February 26, 2025 - No. 09 In This Issue : FAA Warns of Boeing 747 Water Leaks : Avio Test Fires Multi-Purpose Green Engine for the First Time : 787 Maintenance Demands Require Capability Investments : JetBlue Faces Unprecedented Aircraft Groundings as Pratt & Whitney Engine Inspections Now Take a Full Year to Complete : Gyroscope-on-a-Chip Targets GPS’s Dominance : ‘Blind Spot’ in F-16 Engine Led to Its Failure and Fiery Crash Last Year : Air Force Boss Gives Reality Check On “Over-Hyped” Digital Engineering Revolution : Boeing takes over Spirit Aerosystems – Airbus secures parts of the supplier : Explosion of Starship Flight 7 traced to fires in rocket's 'attic,' SpaceX says : MRO at a Crossroads: Embracing Digital Technology to Overcome Industry Challenges : Cutter Aviation Receives FAA’s Diamond Award of Excellence for all Certified Repair Stations FAA Warns of Boeing 747 Water Leaks Water could damage critical electrical components, the agency said. February 18, 2025 1:55 pm ET By Ryan Ewing The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new airworthiness directive for certain Boeing 747-400, 747-400F, 747-8F, and 747-8i aircraft. The directive, which goes into effect on March 21, 2025, requires the installation of additional safeguards to prevent water leaks from damaging critical electronics. The AD was prompted by an incident in which multiple engine indicating and crew alerting system messages occurred during potable water servicing of a 747. Investigators later determined the cause was a separated fitting and water supply tube above an electronics cooling air filter. To address this safety issue, the FAA is mandating several modifications depending on the specific aircraft configuration, including shrouds and shields over various water lines. These changes aim to prevent water from leaking into the main electronics bay, which could impact multiple systems essential for safe flight. The FAA estimates the modifications will cost U.S. operators up to $1.2 million to implement across the affected fleet of 178 U.S.-registered aircraft. Past Incident In 2008, a Boeing 747-400 experienced widespread failures on approach to Bangkok after a galley leak allowed water to flood electronic components. Though the aircraft landed safely, several systems became inoperable, including the autopilot and the first officer’s instruments. No scheduled U.S. airline operates the 747. However, the jet still remains in service with various charter and cargo operators. Avio Test Fires Multi-Purpose Green Engine for the First Time By Andrew Parsonson February 24, 2025 Italian rocket builder Avio has announced the first successful test firing of its new bipropellant rocket engine, designed for a range of in-orbit logistics applications. Avio announced that it had begun the development of its Multi-Purpose Green Engine (MPGE) in March 2023, when it received a €55 million PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) grant from the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The engine runs on hydrogen peroxide and kerosene. In a 24th February update, Avio announced that it had completed the first ignition tests of the MPGE on a purpose-built test bench. According to the company, the engine performed as expected and achieved combustion efficiency that exceeded expectations. In order to comply with its PNRR contract, Avio is required to complete the development of its MPGE engine within the first half of 2026. When the contract was awarded in 2023, the company announced that the first version of the engine would be completed by the end of 2024. With the first test firings now complete, the company appears to be advancing according to plan. In its original 2023 announcement, Avio stated that the engine would be used aboard a yet-to-be-introduced Vega orbital stage and the Space Rider reusable spacecraft, developed by Avio in partnership with Thales Alenia Space under a European Space Agency contract, among other applications. In its most recent update, the company stated that it would be used for “both launch systems and orbital and suborbital space applications.” The MPGE project is not the only PNRR-funded initiative Avio is working on. In March 2023, the company secured two additional PNRR contracts worth a total of €337.5 million. The first supports the development of the MR60 rocket engine, a larger version of Avio’s MR10 upper-stage engine. The second funds the creation of a two-stage rocket demonstrator that will incorporate both the MR10 and MR60 engines. As with the MPGE contract, Avio must complete the development of both projects by 2026. 787 Maintenance Demands Require Capability Investments Keith Mwanalushi February 21, 2025 As the Boeing 787 matures, MROs are investing in added capabilities for more intensive checks, but also in aftermarket training to support its heavy reliance on electrical systems. In Arizona, Ascent Aviation Services has added 787 services to its capabilities. However, Chief Commercial Officer Scott Butler feels 787 service providers in the U.S. are few and far between. “The digital nature of controls and systems leads to a lot of specific tooling that requires significant investment for an MRO to add it to their capabilities,” Butler tells Aviation Week Network. Also, many of the airlines operating the 787 in North America have in-house capabilities, so the business case requires a large investment in a limited market, he says. Delays and issues in the supply chain, especially for unique 787 parts, have been a recurring problem. Butler says controls by the OEM have led to practically no used serviceable material or parts manufacturer approval (PMA) parts in the market. OEMs will often try to block PMA parts to protect their market, which Mike Cazaz, president at Werner Aero, fully acknowledges. “What I don’t understand is, why aren’t they [OEMs] coming up with solutions to the supply chain problems?” he adds. “I guess they feel that the customers have no place to go and will be forced to wait for the OEM.” Since the 787 relies heavily on electrical systems