Rolls-Royce obtains final approval for acquisition of ITP
Thursday, 7 December 2017
Rolls-Royce has obtained the approval of all the relevant authorities for the acquisition of the outstanding 53.1% shareholding in Industria de Turbo Propulsores SA ("ITP") owned by SENER Grupo de Ingeniería SA ("SENER"). Approval from the authorities in Spain paves the way for Rolls-Royce to conclude the acquisition, which was originally announced on 11 July 2016.
On 28 November 2016, Rolls-Royce confirmed the valuation of EUR 720m for the 53.1% shareholding, following due diligence. Consideration will be settled over a two-year period following completion in eight evenly spaced instalments of equal value. The agreement with SENER allows flexibility to settle each tranche of the consideration either in cash or in the form of Rolls-Royce shares as preferred by Rolls-Royce.
Completion is expected before the end of 2017. The first payment will be made 16 business days post-closing in early 2018 and the consideration will be in the form of shares. The decision on the form of subsequent payments will be determined as each individual payment falls due.
About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc
Rolls-Royce's vision is to be the market-leader in high performance power systems where our engineering expertise, global reach and deep industry knowledge deliver outstanding customer relationships and solutions. We operate across five businesses: Civil Aerospace, Defence Aerospace, Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 150 countries, comprising more than 400 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
We have three common themes across all our businesses:
Investing in and developing engineering excellence
Driving a manufacturing and supply chain transformation which will embed operational excellence in lean, lower-cost facilities and processes
Leveraging our installed base, product knowledge and engineering capabilities to provide customers with outstanding service through which we can capture aftermarket value long into the future.
Annual underlying revenue was £13.8 billion in 2016, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at £82.7 billion at the end of June 2017.
In 2016, Rolls-Royce invested £1.3 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
Rolls-Royce employs almost 50,000 people in 50 countries. More than 16,500 of these are engineers.
The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2016 we recruited 274 graduates and 327 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes.
Within the SMILE project, first hot firing tests were successfully conducted in early November 2017. The measured data shows very good mixing and combustion efficiencies of the printed injector in combination with a water-cooled, metallic combustion chamber. The SMILE project aims to design a cost-effective launch vehicle for the delivery of small satellites into sun-synchronous orbits (SSO). In order to fulfil commercial, operational and technical requirements, multi-disciplinary design optimisation processes are applied.
DLR’s Institute of Structures and Design is responsible for developing a reusable liquid rocket engine. The design is thereby based on ceramic engine components which are specifically qualified due to their high thermal shock resistance and high-temperature applicability. Thus, innovative design methods become possible allowing such systems to be reused. Furthermore, advanced manufacturing technologies are used for the highly complex injector head component designed by DLR. Partner 3D Systems printed the prototype injector for LOX/kerosene operation via additive layer manufacturing on a ‘ProX DMP 320 metal printer’ at its manufacturing site in Belgium.
For experimental testing, DLR provided an integrated setup. Partner PLD Space set up and operated a high-pressure rocket engine test bench in Teruel, Spain.
Next steps within the SMILE liquid rocket engine development focus to replace metallic wall structures of the combustion chamber by fibre-reinforced, ceramic materials as intended. Further goals are to optimise both the injection and ignition system as well as to improve the overall engine design.
This work is performed within the ‘SMall Innovative Launcher for Europe’ project. SMILE, coordinated by NLR, has received funding from the European Union’s ‘Horizon 2020 research and innovation program’ under grant agreement No 687242. Further info on SMILE can be found on www.small-launcher.eu.
Nations across the world are moving forward to improve the medical qualification process for general aviation pilots. In what appears to be the "shot heard around the world," medical reform continues to expand across borders. Australia is the latest country to adopt new medical qualifications and allow GA pilots to visit a general practitioner, similar to the United States' BasicMed. continue reading https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/december/06/medical-reform-going-global
Tendrá lugar el próximo jueves 14 de diciembre " Los Aeropuertos del futuro", a las 19:30 horas, en las instalaciones de B The Travel Brand Xperience deMadrid (Calle Miguel Ángel, 33). En el cual los asistentes podrán descubrir de la mano de Jose M. Hesse Martin, Director de Operaciones de Isdefe, cómo serán los aeropuertos del futuro.
