successReplicating Innovative minds at Boeing Research & Technology are replicating technology across the company By Nathan A. Hulings Mtors while running tests of the airplane’s wing fuel tanks.- technologies that are beneficial to the initial customer often gainWhether it’s a safer, more efficient way to test fuel tanks ora device that helps mechanics drill straight and true each time,arty Inman, a 767 mechanic with Commercial Airplanes,recalled the days of wearing protective suits and respira The gear was necessary because the tests involved hazardous more life through replication at other Boeing facilities around ammonia gas and spraying indicator paint. the world. Today, his team can do the same work wearing jeans and “Replications are the bread and butter of technology develop- T-shirts, thanks to a new testing process that uses helium. ment,” said Amir Anissipour, a program integration manager with “Using helium has improved the safety and testing process Boeing Research & Technology who helps connect successful significantly,” said Inman, a lead mechanic with the 767 wing technologies with programs. test team in Everett, Wash. “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when innovative and The helium leak test method, where workers pump a combina- flexible options exist.” tion of helium and oxygen into fuel tanks and then use wand-like As the company’s advanced, central research and develop- tools to detect leaks, was first used by the 777 line in 2001. But it ment organization, Boeing Research & Technology is strategically has since been replicated on every airplane built in Everett, making situated within the company to facilitate the dissemination of the site ammonia-free for the first time since the 1970s. ideas across Boeing. The organization supports not only Boeing’s It’s an example of how Boeing Research & Technology, part of Commercial Airplanes and Defense, Space & Security business Engineering, Operations & Technology, is always finding ways to units but also the U.S. Defense Department, Homeland Security, replicate across the company the technology that is developed NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration. All are trying to to improve Boeing products or services. find better, faster and more affordable ways to design, develop, 26 BOEING FRONTIERS / AUGUST 2012
Frontiers August 2012 Issue
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