to operate various aircraft functions, troubleshooting and fixing electrical issues often requires extensive training. AFI KLM E&M has its own internal European Union Aviation Safety Agency Part 66 training center, in consultation with Boeing. “In general, troubleshooting and fixing electrical issues on a 787 is not that difficult,” says Jorgen Hoogendoorn, fleet chief for Boeing 787 at KLM Engineering & Maintenance. He refers to numerous “self-tests” on the aircraft that can flag any suspected parts, which then leads to suggestions for a component replacement. “Sometimes, you will find a combination of multiple issues concurrently, which are tough to deal with,” Hoogendoorn says. However, he feels that such technical issues are often tackled with the support of Boeing, in-house technical expertise and sometimes assistance from other operators. “Boeing is of great support, but in some cases, the issue is as new to them as it is to the operators,” he says. Hoogendoorn also recommends that operators consider investing in soft time programs, but to exercise caution. “Consider the soft time options well, because ultimately you are paying double as an operator for the low performance of components, the lack of sufficient parts and the absence of reliability improvements by the OEM,” he says. Even though capabilities are growing, there is still a lack of widespread expertise and facilities that can handle composite repairs, as on the 787s, causing delays and increased costs for operators. For example, damage to wings and flight controls requires different repair techniques compared to previous generation aircraft, so planning is fundamental for MROs and aftermarket service providers. “We have a large composite back shop that has been integral in ensuring success for our 787 projects,” says Butler. “It’s been a learning curve for the different procedures, but we are able to overcome any hurdles thrown our way.” JetBlue Faces Unprecedented Aircraft Groundings as Pratt & Whitney Engine Inspections Now Take a Full Year to Complete Saturday, February 15, 2025 JetBlue faces severe fleet disruptions as Pratt & Whitney GTF engine inspections now take 360 days, grounding multiple aircraft and straining operations. JetBlue Airways (B6) has disclosed significant operational setbacks due to prolonged maintenance timelines for its Pratt & Whitney (P&W) PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) engines. According to the airline’s latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 14, these essential engine inspections and repairs now require up to 360 days to complete, severely impacting the airline’s fleet availability and operations. Widespread Aircraft Groundings Disrupt JetBlue’s Operations JetBlue’s Airbus A321neo fleet, which relies on PW1100G engines, has been disproportionately affected by these delays. With double-digit numbers of aircraft grounded at any given time, the airline faces escalating challenges in maintaining its scheduled operations. This situation is part of a broader crisis impacting multiple airlines operating Airbus narrowbody aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines. However, JetBlue’s SEC filing sheds new light on the extraordinary maintenance durations, highlighting the extensive disruptions caused by these prolonged inspection cycles. Executive Insights on the Crisis Chief Financial Officer Ursula Hurley has warned that the number of grounded aircraft will peak over the next two years, with the count expected to rise into the “mid-to-high teens” in 2025. Currently, JetBlue is managing a fleet with eleven grounded aircraft, including Airbus A321neos and A220-300s, as engine-related maintenance bottlenecks persist. Looking beyond 2025, uncertainty looms over the airline’s operational capacity, as no clear resolution to the maintenance delays has been outlined. JetBlue’s ongoing struggle with engine availability underscores the ripple effect of Pratt & Whitney’s industry-wide recall, first announced in July 2023. The Root of the Problem: Powder Metal Defects Pratt & Whitney’s parent company, RTX Corporation, has been grappling with a massive recall after identifying defects in the powdered metal used to manufacture critical engine components. This discovery necessitated inspections for approximately 1,200 engines from a total production batch of 3,000, covering aircraft produced between 2015 and 2021. Regulatory authorities, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), have issued airworthiness directives to enforce mandatory inspections for micro-cracks that could indicate metal fatigue. While RTX has assured operators that the issue does not pose an immediate safety risk, the impact on airline operations has been severe. Financial Fallout and Industry-Wide Impact RTX’s stock took a significant hit following the announcement of these accelerated engine removals, with a 14% intraday decline. The company has also revised its financial outlook, reducing projected 2023 cash flow by $500 million to a total of $4.3 billion. As JetBlue and other affected airlines navigate these challenges, the airline industry faces an uncertain future regarding fleet reliability and maintenance efficiency. With extended engine downtime now a harsh reality, carriers must find alternative solutions to minimize disruptions and maintain passenger confidence amid this prolonged crisis. Gyroscope-on-a-Chip Targets GPS’s Dominance Centimeter-scale wayfinding accuracy emerges from millimeter-scale tech Willie D. Jones 10 Feb 2025 Note: See photos in the original article. Willie Jones covers transportation for IEEE Spectrum and the history of technology for The Institute. