Air Force Sends Full B-1B Airframe From Boneyard To Kansas To Create Its "Digital Twin"
The highly detailed computer model will make it easier to identify potential points of failure to help keep the remaining bombers flying.
By Joseph TrevithickApril 24, 2020
The War Zone
The U.S. Air Force is sending the hulk of a B-1B Bone bomber from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University in Kansas. Researchers there will 3D scan the entire airframe to create a highly detailed "digital twin" model to help identify areas of the aircraft that suffer high levels of fatigue and otherwise collect data that could help predict future maintenance needs among the B-1Bs still in service.
Structural fatigue, in particular, has long plagued the Bones and has become an increasingly more acute issue after years of heavy use in combat, leading now to serious restrictions on how and how much the bombers can fly during both training and actual operations. This is something The War Zone was first to report on in detail earlier this year.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33151/air-force-sends-full-b-1b-airframe-from-boneyard-to-kansas-to-create-its-digital-twin
