendors, is estimated at US$70 billion, the biggest bite of which will go to the manufacturer of the planes.
Despite the hefty budgets for the Joint Strike Fighter program, affordability is a major concern to the Pentagon. To win the contract and make a profit, Lockheed Martin must slash costs throughout the course of design, development, and maintenance of the planes through their operation. Boeing undoubtedly has similar tricks up its sleeve, but did not return calls.
Lockheed Martin turned to virtual prototyping in 1995 with the launch of a Virtual Product Development Initiative.
"In the fighter aircraft business, we pack an extremely large amount of equipment into a very small area," explained John Colotta, manager of visualization systems for Lockheed Martin's VPDI initiative, "so it's essential to do mock-ups, to make sure that, for example, a system has room for you to put your hand in there with a wrench to disassemble it when you're out in the field."
Building a physical mock-up is an expensive proposition, but has been the sure-fire way to ensure accurate design and functionality. "Now we can do it digitally without building the mock-up at all," Colotta said, adding that "problem prevention early in the program is your highest payoff in reduced cycle time."
The company hopes virtual prototyping will deliver a 50 percent reduction in design costs and time, a 30 to 40 percent reduction in manufacturing cycle time, and, through good design, another 30 percent reduction in the costs of maintaining the planes once they're built.
Colotta said that Lockheed Martin had developed virtual engineering tools in-house, but they didn't allow real-time networked access to the databases, which comprise, he said, "millions of parts - gigs and gigs of data."
Lockheed Martin announced that it will employ Engineering Animation's VisFly, an application that allows engineers at remote sites to work together on a virtual model in real time on networked computers. It will be used to link staff at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems in Fort Worth, Texas, the Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, and Lockheed Martin's factory in Marietta, Georgia. Engineers at all three site will be able to conduct design reviews and test virtual prototypes. The aircraft manufacturer will also use Engineering Animation's VisMockUp and VP/Sequence module to test models and to analyze the way parts will be manufactured and installed.
Engineering Animation will not simply license its existing technology but will work closely with Lockheed Martin to develop new applications, some of which will be exclusive to Lockheed.
"Companies used to buy software off the shelf and do what they could with it," said Marty Vanderploeg, chief technology officer at Engineering Animation. "Now, they're looking for partnerships where both sides benefit." The deal his company struck up with Lockheed requires a fair amount of collaboration to actually create a viable product, and inspired Engineering Animation to open an office in Fort Worth, Texas, just to service its Lockheed account.
"I don't understand the process involved in making a jet aircraft, and Lockheed Martin doesn't understand the process in developing high-speed 3-D graphics," Vanderploeg said. "When we get together and understand what we can do together, that's the only way to get large increases in efficiency."
Lockheed has been putting lots of silver bullets in its belt for the shoot-out with Boeing. As part of the Virtual Product Development Initiative, it has announced alliances with Prescient Technologies, Inc., a provider of design and manufacturing applications, and MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation, which will provide conceptual design and analysis software.
