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The aerospace industry is facing immense challenges due to increased design complexity and higher levels of integration, particularly in the electrification of aircraft. These challenges can easily impact program cost and product time to market. System electrification and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) have become critical issues today. In the context of 3D electromagnetics, EMC electromagnetic compatibility ensures the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that radiated emissions from various electronic devices, such as avionics or the entire aircraft for that matter, do not interfere with other electronic products onboard the aircraft.

Honda’s aerodynamic and NVH development gets a breath of fresh air from its first full-scale wind tunnel in North America.

Z Advanced Computing, Inc. (ZAC), a Potomac Maryland-based start-up, will develop 3D image recognition technology for U.S. Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones.

Two members of DCS Corp – Mark Wilkins and Finley Barfield – won the highly distinguished Robert J. Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautic Association for their work on the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) team.

Swiss air navigation service provider, skyguide, AirMap, Inc. – the leading global airspace intelligence platform for drones, and the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) have deployed the Swiss U-space flight information management system (FIMS) for small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and drones.

During a public demonstration, an unmodified production Impossible Aerospace Corporation’s US-1 quadcopter, carrying both a FLIR Duo Pro R thermal camera and HD video transmitter, crossed Nevada’s “playa,” or salt flats. In repeated 72-minute flights, the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) flew with and against prevailing winds, covering distances of 29 and 21 miles, respectively.

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.

The long-range, “high subsonic” aircraft is part of AFRL’s Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) portfolio, which was established to break the escalating cost trajectory of tactically relevant aircraft and provide an unmanned escort or wingmate aircraft for Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

The partnership will accelerate the development of inertial measurement units, attitude heading reference solutions, and other technologies established under Europe's Clean Sky 2 and Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) 2020 industry and government collaboration programs.

AeroVironment revealed its critical role in collaborating with NASA JPL to build the “Mars Helicopter” for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. Program officials plan to have the Mars Helicopter flying on Mars in less than three years.

Under the OFFSET program, BBN Technologies (a subsidiary of Raytheon) is developing direct and control solutions for swarms of small, autonomous air, and ground vehicles.

Even at the early stages of this new era of urban air mobility, there is already a scramble amongst well-known aerospace giants, as well as start-ups, to develop and evaluate the civil VTOL market. And this all starts with air-taxi concepts.

The potential of daily on-demand aviation in and around cities is a major goal of many aerospace start-ups, including those that participated in the panel at SAE International’s AeroTech Americas 2019 event in Charleston, South Carolina. Companies like Zeva Aero, Detroit Flying Cars, and Varon Vehicles, are continuing to develop various vehicle types, whether they generate lift during forward flight or use a multi-rotor vertical flight approach, to make widespread personal urban air mobility (UAM) a reality in the coming years.

In April, NASA took another major step toward reintroducing supersonic flight with an award to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company to design, build, and test a supersonic aircraft to reduce sonic boom.

The Swarm and Search AI Challenge: 2019 Fire Hack challenge will culminate in a March 2019 showdown and explore methods for planning complex UAS or “drone” swarm operations.

A General Atomics Aeronautical System, Inc. (GA-ASI) MQ-9B SkyGuardian remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) was controlled – from takeoff to landing – by an operator using a GA-ASI certifiable ground control station (CGCS), marking the first time a CGCS was used to control an end-to-end flight and the first step in type-certifying the unit.

Looking to expand its offerings for urban air mobility solutions, Honeywell International, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina has developed a new hybrid-electric turbogenerator prototype based on its existing HTS900 turboshaft engine.

The United States Air Force’s 412th Test Wing’s Emerging Technologies (ET) Combined Test Force (CTF) completed the first flight test of Johns Hopkins University’s Testing of Autonomy in Complex Environments (TACE) system. As “middleware,” TACE serves as an “autonomy watchdog,” monitoring commands sent to an aircraft’s autopilot software from its autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) computer and transmitting autopilot information such as position, speed, and orientation back to the AI.

Last month, AeroVironment, Inc. began accepting orders for their new Puma 3 UAS. As an “all environment” UAS, Pumas have operated effectively in some of the harshest climates on Earth.

Lockheed Martin’s VCSi software can simultaneously control multiple UAV types, operating anywhere on Earth.