A380 Meets Tu-95 = a Regional Widebody?
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A380 Meets Tu-95 = a Regional Widebody?
// Things With Wings
Could there be a market for a very large aircraft on relatively short routes, and what would it look like? The Technical University of Munich (TUM) presented its idea at last week's AIAA SciTech conference, and it looks like an Airbus A380 mated with a Tupolev Tu-95 Bear.
Tu-95 (Photo: Sergey Krivchikov, via Wikipedia)
I love the sausage-making of conceptual design, the way configurations evolve, and the paper presented at SciTech, authored by TUM researchers Michael Iwanizki, Niclas Randt and Sky Sartorius (who gets my Best Name for an Aircraft Designer award), shows how they started with a market analysis and ended up with a four-turboprop, double-deck, 420-passenger short/medium-range airliner.
Concept: Technical University of Munich
They picked 3,000km (1,620nm) as the design range after a route analysis showed 90% of flights (in June 2008) were 3,000km or shorter. The majority were flown by Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s, so they started with a 300-seat design capacity, which would allow one aircraft to replace two A320s or 737s.
They chose a turboprop for its short take-off capability and fuel efficiency -- its lower speed compared with turbofans was less of an issue on shorter routes. Span was constrained to within 52m (170ft) and length to within 48.5m to allow the aircraft to use shorter runways (a field length of 1.8km) than conventional widebody aircraft.
The researchers expected to need at least 10,000kW (13,400shp) of take-off power from each engine -- only Russian turboprops get that big, so they looked at the Tu-95's Kuznetsov NK-12 and the Antonov An-70's D-27 "propfan".
An-70 (Photo: Oleg Belyakov, via Wikipedia)
TUM started out with a high-wing concept resembling the An-70 airlifter, but the design evolved into a low-wing configuration with a double-bubble, double-deck fuselage. That way the wing structure passes through the lower cargo compartment, rather than one of the passenger decks. Nine-abreast seating on the main deck kept the fuselage as short and light as possible.
The researchers looked at various engine locations, pusher and puller, on the wing, fuselage and tail before deciding to go with conventional tractor turboprops mounted on the wing. This creates some drag from immersing the wing in the propwash, but improves high-lift performance. The inner nacelles were moved up in line with the wing to provide prop clearance with a shorter, lighter landing gear.
Concept: Technical University of Munich
The result of all this conceptual design work is a 420-seat aircraft with a 163-tonne (390,350lb) maximum takeoff weight and a 380kt/Mach 0.64 cruise speed powered by four 12,700shp D-27s. Wingspan is 51.65m and fuselage length is 47.7m. Fuel burn is 3.4liters (0.9gal) per 100 passenger-kilometers at 80% load factor.
The TUM researchers acknowledge the higher noise of turboprops versus turbofans is a critical challenge to the concept, but conclude that growth of global air traffic volume in the face of rising energy costs "is likely to make high-capacity turboprop aircraft ... more attractive."
Well, attactiveness might be in the eye of the beholder but I rather like the Tu-95...
(Photo: Marina Lystseva, via Wikipedia)
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Greening the Desert, for Biofuel
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Greening the Desert, for Biofuel
// Things With Wings
I can never quite shake a lingering worry over the unintended consequences of developing ways to turn almost anything into biofuel - I imagine driving through and flying over a world stripped bare of other living things to meet our energy needs...but finding a way to grow feedstocks for fuels in the desert can't be that bad, can it?
Boeing says research conducted in the United Arab Emirates shows that halophytes - saltwater-tolerant plants - grown in coastal desert and irrigated with seawater can be effectively converted into biomass from which aviation biofuel can be produced. Funded by Boeing, Etihad and Honeywell UOP, the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Constorium plans test the concept this year in Abu Dhabi.
The goal is to demonstrate an integrated ecosystem that minimizes land use, carbon emissions and waste discharge. Here is how it will work:
Graphic: Boeing
Seawater is pumped from the ocean into an existing fish and shrimp farm. Waste water from this aquaculture operation, enriched with fish-wates nutriets, is used to irrigate a field of shrub-like halophytes called salicornia. The water is cleaned by these plants, then drains into a mangrove wetland before returing to the oceans. Both the halophytes and mangrives will be converted to biomass for aviation biofuel.
