**Description**
The aerospace and automotive industries are gradually moving towards model based systems engineering (MBSE) and model based product development thanks to their benefits in terms of shorter development cycle, product quality, increased automation opportunity, etc.  Model based product development and integration at various system levels i.e equipment, sub-system, system and system of systems (SoS) involve exchange of large amount of digital data in the form of models and documentation between various stakeholders i.e equipment manufacturer, sub-system integrators, system/SoS integrators, maintenance teams, etc. to enable collaborative system development. Also, in the MBSE environment, models corresponding to different development phases are independently developed by multiple teams and shared with each other for integration, review, validation, verification, etc.  From the business point of view, it is essential to have an effective control and secure means to enable such transactions to ensure protection of intellectual property and sensitive data. The existing methods of access control and secure data exchange might be insufficient to address the future security challenges associated with such transactions. Blockchain, NFT and smart contract based technologies have revolutionized the domain of secure digital data exchange by enabling virtually unbreakable security features. There are many applications in the financial domain that use NFT for secure digital token transfers. The typical approach in the commerce and gaming industries is the NFT based token real-estate deployment. This approach can be expanded to aerospace industry to enable more robust and secure digital data transfer for collaborative product lifecycle management. This paper explores the feasibility and challenges associated with the adaptation of Blockchain, NFT and smart contract based methods for secure data transactions in model-based aerospace product development. It also proposes a framework for the implementation of such methods in the aerospace business environment.

**Author(s) - ranked in descending order of contribution / as it should appear when published**
Ajay Byappanahalli Sundaramurthy
Prasanna Ramamurthy



Secure digital data exchange using Blockchain and NFT for model-based aerospace product lifecycle management 

SAE International’s AeroTech is the premier global aerospace technology conference and exhibition focused on and celebrating innovation in virtually every facet of modern aerospace and defense mobility, including platform, system, subsystem, component, and material research and development, engineering, manufacturing, assembly, test and validation, certification, integration, deployment, sustainment, safety, security, and sustainability. Innovators and thought-leaders from the global aerospace community convene annually at AeroTech to share and learn about the latest advancements and achievements, advance technical knowledge and innovation, discuss challenges and practical solutions, discover new technologies and techniques, uncover trends and opportunities, network, and collaborate.