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Presence Examples From The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle Sun, May. 16, 2004 Business 3-D speeds plane's design Cessna engineers don special glasses and bypass blueprints as BY MOLLY MCMILLIN The Wichita Eagle In a darkened conference room in east Wichita, men and women don 3-D glasses and turn their attention to a large screen. But they're not watching a science fiction thriller or playing a virtual-reality game. They're designing airplanes. Cessna Aircraft Co. engineers recently demonstrated how they are using the latest 3-D technology to bring the new $2.3 million Citation Mustang business jet to market. Company officials say the technology will help Cessna design an airplane that uses fewer parts. The technology also will make it easier for designers and suppliers to make changes and updates to the four-passenger jet. Indeed. Peering through 3-D lenses, the bright color-coded parts of the jet seem to pop out from the screen. It gives a viewer the feeling that one could walk right into the cockpit and take a place at the controls. Engineers can tell exactly how far pedals are set back before any parts are made. Engineers say they like the technology because they can work together on all aspects of the aircraft's design to determine the interrelationship among parts and how they work together. For example: Engineers can take a virtual journey into the fuselage frame, seeing down to the smallest fastener. Mechanics can tell whether a bolt or other part will be difficult to reach. Marketing staff will have a sense of what the plane will look and feel like before they meet with potential customers. Modifications also will be easier and automatic. When engineers change one part in the design phase, changes are automatically made to other parts, saving time and work. The technology lets engineers concentrate more on design and less on paperwork, said Kermit Dixon, Cessna's business integration leader for virtual product development. "When it's a flat image, you don't get the part-to-part perspective," he said. Jon Carr, project manager for the Citation Mustang, put it another way. "This is really buying us the ability to build a better product," Carr said. With 3-D technology, "we can try it out before building anything. You can work out issues before they're issues." To design the Mustang, Cessna is using the latest version of a software system called computer-aided three-dimensional interactive applications, or CATIA, Version 5. It incorporates the 3-D glasses' capabilities and digital animation, Cessna spokeswoman Jessica Myers said. A mechanic can watch a computer monitor for an animated demonstration of how to build a part, for example. Industry experts expect the technology to be used more often on projects from start to finish because of its accuracy and because it can help companies bring airplanes to market sooner. The software, developed by France-based Dassault Systemes, has been around since the 1980s. But each version adds numerous enhancements and capabilities. Similar software is commonly used in the automotive industry to design new models. Boeing Co. used computer-aided software to design its 777 wide-body commercial jet -- a move that cut errors, changes and rework in half. And Raytheon Aircraft Co. used CATIA to design its Premier I business jet. Cessna will be the first company to bring a business jet to market using the latest version of CATIA. The company expects first deliveries of the Mustang in 2006. "We've come full circle" in how we design airplanes, said Shawn Ehrstein, associate director of Wichita State University's CAD/CAM laboratory, which teaches CATIA. Now, if a blueprint is needed, it's "the last thing you do, rather than the first thing," he said. |