Virtual Reality

To ensure business continuity in the event of an outage, AW Engineering (AW-E) wanted to upgrade the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment to the latest technology and build in a high level of redundancy.

As part of effective maintenance for any aircraft, accurately assessing airframe damage resulting from combat or environmental hazards is crucial. Seemingly small factors — such as the depth of a scratch or the distance of a hole from supporting structures — can impact flight-worthiness, aircraft stealth capability and pilot safety. As well, in an era of reduced spending and personnel, aircraft maintenance technician efficiency is essential. Recognizing these challenges, Lockheed Martin sought to streamline its damage and assessment process for the F-35. Traditionally, maintenance technicians would manually assess and track damaged areas by placing a transparent film over these areas and tracing reference points (such as fasteners and seams) with a marker. They would then cross-reference this information with repair data history captured in a spreadsheet. However, cross-referencing line drawings did not provide the optimal platform to visualize repair information, it was also quite cumbersome and time consuming — leaving more room for maintenance errors.

• Geographically dispersed campus made in-person meetings costly and inconvenient.• Distance-learning programs in Malaysia, India, and China required dependable, user-friendly online tools to maximize interaction in collaborative workspaces.• Virtual learning environment required a separate sign-in process, resulting in a significant administrative burden for IT staff and limited adoption of collaboration technology.