Utilization 3D Design and Additive Manufacturing to Support Flight Operations for the E-3 AWACS

The E-3 AWACS provides the Air Force with all-weather surveillance, target detection, and command, control and communications for battle management capabilities. The E-3 also provides surveillance from the earth’s surface up into the stratosphere for situational awareness of friendly, neutral and hostile activity. E3 AWACS flight crews use electronic flight bags (EFBs) to simplify flight management tasks, such as calculating take-off performance, that previously were accomplished by hand with printed checklists and technical data. The EFB operates the ForeFlight software; an integrated flight application for flight planning, mapping and in-route navigation charts. Although this tool is incredibly effective, it lacks real-time GPS and weather functionality requiring flight crews to augment their EFBs with secondary electronic devices. Commercial products such as an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) device can fulfill this requirement; however, they require wireless transmission of data, which is prohibited by the DoD for the E-3 aircraft. As a result, the E-3 AWACS Program Office has a critical need for a tailored solution that securely integrates these secondary devices with the EFB, to include developing a mounting and charging solution.  Therefore, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center E-3 AWACS Program Office (AFLCMC HBSP) is exploring various options to develop a hard-wired solution between the EFB and the ADS-B device to transmit real-time data with power. Elevate Systems (Elevate) is a product design and development firm specializing in mechanical engineering and prototype design and production. Elevate has a strong pedigree in designing, prototyping, testing, and producing similar products within the commercial and DoD marketplaces with their company proprietary digital engineering (DE) and additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. With over 55 commercial and government clients generating over $7.5M in revenue, Elevate has the experience needed to bring these cutting-edge capabilities to the Air Force. In this Phase II, Elevate will prototype the Integrated EFB/ADS-B power system and 3D printed mounting platform. Figure 3 illustrates the conceptual interface between devices. Elevate is working directly with Appareo, the leader in portable ADS-B technology, to develop a secure hardwire system for the secondary ADS-B device. Appareo is a market leader in radios for the NextGen Air-Traffic Control (ATC) system and ADS-B receivers. They developed the Stratus ADS-B, a portable, battery-operated receiver that works with ForeFlight and is the most popular receiver sold on the market. Moreover, the solution will be designed to be cross-platform compatible and be commercialized, resulting in a reduced unit cost over the lifespan of the product.