Abstract
Two limitations of additive manufacturing methods that arise from layer-based fabrication are slow speed and geometric constraints (which include poor surface quality). Both limitations are overcome in the work reported here, introducing a new volumetric additive fabrication paradigm that produces photopolymer structures with complex nonperiodic three-dimensional geometries on a time scale of seconds. We implement this approach using holographic patterning of light fields, demonstrate the fabrication of a variety of structures, and study the properties of the light patterns and photosensitive resins required for this fabrication approach. The results indicate that low-absorbing resins containing ~0.1% photoinitiator, illuminated at modest powers (~10 to 100 mW), may be successfully used to build full structures in ~1 to 10 s.
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory press release https://www.llnl.gov/news/volumetric-3d-printing-builds-need-speed
By using laser-generated, hologram-like 3D images flashed into photosensitive resin, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, along with academic collaborators, have discovered they can build complex 3D parts in a fraction of the time of traditional layer-by-layer printing. With this process, researchers have printed beams, planes, struts at arbitrary angles, lattices and complex and uniquely curved objects in a matter of seconds
While additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, is
enabling engineers and scientists to build parts in configurations and
designs never before possible, the impact of the technology has been
limited by layer-based printing methods, which can take up to hours or
days to build three-dimensional parts, depending on their complexity.
“The fact that you can do fully 3D parts all in one step really does
overcome an important problem in additive manufacturing,” said LLNL
researcher Maxim Shusteff, the paper’s lead author. “We’re trying to
print a 3D shape all at the same time. The real aim of this paper was to
ask, 'Can we make arbitrary 3D shapes all at once, instead of putting
the parts together gradually layer by layer?' It turns out we can.”
The way it works, Shusteff explained, is by overlapping three laser
beams that define an object’s geometry from three different directions,
creating a 3D image suspended in the vat of resin. The laser light,
which is at a higher intensity where the beams intersect, is kept on for
about 10 seconds, enough time to cure the part. The excess resin is
drained out of the vat, and, seemingly like magic, researchers are left
with a fully formed 3D part.
The approach, the scientists concluded, results in parts built many
times faster than other polymer-based methods, and most, if not all,
commercial AM methods used today. Due to its low cost, flexibility,
speed and geometric versatility, the researchers expect the framework to
open a major new direction of research in rapid 3D printing.
Volumetric
3D printing creates parts by overlapping three laser beams that define
an object’s geometry from three different directions, creating a
hologram-like 3D image suspended in the vat of resin. The laser light,
which is at a higher intensity where the beams intersect, is kept on for
about 10 seconds, enough time to cure the object.
“It’s a demonstration of what the next generation of additive
manufacturing may be,” said LLNL engineer Chris Spadaccini, who heads
Livermore Lab’s 3D printing effort. “Most 3D printing and additive
manufacturing technologies consist of either a one-dimensional or
two-dimensional unit operation. This moves fabrication to a fully 3D
operation, which has not been done before. The potential impact on
throughput could be enormous and if you can do it well, you can still
have a lot of complexity.”
With this process, Shusteff and his team printed beams, planes,
struts at arbitrary angles, lattices and complex and uniquely curved
objects. While conventional 3D printing has difficulty with spanning
structures that might sag without support, Shusteff said, volumetric
printing has no such constraints; many curved surfaces can be produced
without layering artifacts.
“This might be the only way to do AM that doesn’t require layering,”
Shusteff said. “If you can get away from layering, you have a chance to
get rid of ridges and directional properties. Because all features
within the parts are formed at the same time, they don’t have surface
issues.
“I’m hoping what this will do is inspire other researchers to find
other ways to do this with other materials,” he added. “It would be a
paradigm shift.”
Shusteff believes volumetric printing could be made even faster with a
higher power light source. Extra-soft materials such as hydrogels could
be wholly fabricated, he said, which would otherwise be damaged or
destroyed by fluid motion. Volumetric 3D printing also is the only
additive manufacturing technique that works better in zero gravity, he
said, expanding the possibility of space-based production.
The technique does have limitations, researchers said. Because each beam propagates through space without changing, there are restrictions on part resolution and on the kinds of geometries that can be formed. Extremely complex structures would require lots of intersecting laser beams and would limit the process, they explained.
Spadaccini added that additional polymer chemistry and engineering also would be needed to improve the resin properties and fine tune them to make better structures.
“If you leave the light on too long it will start to cure everywhere, so there’s a timing game,” Spadaccini said. “A lot of the science and engineering is figuring out how long you can keep it on and at what intensity, and how that couples with the chemistry.”
The work received Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program funding. Additional LLNL researchers who contributed to the project were Todd Weisgraber and Robert Panas, Lawrence Graduate Scholar and University of Rochester Ph.D. student Allison Browar, UC Berkeley graduate students Brett Kelly and Johannes Henriksson, along with Nicholas Fang at MIT.
Según FlightStats, el Grupo Iberia volvió a situarse como el segundo más puntual del mundo, con un índice del 90,78 por ciento de vuelos en hora.
El mes pasado Iberia operó 7.008 vuelos, de los que el 89,89 por ciento llegaron en hora, lo que la convierte en la aerolínea más puntual de Europa.
En el caso de Iberia Express, la compañía renueva en noviembre su liderazgo como la low cost más puntual del mundo.
Madrid, 10 de diciembre de 2017
FlightStats, la consultora líder internacional especialista en la industria de los viajes, ha publicado el informe de puntualidad correspondiente al mes de noviembre.
En él el Grupo Iberia figura como el segundo más puntual del mundo, Iberia como la aerolínea más puntual de Europa, e Iberia Express repite como la low cost más puntual del mundo.
En noviembre, el Grupo Iberia operó 15.336 vuelos, de los cuales el 90,78 por ciento llegaron a su destino en hora, lo que le convierte en el segundo más puntual del mundo. Ver ranking pinchando aquí
Iberia se situó también como la aerolínea más puntual de Europa, con una operación de 7.008 vuelos y un índice de puntualidad del 89,89 por ciento.
Por su parte, Ibera Express repite como low cost más puntual del mundo en noviembre, con una operación de 2.671 vuelos, de los que el 92,81 por ciento llegaron en hora.
Líderes en puntualidad
Desde hace cuatro años, Iberia ha mejorado año a año su posición entre las aerolíneas más puntuales del mundo: fue 4ª del mundo en 2013, 3ª en 2014, 2ª en 2015 y la aerolínea más puntual del mundo en 2016, posición que ha revalidado en los meses de enero, febrero, abril, mayo, junio y agosto de 2017.
Iberia Express, mantiene su liderazgo
En el caso de Iberia Express, la compañía está manteniendo este 2017 sus altos estándares de puntualidad siendo la low cost más puntual del mundo desde el mes de julio de forma consecutiva. Iberia Express ha sido además reconocida los años 2014, 2015 y 2016 como la compañía de bajo coste más puntual del mundo.
Sobre Iberia: Iberia es la primera compañía de España y líder en las rutas entre Europa y Latinoamérica. Junto con su filial Iberia Express y su franquiciada Iberia Regional Air Nostrum, ofrece alrededor de 600 vuelos al día a medio centenar de países de Europa, América, África, Oriente Medio y Asia, con una flota de 135 aviones. En 2017 Iberia ha conseguido su 4ª estrella Skytrax y, en 2016, fue la aerolínea más puntual del mundo, según FlightStats. Iberia tiene su hub en el aeropuerto de Madrid, y es miembro de la alianza oneworld, que ofrece más de 14.000 vuelos diarios a cerca de 1.000 aeropuertos en más de 150 países.
Sobre Iberia Express: Iberia Express, filial de Iberia, opera rutas de corto y medio radio y aporta tráfico directo, además de alimentar la red de largo radio de Iberia. Es miembro de oneworld, una alianza de quince compañías aéreas que ofrece a sus pasajeros 14.000 vuelos diarios a cerca de 1.000 aeropuertos de 150 países. Desde su creación, hace ya cinco años, la compañía ha transportado a más de 21 millones de pasajeros. En 2016, Iberia Express ha sido la aerolínea low cost más puntual del mundo por tercer año consecutivo, según los informes de la consultora FlightStats
Pilatus has received FAA and EASA type certifications for its PC-24 twin-engine business jet, the company's first business jet, the Swiss company announced.
Pilatus has received FAA and EASA type certifications for its PC-24 twin-engine business jet, the company's first business jet, the Swiss company announced.