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Anello Photonics has developed a new breed of optical gyroscopes on silicon chips. Anello Photonics; Koichi Wakata/NASA This year, two companies—Santa Clara, California-based Anello Photonics and Montreal-based One Silicon Chip Photonics (OSCP)—have introduced new gyroscope-on-a-chip navigation systems, allowing for precise heading and distance tracking without satellite signals. Such inertial navigation is increasingly important today, because GPS is susceptible to jamming and spoofing, which can disrupt navigation or provide misleading location data. These problems have been well-documented in conflict zones, including Ukraine and the Middle East, where military operations have faced significant GPS interference. For drones, which rely on GPS for positioning, the loss of signal can be catastrophic, leaving them unable to navigate and sometimes resulting in crashes. Optical gyroscopes have long been seen as an alternative navigation technology to satellite-based global navigation systems. Larger-sized units like ring-laser gyroscopes have been around since the 1970s. However, shrinking these devices down to chip-size was far easier said than done. The optical gyroscopes produced starting in the mid-1970s had difficulties maintaining the necessary optical signal strength for precise rotation sensing. Shrinking them only made the signal-to-noise ratio worse. So, as most microelectronic devices followed the miniaturization pathway described by Moore’s Law, light-based gyroscopes remained big, bulky, and power hungry. If you drive 100 kilometers, the system’s distance measurement will be accurate to within 100 meters, or 0.1 percent of the distance traveled.” That was the state of things until Caltechelectrical engineering and medical engineering professor Ali Hajimiri and his team made a breakthrough that overcame previous size and accuracy limitations. In a 2018 paper, they described how they created a solid-state gyroscope small enough to fit on a grain of rice. Like the optical gyroscopes that appeared before it, this gyroscope leveraged the Sagnac effect, a principle first demonstrated in 1913 by French physicist Georges Sagnac. The Sagnac effect occurs when a beam of light is split into two and sent in opposite directions along a circular path. If the device rotates, one beam reaches the detector ahead of the other, allowing precise measurement of the rotation angle. Because this method does not rely on external signals, it is immune to electromagnetic interference, vibration, and cyberattacks via an open communication channel—making it an ideal solution for applications where GPS is unreliable or completely denied. By introducing a technique for eliminating noise, Hajimiri and his colleagues were able to create an optical gyroscope that was one–five hundredth the size of commercially available fiber-optic gyroscopes and comparable in terms of sensitivity. Anello and OSCP Enter the Market Less than a decade after Hajimiri’s breakthrough, Anello Photonics and OSCP are now looking to reshape the navigation market with their gyroscope-based systems. They have introduced further refinements that allow more miniaturization without diminishing the gyroscopes’ effectiveness. Anello’s low-loss silicon nitride waveguides allow light to circulate longer within the gyroscope, improving signal strength and reducing error accumulation. Anello’s techniques further suppress other noise sources, so a smaller waveguide holding less light—and therefore a fainter signal—is still sufficient for accurate rotation readings. The result, says Mario Paniccia, Anello CEO, was showcased at CES in 2024 and earlier this year. Paniccia explains that his company’s inertial measurement units (IMUs), which consist of three chip-based gyroscopes and additional components, fit in the palm of a person’s hand. They deliver high precision for multiple applications, including agriculture, where autonomous tractors must maintain perfectly straight furrows for up to 800 meters. Longer distances are also no problem for the navigation system, he says. “If you drive 100 kilometers,” says Paniccia, “the system’s distance measurement will be accurate to within 100 meters, or 0.1 percent of the distance traveled.” OSCP is also making strides in miniaturized navigation technology. At CES 2025, OSCP founder and CEO Kazem Zandi unveiled an upgraded multi-gyroscope IMU that is half the size of its predecessor. “It’s not only smaller, but also more power efficient and less expensive,” said Zandi at the Las Vegas–based tech expo. “These gyroscopes can provide dead reckoning with location accuracy to within centimeters.” Anello’s and OCSP’s IMUs are designed to work alongside GPS, constantly monitoring location inputs. If GPS interference is detected, artificial intelligence (AI) within either company’s system automatically shifts navigation control to the gyroscopes. “If, for example, you’re in New York,” explains Paniccia, “and the gyroscopes indicate that you’ve traveled 100 meters forward, but the GPS says you’re now in Texas, the algorithms know to port control over to the [gyroscope].” According to Paniccia, Anello’s latest system was designed specifically for unmanned underwater and surface vehicles operating in the vastness of the open ocean, where no landmarks exist to assist navigation. “In the ocean, everything looks the same,” he says. In the maritime space, in which currents make navigation more complicated than tracking location on land or in the air, Paniccia says the Anello device’s location error is more like 3 or 4 percent of the distance traveled. Paniccia says he envisions a future where miniaturized gyroscopes could be embedded into handheld devices for firefighters, allowing them to navigate through smoke-filled buildings where stairways and exits are no longer visible. “It will essentially be an electronic compass,” he says. ‘Blind Spot’ in F-16 Engine Led to Its Failure and Fiery Crash Last Year Engine and right-hand aft strake, horizontal tail, and speed brake from an F-16 crash near Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., in April 2024. Image from Air Force Accident Investigation Board report Feb. 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley A known “blind spot” in F-16 engines meant maintainers couldn’t see one turned vane inside an aircraft at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.