2238. Fundamentals of Weight Control

Paper

Abstract

The current corporate environment in the aerospace industry provides many new and several not so new challenges to the Weight Control Engineer. With the advent of Integrated Product Teams, shortened design cycles, and reduced budgets, a solid and fundamental approach to Weight Control is more important than ever. When the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Wichita Division accepted the design responsibility for the fuselage and empennage of Boeing?s newest 737 models, (the -600, -700, and -800), it was immediately recognized that Weight Control had to play a key role in our design approach. The aggressive program requirements, the derivative status of the airplane, and the incorporation of proven 777 design processes, combined to make a unique opportunity and challenge for Weight Engineering. We had to evaluate changes to a 25 year old airplane, originally recorded by Functional Coding, and correlate this data to a detail part evaluation of the derivative airplane. Boeing Wichita also accepted the responsibility for developing the Finite Element Mass Model early in the program to shorten the load development cycle. Weight Engineering recognized that to be successful we would have to take advantage of the systems and processes in place in other groups and focus our efforts on obtaining the maximum leverage for our weight control efforts. This resulted in a general discussion of the Fundamentals of Weight Control and plans to take advantage of existing processes typically outside Weight Engineering.