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Article

Virtual factories accelerate collaboration, advance technologies

2019-08-26

The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), a non-profit consortium based in Prince George County, Virginia, uses a 3D visualization lab to expand beyond the walls of its 62,000-square-foot brick and mortar facility and deliver a collaborative development for researchers in industry, academia, and government.

Article

Allied Aircraft Piston Engines of World War II, 2nd Edition has been expanded to include new images and information

2019-07-25

Originally published in 1995, now updated and expanded with new specifications, this seminal work focuses on the development of Allied aircraft engines that helped turn the tide of World War II.

Article

To optimize electrical system design, Mazda turns to Seimen’s Mentor for model-based generative engineering tools

2019-07-24

Capital software provides Mazda with extensive simulation and verification functionalities which can reduce error and cost when integrating systems across multiple, increasingly complex vehicle platforms.

Article

Israeli startup REE reinvents the wheel with a modular approach to future EV design

2019-07-11

By integrating all of the drivetrain components normally found under the hood of a car into the wheel of an EV, the platform optimizes freedom of design, multiple body configurations on a single platform, reduced vehicle size and weight, and increased energy and operational efficiency.

Article

Apollo Fusion will supply NASA JPL with MaSMi Hall thrusters as sole licensed manufacturer

2019-05-08

JPL transferred the license to Apollo after the company was awarded a contract to produce three engineering model MaSMi-EM thrusters for JPL’s Ascendant Sub-kW Transcelestial Electric Propulsion System (ASTRAEUS). Apollo will deliver the three MaSMi-EM thrusters to JPL this summer.

Article

Novelis creates first aluminum sheet battery enclosure for mass electric vehicle production

2019-05-01

Battery weight and power density is a major design consideration when it comes to electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. To reduce platform weight for next-generation electric vehicles, Atlanta-based Novelis, Inc. (Novelis) has used direct feedback from industry partners and automotive design engineers to develop the first aluminum sheet battery enclosure.

Article

Maintainers design a $400 maintenance fixture to save the U.S. Air Force $500k per year

2019-04-30

A cowling, or engine cover, is a critical airframe component that reduces drag and directing airflow into the engine. For the E-8C JSTARS, an aircraft with four massive Pratt and Whitney JT3D-based TF33-102C turbofan engines, each set of engine cowling components can cost up to $80,000 per set. Even a slightly warped cowling renders the entire housing unsafe and unserviceable.

Article

Sensuron enables real-time structural health monitoring onboard NASA’s X-56 UAV

2019-04-04

In contrast to the stiff, rigid wings found on most commercial aircraft, flexible wing technology is considered essential to next generation, fuel efficient aircraft. However, flexible wings are susceptible to “flutter,” or highly destructive aeroelastic instability. To better understand and mitigate flutter, engineers at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) equipped the X-56 with fiber optic sensing (FOS) technology.

Article

Aerospace manufacturers turn to non-hazardous PVD coatings as regulations tighten on toxic hard chrome plating

2019-03-08

The search for a suitable replacement to hard chrome plating on aerospace components has been a key supply chain priority for aircraft manufacturers. This is because of the documented health risks to workers and the impact on the environment from exposure to hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen that occurs during the chrome plating process and the most toxic form of chromium.

Article

Air racing is going electric

2019-02-27

Airbus SE and the University of Nottingham have partnered with Air Race E to establish the world’s first electric airplane race. The competition, which aims to drive the development and adoption of cleaner, faster, and more technologically advanced electric engines, will follow a format similar to the popular Air Race 1 series of the sport known as “Formula One Air Racing.”

Article

Orbex debuts innovative smallsat launch vehicle

2019-02-20

Orbex, a developer of small satellite (smallsat) launch vehicles based in Forres, Scotland, has unveiled its “Prime” launch vehicle. The rocket utilizes several novel technologies, including the world’s largest metal rocket engine produced as a single piece through additive manufacturing (AM).

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Airbus’ quantum computing challenge may fundamentally change aircraft development

2019-01-23

The Airbus Quantum Computing Challenge (AQCC) was initiated by the Toulouse-based aerospace corporation to bring quantum computing out of laboratories and apply it directly to challenges facing the aviation industry. The global competition is open to post-graduate students, academics, researchers, and professionals.

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Bell Nexus full-scale air taxi design debuts, taps novel VTOL, hybrid propulsion, energy storage, and avionics technologies

2019-01-09

Mobility engineers and executives at Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, in Fort Worth, Texas, are developing new concepts of mobility to make moving people and products more efficient and effective – and launching urban air mobility (UAM) innovations, including the Bell Nexus air taxi design, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. They envision and are helping to enable a fleet of on-demand, quiet vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft capable of safely whisking passengers over traffic and across urban landscapes by the mid-2020s.

Article

Centre for Modelling & Simulation to develop digital twins for GKN Aerospace additive, composite, and industry 4.0 technologies

2019-01-04

The collaborative development of digital twins will inform additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing), advanced composites, assembly, and industry 4.0 processes at GKN Aerospace's Global Technology Centre in order to enable the high rate production of aircraft structures.

Article

Sikorsky, Boeing debut future vertical lift dual-rotor design with SB>1 DEFIANT helicopter

2018-12-27

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE:LMT), in Stratford, Connecticut, and Boeing Defense, Space & Security (NYSE:BA) in Berkeley, Missouri, are introducing the SB>1 DEFIANT helicopter designed to fly with advanced agility and maneuverability at twice the speed and range of current conventional helicopters. Jointly developed for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role technology demonstrator program, the new rotorcraft design is intended to help inform the next generation of military helicopters as part of the U.S. Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

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Additive manufacturing is transforming mobility engineering, driving the factory of the future

2018-12-27

Two new installments in the burgeoning SAE International Podcast Series cast a spotlight on additive manufacturing, which is fueling innovation, greater efficiencies, and the future of mobility engineering. Additive manufacturing continues to advance and transform mobility engineering, as aerospace and automotive firms increasingly adopt and invest in 3D printing technologies, which are becoming more capable and cost-effective.

Article

J-10B fighter demonstrates thrust-vectoring supermaneuverability at Airshow China

2018-11-15

Photos from Chinese state-owned media capture the thrust-vectoring-equipped J-10B’s aerobatics performance during Airshow China 2018.

Article

Researchers work to uncover turboelectric propulsion’s unknown challenges

2018-10-24

Turboelectric aircraft propulsion and boundary layer ingesting propulsors may be a breakthrough technology for more-efficient air travel. Researchers are currently uncovering unforeseen hurdles to deploying the technology, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just part of development.

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Airbus, U.S. airline flight test GKN Aerospace hydrophobic coating for cockpit windows

2018-10-22

Officials at an as-yet-unnamed airline in the U.S. is assessing a new hydrophobic coating developed by GKN Aerospace materials science and engineering specialists in Garden Grove, Calif., for cockpit windows on its commercial passenger aircraft. GKN Aerospace debuted the new materials science technology, which Airbus engineers are also flight-trialing on the airframe manufacturer’s flight-test aircraft, during Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, England, in July 2018.

Article

Final Orion capsule parachute system test successful

2018-09-28

A team of engineers from NASA and Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. successfully completed the eighth and final test of the Orion spacecraft Capsule Parachute Assembly System at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz.