New realities in aircraft design and manufacture

Considers how Boeing Computer Services in Seattle is developing two real-time applications-one in virtual reality, the other in what the company calls augmented reality, aimed at putting more information directly in front of the engineers designing aircraft and the manufacturing workers who build them. Boeing´s virtual reality project plans to import aircraft CAD data to a VR environment where engineers in helmet-mounted displays can explore the aircraft long before any manufacturing begins. Boeing (like other aircraft manufacturers) have switched to performing aircraft checks on a CAD system, moving a human figure on-screen to check access.<>