Digital tooling for major structural repair [of aircraft]

Aircraft major structural repair (MSR) has traditionally been accomplished using dedicated hard tooling for each repair. The Boeing Company is developing a system to eliminate the cost and time associated with the use of hard tooling. Historically, MSR tooling consisted of either duplicate production tooling or newly designed repair tooling. The digital tooling concept for MSR utilizes a practice presently used for production on new fighter programmes. The concept is implemented by securely holding the aircraft component in a flexible holding fixture (soft tooling), establishing the component's coordinate system by laser tracking predetermined key features, and placing the part to the best fit as compared to an electronic master. This concept applies this same technology to major structural repair activities. The developed system replaces the hard tooling approach. It can be utilized in more than one location and on different aircraft. This paper describes the development of this aircraft repair system.