Spirit Aerosystems, Inc.

Spirit Acrosystems, Inc.

Mark Kenyon Venskus

Clark Ray Miller

Michael Arthur Champa

Troy Lynn Wampler

David Scott Anderson

Edwin H Fenn

Stephen Eldred Walters

A system and method for assembling a 360-degree section of an aircraft fuselage or nacelle by properly positioning a plurality of assembly panels relative to a machine datum representing an assembly-level datum schema, drilling full-sized holes proximate to a second skin edge of the panels with the machine, net-trimming a second edge of the panels with the machine, then using the full-sized holes proximate to the second skin edges as alignment features to properly orient and attach pairs of the panels together proximate to first skin edges, opposite of the second skin edges with an auxiliary machine, forming panel pairs. Control systems may be installed into the panel pairs separately and independently, then the panel pairs may be joined together, aligning the full-sized holes proximate to the second edges, and inserting fasteners through the aligned full-sized holes proximate to the second skin edges.

System and method for assembling aircraft components

A communications system and method for testing components of an aircraft via Ethernet. The communications system may comprise one or more Ethernet links having software and hardware controls for timing, buffering, and messaging, and a dedicated Ethernet line. The Ethernet links may be configured to communicably link sections of a central communication system of the aircraft, each section being part of a separate aircraft component. The Ethernet links may also communicably link the sections with various databases over the Ethernet line. The databases may comprise loadable software, archived testing data, configuration data, and/or diagnostic data. Any of the central communication system sections and the databases may be located at geographically distant locations from each other, such as at separate production sites. The communications system may allow the aircraft components to test each other, or essentially for the aircraft to test itself prior to its components being physically joined together.

Virtual production testing of large integrated products

Growing community of inventors

Derby, KS, United States of America

Mark Kenyon Venskus