Boeing
As the advanced research and development unit of The Boeing Company, the Phantom Works pursues breakthrough improvements in the affordability, quality and performance of aerospace systems.
About 4,000 of the company's top engineers and scientists comprise the Phantom Works, led by Dr. Bob Krieger, Boeing senior vice president of engineering and technology and president of the Phantom Works. This staff typically works in small, integrated teams that can be quickly formed and mobilized to help customers meet their toughest technical challenges.
These customers include the Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) and Boeing Commercial Airplanes business groups of Boeing, as well as NASA and the DOD. The common challenge of these customers is to find better, faster and cheaper ways to design, develop, manufacture, test, operate and support both current and future systems.
In response to this challenge, Phantom Works has been providing an amazing array of innovative and affordable solutions. A team developing 3-D modeling, simulation and virtual reality tools, for instance, has found ways to cut design cycle times in half, eliminate the need to build costly prototype hardware, and create more producible and supportable systems in the process.
Manufacturing process teams have pioneered the use of high-speed machining and automated fiber placement for producing large, one-piece metallic and composite structures that are stronger and lighter than multi-piece structures, as well as faster and cheaper to produce.
An advanced avionics team is using commercial computer technology and processes to produce reusable avionics systems for military aircraft that cost less than half that of current MIL-SPEC systems to develop and maintain.
A technology team has developed a thin polymer material to replace heavier, less durable paint on aircraft to improve their performance, save millions in maintenance costs and eliminate the use of toxic materials.
These and many other innovative technologies and processes are being used to save time and cost in the development of the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV), F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Delta IV launch vehicles, as well as for the improvement of such products as the V-22, F-15 Eagle, C-17 Globemaster III, AH-64D Apache Longbow and AWACS. Boeing's expertise in systems-of-systems analysis has led to such important programs as the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), which is redefining how our armed forces will operate in the network centric future.
Many of these technologies and processes were used to successfully design, produce and flight test the tailless X-36 prototype fighter in only 27 months for only $20 million, and they are being used for the cost effective development of such advanced systems as the Canard Rotor/Wing, X-37 Space Plane and Space Maneuver Vehicle prototypes.
Besides using integrated product teams, Phantom Works ensures a fast, effective response to its customers' needs through its skills-based organization. These skill areas include System-of-Systems Assessment and Planning; Engineering & Information Technology; Structural Technologies, Prototyping & Quality; Integrated Defense Advanced Systems; and Enterprise Laboratories.
Point of Contact:
John M. Griffith
Boeing Senior Technical Fellow
Materials and Fabrication Technology
Boeing Research and Technology
Phone: (314)234-5968
Cell: (314)603-9577
Fax: (314)232-3601
E-Mail: john.m.griffith@boeing.com
