Engineers at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in Bridgeport, Conn., needed computers to analyze designs of new helicopters. They found a solution with Altix servers and InfiniteStorage data storage from Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) in Mountain View, Calif.
The designers will use the SGI computers to analyze digital prototypes in computer-generated wind tunnels and battle scenarios. Sikorsky deployed the SGI solutions in June to support computer-aided engineering design and analyses of current and future aircraft.
The project includes such helicopters as the U.S. Navy’s Heavy Lift Replacement, the U.S. Army’s UH-60M Black Hawk, the new Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter for the U.S. Air Force, Canada’s Maritime Helicopter Program helicopters, and the new high speed X2 Technology demonstrator.
The equipment includes an SGI Altix 3700 Bx2 system powered by 128 Intel Itanium 2 processors and 512 gigabytes of memory, an Altix 350 system with 32 processors and 64 gigabytes of memory, and a 9-terabyte SGI InfiniteStorage solution, which enables them to subject digital models of new aircraft rotors or wings-or even entire helicopters-to the type of forces they would encounter in flight.
“Altix allows us to run operational analyses, including force-on-force scenarios that the vehicle might experience in a supply mission, a troop rescue effort, or a battle situation,” says Joseph Pantalone, Sikorsky technical fellow and chief of Survivability and Low Observable Technology. “With Altix, we can design, analyze, and model specific components and subsystems, as well as the aircraft as a whole supporting numerous air vehicle and system integration attributes.” For more information, see www.sgi.com.
