Browse Topic: Commercial aircraft
The United Kingdom's convertible rotorcraft studies of the 1960s and early 1970s represent a systematic effort to combine vertical take-off and landing capability of helicopters with the speed and efficiency of fixed-wing transport aircraft. Conducted primarily by Westland Helicopters under the Short Range Transport (SRT) programme, these investigations explored both tiltrotor and tiltwing configurations for civil and military applications. Early work focused on the WE-01 tiltrotor, conceived as a research and demonstrator aircraft to investigate transition aerodynamics, control integration, and rotor–wing interactions, and subsequently scaled to the larger WE-02, intended for intercity and tactical transport missions. In parallel, Westland pursued the more ambitious WG.22 tiltwing, a 100-seat intercity VTOL transport incorporating high-incidence stall wing technology, large prop-rotors, and mechanically scheduled flight controls to ensure benign handling through transition. Although none of these aircraft were built, the studies addressed aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, flight controls, noise, and socio-economic viability with exceptional depth. Shaping the future through the past, this paper revisits Westland's early involvement in tiltrotor and tiltwing research, with the aim of assessing the technical maturity of these configurations and evaluating their lasting relevance to contemporary vertical lift aircraft design.
Civil vehicles, commonly seen as complex products, involve many high-tech aspects, several fields working together, many investments spent on projects, and challenging management. Through the entire life-cycle of aircraft development, the application of requirement-driven systems engineering methodologies helps to manage the aircraft development process while addressing the needs of the market and of stakeholders. The operational needs of an aircraft are design inputs for aircraft development, and the precision, authenticity, and comprehensiveness of these needs influence the efficiency of the development processes and the quality of the products. When the design and research-and-development activities are based on accurate and complete needs, the development interval for such projects can be shortened significantly, and the costs of R&D lowered. Especially because it is one of the fundamental phases of establishing whether aircraft meet the design requirements, design verification is becoming one of the most critical stages of civil aircraft development. Consequently, designing a more methodical and effective way of verifying designs becomes a central theme in current aviation technology development. There is a human-centered design verification approach that emphasizes requirement-oriented processes, using systematic requirement analysis and conceptual design procedures in order to maximize the congruency between design results and intended requirements. This study aims to perform a holistic analysis of the aircraft design validation process that is based on research, while offering some innovative techniques and strategies for civil aviation on effective validation practices.
From satellites and commercial aircraft to uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), the reliability of aerospace and defense electronics depends on their ability to perform flawlessly in extreme conditions. While stresses such as altitude changes, vacuum, vibration, moisture and chemical exposure have the potential to wreak havoc on electronic components, conformal coatings have become essential to providing protection in the midst of these challenges. Applied as thin, lightweight films that follow the contours of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and components, conformal coatings create a barrier between the electronics and the harsh environments in which they must perform. The coatings' ability to provide dielectric insulation, chemical protection and moisture resistance ensures that mission-critical electronics remain functional on the ground, in the sea, in flight or in orbit.
Advanced motion control technologies are essential to modern aerospace design, supporting a wide range of safety-critical and comfort-driven applications. In aerospace, motion control components such as gas springs, actuators, and dampers are integral to nearly every commercial aircraft, rocket, satellite, and space vehicle. These critical elements support flight safety and transport functions, from the dependable deployment of landing gear and cargo doors to the smooth, ergonomic operation of seating for pilots and passengers.
Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, conceptualized to be used as air taxis for transporting cargo or passengers, are generally lighter in weight than jet-fueled aircraft, and fly at lower altitudes than commercial aircraft. These differences render them more susceptible to turbulence, leading to the possibility of instabilities such as Dutch-roll oscillations. In traditional fixed-wing aircraft, active mechanisms used to suppress oscillations include control surfaces such as flaps, ailerons, tabs, and rudders, but eVTOL aircraft do not have the control surfaces necessary for suppressing Dutch-roll oscillations.
The Primary Author has been involved in Army Aviation Development and Acquisition since the Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS), Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH), Army Helicopter Improvement Program (AHIP), and Light Helicopter Experimental (LHX) Programs in the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The first three of these programs successfully made it to production aircraft, while the LHX became the RAH-66 Comanche and was canceled primarily due to technical problems and cost overruns. The initiation of the next phase by the Army Aviation Development (ADD) Directorate for Future Vertical Lift (FVL) did not occur until the beginning of the 2015-2000 timeframe. This was 35 years since the last Army Aviation Development in 1980. To help sustain this FVL development, the Primary Author led, oversaw, and helped conduct a program through the National Rotorcraft Technology Center (NRTC) in the 2015-2016 timeframe. It was called the Development Assurance Value-Based Acquisition (DAVBA) Program1. It included the following team members: Georgia Tech, University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH), Dassault Systèmes, and Clausewitz Technology. The Army ADD plan funded it for FY2015- 2016 through the NRTC. The objectives were to provide the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Program with a Development Assurance for Airworthiness Qualification and a Value-Based Acquisition Overall Evaluation Criterion (OEC) for FARA and FLRAA concepts.. However, Army Aviation only funded the first phase in 2015, as FVL funds were then transferred to the new Army Futures Command. This paper will illustrate how DAVBA could have saved the Future Attack and Reconnaissance Aircraft Program (FARA) Program as well as providing a more cost effective Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) Program.
