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The vision of SESAR is to integrate and implement new technologies to improve air traffic management (ATM) performance. Enhanced automation and new separation modes characterize the future concept of operations, where the role of the human operator will remain central by integrating more managing and decision-making functions. The expected changes represent challenges for the human actors in the aircraft and on ground and must be taken into account during the development phase. Integrating the human in the ATM system development starting from the early design phase is a key factor for future acceptability. This paper describes the adaptation of currently applied Cockpit Human Factors processes in order to be able to design the aircraft for the future ATM environment.

The recent developments in diesel fuel injection equipment coupled with the moves in the US to using ULSD and biodiesel blends has seen an increase in the number of reports from both engine manufacturers and fleet operators regarding fuel system deposit formation issues. These deposits not only form on and within the fuel injectors but they also form elsewhere in the fuel system, due to fuel recirculation. These will eventually accumulate in the fuel filters. Historically, diesel fuel system deposits have been attributed to contamination of the fuel or the degradation of the fuel with age. Such age related degradation has been attributed to oxidation of the fuel via well documented pathways, although the initiation of this process is still poorly understood. Papers at recent SAE meetings in Florence, San Antonio, Rio de Janeiro, San Diego and Kyoto have addressed many of these causes.

The intent of this paper is to provide a general overview of the main engineering and test activities conducted in order to support A350XWB Ice and Rain Protection Systems certification. Several means of compliance have been used to demonstrate compliance with applicable Certification Basis (CS 25 at Amendment 8 + CS 25.795 at Amendment 9, FAR 25 up to Amendment 129) and Environmental protection requirements. The EASA Type Certificate for the A350XWB was received the 30th September 2014 after 7 years of development and verification that the design performs as required, with five A350XWB test aircraft accumulating more than 2600 flight test hours and over 600 flights. The flight tests were performed in dry air and measured natural icing conditions to demonstrate the performance of all ice and rain protection systems and to support the compliance demonstration with CS 25.1419 and CS25.21g.

The Rapid And Cost Effective Rotorcraft (RACER) is being developed by Airbus Helicopters (AH) to demonstrate a new Vertical Take-Off and Landing configuration to fill the mobility gap between conventional helicopters and aeroplanes. RACER is a compound rotorcraft featuring wings and multiple rotors. The wing arrangement suggested by AH is defined as a staggered bi-plane joined configuration with an upper and a lower straight wing, either side of the fuselage, connected at their outboard extent to form a triangular structure. The ASTRAL consortium, consisting of the University of Nottingham and GE Aviation Systems, are responsible for the design, manufacture, assembly and testing of the wings. Producing an optimised strategy to assemble a joined-wing configuration for a passenger carrying rotorcraft is challenging and novel. The objective of this work concerns all aspects of assembling the joined-wing structure.

Airbus is a leading aircraft manufacturer with the position as technology driver and a distinct customer orientation, broad commercial know-how and high production efficiencies. It is constantly working on further and new development of its products from ecological and economical points of view. Fuel Cell Systems (FCS) on board of an aircraft provide a good opportunity to address both aspects. Based on existing and upcoming research results it is necessary to find trend-setting measures for the industrial implementation and application of this technology. Past and current research efforts have shown good prospects for the industrial implementation and application of the fuel cell technology. Being an efficient source of primarily electric power the fuel cell would be most beneficial when used in conjunction with electrical systems.

Airbus business and Extended Enterprise require more and more involvement of design and built suppliers, tier 1 but also across the complete supply chain i.e. tier 2-n. These suppliers are not working only for Aerospace industry and may have different cultures. The pressure on cost and overall efficiency is high and everybody has to cope with obsolescence and new regulation (e.g. REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals)). So it became very important for Airbus to clarify the criteria under which a change can be done without Airbus review, and criteria under which a change can be done without Airworthiness authority review.

Morphology plays an important role in determining behaviour and impact of soot nanoparticles, including effect on human health, atmospheric optical properties, contribution to engine wear, and role in marine ecology. However, its nanoscopic size has limited the ability to directly measure useful morphological parameters such as surface area and effective volume. Recently, 3D morphology characterization of soot nanoparticles via electron tomography has been the subject of several introductory studies. So-called ‘3D-TEM’ has been posited as an improvement over traditional 2D-TEM characterization due to the elimination of the error-inducing information gap that exists between 3-dimensional soot structures and 2-dimensional TEM projections. Little follow-up work has been performed due to difficulties with developing methodologies into robust high-throughput techniques.

