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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.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has started producing rocket motors at its new, modernized tactical motor manufacturing facility at the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) in West Virginia. Read more in the Advanced Manufacturing Knowledge Hub on SAE MOBILUS.

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).

Paris-based Safran SA and Munich-based MTU Aero Engines AG will partner to develop, produce, and support a new turbofan engine for “New Generation Fighter” (NGF) aircraft being developed by Airbus SE and Dassault Aviation SA. The NGF is a manned, sixth-generation fighter and a component of the future Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS) architecture.

For airlines, providing an enjoyable customer experience, especially on long-haul flights, is a balancing act of additional features and weight and space savings. Collins Aerospace is pioneering the use of MicroLED lighting technology to increases lighting flexibility and slimline kiosks to give passengers premium self-service options.

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.

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.

This critical milestone comes after a rigorous review, called “Key Decision Point-C (KDP-C),” that confirmed NASA’s continued support of the X-59 in terms of funding. It establishes an achievable development timeline for NASA’s first piloted full-size X-plane in more than three decades.

Created as a component of Locatory’s Sensus Aero product line, Sensus MRO uses a unique, module-based system designed around the best practices in aircraft lean operations to make MRO processes more efficient with less human effort.

SAE International, a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for mobility engineering, is bringing together subject-matter experts from across the globe for the first SAE International Aerospace Japan Symposium, held November 29 and 30 in conjunction with Japan International Aerospace Exhibition 2018 at Tokyo Big Sight convention center in Tokyo.

Pulling out all stops, Boeing Business Jets debuted the “Shaheen” BBJ 777X at the 2018 Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The model that can fly more than half way around the world without stopping, farther than any business jet ever built.

Japan officials continue to boost the country’s defenses against threats, exercising the option to add a second Boeing KC-46 Pegasus military aerial refueling and strategic military transport aircraft, based on the Boeing 767 commercial passenger jet, to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s fleet of aircraft.

EOS GmbH and Etihad Airways will partner to significantly expand local capabilities for industrial additive manufacturing – also known as 3D printing – in aviation. The partnership will enable Etihad Airways Engineering to produce 3D-printed aircraft parts at their facility in Abu Dhabi.

To provide efficient workforce coverage and lower airport operating costs, German air navigation provider DFS will shift all Saarbrücken, Erfurt, and Dresden air traffic operations to the DFS Remote Tower Control Center in Leipzig.

The X-60A is an air-dropped, liquid oxygen and kerosene propelled rocket developed by Atlanta-based Generation Orbit Launch Services under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Aerospace Systems Directorate High Speed Systems Division. The vehicle propulsion system is the 5,000 pound-force sea level thrust Hadley liquid rocket engine, produced by Colorado-based Ursa Major Technologies.

Boeing officials are expanding the company’s use of Siemens’ Mentor Graphics software as part of its Second Century Enterprise Systems (2CES) initiative, an effort to transform the company and aerospace industry to meet future challenges and achieve maximum value from end-to-end integration of supply chain, manufacturing, engineering, product support, and more. Boeing is harnessing a set of Siemens technologies to enable the next generation of design and manufacturing through increased automation and digitalization.

Engineers at Jetoptera in Edmonds, Washington, and GE Aviation in Evandale, Ohio, are collaborating on a 500 pound-force (lbf) class fluidic propulsion system leveraging a gas generator based on GE Aviation’s H-Series turboprop engine. Jetoptera’s Fluidic Propulsion System is, officials say, both revolutionary and a remarkably simple approach to producing thrust for powerful, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL)-capable aircraft.

In part two of a two-part series, Richard Gardner discusses various aerospace propulsion innovations and continued work by aerospace engineers and scientists to advance aircraft engine technologies to increase efficiency and lower emissions.

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.

Last month, Rolls-Royce signed a collaboration agreement with Superdielectrics to explore the potential of supercapacitors using polymers with recently discovered hydrophilic properties.