Guy Norris/SEATTLE
A newly completed analysis of the full development costs of the Boeing X-32A/B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept demonstrator aircraft (CDA) suggests the company will be able to "significantly better the cost" targets set for production versions by the US Government.
The detailed review, revealed for the first time by Boeing, could counter Congressional concerns over the rising costs of the JSF programme.
Although the Boeing and Lockheed Martin-led JSF teams have focused on affordability as a key design driver, it is only now that the X-32B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant is on the verge of first flight that Boeing has been able to confirm projected cost cuts for a production model.
Boeing JSF programme director of affordability Dave Brower says results show production costs for the CDA "are 50% less than it would have cost had we used existing production systems. The bottom line is we did better than that."
Brower says Boeing expects to "meet or beat" the targets of $30 million for the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) version, $35.6 million for the STOVL and $38 million for the carrier variant (CV). Using guide prices of $28 million for the CTOL, $30-$35 million for the STOVL, and $31 and $38 million for the CV, Brower says: "We can significantly better these costs. We can equal or better the targets put forward by the Joint Program Office.
"The request for proposals in 1996 required us to break the upwardly spiralling cost of tactical aircraft acquisition. We've actually reversed it. We have put the clock back 20 years. The reason I can say that is we recognised that the CDA aircraft would be unaffordable using today's technology."
Key savings came from the use of advanced design, digital pre-assembly and construction techniques such as three-dimensional solid modelling, resin transfer and injection moulding, high-speed machining, lean assembly and high commonality between the three variants. "We brought in new commercial and military fabrication processes and, instead of doing a [Burt] Rutan or [Lockheed Martin] Skunkworks type process, we took a risk and tried to bring it all together on one programme," says Brower.
The gamble paid off, he adds, citing examples such as a cut in typical design release time from five weeks to five days. Direct labour design costs for the X-32A, calculated in terms of hours per lb of structure, were around 50% of those incurred on the YF-22, while assembly cost (touch labour hours), was calculated at around one-third that of the McDonnell Douglas/Northrop Grumman-built forward fuselage of the YF-23.
By comparison, Boeing says the costs of the X-32B were 20% less than those of the X-32A. Assembly defects, running at more than 2,000 on the YF-22 mid and aft fuselage, were reduced to a little over 200 on the X-32A. "We are highly confident that everything we did on this programme is directly transferable to engineering, manufacturing and development," says Brower.
Recent X-32A tests have included flights with the weapons bay doors opened in flight for vibration and acoustic measurements. During the tests an instrumented Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missile and a Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) were carried in the bay.
JDAM and AMRAAM are the JSF baseline weapons fit.
Source: Flight International
