NT for Integrated Sustainment of Aerospace Vehicles:

A key discussion thrust will identify and infuse emerging novel, nano-enabled materials, coatings and sensor technologies for the development of new as well as sustainment of existing aerospace vehicles. Research & development efforts are underway to develop solutions to extend vehicle life; reduce repair, maintenance and overhaul; cut fuel consumption and overall costs. Potential solutions include: development of new and improved materials, surface treatment (coatings), repair technologies, Prognostics & Health Management (PHM), and Additive Manufacturing (AM), as well as issues related to technology insertion, certification and implementation.

The key challenges include: transitioning these technology concepts from the system development and acquisition world to the sustainment world, and how the best industry-tested practices can be moved into the end-user applications. The industry vision for the future is to move from the current paradigm in which research and development leads sequentially through materials/component design, component testing, certification/qualification, manufacturing, and sustainment—to an integrated sustainment paradigm in which all these stages in the life cycle are being examined interactively and in parallel.

It is our hope that the NAVIN Consortium will propose a multi-phase approach to build on these efforts to develop a common platform that has crosscutting benefits for improving fleet maintenance and sustainment, with promising returns on investments.