Boeing and CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have launched a new five-year, AU$41 million research programme with focus areas that include improving aviation sustainability, digital twin and model-based engineering, space and using technologies to boost factory safety and productivity.
Projects include accelerating satellite communications and other space-related technologies and enhancing Boeing’s digital twin and model-based engineering capabilities to further improve the operational efficiency and sustainability of the company’s commercial airplanes and future products.
CSIRO has been named Boeing’s Supplier of the year on four occasions: 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in the Environmental category. The parties have made numerous breakthroughs since first partnering in 1989. These include CSIRO’s ‘Paintbond’ technology, which has been applied to more than a thousand Boeing airplanes around the world, saving millions of dollars in maintenance costs.
Over 32 years of working together, the two organisations have invested more than AU$200 million (£108 million) on joint research projects, including space-related R&D, some of which will take place at CSIRO’s new Brisbane facility, which is also home to approximately 2000 of Boeing’s Queensland-based employees.