reverse engineering


KEEPING OLD PLANES IN THE AIR WITH


LASER SCANNING


Reverse engineering tricks with lasers allow designers to resurrect old aircraft designs quickly and efficiently


Ed Sinkora Contributing Editor


Y


our father’s Oldsmobile may be long gone but his B-52 is still pulling missions, and they haven’t built the “BUFF” (Big Ugly Fat Fellow) since 1962. The last KC-135 tanker was built in 1965. Besides aging warbirds (the average plane in the US Air Force is over 28 years old) there are hundreds of an- cient civilian airliners carrying friendlier payloads every- day. The key to doing this safely is of course excellent maintenance and periodic upgrades. Laser scanning plays an essential role.


Why Reverse Engineer? Replacing a worn or damaged aircraft component quickly and efficiently often requires reverse engineer- ing the part, especially on legacy aircraft. The original vendor may have gone out of business, or be unwilling


Ï An NVision engineer uses a laser scanner mounted on an articulating arm (which is itself on an extendable tripod) to capture a 3D view of the area requiring repair.


AdvancedManufacturing.org LF19


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