Enhancing digital design data availability in the aerospace industry

This paper presents the development of a roadmap to enhance the current utilisation of digital design data within the aerospace engineering discipline. The quality and timeliness of product design and development decisions depend on the data availability. Therefore, there is a need for enhancing the digital data availability in order to make better decisions in a shorter time, reducing the product lead-time. This research project, which conducted in collaboration between Airbus in the UK and Cranfield University, has identified opportunities to exploit the access and sharing of digital data, specifically within the Weight Engineers and the stress population through the use of Digital Mock-Up colouring and lightweight visualization.