Building aircraft fuselages may not sound like a big deal, but this video will change your mind.

The use of advanced materials such as carbon fiber, composites, and exotic metals, combined with different types of joining processes, complicates the manufacturing process. This video below, uploaded to Northrop Grumman’s YouTube account, shows how the company uses high technology to help workers speed through production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s center fuselage.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Northrop Grumman may not have competed to build the Joint Strike Fighter but it did end up getting a slice of the pie. The company makes the jet’s center fuselage, and in February announced the fact that it has built 500 of them. The company says it uses “robotics, autonomous systems, virtual 3D and predictive automation” in the manufacturing process.

The video provides some insight. It shows employees working in white jumpsuits climbing all over the bright white fuselage assemblies. One worker looks like she’s painting with a paintbrush while holding a clear bottle—she’s probably brushing adhesives.

The most interesting of the video is the system of projectors mounted on the assembly room ceiling. The projectors overlay information for the workers directly on the fuselage itself, such as where fasteners are to be installed, the order that work is to be done, and where certain tooling accessories are not to be used. No longer does a worker have to stare at a set of instructions and figure out what goes where—the projectors beam that data directly onto the workspace itself.

The projectors in turn are linked to workstations where supervising engineers control the instruction sets. There are hundreds if not a thousand or more fastening points on the center fuselage, and using the projector process the company can adjust instructions for working on them in the blink of an eye.

One can only imagine the nightmare in years past of looking at an airplane subassembly, trying to decipher instructions, and knowing that a mistake could cost lives. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that advanced manufacturing processes like these are why the F-35 has yet to suffer a crash involving a structural failure, despite more than 200,000 hours in the air.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io