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 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.
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.
Aerion Supersonic in Reno, Nevada, and Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix are collaborating on a revolutionary, connected cockpit for the Aerion AS2, regarded as the first supersonic business jet in history.
The company, which specializes in connected and automated vehicle technology in the freight industry, plans on doubling shipping productivity by having human drivers lead a platoon of automated vehicles using SAE International Level 4 “Automated Following” technology.
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.
The “Know My PT6” app is a digital gateway to maintenance recommendations and to the services and facilities that P&W offers through its global customer service network for engine maintainers, owners, operators and pilots. It is designed to help PT6 customers and operators optimize the performance and availability of their PT6-powered aircraft.
Airbus SE is shifting its Connected Experience cabin concept into the first stages of reality with cooperative buy-in from gategroup Holding AG, Stelia Aerospace, and Recaro Aircraft Seating. Up until the partnership announcement, Airbus had been collecting extensive market feedback and refining its Internet of Things (IoT) approach to aircraft interiors, with real-time interconnected galleys, in-flight service carts, seats, and overhead bins.
As mobility software becomes increasingly complex and connected, so does the risk of human error and system safety. To combat this, New York-based software company AdaCore will work with Nvidia Corporation of Santa Clara, California to apply open-source Ada and SPARK programming languages for select software security firmware elements in highly-complex, safety-critical systems like Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX automated and autonomous vehicle solutions.
The Raytheon Company (Raytheon), based out of Waltham, Massachusetts, is currently paying for a Joint Precision Approach and Landing Systems (JPALS) software upgrade with independent research and development funds. The company hopes to convince the U.S. Air Force to use JPALS – a system used to help aircraft land on aircraft carrier decks – in its expeditionary land operations.
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.
Argus, a global leader in automotive cybersecurity, has upgraded its stand-alone Fleet Protection backend platform and is now providing continuous live monitoring of both automotive and commercial aircraft fleets.
The Lockheed C-130H Hercules fleet operated by the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve is getting new Collins Aerospace Systems avionics that will help extend the life of the legacy aircraft by 20 years.