Propulsion

Singapore gateway Rolls-Royce's first manufacturing facility outside of the U.K., the new Seletar industrial campus, contains research and training, wide-chord fan blade production, and assembly and test facilities, along with other resources to support the 1000 staff who will work there. Read full story

Reaction Design advances the simulation of soot Engine design engineers can now use simulation tools from Reaction Design to compare how candidate engine designs produce soot relative to each other. Read full story

Flying car makes debut in New York With folding wings to reduce width to garageable status, the Terrafugia Transition Roadable Aircraft fits into the “light sport plane” category and delivers 35 mpg fuel economy on the road. The company claims 100 orders with $10,000 deposits for the $279,000 vehicle. Read full story

XCOR launches its Lynx The demands on a propulsion system designed for suborbital-flight vehicles are not the same as those on propulsion systems for orbital space flight. Read full story

New standard a major milestone for biofuels The aviation industry is now deploying biofuels on commercial flights after years of demonstration test flights, but high costs will keep bookings few and far between for a few more years. Read full story

Embraer's progress on clean-sheet military program It has been over two years since Embraer announced that it would be developing the KC-390 military airlift and tanker jet under a contract with the Brazilian Air Force, which established the requirements for the aircraft as it did with other Embraer military programs. Read full story

3-D nanomaterials being explored for high-efficiency batteries, fuel cells, and more A national team of experts will explore the promise of three-dimensional nanomaterials with the help of a recently awarded U.S. Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant totaling more than $7 million over five years. Read full story

A look forward to electric aircraft Emissions limits force the aviation industry to study hybrid and battery-electric propulsion systems. Read full story

'Simulate, then design' emerges as new engineering methodology Focusing on function before form is emerging as a productive design approach. Read full story