Experimental studies of fuel utilisation during the early stages of engine warm-up after cold-starts are reported. The investigation has been carried out on a 1.81, 4 cylinder spark-ignition engine with port electronic fuel injection. The relationship between fuel supplied and fuel accounted for by the analysis of exhaust gas composition shows that a significant mass of fuel supplied is temporarily stored or permanently lost. An interpretation of data is made which allows time-dependent variations of these to be separately resolved and estimates of fuel quantities made. The data covers a range of cold-start conditions down to -5°C at which, on a per cylinder basis, fuel stored peaks typically at around 0.75g and a total of 1g is returned over 100 seconds of engine running. Fuel lost past the piston typically accounts for 2g over 200 to 300 seconds of running.

Aerospace assembly systems comprise a vast array of interrelated elements interacting in a myriad of ways. Consequently, aerospace assembly system design is a deeply complex process that requires a multi-disciplined team of engineers. Recent trends to improve manufacturing agility suggest reconfigurability as a solution to the increasing demand for improved flexibility, time-to-market and overall reduction in non-recurring costs. Yet, adding reconfigurability to assembly systems further increases operational complexity and design complexity. Despite the increase in complexity for reconfigurable assembly, few formal methodologies or frameworks exist specifically to support the design of Reconfigurable Assembly Systems (RAS). This paper presents a novel reconfigurable assembly system design framework (RASDF) that can be applied to wing structure assembly as well as many other RAS design problems.

The new edition of the well known Care and Repair of Advanced Composites, 3rd Edition, improves on the usefulness of this practical guide geared towards the aerospace industry. Keith B. Armstrong, the original lead author of the first edition was still in charge of this project, counting on the expert support of Eric Chesmar, senior composites specialist at United Airlines. Mr. Chesmar is also an active member of SAE International's CACRC (Commercial Aircraft Composite Repair Committee), an elite group of industry experts dedicated to the standardization, safety, security, and efficiency of composite repairs in the airline industry. Mr. Francois Museux (Airbus) and Mr. William F. Cole II also contributed. Care and Repair of Advanced Composites, 3rd Edition, presents a fully updated approach to the training syllabus recommended for repair design engineers and composite repair mechanics.

This second edition has been extensively updated to keep pace with the growing use of composite materials in commercial aviation. A worldwide reference for repair technicians and design engineers, the book is an outgrowth of the course syllabus that was developed by the Training Task Group of SAE's Commercial Aircraft Composite Repair Committee (CACRC) and published as SAE AIR 4938, Composite and Bonded Structure Technician Specialist Training Document. Topics new to this edition include: Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) Methods Fasteners for Composite Materials A Method for the Surface Preparation of Metals Prior to Adhesive Bonding Repair Design Although this book has been written primarily for use in aircraft repair other applications including marine and automotive are also covered.

The paper is devoted to the simulation of A320 wing assembly on the base of numerical experiments carried out with the help of ASRP software. The main goal is to find fasteners’ configuration with minimal number of fastening elements that provides closing of admissible initial gaps. However, for considered junction type initial gap field is not known a priori though it should be provided as input data for computations. In order to resolve this problem the methodology of random initial gap generation based on available results of gap measurements is developed along with algorithms for optimization of fasteners' configuration on generated initial gaps. Presented paper illustrates how this methodology allows optimizing assembly process for A320 wing.

The paper reports the control design for an aircraft electric starter-generator system based-on high-speed permanent magnet machine operated in a flux-weakening mode and controlled by an active front-end rectifier. The proposed system utilizes advances of modern power electronics allowing the use of novel machine types and the introduction of controlled power electronics into the main path of energy flow. The paper focuses on control design for such system and includes development of flux weakening control of high-speed permanent magnet machine and droop control of the system output dc-link current. The achieved analytical design results and the expected system performance are confirmed by time-domain simulations.

A 45kW, switched reluctance type, starter-generator, having a 1:4 constant power speed range has been designed as a possible candidate for a regional jet application. In the first section of this paper, a review of the major starter-generator topologies considered for the aerospace application is provided, highlighting the advantages of choosing the Switched reluctance topology for such a safety critical application. Following this, the required torque speed characteristic of the machine, along with the imposed physical constraints, in terms of cooling and outer dimensions, are also detailed. Section III provides a description of the Electromagnetic design, and challenges encountered in meeting both the low speed, peak torque node, at 8000rpm, and the high speed, high power node, at 32000rpm. The induced mechanical stresses in the rotor at such high speeds have also been evaluated and used as a material selection criterion for such a design as presented in section III.

