1591. JVX Design to Cost Methodology

Paper

Abstract

A major concern of the United States Government today is the amount of money being spent on new Weapon Systems for each of the Armed Services. In an effort to maximize use of limited resources, the Armed Services have combined their individual resources to develop one aircraft which can be used for a variety of missions. This aircraft is being developed under the Joint Services Advanced Vertical Lift Aircraft (JVX) Program. To gain insight into and control of the production costs of this program, the Government has established the requirement for a Design-to-Cost (DTC) Program.
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. and Boeing Vertol Company have teamed together to develop a preliminary design to meet the Joint Services Operational Requirements. The Bell-Boeing (B-B) Team is responding to the Government’s desire for better cost insight in the JVX Program through the use of an interdisciplinary DTC Team. The JVX DTC program for the B-B Team has been designed to assure early consideration of DTC in the preliminary design and Full Scale Development (FSD) phases. The DTC Team is composed of employees from each company in the following disciplines: Engineering Cost Analysis, Finance, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Producibility Engineering and Planning Team, and Procurement. When needed, other area specialists are consulted. To predict cost for the JVX Program in the preliminary design phase, the DTC Team uses parametric techniques. When more detailed information is available, the DTC Team uses grass-roots estimating techniques for cost prediction, based on the design layouts and later from the detail design drawings.
The JVX Development Program consists of a Preliminary Design Phase and a FSD Phase. The Preliminary Design Phase Contract, awarded in April 1983, contains over 30 contractual tradeoff studies requiring extensive cost analysis. These tradeoff studies are valuated on the basis of performance, operational utility, supportability, and affordability. The tradeoff study results, with Government feedback, furnish information to aid in the refinement of the JVX configuration which provides definition of design solutions for a cost effective aircraft. FSD is scheduled to begin in June of 1985 and will produce seven flight test aircraft. First flight is August of 1987, which is an important date needed to protect Initial Operating Capability of 1991.
The objective of this paper is to describe how the DTC Team provides cost analysis in the JVX decision making process through the tradeoff study process and the update and development of parametric DTC analysis. To illustrate the methodology in the development of the parametric DTC analysis, the process followed for the JVX rotor blade equation is presented.