Open standards key to future vertical lift development, GE official says
NewsApril 15, 2026
EVANDALE, Ohio. Open standards such as IEEE 802.1 time-sensitive networking are a key part of the “digital backbone” GE Aerospace sees as critical to future vertical lift aircraft, enabling interoperability and faster technology upgrades, a company official said during a media briefing April 13.
Tanika Watson, future vertical lift general manager at GE Aerospace, said open standards will be central to how the Army integrates and upgrades systems on next-generation aircraft, pointing to time-sensitive networking as a key enabler of the “digital backbone” concept.
“We are leveraging an open standard, the IEEE 802.1, which is the time-sensitive networking protocol,” Watson said. “That is an open standard that anyone in the industry can design to, and what it does is it allows interoperability or a plug-and-play as long as you are leveraging this time-sensitive networking protocol.”
She said that approach is intended to make it easier to modernize aircraft over time, rather than locking platforms into proprietary architectures that are harder to update.
Using open standards “improves the ability to upgrade technology very quickly,” she added. “That’s really the critical element of the digital backbone.”