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Pentagon Report Faults F-35
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Pentagon Report Faults F-35
// AviationWeek.com Defense Channel
Warns software, maintenance and reliability problems could delay use
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Government, Contractors Reach Deal In A-12 Dispute
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Government, Contractors Reach Deal In A-12 Dispute
// AviationWeek.com Defense Channel
The $400 million agreement would bring an end to a 23-year saga
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No worries - we know Sukhoi's stealth secrets - Australian Defence Magazine
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No worries - we know Sukhoi's stealth secrets - Australian Defence Magazine
// sukhoi: Google Noticias
No worries - we know Sukhoi's stealth secrets
Australian Defence Magazine
While Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney and others, may be wringing their hands over news that 44 boxes of documents and plans relating to the F-35 JSF were found from shipping containers destined for Iran, Russia appears much less concerned about ...
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Natixis arrange le premier financement en crédit export d'un Sukhoi 100 ... - Finyear.com
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Natixis arrange le premier financement en crédit export d'un Sukhoi ... - Finyear.com
// sukhoi: Google Noticias
Natixis arrange le premier financement en crédit export d'un Sukhoi ...
Finyear.com
Natixis a dirigé, en qualité d'arrangeur mandaté et d'agent global des facilités, le premier financement en crédit export d'un Sukhoi Superjet 100. L'acheteur est la compagnie aérienne mexicaine Interjet (ABC Aerolineas, S.A. de C.V.).
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Embraer May See 150 Regional-Jet Orders Through 2015 - Bloomberg
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Embraer May See 150 Regional-Jet Orders Through 2015 - Bloomberg
// embraer: Google Noticias
Embraer May See 150 Regional-Jet Orders Through 2015
Bloomberg
Embraer SA (EMBR3), fresh off leading a round of U.S. regional jet orders, may sell as many as 150 planes through 2015 as carriers seek more economic upgrades, said Chief Executive Officer Frederico Curado. The planemaker's strategy of updating its ...
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Una delegación rusa visita el Clúster Aeroespacial de Madrid - Actualidad Aeroespacial
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Una delegación rusa visita el Clúster Aeroespacial de Madrid - Actualidad Aeroespacial
// aernnova: Google Noticias
Una delegación rusa visita el Clúster Aeroespacial de Madrid
Actualidad Aeroespacial
Durante su estancia en la capital, el grupo ha visitado las instalaciones de diferentes empresas como Airbus Defence and Space, CESA, Avansis y Aernnova Composites, todas ellas asociadas al Clúster Aeroespacial de Madrid. La delegación encabezada ...
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Russia to invest $708 million in SSJ100 through 2019
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Russia to invest $708 million in SSJ100 through 2019
// Revista de prensa aeronáutica: Feed de feeds de Revistas Aeronáuticas | recopiladas por www.noticias-aero.info
Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade will invest RUB24 billion ($708.6 million) in the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) program in 2014 to 2019.
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PICTURE: United’s new higher density 737
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PICTURE: United's new higher density 737
// Airline Business
United Airlines has received its first Boeing 737-900ER with slimline seats, allowing it to add up to 12 seats to the type.
The new 179-seat configuration includes new Priestmangoode-designed blue economy seats that will grace the economy cabins of roughly 500 narrowbody aircraft in the Chicago-based carrier's fleet by the end of 2015.
Economy cabin of United's new higher density 737-900ER. (Source: United)
United says that the new higher density configuration will allow it to better match "capacity to customer demand", in an employee newsletter on 21 January. It also allows it to more closely match the capacity of its 182-seat Boeing 757-200s, which the 737-900ERs are replacing.
The airline's existing fleet of 737-900ERs have between 167 and 173 seats.
All future 737 and Embraer 175 deliveries will have the new slimline seats and reconfigurations of United's existing fleet of 737-800s and 737-900ERs will begin in the third quarter, the airline says.
United is also adding up to 12 seats to its Airbus A320 and A319 fleet, a programme that began in 2012. It has completed installations of Recaro slimline seats on 44 Airbus aircraft, it says.
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Dassult completes first test flights of new 'heavily armed' Rafale
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Dassult completes first test flights of new 'heavily armed' Rafale
// Aircraft news
Dassault has completed the first test flights of its Rafale combat type in what it describes as a "heavily armed" configuration, featuring a number of new weapons and larger fuel tanks.
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A350 XWB to take centre stage at Singapore Airshow
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A350 XWB to take centre stage at Singapore Airshow
// Airbus All news
First full air show display for world's most modern mid-size widebody
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