—damage that resulted in engine failure and a crash that destroyed the $21 million fighter in April 2024, according to a new Air Force report. The F-16C lost thrust shortly after takeoff, and when the pilot, a rated instructor, could not regain powe following established procedures, he ejected, suffering only minor injuries as he landed near White Sands National Park, officials determined in an Accident Investigation Board report released Feb. 5. The F-16 took off from Holloman as part of a four-ship training formation. Seconds after takeoff, the pilot “heard a loud bang and felt a loss of thrust, violent shaking, and engine vibrations,” he told investigators. A civilian on the ground, and other pilots in the air, told officials they saw fire or a “strange, non-standard, orangish color” coming from the rear of the jet. When recovery procedures failed, the pilot ejected at 1,460 feet, less than two minutes into the flight. The aircraft crashed into a sand dune and exploded and the pilot was quickly recovered by an Army helicopter. The investigation estimated the total damage at $21.7 million. The engine was an F100-PW-220, built by Pratt & Whitney. The investigation studied maintenance records; ordered debris examined at the F-16 depot at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., commissioned an analysis by Pratt, and interviewed expert maintainers, instructors, and an aerospace engineer. Investigators concluded that deep within the engine, in its fifth stage, a small “vane” was turned “about 25 degrees more open than adjacent vanes.” This caused “abnormal aerodynamic forces” to stress one of the fifth stage’s blades, leading to its breakage. Once that happened, airflow was disrupted and the engine failed. Investigators were inconclusive on what caused the vane to be turned out of position. The engine had experienced a foreign object damage (FOD) event in August 2022 that damaged the first stage of the inlet fan, but no damage was observed on stages 2-4 or 6-13. Pratt & Whitney’s analysis cited the FOD event as the probable cause of the vane turning. But other expert opinions varied when asked if it was possible for damage to occur to a later stage if no damage was observed in the ones before it. “A field-level engine maintainer with forty-three years around F100 engines testified, ‘it happens, it’s kind of unexplainable … but it’s frequent enough that we all have seen’ instances,” the report states. “A field-level engine and borescope instructor [,however,] had never seen this occur. An experienced depot maintainer said it could happen but was very rare. Finally, a depot aerospace engineer said it would be surprising if it occurred.” Investigators also looked at the possibility of the vane being improperly aligned or moved during depot-level maintenance, but maintainers told them it was unlikely as such vanes cause the entire stage to “bind” and not pass quality control checks. “I find the cause for the turned vane impossible to determine,” the AIB president concluded. U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jeremy Alexander, a 48th Component Maintenance Squadron aerospace propulsion journeyman, works on an F100-PW-220 jet engine at RAF Lakenheath, England, Feb. 26, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Alexander Vasquez Crucially, field maintainers would not have been able to see the turned vane even if they were looking for it. “Due to the F100-PW-220 engine’s absence of an access port permitting a fifth stage borescope inspection, the fifth stage is only inspected through engine core teardown and HPC disassembly accomplished during depot-level maintenance,” the report states. The last time the engine had been in depot maintenance was in 2016 and it “was approaching” its next overhaul at the time of the accident, officials stated without disclosing the precise date. Maintainers did not send the engine to the depot after the FOD event because they could not see any damage to stages 2-4 or 6-13, and subsequent inspections revealed no issues with those stages. It is possible that stage 5 was damaged, but they could not check as they would for other stages. This was standard operating procedure. “Field-level maintenance correctly performed all required engine repair and inspection tasks; therefore, the engine was returned to service,” investigators wrote. “No field-level indications would have triggered the removal of the engine for shipping to the depot for unscheduled maintenance of the fifth stage.” Lack of access to the fifth stage for field-level maintainers is a “known ‘blind spot,’” officials said. The F-16 program office in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has already conducted a “deliberate risk assessment” as to whether the engine needs to be sent to the depot for unscheduled maintenance if the stages surrounding the fifth stage show no signs of damage. “The risk assessment is based on the historical and anticipated probability of damage before scheduled maintenance compared to the severity of possible adverse effects. This deliberate risk assessment is informed by the limited time, manpower, and funding available to pull an engine out of an aircraft in the field, ship it to depot-level maintenance, perform a teardown, inspect it and make repairs (if any), reassemble it, ship it back to the field, and reinstall it into an aircraft,” the report states. The accident investigation board makes no mention of whether the program office is revisiting that assessment after the mishap, and an AFLCMC spokesperson was not immediately able to provide comment from the program office. Air Force Boss Gives Reality Check On “Over-Hyped” Digital Engineering Revolution Air Force officials have trumpeted digital engineering as hugely transformative for years, but what it can and can't do is now setting in. Tyler Rogoway, Joseph Trevithick Updated on May 25, 2023 Note: See photos in the original article. We recently explored how the massive leap that so-called ‘digital engineering’ has been promised to provide in the development of new aircraft and other weapon systems isn’t likely