In a dark auditorium resembling a movie theater, engineers for Dassault Aviation are busy designing airplanes while wearing 3-D glasses.
They use computer joysticks to manipulate eye-popping three-dimensional images of a "virtual" aircraft on a 10-foot-tall screen, making the plane rotate, flip and shed its skin to reveal the parts inside. The image, similar to holography, appears to jump off the screen as if a real aircraft were in the auditorium.
Designing planes or cars with computers isn't new, but the French aerospace firm's newest software goes beyond just parts design: For Dassault's new Falcon 7X business jet, its engineers also used the 3-D program to create the machine tools that are used to fashion the parts, and to lay out the floor plan for the factory where the plane is built.
Designers also used "virtual" ground crews to anticipate how the aircraft would be serviced once it began flying. This helped reduce maintenance costs.
"We've reached a level in which you can see the future before it happens," said Marcelo Lemos, president of Dassault Systemes of America in Woodland Hills. About 200 engineers at the U.S. unit helped develop the software.
As a result, the first Falcon 7X was assembled in seven months, compared with 16 months for previous business jets, because there was no need to build a mock-up or a test aircraft.
Overall development costs have been cut by a third to about $300 million, and Dassault has promised customers that the Falcon 7X will be about 20% less expensive to operate than current business jets, partly because of lower maintenance costs.
Dassault has more than 60 orders for the three-engine, $40-million jet, which can carry eight passengers and three crew members. The Falcon 7X, which has received rave reviews for its cutting-edge design, is undergoing flight certification. The first order is expected to be delivered next year.
"This is the way airplanes will be built in the future," Lemos said.
Boeing Co. bought the Dassault software and is using it to develop its 787, a 250-passenger jetliner that is expected to enter service in 2008.
Source E-Composites
