Case study
BAS-X
A decision-support prototype for sortie turnaround planning, built to help planners simulate, replay, branch, and compare aircraft logistics plans before execution.
BAS-X came out of a SAAB hackathon challenge and was built by a two-person team: one frontend engineer and one backend engineer. I led the frontend, shaping the React and TypeScript interface around the core planning loop and the timeline branching experience.
- Team
- 2 people
- Timeline
- 8h hackathon, around 48h total with pre-work
- Role
- Frontend lead
- Stack
- React, TypeScript
- Audience
- SAAB stakeholders, crew planning, operations, logistics
The problem
Aircraft turnaround planning can involve many moving parts: crews, timing, resource availability, dependencies, and competing choices. The challenge was to explore how a planner could evaluate a larger operation before committing to a plan.
What the prototype did
- Create a turnaround plan for aircraft logistics
- Run a deterministic simulation before execution
- Replay events to understand why a plan behaved the way it did
- Branch the timeline to explore alternative decisions
- Compare outcomes so planners can reason about tradeoffs
My role
I owned the frontend direction and implementation. The main product question was not just how to display simulation data, but how to make planning feel explorable: a user should be able to try one path, replay what happened, branch at a key moment, and compare a better alternative.
The interface needed to be fast enough for a hackathon demo, but still coherent for stakeholders who were thinking in operational terms. That meant prioritizing a clear timeline, readable states, and decision points that made the simulation feel understandable.
SAAB feedback
We presented the demo to SAAB and received strong feedback on the visualization, the simple interface, and the way the concept looked at a broader operation instead of one isolated base.
- The interface was described as simple, intuitive, and clearly visualized.
- The concept looked at the wider operation instead of getting stuck on one base.
- The timeline branching stood out as a promising way to compare alternative choices.
- The analysis of subproblems and exploration of options were seen as strong parts of the demo.
What I would improve next
The most useful feedback was also the most honest: the prototype had strong potential, but needed a clearer product direction and more visible operational rules to become trustworthy beyond a demo.
- Clarify whether the product should be a training/wargaming tool or an operational decision-support tool.
- Make constraints, capacity, timing, resources, and conflicts more visible in the interface.
- Increase operational realism so simulation results feel easier to trust.