to be so revolutionary in reality. Now, the Air Force’s own boss, Frank Kendall, has poured cold water on the claims surrounding the much-touted digital engineering processes, especially when it comes to designing new aircraft, saying flat out exactly what our conclusion has been, that it has been “over-hyped.” Kendall said that digital tools might help cut costs and reduce schedules by around 20 percent, which is significant, but they do not represent a revolution in engineering that will upend the need for real-world testing. As they exist today, the tools and techniques that comprise the catchphrase ‘digital engineering’ generally center around the use of very high-fidelity digital design models – often called “digital twins” – as well as additional advanced software modeling, cooperative virtual working environments, and very high-end simulation. These simulations can go well beyond basic performance modeling and into the realm of complete synthetic combat environments. Alternate and virtual reality technologies are increasingly being integrated into this ecosystem, as well, to help blend digital and physical engineering work. Clearly all these capabilities are important today and promising for tomorrow, but the idea that the virtual environment will rapidly displace the physical one, especially in terms of testing and activities after design, is another story. As is the notion that these tools will solve much of the Air Force’s chronic development woes. Just a few years ago, the Air Force began trumpeting the idea of digital engineering as massively transformative and an avenue to save huge sums of money and time when it came to weapons development. Industry quickly responded and the buzzwords became attached to pretty much everything, with new aircraft themselves being touted as part of a new ‘e-series’ generation. But reality has intersected with aspiration and marketing, to some degree, since then. Kendall’s comment on digital engineering came up in part in relation to how they could help the Air Force avoid mistakes it has made in the past, especially with the F-35 program, in its effort to acquire a new sixth-generation crewed combat jet as part of its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. “Back in the F-35 [design] days I remember industry coming in and saying, ‘we’re so good at engineering now, we don’t need to do testing anymore,'” Kendall, a U.S. Army veteran who has held a number of high-level civilian positions within the U.S. military since the 1980s, said, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “That’s not true.” Digital engineering “was over-hyped,” he added. Kendall highlighted how he has been unable to get a firm grasp on the actual savings in terms of a program’s cost, or how long it takes to complete using digital engineering. “I’ve tried to get reasonable data,” he said. “My best feel for that is, it’s on the order of 20 percent, as a ballpark number.” Though the possibility of 20 percent savings in cost and schedule is significant, Kendall indicated that the benefits could be much lower when digital engineering is used in projects for which there are less robust models and other data, to begin with. “It’s particularly not true” that digital engineering significantly reduces the need for real testing “when you push the envelope outside of things you’ve done before, where … you don’t have as much confidence in your models,” Kendall explained. “When you’re doing something that’s going to be radically different than prior programs, you’ve got to get into testing to validate … your design efforts.” “Hypersonics are a good example: If you haven’t done it before, you’re going to have to go and actually do it,” the Air Force Secretary, who has publicly expressed his frustration with his service’s progress, or lack thereof, on hypersonic weapons testing in the past, added. A B-52H bomber carries AGM-183A prototypes during a previous flight test. USAF In his remarks earlier this week, Kendall was also cautious when discussing how much digital engineering has helped with the development of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. Though that program has been shrouded in secrecy, the Air Force and members of Congress have repeatedly held it up as a model acquisition effort that has remained largely on budget and schedule. That being said, back in 2019, before being appointed as Secretary of the Air Force, Kendall expressed skepticism about the timeline then projected for when the B-21 would make its first flight. This was based just on the complex and advanced nature of the aircraft and his advice not to “bet on” the Raider taking to the skies in December 2021, as was originally hoped, has since been vindicated. On Monday, Kendall also expressed concerns that digital engineering could actually have negative impacts if that phase of development turns into endless tweaking of a design that impedes further progress. “One of the things that’s been true in engineering forever is that if you give an engineer more time, he’ll just do more design iterations because no engineer is ever completely happy with what he’s designed,” Kendall said. “So there’s a risk that we’ll just take advantage of the efficiency … to do more, right? What we need to do is get to where we’re comfortable with it, and then go forward with the next stage of development.” Kendall’s remarks on digital engineering came the same day that the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, released a hard-nosed report on now significantly delayed work on the Air Force’s future T-7A Red Hawk jet trainer. GAO highlighted four key areas of concern with the program: persistent issues with the escape system (which consists of the ejections seats and other related components in the aircraft), fears the flight control software is still immature, delays in work on associated simulators, and a lack of data about what exactly will be necessary to sustain the jets in the coming years. Boeing, in cooperation with Saab, won the contract to develop that aircraft, previously referred to