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| Boeing Phantom Works:
Focus on the |
| future applied to
the present |
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| Phantom Works develops
innovative systems and system-of-systems solutions such
as the Canard Rotor/Wing concept, which completed spin
rotor testing in 2002 and is scheduled for flight testing
in 2003. |
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As our advanced research-and-development
unit, Phantom Works is the catalyst for innovation for
the Boeing enterprise. Phantom Works collaborates with
our business units — as well as with our external
customers and suppliers, universities and other R&D
agencies — to provide a broad base of innovative,
affordable technologies not only for developing future
systems and services but also for improving current ones.
Some key new systems programs that Phantom Works helped capture
in 2002 include the Future Combat System, Phase II of the Orbital Express servicing
satellite, the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft, the HyFly hypersonic missile
demonstrator, X-45B Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle development, the X-37 Orbital
Flight Demonstrator and the structurally integrated X-band array.
We also successfully executed on existing advanced systems programs.
Highlights include the successful first flights of the two X-45A Unmanned Combat
Air Vehicle prototypes; successful rotor spin testing of the Canard Rotor/Wing
concept; completion of composite wings for the X-37 reusable space plane; and
the first flight of the Active Aeroelastic Wing. These new and existing programs
will ultimately be transitioned into the business units to help improve their
revenues.
In collaboration with our business units, Phantom Works also helps
transition innovative technologies into current products, significantly reducing
cycle times and cost while improving quality, performance and the bottom lines
for the business units. In 2002, such technologies included automated precision
drilling techniques, selective laser sintering, new composite joining methods,
open-system avionics and more. While some of these technologies are developed
within Phantom Works, many are discovered through global R&D initiatives.
Such initiatives include our investments in venture capital funds and relationships
with universities, companies and government R&D agencies around the world.
Phantom Works people are distributed across the enterprise. As a
result, they can better support the needs of the business units, and they can
draw from the best of Boeing and all their global connections to define totally
new system and system-of-systems solutions. Such solutions will help define the
future of aerospace and establish Boeing as the global industry leader. |
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