The NUS Aviation Club recently had the privilege of hosting a talk by ME7 Tay Gek Peng, Chief Digitalisation and Data Officer of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).
Our guest speaker, an expert in avionics and digitalisation, shared about the cutting-edge research and projects that the RSAF and its Digital Engineering Department are embarking on to bring aviation – both military and commercial – into the future. Fundamentally, a key point highlighted during the session was that the aviation industry relies heavily on advanced innovation to continue improving in a responsible manner.
A commonly heard saying is that “war is the mother of invention.” Although military conflict is a reality no one would wish for, it is undeniable that many new technologies stem from military research and innovation. This was an important tenet about the RSAF that ME7 Tay emphasised – the continuous drive for innovation, whether it leads to a successful prototype or remains on the drawing board, is key in Singapore’s air force.
One of the first projects that our speaker worked on involved a smart-glasses device designed to store digital versions of manuals necessary for RSAF personnel. Despite tireless work and creative investment, this project was ultimately not implemented due to the significant challenge of the device being too heavy for practical use. ME7 Tay shared that even though the likelihood of success for this project had been low from the get-go, the important point was that they tried. As innovation begets innovation – what failed today might teach us something about what can succeed in the future. It is this potential of innovation in aviation that motivates individuals and companies across this vast and diverse sector to persist in creating solutions to address industry challenges.
Recently, I thought about the application of new technologies – such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) – in addressing sustainability challenges within the aviation sector. Though AI and sustainability don’t seem to have much connection at first, i think that this technology has an immense potential to help airlines, aviation regulators, and military organizations optimise their operations by gaining a better understanding on the complex processes and sequences that affect our physical world. Eventually, the industry might be able to use such data to develop AI-powered solutions for the environmental problems that aviation exacerbates.
Today, aviation has become an indispensable aspect of modern life, in both civilian and military spheres, fueling the strong demand for technological solutions to address the industry’s challenges while also promoting creativity and innovation. As demand for air travel and defence increases in a world that is contradictorily deeply interconnected yet fraught with conflict, the need for continuous innovation in the direction of sustainability, safety, and efficiency increases as well. We can already observe the urgency of these matters in the current movement towards Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) and the push for aircraft manufacturers to create more efficient planes. However, truly transformative and groundbreaking technologies are required to make a meaningful impact on the aviation industry.
Innovation is not always the flashy success story that we hear about on the news, rather, it often involves a messy and winding journey of hedging our bets and hopes in pursuit of something that might not succeed. What was inspiring about ME7 Tay’s talk was his frank sharing of this unappealing fact that we often forget. During the session, he also encouraged us to find motivation as we continue to navigate on this difficult and uncharted course of innovating for the improvement of the industry, the people in the sector, and, hopefully, the world at large.