A description of the innovative approach of airplane development at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Engineering & Development Group is presented.
The approach is a structured process including several steps and is the key to new product introduction. The first step is the generation of ideas, followed by a feasibility study and a product definition.
These steps are preliminary for either a demonstration program or a full-scale development program. The paper defines the innovation and describes the main elements, including the market demand evaluation, technologies evolution and product characteristics definition.
Typical examples of results of the innovation process at IAI are the Heron I Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) and the Mosquito micro UAV. Planned programs are the next generation of a Very Light Jet (VLJ), more autonomous aircraft, Autonomous Personal Air Vehicle (APAV) and in parallel the evaluation of electrical propulsion, solar UAV and other directions.