Performing highly representative tests of aircraft equipment is a critical feature for gaining utmost confidence on their ability to perform flawlessly in flight under the entire spectrum of operating conditions. This can also contribute to accelerate the certification process of a new equipment. A research project (E-LISA) was performed in recent years, as part of the European funded Clean Sky 2 framework, with the objective of building an innovative facility for testing an electrically actuated landing gear and brake for a small air transport. The project eventually led to the development and construction of an Iron Bird able to reproduce in a realistic and comprehensive way a full variety of landing test cases consistent with certification specifications and landing histories available in the repository of the airframer. The Iron Bird that was eventually developed is a multi-functional intelligent and easy reconfigurable facility integrating hardware and software allowing to perform a full verification and validation of an electrically actuated landing gear and brake over the representative operating conditions, and under normal, degraded and faulty conditions.
Effective contrail management while ensuring operational and economic efficiencies for flight services is essential for providing services with minimal adverse environmental impact. The paper explores various aspects of contrail management applicable to different platforms such as Unmanned vehicles, Commercial airliners, and Business & regional jets. The aspects unique to each platform such as flight levels of operation, fuel types, flight endurance and radius of operation have been analyzed. Expanse of 5G network is resulting in increased flight activity at flight levels not envisaged hitherto. The paper also dwells on the ramifications of the increased proliferation of different platforms at newer flight levels from the perspective of contrail management. This paper introduces a framework that integrates the dual objective of minimizing contrail effects while optimizing fuel consumption for commercial aircraft by considering various factors like flight levels, geothermal data, and flight time. The paper also examines challenges and strategies related to seamless implementation, thereby highlighting the framework’s potential to propel the aviation industry towards environmentally responsible and efficient practices.
The rotorcraft community faces significantly higher accident rates compared to fixed-wing commercial aircraft, underscoring the critical need for enhanced safety measures. While Helicopter Flight Data Monitoring programs hold promise in improving safety, their widespread adoption remains limited, partly due to challenges associated with the acquisition and analysis of flight data. This paper proposes a Deep Learning (DL) solution to address safety concerns within the rotorcraft community by efficiently acquiring and analyzing flight data for a more automated and comprehensive safety assessment. Specifically, we leverage data obtained with cost-effective off-the-shelf cameras, and process it through Convolutional Neural Networks for automated detection and classification of gauges from several helicopters' cockpits. Our DL pipeline integrates a classifier for helicopter identification, an object detector for cockpit gauges detection and classification, and a network to infer the reading of each detected gauge. The contribution of this work is two-fold: (1) enhance rotorcraft safety by developing a DL framework capable of detecting, classifying, and inferring gauge readings for different helicopter types, and (2) boost research in the field by constructing a curated dataset valuable for aviation and machine learning communities.
Defense Innovation Unit Washington D.C. info@DIU.mil
In commercial aerospace, the application areas for motors are wide and varied, each with their own unique requirements. From electric vehicle take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxis to business jets to long-haul commercial transport aircraft, DC motors must endure various environmental conditions like extreme temperatures, shock and vibration, atmospheric pressures and signal interference, to name just a few. These applications may also demand motors that provide a fast response, high power or torque density. In addition to these requirements, the aerospace industry perpetually calls for lightweight materials and smaller installation spaces. Taken together, it can be very difficult to specify and buy a reliable motor for mission-critical equipment. This article will present common commercial aerospace applications that pose performance and environmental challenges for DC motors along with a summary of the stringent aerospace industry standards that the motors must satisfy. It will also provide an overview of BLDC and DC motor types, the attributes to look for when specifying motion control components for various commercial aerospace applications, and customization options to ensure optimal reliability and a long lifetime.
This technical paper reports the development of an automatic defect detector utilizing deep learning for “polished skins”. Materials with a “polished skin” are used in the fabrication of the external plates of commercial airplanes. The polished skin is obtained by polishing the surface of an aluminum clad material, and they are visually inspected, which places a significant burden on inspectors to find minute defects on relatively large pieces of material. Automated inspection of these skins is made more difficult because the material has a mirror finished surface. Defects are broadly classified into three categories: dents, bumps, and discolorations. Therefore, a defect detector must be able to detect these types of defects and measure the defects’ surface profile. This technical paper presents details related to the design and manufacture of an inexpensive automated defect detector that demonstrates a sufficiently high level of performance. The system employs multiple line sensor cameras and image processing including deep learning to find defects. By developing an effective automated inspection method combined with a relatively large apparatus and an appropriate processing algorithm, defect detection performance of the system was found to be equal to or higher than existing visual inspection methods. Furthermore, although the measurement time depends on the size on the piece of material, most inspections take short time to generate a report, which is significantly less than the time needed to conduct a visual inspection. This technology could be used in the automated inspection of large pieces of material with a mirror-surface that are currently inspected visually.
Boom Supersonic, the company building supersonic planes, is developing Symphony, a new propulsion system designed and optimized for its Overture supersonic airliner. Boom will be teaming with three industry leaders to develop Symphony including Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT) for engine design, GE Additive for additive technology design consulting, and StandardAero for maintenance.
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