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The pilots who鈥檒l be flying the next generation of military jets haven鈥檛 been born yet. The engineers designing and building them today are working in completely new ways. They are using augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing, artificial intelligence and data analytics at every stage. They鈥檒l soon be working in close partnership with robots as well as humans. 鈥淭here will be a digital thread running throughout from design through to operation,鈥� says Julia Sutcliffe, chief technologist at BAE Systems Air.
The changes are essential. 鈥淭he way we fly and use aircraft is continually changing,鈥� says Sutcliffe. 鈥淭he same craft might be flown by a crew or not.鈥� As well as emerging technologies,听there are future risks to think about too, such as an ever-evolving cyber threat. Today鈥檚 military aircraft are expected to fly and remain capable for decades through continuous upgrades. Future aircraft need to be flexible, updateable and connected to ensure that they can be upgraded more frequently and at a fraction of the cost to meet evolving customer capability needs.
One of the most obvious changes will be to the cockpit. How it鈥檚 configured will depend on who听or what will be flying the aircraft. Future cockpits will be almost empty, with virtual reality instruments and controls that can be updated cheaply using software to replace hardware ones.
New skills will be needed too. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about science and engineering,鈥� says Sutcliffe. 鈥淐reativity of thought leads to innovative outcomes.鈥� BAE Systems is forming new collaborations with agile organisations, such as the Williams F1 team. And new design solutions are coming from teams of psychologists, architects, data analysts, cybersecurity experts and engineers working together. 鈥淭here has never been a better time to be an engineer in a technical field,鈥� says Sutcliffe.
At New 杏吧原创 Live on Sunday 13 October, Caitlin Percy of BAE Systems will be speaking on the Technology Stage about how traditional engineering is evolving in the digital environment and the sorts of people and skills needed. Find out what cobotics experts, systems farmers, AI translators and other jobs of the future will entail. Meet engineers at the BAE Systems stand and take a tour of the next generation of stealth aircraft.