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Show Daily - Thursday

Defense challenges: Funding, development cycles, etc.

The importance of coalitions was driven home by several speakers at Wednesday's panel session on homeland security and defense, and featuring representatives from Lockheed MArtin, International Air Transport Association (Booth 808), and EADS North America.
Aging populations across the globe are forcing governments to increase spending on social programs and decrease it on defense. It's a situation that requires both new thinking and approaches to defense, according to Glenn Weissinger, Senior Manager—Environment and Valuation Assessment, Lockheed Martin (Booth 502).

Weissinger was one of four Wednesday-morning panelists addressing the theme, "Defense and Homeland Security: the New Reality." The new reality, in his view, puts a premium on affordability of new aircraft and defense systems. Cost efficiencies can be achieved in three major areas: manufacturing, development cycle time, and integrated capability solutions.

The military aircraft development cycle times of today—exceeding 20 years in some cases, and by the year 2020, about 75 years if current trends aren't reversed—has a negative effect on engineering capability because few engineers have the experience of seeing a program through from start to finish. The transfer of program development knowledge skills is thus a "significant challenge," said Weissinger.

As for integrated capability designs, he said the goal in the past has been 100% improvement in capability for any particular aircraft platform. The new reality (defined to a large extent by terrorism) requires that instead of optimization at the platform level, it be sought at the overall military level including all branches. This shift means foregoing the idea of having a "most capable" aircraft," Weissinger said, which could cause the lines to blur between what are now specific types of aircraft, such as fighters and bombers.

The new reality goes beyond an integrated approach by individual nations to an integrated approach among nations. In his presentation, C.T. Burbage, Executive Vice President and General Manager—Joint Strike Fighter Program, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, noted that the Joint Strike Fighter is being developed from the ground up for countries to use as part of a national defense structure and for use in joint operations by coalitions.

- Patrick Ponticel

Supersonic business jet

Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory created an integrated computer environment toward the exploration of the design space for a supersonic business jet.
Several programs have been initiated to study the possibility of a new generation of commercial supersonic aircraft, among them the SCAR program in the 1970s and the HSCT program in the mid 1990s, both led by NASA and both proving unsuccessful. The studies did, however, expose the extreme sensitivity of commercial supersonic travel to both weight and economics, which has shifted the focus of the quest for a new generation of commercial supersonic vehicles to supersonic business jets because they are lighter and less sensitive to economic metrics when compared to larger commercial aircraft.

Market studies indicate that there is an adequate demand for supersonic business jets, even when considering their high projected cost. DARPA launched the Quiet Supersonic Platform project in 2000 in an effort to design a feasible supersonic jet leading to a military derivative. Working with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin (Booth 502), the project is currently in Phase II.

To address the issue of a supersonic business jet, researchers at Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory, part of Georgia Institute of Technology, created an integrated computer environment (ICE) to rapidly analyze varying configurations of the jet. (To learn more about the study, be sure to attend the Innovative Design Methods & Concepts III technical session today during the World Aviation Congress & Exposition at 3:30 in Room 511F).

The experiment was conducted within a specific design space, using response surface equations. Advanced technologies that decrease the sonic boom, noise, and emissions—in addition to affecting other metrics—were applied to a baseline aircraft and performance, economic, and environmental metrics were selected to evaluate the design.

Even with the infusion of five advanced technologies, the aircraft failed to meet the sought metrics. The main constraint violated was the sonic boom overpressure. Shaping plays an important role in reducing the sonic boom, thus more configurations need to be analyzed to find a feasible and viable design. The ICE created provides such exploratory capability.

- Jean L. Broge

Measurement-assisted assembly

According to engineers at EADS and Airbus, the use of measurement-assisted assembly helps to drastically cut back assembly time by reducing the time for tool setup and the time to locate components.
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While in recent years there have been numerous improvements in aircraft design methodologies and tools (i.e., CAD deployment, concurrent engineering, etc.), the assembly process on the final assembly lines have largely remained unchanged at Airbus since the first A300. One way to improve the airframe assembly process is to replace the fixed tooling and use the measurement-assisted assembly (MAA) method, according to researchers at Airbus and EADS, during the Process and Assembly Improvements technical session yesterday as part of the Automated Fastening Conference & Exposition.

The MAA method differs from the conventional assembly in that it relies of a measuring system (i.e., laser tracker or radar) to locate the components to assemble in the station. The measuring system is also used to identify the exact 3-D geometry of all surfaces participating in the assembly process. Also, in MAA an optimization software is used to compute the optimum position of the components, taking into account their actual geometry, the allowed dimensional tolerance, and the theoretical shape. Once the best-fit application has found the best position for the components, a comparison with the CAD model can be made to define the points outside the tolerance.

MAA has been studied and deployed successfully on Airbus' final assembly line for the fuselage-to-fuselage and wing-to-fuselage junctions.

- Jean L. Broge

National occupation standards

The Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council (CAMC, Booth 521) announced yesterday that it is actively searching for professionals from industry, labor, government, and academia to participate in the development of five new National Operational Standards (NOS): structures assembler, electrical/electronic assembler, maintenance manager, composite fabricator, and aircraft mechanical assembler. The NOS defines the skills, knowledge, and competencies required to perform specific duties of an occupation, and are the basis for the development of logbooks, curriculum, accredited training programs, certification of practitioners, recruitment, and career promotion. CAMC is responsible for the human-resources strategy for aviation maintenance and aerospace manufacturing in Canada.

