Wright Brothers Institute Aids in Building Pre-Prototype Application for Digital Airworthiness Initiative
In the evolving field of defense technology, the United States Air Force (USAF) must maintain a balance between keeping its existing fleet mission-ready and integrating cutting-edge innovations that ensure continued dominance in the field. The goal of creating an integrated digital ecosystem that provides data access to those who need to develop, test, field and maintain Air Force systems at speed is vital in today’s technology landscape. As it pertains to airworthiness, the need for digital transformation is crucial to ensure the safety, innovation, and technical ability of aircraft.
What is Digital Airworthiness?
Digital Airworthiness refers to the process of ensuring the safety, reliability, and compliance of aircraft through the integration and application of digital technologies, such as AI, automation, and data analytics, within the airworthiness certification framework.
In 2021, the USAF dedicated a team of experts to developing digital solutions and strategies to further enhance and expedite the airworthiness certification process. As a result, the Digital Airworthiness Team (DAW) works with streamlining efforts to better position the Air Force with integrated digital tools that help to maintain robust safety standards for air and space forces.
The traditional airworthiness certification process faced several challenges, including lengthy timelines, cumbersome documentation requirements, and a lack of real-time data access for stakeholders. These challenges hindered the Air Force's ability to certify new systems quickly and efficiently, which is critical in an era where technological superiority is key to maintaining a competitive edge.
DAW Team Vision Statement
“Seamless and persistent collaboration between airworthiness stakeholders and digital technologists that drives the advancement and integration of digital technologies including integration, visualization, automation, data normalization, and virtualization into the USAF Airworthiness Certification process.”
- Digital Airworthiness Team Charter (2021)
Wright Brothers Institute (WBI) sought to further the mission from the DAW and Digital Transformation Office (DTO). By collaborating with teams from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), DTO, Academia, and Industry, WBI was initially able to leverage its innovation tools, techniques, and processes to help the DTO gain and maintain its early momentum.
WBI supported the DTO digital airworthiness effort with:
Current State Assessment: WBI facilitated a comprehensive analysis of the existing airworthiness certification process, identifying bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement.
Visioning and Ideation: Through workshops and innovation events, WBI helped the Air Force, and its partners, envision a future state where digital tools and processes could significantly enhance the certification process.
Solution Development: WBI played a key role in identifying and engaging non-traditional sources of innovation, as well as traditional industry partners, to develop and test potential solutions.
Implementation and Momentum Building: WBI utilized its expertise in data collection, evaluation, and promotion to ensure that the Digital Transformation team could gain and maintain momentum throughout the project.
Through our network of subject matter experts in both industry and academia, the Air Force team was able to find effective partners to aid in building a pre-prototype application for experimentation and learning. This specific effort focused on evaluating whether an AI-supported application that supports workflow optimization and large-language model implementation can expedite and enhance the accuracy or airworthiness certification documentation assessments. The results and findings of this experimentation are currently paving a way for making airworthiness decisions faster, more rigorously, and with less effort.
WBI leveraged its capabilities in front end innovation, technical market understanding, and effective partnering to identify non-traditional sources and coordinate execution of a meaningful effort. The learnings from this effort are foundational to USAF decisions going forward on how best to bring digital to bear on the airworthiness certification challenge.
“Digital airworthiness requires way more people. We need software experts, data experts, and domain experts. We need all of these people in order to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and accelerate airworthiness certification.”
These collaborative efforts were vital in discovering new ways to improve the safety and airworthiness of Air Force technology through digital solutions. The partnerships facilitated by Wright Brothers Institute have accelerated the pace of innovation, allowing for faster development, testing, and deployment of new Air Force systems, helping to further the goal of digital transformation in the defense and aerospace sectors.
Learn more about the DAFDTO at https://dafdto.com/