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Designing the Aircraft of the Future

  • 17 Nov 2023
  • An interview with Shripathi V, Lead, Aerospace Technical Division, Indo-Pacific, Hexagon

In a horizon marked by turbulence, Singapore’s aerospace industry remains a focal point for innovation, particularly in designing the aircraft of the future. Impacted by the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical complexities, the aerospace sector is staging a recovery with signs of resilience and adaptability. Supported by robust infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and the presence of industry giants like Rolls-Royce, Airbus, and Boeing, Singapore’s aerospace industry is benefiting from substantial investments in cutting-edge technologies such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). These investments offer promising growth forecasts for the next five years. However, Singapore’s aerospace industry continues to grapple with persistent challenges like rising costs and labor shortages.

Against this backdrop, Hexagon, a global leader in digital reality, is breaking new ground in addressing the challenges of designing future aircraft. We spoke with Shripathi V, who heads Hexagon’s Aerospace Technical Division, to understand how the company is navigating this evolving landscape and working on the next big things in aviation.

Singapore has emerged as a leader in aerospace technology and innovation. How is Hexagon assisting the industry in delivering new-generation, energy-efficient aircraft, and how are you aligning with Singapore’s drive for sustainable design?

Singapore has truly risen as a global leader in Aerospace Technology and Innovation. Hexagon is incredibly proud to be a part of this exciting journey. In terms of scale, tools and solutions, Hexagon is involved in developing and producing 90% of all aircraft today. Our comprehensive simulation and metrology portfolio touches upon every design and manufacturing stage. We offer aerospace companies tailored, configurable, and scalable solutions that enable them to build or finalize their digital ecosystems.

The power of Hexagon’s technology lies in its ability to bring precision data together in both real and virtual worlds. This allows us to guarantee a ‘Right First-Time’ approach today, while also unlocking sustainable innovations for tomorrow. In this evolving environment, as a global leader in digital reality solutions, we contribute in ways that are both meaningful and unobtrusive.

Now, when it comes to aligning with Singapore’s impressive drive for sustainable design, it’s all about creating a symbiotic relationship. The Aerospace Industry has its eyes set on sustainability, and we at Hexagon are committed to providing the technological backbone to make that happen. Our unique, state-of-the-art digital continuity allows organizations to break down silos and co-develop high-quality products. This not only cuts waste and drives efficiency but also minimizes time-to-market. In this unpredictable economic climate, we further empower teams to maintain the highest standards of regulatory compliance and safety while remaining agile.

Shripathi V, Hexagon’s Aerospace Technical Division Lead for Indo-Pacific. Photo Credit: Acendus Communications

Light-weighting is at the forefront of global aerospace trends. How is Hexagon, as part of Singapore’s thriving aerospace community, exploring new materials and technologies to align with this initiative?

In our role as part of Singapore’s thriving aerospace community, we are actively exploring new materials and technologies to align with the global trend of light-weighting. One of our exciting partnerships in this space is with Stratasys, which developed high-performance thermoplastics like Antero 840CN03 and Antero 800NA. We’ve seen extraordinary results through this partnership. In turn, they’ve leveraged Hexagon’s simulation technology to better understand the behaviour of their high-performance, ultra-lightweight Antero™ thermoplastics. In terms of strength, heat, and chemical resistance, these materials are unparalleled.

As the aerospace industry evolves, there’s a keen focus on sustainability, and the key to achieving this is thermoplastics and 3D printing. Our simulation technology is transformative in this space, granting manufacturers exclusive access to proprietary data that enables their engineers to ‘work the problem’ based on accurate, reliable information. 3D printing technology, particularly with materials like Antero 840CN03 and Antero 800NA thermoplastics, is fundamentally altering aerospace design by allowing unprecedented light-weighting capabilities. For example, when combined with Hexagon’s simulation insights, these materials can replace certain applications of metal alloys, indicating a growing role in the aerospace sector. This not only reduces energy consumption and enhances aircraft’s performance but also provides the added benefit of reducing costs and waste.

The hurdle, until now, has been on the industry safety standards and regulations. However, our simulation tools offer engineering teams the ‘missing link’—they can validate material performance, meeting complex needs and ensuring regulatory compliance. Combining 3D printing and innovative modelling software, we can shorten production timelines from months to mere days. This provides customers with unique insight into light-weighting components. It’s changing the manufacturing landscape by offering a faster, more sustainable alternative to traditional materials. In short, our collaboration is accelerating the adoption of new, sustainable Aircraft and Spacecraft designs.

Photo Credit: Acendus Communications

The Aerospace industry in Singapore is renowned for its precision and excellence. How can Aerospace players leverage technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or predictive analytics to mitigate the significant risks inherent in design and manufacturing failures?

One method by which we’re advancing rapidly is through predictive analytics and machine learning. They’re essential tools that help us flag potential issues before they become catastrophic. It’s about being smart and pre-emptive, something that our portfolio directly enables. Speaking of our portfolio, Hexagon’s AI/ML solution employs predictive techniques that can work effectively with small datasets (which make up about 10% of the data typically needed for traditional ML). As a result, engineers can avoid the challenges of generating large amounts of data, which is time-consuming and expensive. But we won’t stop there – ODYSSEE is improving continuously as more techniques are incorporated into the learning models over time.

