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Connected aircraft means more than just in-flight movies, free texting, and Facebook posting with friends while in flight. In fact, the connected aircraft revolutionizes airline operations, dramatically improving fleet management, flight safety, passenger experience, maintenance, flight operations, aircraft turnaround time, and costs. For aircraft operators, connectivity presents a new set of operational benefits that were previously unavailable.

Demand for high-performance plastics (HPPs) is up across the aerospace industry, driven by such key trends as growing performance requirements, increased use of additive manufacturing or 3D printing, supply chain globalization, and tightening environmental regulations. Growing passenger traffic coupled with the need to reduce emissions – being accomplished through lightweighting, engine downsizing, and vehicle electrification – present opportunities for HPPs, research analysts at Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio, Texas, explain.

Officials at SAE International in Warrendale, Pa., and Airlines for America (A4A) in Washington are recognizing Karsten Kaiser of Lufthansa Technik and Michael Ernst of subsidiary 3D.aero for furthering the science and efficacy of nondestructive testing (NDT), having presented them with the 16th annual Nondestructive Testing (NDT) Innovation Award at A4A’s annual NDT Forum last week in Seattle.

SaraniaSat, an aerospace startup in Los Angeles, won a three-year, $5.1 million NASA In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) contract to test and advance the company’s Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI), being touted as a unique, disruptive technology for hyperspectral remote sensing, a technology also known as imaging spectroscopy used to detect and identify minerals, vegetation, and manmade materials.

LiquidPiston Inc. has developed a new engine that can run on multiple fuels, including diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline. This platform uses an optimized thermodynamic cycle and a new rotary engine architecture and could increases flight endurance over conventional UAV engines by greater than 50%.

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.

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. has begun making commercial truck deliveries in Texas using its new self-driving long-haul truck platform with safety drivers behind the wheel. The Mountain View, California-based self-driving technology startup is just 16 months old.

Volvo Group CTO discusses electric and autonomous vehicles

Rolls-Royce officials in London are optimizing maintenance, service, and product development using data gleaned from its Trent aircraft engines in service with airlines, with the help of global enterprise applications company IFS in Linkoping, Sweden. Rolls-Royce employs IFS Maintenix to exchange data with airlines operating its Trent 1000, Trent XWB, and Trent 7000 engines.

The company’s software uses an algorithm that it says can process signals from any radar unit and get 10 times the resolution.

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.

Adhesive joining of structural components will assume an increasingly important role in designing and manufacturing lightweight structures for aerospace platforms. The latest book from SAE International, Adhesive Joining of Structural Components: New Insights and Technologies explores recent advancements in adhesive bonding, used in the manufacture of primary aircraft fuselage and wing structures since 1945.

The first Airbus A330-800 commercial jet, flight test aircraft MSN1888, took off today from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport on its maiden flight over southwestern France during which the aircraft performed dedicated flight-physics tests required for the variant.

Software has transformed every operational asset of everything in life; artificial intelligence (AI) will have as big an impact on life, predicts Mark Roboff, vice president, aerospace and automotive at SparkCognition during the 2018 SAE Aerospace Standards Summit at LMI in McLean, Va.

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

To ensure safe aircraft takeoffs and landings, one of the most vital areas to inspect for possible fatigue cracking and heat damage is the wheel bead seat. Comprehensive examination of this critical area, where the rubber edge of a tire contacts the wheel, requires having the right wheel inspection equipment on hand for the job – and not all maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities do.

NASA Science Mission Directorate officials in Washington are funding three new projects selected from a pool of 25 received in response to the NASA Earth Science Technology Office’s (ESTO’s) solicitation for the In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) program element A.49 of ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences) 2017, supporting the Earth Science Division (Solicitation NNH17ZDA001N).

Toyota engineers unveiled a new 2.0-L four-cylinder gasoline engine family at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is taking off in aerospace engineering and systems integration workflows worldwide. Editors in SAE International’s Aerospace Product Group had the opportunity to discuss MBSE trends, tools, and benefits, as well as any impediments to adoption and whether MBSE is likely to transform aerospace systems engineering and integration with Dave Shanley, vice president of segment & product marketing management at Jama Software in Portland, Oregon.

A host of new light and medium-duty truck rollouts are increasing competition and giving vocational truck customers a broader range of options. OEMs are focused on improving customer comfort and making it simpler for upfitters to customize vehicles.