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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 4 Aug 05 | |
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ARTICLE
AEROSPACE: High-Tech Marriage Takes Flight
By Brad Collis
BOEING IS USING ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CSIRO AS A GLOBAL MODEL FOR R&D COLLABORATIONS. Boeing designs, develops and produces some of the most sophisticated, hi-tech defence, space and commercial products and systems in the world – and some of them will be shaped in part by Australian science. In a research relationship that Boeing is using as a global model for R&D collaborations, the aerospace company and CSIRO have been working on a suite of new-generation technologies that will be incorporated into the way future aerospace vehicles are built, flown, and managed.
CSIRO has been a world leader for some years in developing new materials such as very light and very strong plastics, sophisticated data management systems and nanotechnologies that allow manufacturers to build particular features into materials like polymers and composites, at the molecular level. Applied to Boeing products and systems, these advances could lead to lighter, stronger airframes, advanced in-flight data management, a whole new process for preparing and applying customers’ liveries onto the bodies of planes, and the use of new ‘smart’ materials that provide a constant check on the inherent health of the aircraft or spacecraft. Miller Adams, vice president of Technology Ventures in Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced R&D unit, describes the relationship with CSIRO over the past four years as unique in global R&D relationships because it has established new business, as well as technical, models: “The end result has allowed Boeing to acquire world-class technology in the areas of advanced materials, new manufacturing technologies and modelling and simulation tools,” he says. “We have made some significant advances in our basic core aerospace technologies for both organisations.” CSIRO’s Ian Macintyre says a number of major collaborative research programs and shared patents have come out of the relationship, which he says is steadily growing in both scope and value. Mr Macintyre has spent the past four years as CSIRO senior technical adviser based in the US, working at Boeing’s Phantom Works. He says the fact that an Australian science agency has had valuable input into key new aerospace technologies also shows how important it has been for our research to have had a global perspective. “The consequence is that some of Boeing’s next generation of aircraft and spacecraft will embody some significant Australian science. ”Aircraft interior components that have been modified using a variety of nanotechniques have resulted in significant enhancements in the material properties whilst maintaining their cost effectiveness.” Australian IT advances communicate, process and collect data and streams of information from a myriad of networks that a modern aircraft accesses while flying through airspace. “These are very advanced tools, with a high level of intelligence and security in that they not only retrieve and fuse data, but automatically ‘extract meaning’ from it,” he says. “Phantom Works has recently demonstrated the technology’s capabilities through a scenario based on shipping security. The technology that was demonstrated collects information from disparate sources – shipping schedules and registries, cargo manifests, police records, etc. – so that shipping activity can be monitored and analysed on any number of levels. “It would allow, for example, a security agency to very quickly identify and measure the threat posed by a hazardous cargo that suddenly goes missing.” In the area of advanced materials, particularly materials manufactured using nanotechnology, the CSIRO and Phantom Works researchers have developed new, structurally strong, enhanced materials for aircraft fittings. Nanotechnology is the ability to create or enhance new functional materials by treating materials at the molecular level – as distinct from conventional manufacturing that cuts, grinds, mills or casts metals and plastics to give them shape and function. It can build into polymers (plastic-based materials) unprecedented qualities in areas such as strength, heat resistance and electrical conductivity. Another development by the CSIRO–Boeing team is a new process for preparing an aircraft’s surface for painting that could significantly reduce the cost and time of painting aircraft. While not for this generation of aircraft, CSIRO nanotechnology in the future may facilitate the development of so-called ‘smart’ materials in aircraft construction. Essentially this means the materials from which an aircraft is made will ‘report’ constantly on their condition. The plane will not have to be routinely stripped down for its structural components to be checked. Mr Macintyre says the collaboration with Boeing has helped lift Australia’s R&D capacity to the international stage and shown the world that the nation’s science is up with the best. He explains that the relationship with Boeing has been carefully constructed as a three-tier engagement – long-term programs that are looking ahead seven or more years, medium-term objectives and then the more immediate calls on developing technical solutions to problems that emerge. “The way the relationship has been built means we have been able to develop a critical mass of global R&D expertise very quickly, which is why Boeing now wants to use this as a model for future international collaborations.” APPLICATION Australian science is making a valuable contribution to the way future aerospace vehicles are built, flown and managed. BENEFIT The way the research relationship has developed is seen by Boeing as a model for its global collaborations.
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