Requirements, Specifications and Framework of a Digital Thread in Aircraft Life Cycle Management
AIR7367
This aerospace information report will detail the requirements, specifications and framework of digital thread in aircraft life cycle management. This document will provide insights for the aerospace eco system for smooth digital data exchange for the entire aircraft lifecycle. The objective is also to collaborate with other aerospace standard bodies bringing together best practices in digital thread with out any duplication of efforts.
Rationale: Within the aerospace community, the dual concepts of digital thread and digital twin form a powerful set of tools to monitor, analyze and improve the performance of an aircraft asset over the course of its lifecycle. The digital thread(s) constitute the digital representation of information of associated events related to the aircraft throughout the lifecycle of the aircraft (system). The digital twin represents the information required to enable the observation, modeling and analysis of the virtual and physical representations of the aircraft (system). The Digital thread data is obtained from the real-world events and then aligned with the digital twin design objects and their real-time physical transformations over the product lifecycle stages and as the operational state changes. There are two main aspects to the data involved: Low-level data that needs to be exchanged between the various systems and the interoperability constraints that facilitate these exchanges, and Higher level meta-data and operational data that needs to be defined, stored, retrieved, and analyzed throughout the lifetime of the aircraft for sustainment and to make engineering and business decisions.