This paper presents novel development of a reconfigurable assembly cell which assembles multiple aerostructure products. Most aerostructure assembly systems are designed to produce one variant only. For multiple variants, each assembly typically has a dedicated assembly cell, despite most assemblies requiring a process of drilling and fastening to similar tolerances. Assembly systems that produce more than one variant do exist but have long changeover or involve extensive retrofitting. Quick assembly of multiple products using one assembly system offers significant cost savings from reductions in capital expenditure and lead time. Recent trends advocate Reconfigurable Assembly Systems (RAS) as a solution; designed to have exactly the functionality necessary to produce a group of similar components. A state-of-the-art review finds significant benefits in deploying RAS for a group of aerostructures variants.

This paper presents the development of a high density packaging technology for wide band gap power devices, such as silicon carbide (SiC). These devices are interesting candidates for the next aircraft power electronic converters. Effectively they achieve high switching frequencies thanks to the low losses level. High switching frequencies lead to reduce the passive components size and to an overall weight reduction of power converters. Moreover, SiC devices may enable operation at junction temperatures around 250°C. The cooling requirement is much less stringent than for usual Si devices. This might considerably simplify the cooling system, and reduce the overall weight. To achieve the integration requirements for SiC devices, classical wire bonding interconnection is replaced by a stacked packaging using bump interconnection technologies, called sandwich. These technologies offer two thermal paths to drain heat out and present more power integration possibilities.

Electroimpact has retrofitted two E4100 riveting gantry machines and two more are in process. These machines use the EMR (Electromagnetic Riveter) riveting process for the installation of slug rivets. We have improved the skin side EMR to provide fast and reliable results: reliability improved by eliminating a weekly shutdown of the machine. In paper 2015-01-2515 we showed the slug rivet injector using a Synchronized Parallel Gripper that provides good results over multiple rivet diameters. This injector is mounted to the skin side EMR so that the rivet injection can be done at any position of the shuttle table. The EMR is a challenging application for the fingers due to shock and vibration. In previous designs, fingers would occasionally be thrown out of the slots. To provide reliable results we redesigned the fingers retainer to capture the finger in a slotted plastic block which slides along the outside diameter of the driver bearing.

Due to the importance of fulfilling the actual and upcoming environmental legislation, it is an Airbus main target to develop eco-efficient materials. Under consideration of the economical effects, these processes will be implemented into the production line. This paper gives an overview of Airbus and its partners research work, the results obtained within the frame of the European funded, integrated technology demonstrator (ITD) ECO Design for Airframe. This ITD is part of the joint technology initiative Clean Sky. Developments with different grade of maturity from “upstream” as the investigation of materials from renewable recourses up to materials now in use in production as low volatile organic compounds cleaner are under investigation. As a basis for future eco-efficient developments an approach for a quantitative life cycle assessment will be demonstrated.

Several new technologies are now emerging to improve adhesive supply and formulation along with surface treatments that have the potential to offer significant improvements to both surface energy and cleanliness [3]. Additionally, the miniaturisation of laboratory techniques into portable equipment offers potential for online surface energy and chemical analysis measurement for use as quality control measures in a production environment. An overview of newly available technology is given here with several devices studied in further detail. Technologies assessed further in this paper are; portable surface contact angle measurement, ambient pressure plasma cleaning, portable FTIR measurement and adhesive mixing equipment. A number of potential applications are outlined for each device based on the operational technique. The practical aspects of implementation and the perceived technology readiness levels for operation, implementation and results are also given.

With increased demand for composite materials in the aerospace sector there is a requirement for the development of manufacturing processes that enable larger and more complex geometries, whilst ensuring that the functionality and specific properties of the component are maintained. To achieve this, methods such as thermal roll forming are being considered. This method is relatively new to composite forming in the aerospace field, and as such there are currently issues with the formation of part defects during manufacture. Previous work has shown that precise control of the force applied to the composite surface during forming has the potential to prevent the formation of wrinkle defects. In this paper the development of various control strategies that can robustly adapt to different complex geometries are presented and compared within simulated and small scale experimental environments, on varying surface profiles.