as T-X, in 2018. Boeing built two demonstrators as part of the T-X competition, which it continues to use for flight testing, but has not yet flown a production-representative T-7A. The Air Force had hoped to approve low-rate initial production of the Red Hawk last year, but now says that is unlikely to happen until at least early 2025. Digital engineering has been absolutely central to the development of the T-7A. In 2021, the Air Force announced that it would be referring to the jets as eT-7As to reflect the design being a “digital pathfinder” for the service. That nomenclature has since fallen into disuse. “The contractor [Boeing] said it successfully built the test aircraft using this process [digital engineering],” GAO noted in its recent report on the T-7A. “Specifically, for the test aircraft built to date, contractor officials told us that this manufacturing method reduced assembly hours by 80 percent, and increased production quality by 50 percent.” GAO’s report, however, cited instances of significant disagreement between the Air Force and Boeing on the exact level of progress that has been made on aspects of the T-7A’s development, something the latter has now pushed back on publicly. At the same time, The War Zone highlighted similar issues, including ones directly linked to frustrations over digital engineering, in a recent feature on the Red Hawk. “In June 2022, the T-7A Red Hawk program, in conjunction with Boeing, began a schedule re-baseline effort to assess the collective impacts of all schedule delays to date” which included “contractor inability to rapidly correct deficiencies,” among others, Air Force spokesperson Maj. Alexandra Stormer had told The War Zone. This is something digital engineering is supposed to be ideally suited to handle. “We have worked with the U.S. Air Force to better understand their perception and are taking the necessary steps to address the issues,” Boeing said in response to questions about that specific point. For the recent feature on the T-7A, The War Zone also interviewed Dr. Will Roper. Roper was assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics between 2018 and 2021 and a major proponent of the potential benefits of digital engineering, writing a treatise on it called “Bending The Spoon.” The ability to do significant engineering work digitally, and save costs and shrink development time as a result, was a key aspect of something Roper proposed during his time in this role called the Digital Century Series. The Digital Century Series was a questionably ambitious plan that centered on the idea of being able to quickly design, produce, and redesign aircraft, which would then be bought in small batches and would have very limited lifespans. The Air Force under Secretary Kendall has very firmly rejected this concept. “I wouldn’t hold it up as the Acme of getting everything right,” Roper told The War Zone about digital engineering in regard to the T-7A specifically. “It’s the first and it’s going to have a lot of those first-mover learning things.” Digital engineering is “going to create a new issue which is – do you trust the underlying models and simulation upon which your performance predictions are based?” he added, echoing some of Kendall’s comments this week. “Digital engineering isn’t magic,” Roper continued. “Just because you use it doesn’t mean that all the problems of acquisition get out of your way.” The former Assistant Secretary clearly remains bullish on digital engineering, in general, as does much of the U.S. aerospace industry. Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works advanced projects division, in particular, long a leader in high-fidelity modeling and other digital techniques, has continued to be a major advocate for the use of these technologies in recent years. At the same time, Skunk Works has long stressed that the goal of this is to rapidly get to a prototype stage for further real-world testing. “Software ate the world, and now hardware can too via the magic of collaborative models. We can design things, test things – in general, learn things – faster, cheaper, and greener than the physical universe allows,” Roper said. It is worth noting that the comments on Monday from Air Force Secretary Kendall don’t suggest that the service is looking to abandon digital engineering. It’s already a part of the industrial ecosystem by basic technological evolution. The skepticism that is clearly growing seems to have more to do overall with wanting to adopt a more realistic view of what it can and cannot do. The idea here would be to avoid potential pitfalls from over-relying on it and setting major project milestones and cost estimates based on over-optimistic views taken from it. Altogether, no matter what happens to the T-7A program, specifically, digital engineering in military aerospace is here to stay. At the same time, whether it ultimately transforms into a revolutionary technology that achieves what the Air Force touted it to be capable of very much remains to be seen. Boeing takes over Spirit Aerosystems – Airbus secures parts of the supplier Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is taking over the struggling supplier Spirit Aerosystems for 4,7 billion US dollars. As part of this takeover, some Spirit factories that also produce for Airbus will be transferred to the European competitor. Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer confirmed that the deal should be completed "in the next few weeks". Spirit Aerosystems, a key supplier to both Boeing and Airbus, has run into financial difficulties. The takeover by Boeing is intended to ensure the supplier's stability. However, as part of the takeover, some plants that manufacture major components for Airbus programs will be transferred to Airbus. Specifically, these are the Kinston (North Carolina) and St. Nazaire sites, where fuselage sections are produced for the A350 program, and the Spirit plant in Belfast, Ireland, where A220 wings are manufactured. This takeover enables Airbus to take over the production of important components in-house and reduce its dependence on an external supplier. Boeing's acquisition of Spirit Aerosystems and the resulting division of plants between Boeing and Airbus is a complex process that will have a lasting impact on the aircraft industry. It remains to be seen how these changes will affect production processes and the competitive landscape. Explosion of Starship Flight 7 traced to fires in rocket's 'attic,' SpaceX says By Mike Wall Note: See photos and videos in the original article. "The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system." SpaceX has finished its investigation into what went wrong on the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket, which ended with a dramatic explosion. Flight 7 launched on Jan. 16, sending Starship aloft from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. The mission was partially successful; SpaceX caught Starship's giant first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, back at Starbase using the launch tower's "chopstick" arms as planned. The rocket's upper stage — known as Starship, or simply "Ship" — was supposed to deploy 10 dummy satellites into a suborbital trajectory and then splash down in the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff. That didn't happen, however; Ship suffered an anomaly and broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, sending debris raining down over the Turks and Caicos Islands. SpaceX launched the seventh test flight of the Starship megarocket from Starbase in Texas on Jan. 16, 2025. Starship's Super Heavy booster successfully separated, and returned to Earth and was caught by the "chopsticks" on the launch tower. SpaceX lost communications Starship about 8.5 minutes into flight. The private spaceflight company confirmed that the ship was lost on X.com: "Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause." Credit: SpaceX Just a few hours later, SpaceX had already identified a likely cause. "Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity," company founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X, the social media platform he owns, on Jan. 16. Further investigation has confirmed and extended that initial finding, SpaceX announced in an update today (Feb. 24). "The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system," the company wrote. "The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires." MRO at a Crossroads: Embracing Digital Technology to Overcome Industry Challenges Shobha Kulavil Feb 21, 2025 The aerospace industry is set for a decade of rapid expansion, but behind the surge in demand lies a growing challenge—keeping up with the maintenance needs of a swelling global fleet. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forecasts the demand for air traffic will increase by an average of 4.3% per annum over the next 20 years fueling the need for new aircraft. As airlines push for greater efficiency amid growing backlog, maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations are under pressure to scale. However, supply chain disruptions, engine durability issues, and delayed retirements are straining the system, demanding urgent innovation in MRO strategies to sustain this growth. Evolving MRO strategies: Key trends, investments, and challenges Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) operations are the backbone of aviation, ensuring aircraft remain airworthy, safe, and available for service. But as global fleets expand and aircraft lifespans extend, the MRO sector is under mounting pressure to scale efficiently while navigating increasingly complex challenges. MRO is often associated with heavy maintenance cycles, which require aircraft to be taken out of service for months at a time. These checks—conducted every 60, 90, or 120 months, depending on usage and OEM recommendations—can involve a complete overhaul. A D-check, for example, requires stripping the aircraft down to its core: engines, landing gear, interior panels, and even lavatories are removed for inspection and restoration. Similarly, engine MRO providers spend three months restoring engines to full performance. In a typical MRO process, incoming inspections are also often performed before the disassembly of modules and assembly begins. The financial stakes are massive. Air transport MRO spending is expected to reach $124 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 4.88% from 2025. Engine maintenance alone accounts for 45% of this spend, making it the largest cost driver, followed by component maintenance (21%), line maintenance (19%), and airframe overhauls ($6 billion). But ramping up MRO operations is not simply a matter of scaling capacity. Several key challenges are slowing the industry’s ability to keep pace with demand: • Skilled Workforce: The industry faces a brain drain of experienced engineers and technicians, with 690,000 new MRO technicians needed over the next 20 years to sustain global operations. • Availability of parts: A shortage of critical components—such as castings, engine assemblies, and repair shop capacity—is straining MRO service providers, leading to extended turnaround times (TAT) and making it increasingly difficult to meet operational targets. • Licensing and compliance issues: MRO service providers must adhere to strict safety standards and keep thorough documentation required for airworthiness verification by regulatory agencies. Intense FAA/EASA audits of MRO provider’s documents, processes, stores, AME licensing, stock referring and parts issued or fitted in the aircraft, etc., which are lengthy and logistically cumbersome processes. • Capacity and infrastructure constraints: As more aircraft remain in service longer, MRO facilities are struggling to keep up with demand, requiring significant investment in new hangars, tooling, and workforce expansion. Shifting markets and emerging players The commercial aircraft MRO market remains highly fragmented, with numerous providers offering specialized services at both global and regional levels. Leading players such as GE Aviation, AAR