Boeing wants to build its next plane in the metaverse

In Boeing’s Future Factory, immersive 3D engineering designs will be combined with communicating robots, while mechanics around the world will be connected by Microsoft-made $3,500 HoloLens headsets.

This is a glimpse of an ambitious new Boeing strategy to unify extensive air design, production and services operations into a single digital ecosystem—all in just two years.

Critics say Boeing has repeatedly made similar bold promises regarding the digital revolution, with mixed results. But internal sources say the global goals of improving quality and safety have taken on greater urgency and importance as the company faces various threats.

The aircraft maker is entering 2022 struggling to reassert its engineering dominance after the 737 MAX crisis, while laying the groundwork for a future aircraft program over the next decade — a $15 billion gamble. It also aims to prevent future manufacturing problems, such as the structural flaws that surrounded its 787 Dreamliner last year.

“It’s about strengthening engineering,” Boeing Chief Engineer Greg Hyslop told Reuters in his first interview in nearly two years. “We’re talking about changing the way we work across the company.”

After years of fierce market competition, the need to deliver bulky order books opened a new front in Boeing’s war with Europe’s Airbus, this time on the factory floor.

Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury, former head of automotive research, has pledged to “invent new production systems and leverage the power of data” to optimize its industrial system.

Boeing’s approach so far has been marked by incremental advances in jet-specific tools or programs, rather than the systemic overhaul that characterizes Hyslop’s momentum today.

The simultaneous thrust of both plane giants is emblematic of a digital revolution taking place globally, as automakers like Ford and social media companies like Facebook’s parent company Meta change work and play to an immersive virtual world called the metaverse.

So how does the metaverse — a shared digital space, often using virtual reality or augmented reality and accessible via the internet — work in aviation?

Like Airbus, Boeing’s Holy Grail for its next new aircraft is to build and connect three-dimensional virtual “twin digital” replicas of the jet and the production system capable of running simulations.

Digital models are supported by a “digital thread” that links all information about the aircraft from its infancy — from airline requirements, to millions of parts, to thousands of pages of certification documents — extending deep down the chain of supplies.

Reviewing outdated paper-based practices can bring powerful changes.

More than 70% of quality problems at Boeing date back to some kind of design problem, said Hyslop. Boeing believes these tools will be essential to bringing a new aircraft from start to market in just four to five years.

“You’ll get speed, improved quality, better communication and better responsiveness when problems occur,” said Hyslop.

“When the quality of the supply base is better, when the construction of the plane is more harmonious, when you minimize rework, the financial performance goes from there.”

Challenges

Skeptics point to technical problems in Boeing’s 777X mini-jumbo and the T-7A RedHawk military training jet, developed using digital tools.

Boeing has also placed a lot of emphasis on shareholder returns at the expense of engineering dominance and continues to cut R&D spending, said Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia.

“Is it worth chasing? By all means,” said Aboulafia. “Will this solve all their problems? No.”

Juggernauts, such as aircraft parts manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems (SPR.N), have already invested in digital technology. Leading aircraft manufacturers have partnerships with French software maker Dassault Systèmes (DAST.PA). But hundreds of smaller suppliers spread globally don’t have the capital or human resources to make big leaps.

Many have been weakened by the MAX and coronavirus crises that followed a decade of price pressure from Boeing or Airbus.

“They not only tell us what hardware we can buy, but now they’re going to specify all this fancy digital junk that goes all over it?” said a supply chain executive.

‘A long game’

Boeing itself realized that digital technology alone will not solve all the difficulties. It should come with organizational and cultural changes across the company, industry sources say.

Boeing recently hired veteran engineer Linda Hapgood to oversee the “digital transformation,” which an industry source said was supported by more than 100 engineers.

Hapgood is best known for turning black-and-white paper drawings of the 767 ship’s wiring bundles into 3-D images and then outfitting the mechanics with HoloLens augmented reality headphones and tablets. Quality has improved by 90%, a source says.

In his new role, Hapgood hired engineers who worked on a digital twin for a now-abandoned mid-size plane known as the NMA.

It is also building on lessons learned from the MQ-25 aerial refueling drone and the T-7A Red Hawk.

Boeing “built” the first T-7A jets in simulation, following a model-based design. The T-7A was launched on the market in just 36 months.

Even so, the program is struggling with parts shortages, design delays and additional testing requirements.

Boeing started operating its 777X wing factory in Washington state, where robot layout and optimization was done for the first time digitally. But the broader program is years behind schedule and mired in certification challenges.

“This is a long game,” said Hyslop. “Each of these efforts was solving part of the problem. But now what we want to do is do it end to end.”

*(Translated text. Click here to read the original, in English)