InnovateUK “Agile Wing Integration (AWI)”
The Commercial Air Transport Industry is undergoing a step-change to meet future economic, mobility and environmental challenges. This project was part of a wider set of Overall Aircraft Design projects under the Airbus Wing of the Future Research Programme and aims to position Airbus and its partners at the forefront of this change by developing rapid, world-beating Wing Design and Integration capability and solutions for use during the early phases of an aircraft product development cycle.
Aims
The collaborative partnership has explored future air transport operating systems of systems, along with the high value technologies and novel wing concepts that will be needed to serve them. To achieve the step-change required by future economic, mobility, and environmental challenges, the project will also develop the rapid integrated design processes, concept demonstrators, and simulation frameworks that will be needed to bring these solutions to market.
Objectives
The project achieved this by building on the 4 themes of:
- Conceptual Definition,
- Design and Integration,
- Demonstration/Validation,
- Learning
Technical approach
The AVRRC have developed a complete interactive environment based on MBSE using IBM Rhapsody and the Simulation X tool environment. An entire air transport system of system was developed that allowed interactive exploration of the causal loops - from different perspectives. Graphical output allowed the complex interaction between different constituent systems to be evaluated based on different user interests.
Impact
The research has changed the way aircraft designers know interact with the wider system of interest - spanning the entire air transport system of systems rather than primarily focusing on the aircraft alone.
Project sponsors
This £16m project was funded by UK Research and Innovation via the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Airbus. The project was announced by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable MP as part of a £100 million investment by the Government in the UK aerospace industry.
Project collaborators
The partners collaborating in the delivery of this ambitious project are:
- The AWI consortium, sponsored by Innovate UK through the Aerospace Technology Institute;
- will be led by Airbus together with Marshalls, AGI and the universities of Bristol, Cranfield and Loughborough
The project will develop rapid, world-beating, wing design and integration capabilities for use during the early phases of an aircraft product development cycle.