CORP, Safran SA, RTX Corporation, and Lufthansa Technik AG have traditionally dominated the industry, particularly in North America and Europe. However, the market is undergoing a significant geographic shift, with Asia-Pacific emerging as a key growth hub. Driven by rising air travel demand and fleet expansion, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to see the highest MRO growth between 2025 and 2030. The region currently operates one-third of the global commercial aircraft fleet, and the fleet in the area is expected to reach over 13,000 aircraft by 2031, with China’s airline fleet accounting for over 45% of the region’s total. Additionally, the extension of airline lease contracts in Asia-Pacific has increased the average aircraft age to between 18 and 24 years. This trend has increased the number of in-service aircraft while reducing overall retirements, driving greater demand for MRO services to support fleet longevity and maintenance needs in the region. The limitations of traditional MRO solutions MRO operations rely heavily on labor-intensive paperwork, making it difficult to maintain agility and responsiveness. Traditionally, resource planning and scheduling in MRO operations have been manual processes, carried out in silos with limited data integration and minimal cross-functional collaboration between engineering, procurement, logistics, and accounting divisions. Time and cost estimation, capacity planning, and workload assessments still rely heavily on the experience and maturity level of individual technicians, making the process inconsistent and difficult to optimize. The lack of accurate workload estimation significantly impacts costs and Turnaround Time (TAT). Since an exact assessment of time and effort is only possible after disassembling a system or component, the true scope of work—and the necessary equipment and expertise—remains unknown until the teardown process begins. Ordering spare parts only after disassembly adds further delays, as lead times for procurement, receipt, and acceptance extend the overall TAT. Beyond scheduled maintenance, unplanned aircraft visits to MRO facilities introduce even greater complexity. With most processes still manual, predictive maintenance remains a challenge due to limited access to historical data, making decision-making more reactive than proactive. Additionally, the lack of structured knowledge retention is hampering workforce development, slowing technician autonomy, and making it harder for organizations to build a skilled and efficient MRO workforce. Technology adoption & embracing digital transformation An integrated, enterprise-wide IT solution for engine MRO Service providers can introduce a high level of intelligent automation, integrating people, processes, and data at a single platform. This transformation enables MRO organizations to achieve key objectives, including: • Reduced TAT and cost optimization • Integrating people, process and capacity • Collaboration with all the stakeholders/ process owners across the lifecycle • Real time monitoring and analysis of operational efficiencies MRO organizations are investing in artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, big data, and blockchain technologies to improve operational efficiency of MRO activities and achieve the above goals. With huge amounts of historical data available with MRO service providers,coupled with matured Machine Learning Models and advancements in Artificial Intelligence, it is possible to make accurate predictions about when a repair job could come in next, which spare parts are most likely to be on demand and what the associated costs and risks of any unanticipated event, taking predictive maintenance to much efficient level and optimized inventory management. The adoption of drones, robotics, and vision systems has also accelerated inspection and anomaly detection, making them faster and more precise. Meanwhile, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is helping MRO service providers automate backend processes, enhancing overall operational efficiency and reducing manual workload. Conclusion The MRO industry is set for continued growth, driven by a focus on efficiency and high productivity. To balance TAT and execution costs while delivering cost-effective solutions, MRO service providers are increasingly investing in intelligent enterprise software. These advanced systems streamline and automate critical operations, including contract planning, maintenance execution, performance reporting, and invoicing, ensuring greater precision, efficiency, and scalability. Capgemini is actively working with customers in the MRO space to turn around digital and intelligent services in the space enabling our customers to optimize operations and enable a more proactive and predictive approach to MRO operations. Cutter Aviation Receives FAA’s Diamond Award of Excellence for all Certified Repair Stations Feb. 21, 2025 Cutter Aviation proudly announces that all of its Certified Repair Stations have earned the Federal Aviation Administration’s AMT Awards Program “Diamond Award of Excellence.” This recognition is given to organizations where 100% of eligible Aviation Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) complete the FAA’s required training and certification for the year. With MRO locations in Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Prescott, and San Antonio, Cutter Aviation is committed to providing reliable aviation maintenance services throughout the Southwest. This accomplishment reflects the company’s focus on maintaining a skilled workforce and meeting safety and training standards. “We are proud of our team’s dedication to safety and quality,” said Dave Clifton, Director of Technical and Flight Support Services. “This award highlights our commitment to upholding the highest standards of safety and proficiency within our MRO culture.” A total of 84 Cutter Aviation maintenance technicians successfully completed the required training in 2024, highlighting the team’s commitment to excellence. Curt Lewis