Aircraft

Uncle Sam wants innovative solutions from suppliers A retired military officer who was the development manager for the U.S. Department of Defense's $3 trillion, six-year Future Year Defense Plan wants suppliers to know that the military wants innovative product solutions. Read full story

Boeing gets 787 interior ‘right first time’ To achieve "right first time” successes, the Boeing Interiors group departed from the norm and used an automotive tool to reduce installation times from 3500 to 232 h on the 787. Read full story

Europe's aerospace sector at a crossroads Europe is facing a massive black hole in its future defense procurement portfolio. Read full story

A new positioning system for aircraft structural assembly The EcoPositioner is a modular and reconfigurable positioning technology that takes into consideration the positioning task as well as operational conditions and environmental influences. Read full story

Prognostics to predict remaining useful life poses privacy concerns The increased number of onboard sensors provides opportunity for prognostics that predict future vehicle health. Wireless connectivity increases opportunity to use cloud servers to mine data and provide the computing power. However, privacy issue caused the cancellation of the program for Nissan's Leaf. Read full story

Getting a pulse on fuselage panel assembly and NC programming Researchers from Brötje-Automation and Airbus come up with a “versatile” solution. 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

Cessna postures with a new Latitude The Citation Latitude will offer Cessna's widest-yet passenger cabin with stand-up access throughout its length of more than 16 ft, says the company. Read full story

Progress toward reducing airframe and landing gear noise Canadian researchers are finding ways to reduce landing noise in a facility designed to study the sounds that come from the interaction of certain airplane parts and wind. Read full story