- Jean L. Broge

Fuel-quantity indicating

Prompted by safety concerns of unexplained aircraft losses that may have been caused by a spark from the electrical equipment inside the fuel tank, researchers from International Avionics (IA) have developed an electrically isolated Fuel Quantity Indicating System (FQIS).

A liquid-level transducer using anisotropic magnetoresistance properties to measure the quantity of fuel in a tank with no electrical items or power in contact with the liquid fuel inside the tank was first introduced in April 2002 at SAE's General Aviation Technical Conference. During the Electrical Design Safety technical session yesterday as part of the Aviation Safety Conference, researchers from IA provided an update on the technology.

Liquid-level measurement in aircraft, automobiles, boats, and other vehicles has historically been measured by either float or capacitance probes. In both techniques, the fuel tank and its contents are subject to electrical energy in the measuring system. A magnetoresistive sensor measures the angle of a magnetic field that rotates as a function of the position of the float to determine fuel quantity.

- Jean L. Broge

Power system

Ergotron's power system, the EPS 100, is an add-on component to the company's existing mobile computing line that enables true wireless applications on Ergotron HD Series carts and mobile workstands. Designed for continuous duty, the system features long life and can run for 8-20 hours on a single charge. Other features include audible low-battery alarm, accurate digital run-time remaining displayed in hours/minutes or percent, on-the-go recharging, useful battery life equal to 700+ complete charge-discharge cycles, easy battery replacement, low profile and center of gravity for easy maneuverability, and sturdy, leak-proof construction. A large capacity requires less frequent recharging than other systems.
For more information, visit Booth 615

Repair lab

The repair technology lab from EWI is dedicated to developing, evaluating, and implementing critical repair technologies. The lab will provide turnkey materials-joining solutions that will offer development engineers more cost-effective alternatives to current repair methods and part replacement. The lab features personnel and equipment to manage most repair projects; initial technologies on the lab include microplasma, microTIG, lasers, adaptive feedback control, electrospark deposition, robotics, powder feed, and wire feed capability. Services provided include evaluation, comparison, and selection of repair processes; development of repair processes; process parameter development and optimization; filler material evaluation; post-weld heat treatment requirements; and distortion management.
For more information, visit Booth 1722

Rotor hub assembly

Lord Corp. manufactures and assembles rotor-heads for Bell Helicopter 407s and 427s that Bell itself had previously procured or manufactured. By providing the complete assembly, Lord enabled Bell to eliminate nearly all the procurement steps required for a system, which has more than 100 components. After receiving the yoke supplied by Bell, Lord procures or machines all the other components, then completes the final assembly operation using elastomeric parts. A dedicated rotor hub cell has been created to assemble the rotor heads at a rate of approximately six 407 models and four 427 models each month. Overhaul and repair services for the hub assemblies are also completed. The rotor hub cell can accommodate assembly operations for 25 hubs each month, with room for expansion. The plant also houses a certified FAA/JAA repair station where maintenance, repair, and overhaul of both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft parts as well as blue coat repair service for Bell Helicopter are performed.
For more information, visit Booth 1018

Positioner design

Nova-Tech Engineering claims its next-generation, three-axis positioner design provides a "solid foundation" for automated aircraft alignment and positioning. The standard model is sized for assembly of fuselage sections of small corporate jets and military fighters. The modular design approach is scaleable to accommodate the alignment and positioning of most aircraft. A Microsoft Windows operator interface is networked to a single PLC (programmable logic controller) that orchestrates the motion of multiple positioners based on measurement data from a laser tracker or line-of-sight laser alignment system. The PLC handles multiple inputs in parallel, unlike systems based on a serial run PC controller architecture. All three axes have load cells to protect the airplane parts being assembled. Load-cell data can be logged for statistical process control analysis.
For more information, visit Booth 2105

Power controllers

Packaged in a relay-sized plug-in enclosure, Amphion SSPCs (solid-state power controllers) from Ametek Aerospace can be used to replace relays or remote control circuit breakers in most avionics applications. The system can be designed to work with any aircraft data bus, offers load control, load- and wiring-fault protection, and provides status feedback The resistor-programmable feature of the SSPC enables the trip characteristics to be tailored to the load without increasing the number of false trips. The system does not use software to set or shape the trip curves, so the fault protection of the SSPC is not affected by failures in the host system. With a 0.015-ohm resistance, the SSPCs do not require special heatsinking or cooling.
For more information, visit Booth 135

Apex gets funding for structures

Apex Industries (Booth 1916) of Moncton, New Brunswick, has received $5.5 million in funding through the Atlantic Innovation Fund for the research and development of high-velocity machining of monolithic structures. According to Apex, high-velocity machining has the potential to answer many of the aerospace industry's "most difficult challenges," affecting how parts are designed and manufactured to create safer and less expensive parts. As there are currently no industry standards for the process, Apex's R&D will consist of providing solutions that address aerospace manufacturing procedures and methods.

Wing-drilling equipment from Electroimpact

Mukilteo, WA based—Electroimpact (Booth 1710) is displaying its expertise in wing-panel assembly, including its newest piece of equipment: GRAWDE (gear rib automated wing drilling equipment). The device, which was described in a paper Monday morning by Electroimpact Vice President John Hartmann, is being used in the United Kingdom for the Airbus A380 program. With the five-axis CNC GRAWDE, stackups of 4 in or more are drilled. Maximum hole diameter is 1 1/8 in.

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