While engine manufacturers fill orders from large operators for numerous new commercial engine types, maintenance costs of older, in-service engines will also continue to rise. Analysts currently estimate that engine maintenance and repair will contribute to nearly 30% of the predicted $25 billion 2018 maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) market—with most of the growth occurring in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thermal imaging data obtained from a FLIR high-performance camera shows that the expected turbine output temperature is approximately 285°C when the helicopter is in forward flight. However, during hover operations a steady state temperature of about 343°C will be reached.
skyguide joins forces with AirMap to develop and deploy Europe’s premier national drone traffic management system. The endeavor will be the first national deployment of Europe’s vision for the digital infrastructure to support safe and secure access to European skies for millions of UAVs, in an effort called U-space.
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%.
Equipment developers are moving quickly to ensure that military users will have long-term access to boards and modules that provide higher performance, easy replacement, and reduced costs. Board and system designers adopting new technologies are standardizing interconnection layouts to ensure that boards designed by various suppliers can be used to upgrade systems as technology advances.
The European Commission looks set to continue its move away from diesel, prompting manufacturers to assess future powertrain options for commercial vehicles.
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.
The 60th Maintenance Squadron at Travis Air Force Base is the first field unit in the United States Air Force to produce approved nonstructural aircraft parts using 3D printing – an additive manufacturing technique. The first parts: latrine covers on the Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy strategic airlifter.
After wrapping up a wing swap on 173 Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support attack aircraft, the Boeing Company was awarded with another Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) sustainment contract award from the U.S. Air Force to continue re-winging the rest of the A-10 fleet.
Boeing and U.S Air Force teams recently achieved a major KC-46 Pegasus tanker program milestone, completing all flight testing required for first delivery. This past week, the KC-46 team concluded both its Military Type Certification (MTC) testing and receiver certification testing with KC-135, F-16, and C-17 aircraft.
Aircraft orders exceed $95 billion in value and are complemented by roughly $3 billion in aircraft engine and engine service agreement contracts announced in the first two days of the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow. “The future starts at Farnborough; our exhibition halls are full of innovation that will shape how we fly, enabling us to go further, faster, and with less environmental impact,” says Farnborough International Commercial Director Amanda Stainer.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company is bringing its four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft to the fire fight with the LM-100J FireHerc, introduced at Farnborough International Airshow. The LM-100J FireHerc is a civil-certified firefighting airtanker variant of the company’s C-130J Super Hercules airlifter.
Boeing and SparkCognition are collaborating on unmanned aircraft system (UAS) traffic management (UTM) solutions that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies to track unmanned air vehicles in flight and allocate traffic corridors and routes to ensure safe, secure transportation.
After taking off on July 11 in Arizona, the Zephyr S unmanned aircraft from Airbus Defence and Space logged a maiden flight of over 25 days – the longest-duration flight ever made without refueling.
Astronaut launches will return to U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011. NASA officials have named the first U.S. astronauts who will fly on American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Space agency officials have assigned nine astronauts to crew the first test flight and mission of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, developed in collaboration with Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
On July 30, according to Russian state news outlet TASS, Russia is developing a prototype of the Orlan wing-in-ground-effect multimode aircraft under the state armament program.
Officials at GE Aviation and Teradata are expanding their partnership to provide airlines with a framework that combines Teradata’s high-performance analytics in the cloud from with GE Aviation’s edge-connectivity services. Markets and Markets Research estimates the aviation analytics market is a $2.16 billion industry that will grow to an estimated $4.23 billion by 2021.