A System Architecture for the Digital Thread in Commercial Airplane Design

Abstract

A Digital Thread for Airplane Design (DTAD) is a high-impact opportunity to deliver competitive value from shortening product development times and allowing further refinements in product performance. This thesis presents first a study based on historical records, of the economic benefits from a DTAD which were found to be a significant fraction of the forecasted total program development cost. After a comparative analysis of previously implemented architectures, a qualitative selection method was used to rate them against a baseline composed of the most advanced features present in each implementation.

An innovative concept for the DTAD was constructed, based on the pattern called “microservices” distributed deployment, an evolved version of the SOA (serviceoriented architecture) concept. Key features of the architecture proposed, are high Cloud compatibility, robust deployability of MBE-tools (model-based engineering), loose coupling of services, and data modeling based on knowledge graphs. Next, an innovative design for the API (application programable interface), backbone of the DTAD, is proposed based on the key paradigm of the Task Based Organization of Objects (TaBOO), for a configuration control capability that emulates contemporary version-control practices in software development. Finally, a prototype DTAD was implemented with positive results, to demonstrate the validity of the concept by using it in a simulation of a simplified trade study, typical of the conceptual design stage in airplane programs.