In particular, we use AI to optimize design processes. Hexagon’s AI-powered tools assist engineers in identifying and eliminating potential flaws at the very early stages. This significantly reduces the risk of costly delays and rework. We also leverage machine learning to predict failures and enabling corrective action to be taken before defects occur. Ultimately, we believe the future of aerospace will heavily involve artificial intelligence, and virtual twins. To fully realize this future, expert knowledge across software, hardware, and manufacturing is needed. That’s where Hexagon comes in, providing unparalleled value to the Aerospace Industry.

More importantly, our data-centric solutions go beyond incremental improvements. They revolutionize quality and productivity. No other partner in the Aerospace and Defence sectors can offer such a comprehensive range of digital technology solutions to today’s most pressing challenges. Whether it’s lightweight material and process engineering, adaptive machining techniques, or virtual assembly solutions, Hexagon has the answer.

Photo Credit: Acendus Communications

With the aerospace industry shifting towards shorter development and production cycles due to technological advancements, how is Hexagon aiding the industry to lead in this new, fast-paced environment?

In today’s ever-changing technology landscape, agility is absolutely key. We need to adapt, iterate, and bring our products to market faster than ever before. 

At Hexagon, manufacturing transformation is not just a goal. It’s at the core of our DNA. Our long-standing experience and capabilities in this area have set industry benchmarks for manufacturing productivity and quality. Through our virtuous circle of end-to-end precision data, we’re uniquely positioned to connect production with design, bringing valuable real-world data into upstream decision-making. This approach doesn’t just streamline workflows, it empowers aerospace manufacturers to gain insights that accelerate the introduction of new products, while also unlocking the automated production capabilities of tomorrow.

To directly aid the aerospace industry in adapting to these accelerated development and production cycles, we offer a wide range of software and sensor solutions. Take, for instance, Hexagon’s Smart Manufacturing Suite. It helps companies reduce both waste and energy consumption by streamlining production lines. On top of that, our AI-powered design solutions can identify and eliminate potential design flaws very early in the design process, therefore slashing the time required to bring new products to market. What sets our suite of solutions apart is its wide-ranging capabilities. We offer CAE and CAM solutions tailored for specific needs, such as Additive Manufacturing End-To-End process. Our suite includes Reverse Engineering/Re-engineering, Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), Manufacturability Studies and Quality Assessment. And it doesn’t stop there. We also offer shop-floor production intelligence and automation and collaboration features powered by Nexus, Hexagon’s digital-reality platform.

As space travel shifts towards a commercial future, new entrants to the sector are driving innovative technology and strategies. Hexagon’s simulation solutions and technologies have assisted in space exploration since NASA’s early moon landing. NASA is one of Hexagon’s long-serving clients and we take pride in what we deliver in supporting the industry to lead in this new, fast-paced environment. We will continue to drive innovation across government institutes and private enterprise by putting data to work, taking humanity further into space while respecting our home planet.

Photo Credit: Acendus Communications

How is Hexagon implementing the concept of smart manufacturing and smart factories in the aerospace industry, reflecting a broader trend towards automation, interconnectedness, and intelligent manufacturing processes?

You can think of Hexagon’s approach to smart manufacturing in the Aerospace Industry as an orchestra. Everything, from Design to Delivery, is seamlessly connected. And let’s be clear, automation isn’t merely a cost-cutting exercise. Our commitment to innovation is evident through the establishment of Hexagon’s Smart Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Singapore. This centre isn’t just a hub for Hexagon, it’s a nod to the remarkable rise in new innovations and start-ups in ASEAN, particularly as 5G technologies continue to unfold. We are incredibly excited about supporting the aerospace sector’s growth through the application of these advanced technologies.

Our Innovation Centre is powered by Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division and features cutting-edge technologies like Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), AI, machine learning, and data analytics. The goal is to accelerate the evolution towards an autonomous future by developing smart manufacturing solutions that improve design quality and ramp up production efficiencies. We’ve strategically located this centre in Singapore to support not just aerospace, but also other pivotal industry sectors.

What is Hexagon’s vision for the future of aerospace within Singapore and beyond, and how is it aligning with the country’s economic and environmental goals?”

Hexagon’s long-term vision for aerospace in Singapore is laser-focused on elevating the country to become a global leader in sustainable, energy-efficient aerospace technology. Our aim seamlessly aligns with Singapore’s own economic and environmental aspirations. The nation is actively working to expand its aerospace sector, and at the same time, is committed to mitigating its environmental footprint.

We’re not just talking about any kind of aerospace advancement. We see a future sky full of efficient, sustainable, and smart aircraft. In this context, Singapore serves as the ideal incubator for what we see as a fresh cycle of breakthroughs in aerospace. It’s crucial to understand that economic growth and environmental responsibility are not at odds with each other. In fact, they can, and absolutely should, go hand in hand.

To bring this vision to fruition, we are leveraging new-age Aerospace technology and software solutions. These cutting-edge tools enable us to expedite the development and production cycles, thereby helping the Aerospace Industry introduce new generations of aircraft that are more efficient and less impactful on the environment.

Photo Credit: Acendus Communications

About Shripathi V – Lead, Aerospace Technical Division, Indo-Pacific, Hexagon

Shripathi leads the Aerospace Technical Division at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence in the Indo-Pacific region. He started his career at the Indian Institute of Science as a Project Engineer and worked on analysis of Drones/UAVs, satellite systems and subsystems. Shripathi has been with Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence for a decade, focusing on Aeroelasticity, Structural dynamics, Optimization, Thermal, Composites, and various integrated simulation solutions. Shripathi has the credit of implementing various advanced simulation solutions at global OEMs. He has played a crucial role in providing integrated simulations for indigenous Indian Defense projects. Currently, he is involved in various Indian Government-owned and private space programs.

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