Though the CRJ programme remains under Bombardier's wing, company executives made clear on 8 November that Bombardier's focus has shifted away from commercial aviation. ----
It was just last year that we heard about the Plimp, a sort of plane/blimp/helicopter hybrid drone manufactured by Egan Airships. As was hinted at then, the Seattle-based company has now officially announced that it's working on a passenger-carrying variant known as the Model J.
.. Continue Reading Planned hybrid airship will combine aspects of planes, blimps and helicopters
Specialists of the the Zhukovsky Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI ) continue testing the heavy transport aircraft, the integrated circuit model. The advanced aircraft has an alternative advanced layout— the collocation of wing and fuselage. It will make the best use of the aircraft inside and improve its aerodynamic efficiency.
At first the scientists carried out “off-screen” tests with the aircraft in motion at high altitudes away from the water surface. The tests proved the control response effectiveness and the influence of the model’s main elements — the engine nacelles, nose, and wing tips characteristics. The results will be used to further improvement the aerodynamic layout.
Ground-effect tests are scheduled in the near future. The next scheduled phase of experimentation will be visualization of the airfoil flow on the airplane model.
The advanced heavy transport aircraft of integrating circuit is designed for intercontinental transportation (up to 6 thousand km) of a large volume of cargo (up to 500 tons), including standard containers. They will be placed in a wing cell and loaded via flap doors in the front sections of the aircraft’s central part.
The aircraft is planned to be used on existing runways. Such an aircraft flies primarily at an altitude of 3-12 mabove water, ice or land. These surfaces create a screen effect, which increases the aerodynamic quality. It results in an increase in range and fuel (natural compressed gas) economy.
Such an aircraft could be used for heavy transport, both domestic and international.
It was five years ago this month that ESA’s GOCE gravity-mapping satellite finally gave way to gravity, but its results are still yielding buried treasure – giving a new view of the remnants of lost continents hidden deep under the ice sheet of Antarctica.
A research team from Germany’s Kiel University and the British Antarctic Survey published their latest GOCE-based findings this week in the journal Scientific Reports.
Dubbed ‘the Formula one of space’, the GOCE (Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer) mission orbited Earth for more than four years, from March 2009 to November 2013. This sleek, finned satellite with no moving parts was designed around a single goal: to measure the pull of Earth’s gravity more precisely than any mission before.
GOCE flew at an altitude of just 255 km, more than 500 km nearer than a typical Earth observation satellite, to maximise its sensitivity to gravity.
In its last year in orbit, with its supply of xenon propellant holding out well, GOCE was manoeuvred down still lower, to just 225 km altitude, for even more accurate gravity measurements. The propellant keeping it resistant to air drag was finally spent in October 2013, and it reentered the atmosphere three weeks later.
GOCE’s main output was a high-fidelity global gravity map or ‘geoid’, but the mission also charted localised gravity gradients – measurements of how rapidly the acceleration of gravity changes – across all directions of motion, down to a resolution of 80 km.
The team from Kiel University and BAS has converted this patchwork of 3D gravity measurements into curvature-based ‘shape indexes’ across the different regions of our planet, analogous to contours on a map.
The study’s lead author Prof Jörg Ebbing from Kiel University comments, “The satellite gravity data can be combined with seismological data to produce more consistent images of the crust and upper mantle in 3D, which is crucial to understand how plate tectonics and deep mantle dynamics interact.”
In combination with existing seismological data, these gravity gradients show high sensitivity to known features of Earth’s ‘lithosphere’, the solid crust and that section of the molten mantle beneath it.
These features include dense rocky zones called cratons – remnants of ancient continents found at the heart of modern continental plates – highly folded ‘orogen’ regions associated with mountain ranges and the thinner crust of ocean beds.
The new window into the deep subsurface offered by this data offers novel insights into the structure of all Earth’s continents, but especially Antarctica. With more than 98% of its surface covered by ice with an average thickness of 2 km, the southern continent largely remains a blank spot on current geological maps.
“These gravity images are revolutionising our ability to study the least understood continent on Earth, Antarctica,” says co-author Fausto Ferraccioli, Science Leader of Geology and Geophysics at BAS.
