Advanced Digital Measuring

Application: Alignment of Hyper - X

Development of supersonic aircraft requires many tests, including wind tunnel testing for structural design. We have not developed a wind tunnel that can simulate the Hyper X to go 10 times the speed of sound, so the test had to include mounting a 12 foot scale model to a Pegasus rocket. The alignment had to be very precise because at 7,000 miles per hour the slightest misalignment could cause the rocket to change course and crash. With the use of a laser tracker, alignment was held to a few thousandths of an inch. In December of 2004, the X-43A set a new air speed record for winged aircraft at Mach 9.8 at an altitude of about 110,000 feet.

Application: Product Definition System

When aircraft are designed, the Engineering Department would create a part and have to create a family of tools to hold, drill, trim and inspect/check the part. Along the way, tolerances were adjusted and tools were modified, but somehow changes never quite got back to the Engineering Department. With the use of computer-aided inspection (CAI), information gathered when parts or tools were inspected can be uploaded back to the Engineering Department for changes. Using an on-line integrated management system called Product Definition System (PDS), all departments (engineering, manufacturing and quality) can retrieve information as needed.