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Engineering Events staff at SAE International in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, have extended the call for abstracts through September 21 for the organization’s AeroTech aerospace and defense technology conference, which will take place at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas, March 14-16, 2023. Visit the AeroTech call for abstracts page for more information and to get started.

SAE International has published a new recommended practice for assessing the amount of nonvolatile particulate matter (nvPM) that exits aircraft engine exhaust nozzles – ARP6481: Procedure for the Calculation of Non-Volatile Particulate Matter Sampling and Measurement System Losses and System Loss Correction Factors

The Global 7500 business jet from Bombardier Inc. in Montreal appears to be on the fast track to entering service, thanks in large part to high-tech engineering design, simulation, and test tools. Bombardier engineers and officials are crediting the program’s extensive use of proven engineering tools, digital simulation, innovative ground testing systems for helping to ensure: a mature aircraft at the start of flight testing, an efficient flight validation program, test aircraft that exceed original performance goals, and completion of one lifetime of simulated flights, which exceeds the requirements at time of certification.

Aerospace and defense, industrial automation and robotics, rail transportation, and other organizations which often struggle to support long-life platforms and systems stand to benefit from a new approach to obsolete and end-of-life (EOL) components. GDCA Inc. in Livermore, California, is working with Abaco Systems Inc. in Huntsville, Alabama, “to provide a sustainment path for customers with very long equipment life cycles,” GDCA CEO Ethan Plotkin explains.

Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. of Stans, Switzerland has awarded a long-term multi-year contract to Abu Dhabi-based Rockford Xellerix for the assembly of wire looms and cable harnesses for the Pilatus PC-24 light business jet.

Technology transfer and collaboration continue to grow globally among mobility engineering professionals focused on aerospace and automotive applications. Cross-industry partnerships received a boost this week, as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corp. officials announced increased cooperation on unmanned, electrified, and automated rovers for space exploration.

Engineers at Boeing and NASA are collaborating on a lightweight, ultra-thin Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) concept, designed to be more aerodynamic and fuel efficient than current designs, as part of the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) program focusing on innovative aerospace concepts that reduce noise and emissions while enhancing performance.

Standards development teams at SAE International in Warrendale, Pa., have issued 11 new technical documents and revised or reaffirmed another 54 technical reports focused on mobility engineering across the aerospace, automotive, and commercial transportation communities. The new documents, issued throughout June 2018, cover a variety of technical subject areas, including: diagnostic link connector security, mitigation strategies against illumination effects, data dictionary for quantities used in cyber physical exams, requirements for production of metal powder feedstock for use in additive manufacturing of aerospace parts, and laser powder bed fusion process.

Airbus intends to closely cooperate with start-ups in order to unlock new technologies in artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cyber security for France and Germany’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program.

Through this work, Wind River and Airbiquity look to enable secure and intelligent software updates and data management for these vehicles through over-the-air (OTA) programming technology. The work may also lead to similar solutions for traditional aerospace and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) industries.

Marvin Test Solutions Inc., a global provider of test solutions for aerospace, defense, and manufacturing organizations, in Irvine, California, is introducing its GX3800e High Performance PXI Express field-programmable gate array (FPGA) module, designed to offer engineers the flexibility to develop high-performance, customized digital and mixed signal instrumentation for specific applications without the use of external interface cards.

PAE ISR engineers in Sterling, Virginia, have selected MPU5 Wave Relay mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) technology from Persistent Systems LLC in New York for the company’s Resolute Eagle unmanned aerial system platform. The MPU5 helps to free space and weight, and maximize mission success, officials say.

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.

The AS2 from Aerion in Reno, Nevada, will be the first supersonic business jet to market, Boeing officials in Chicago predict. Boeing (NYSE:BA) is providing engineering, industrial, and financial resources in partnership with Aerion to accelerate technology development and aircraft design, with the goal of bringing supersonic air travel to new markets.

Hardware and software engineers at AVIO, a global aerospace company engaged in the construction and development of space launchers and solid and liquid propulsion systems for space travel, with facilities in Italy, France, and French Guyana are actively enhancing the design of the Vega space launcher, with a focus on evolving the design with enhanced avionics and propulsion technologies while also maximizing subsystem reuse and reorganizing production processes for a more efficient production chain.

The X-59 utilizes a long and slender airframe to achieve supersonic speeds without causing a high decibel sonic boom. The unconventional design precludes the use of a forward-looking window or viewport. Collins Aerospace is providing a dual multi-spectral enhanced vision system to give pilots a forward view of the airspace.

By processing ultra-high-definition (UHD), 4K resolution camera images with state-of-the-art AI and machine learning systems at a new £2.5 million ($3.3 million) “digital tower laboratory,” NATS is investigating whether these technologies can improve Heathrow’s landing capacity during low-visibility periods and reduce flight delays.

Software engineers engaged in the construction and development of space launchers and solid and liquid propulsion systems for space travel at AVIO – a global aerospace company with five facilities in Italy, France, and French Guyana – are leveraging the GNAT Pro Assurance and GNATemulator from AdaCore, a provider of software development and verification tools, with headquarters in Paris and New York to develop and expedite testing of safety-critical, on-board software for the Vega C launcher.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) officials in Arlington, Virginia, have selected BAE Systems Electronic Systems in Nashua, New Hampshire, to integrate machine-learning (ML) technology, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), into platforms that decipher radio-frequency (RF) signals. BAE Systems won up to $4.7 million in funding from DARPA to achieve key hardware delivery, integration, and demonstration milestones.