“In East Antarctica we see an exciting mosaic of geological features that reveal fundamental similarities and differences between the crust beneath Antarctica and other continents it was joined to until 160 million years ago.”
The gravity gradient findings show West Antarctica has a thinner crust and lithosphere compared to that of East Antarctica, which is made up of a mosaic of old cratons separated by younger orogens, revealing a family likeness to Australia and India.
These findings are of more than purely historic geological interest. They give clues to how Antarctica’s continental structure is influencing the behavior of ice sheets and how rapidly Antarctica regions will rebound in response to melting ice.
ESA’s GOCE mission scientist Roger Haagmans adds, “It is exciting to see that direct use of the gravity gradients, which were measured for the first time ever with GOCE, leads to a fresh independent look inside Earth – even below a thick sheet of ice.
“It also provides context of how continents were possibly connected in the past before they drifted apart owing to plate motion.”
According to the spokesman, Tehran needs to establish commercial relations with those aircraft manufacturers that are not dependent on the supply of components from the United States and the granting of licenses by the US government.
EASA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD), following the tragic accident which occurred in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2018 to an Leonardo AW169 helicopter.
The information available so far indicate that while the helicopter was on a take-off phase at low forward speed, a loss of yaw control was observed; an investigation is on-going to identify the root cause of the accident.
EASA AD requires, as a precautionary measure, a one-time visual inspection of the tail rotor servo-actuator installation and, depending on findings, accomplishment of applicable corrective action(s), and to report inspection results to Leonardo.
This AD must be considered an interim action, further mandatory action may follow owing to investigation progress.
Sonderflughafen Oberpfaffenhofen, Weßling, Germany: November 6th, 2018 Dornier Seawings GmbH, the German-Chinese joint venture composite aircraft manufacturer, have raised an additional 150-million-euro funding by their shareholders. This investment is confirmed on September 2018, and will be used for further research and development of the company’s Seastar project, the construction of its manufacturing facilities and the expansion of production
Dornier Seawings is working on upgrading the Dornier Seastar CD2 into the most advanced amphibious aircraft, answering to the vast market demand. The new generation Seastar prototype had the roll-out on August 18th 2017, and is currently undergoing some design changes and certification tests. The new Seastar will have outstanding combination of high speed, range, load, safety and low maintenance costs.
The funding will accelerate the serial production by finalizing the Seastar certification supplements and completing the production facilities in Wuxi, China, on top of their established production line in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. With their accumulated technological capabilities and the market opportunities, Dornier Seawings will implement new aviation products to complement its current product line.
The investors are the current shareholders of Dornier Seawings, including 2 stateowned enterprises of Jiangsu Province, China. The province has been supportive of Dornier Seawings, and has selected it to be one of the provincial key development projects.
AKRON, Ohio, Nov. 6, 2018 —Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) completed the successful integration of a Telephonics RDR-1700B radar onto a 74K aerostat for land and sea missions. This latest milestone follows Lockheed Martin’s successful integration of various payloads including radar sensors from Telephonics, Leonardo and Northrop Grumman as well as electro-optic / infra-red cameras from L-3 Wescam.
“The integration of the Telephonics radar showcases our continued commitment to exploring the latest technologies as part of our aerostat systems," said Jerry Mamrol, vice president of Navigation, Surveillance and Unmanned Systems for Lockheed Martin. "It allows for multi-domain, modular and open architecture capabilities for faster, more cost-effective development efforts.”
The Lockheed Martin 74K Aerostat System, with integrated multi-mission payloads and high operational availability, has supported the warfighter in many harsh and challenging environments. The 74K aerostat system leverages a wide-area, secure communications backbone for the integration of threat reporting from multiple available sensor assets. With more than 1.6 million combat mission flight hours, the robust design, communications relay and C4 integration on the 74K aerostat supports automated interoperability between tactical and theater surveillance assets and dissemination of operational threat data to aid interdiction of hostile fires and unconventional threats.
Lockheed Martin has specialized in lighter-than-air technology for over 95 years, delivering persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and national agencies.
