Aerospace

NASA Data Aids California Wildfire Response

NASA’s Earth resources aircraft, as well as multiple satellites, are providing critical data to aid various agencies responding to the wildfires damaging vast areas of southern California....

New Unmanned Air System Tested on USS Coronado

Researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) successfully tested their Nomad flight vehicle off of USS Coronado (LCS 4) recently. This test demonstrated the Nomad’s upgraded...

Expert INSIDER: How Mehdi Khorrami Uses Simulation to Address Aircraft Noise

NASA’s Mehdi Khorrami explains how he uses high-performance computing to handle one of the FAA’s biggest complaints: aircraft noise.

Quality Control for Additive Manufacturing Parts Using Non-Destructive Testing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is growing in importance as a fabrication process for the space industry, enabling weight and cost savings through optimized designs...

Developing a Conformal Coating Process for Aerospace Applications

Conformal coatings protect electronic circuits from harsh environments via a chemical film that “conforms” to a circuit board’s topography. These coatings protect...

Designing With MIL-STD-1553B Components

The interconnected backbone of a MIL-STD-1553B vehicle depends on the electrical and mechanical reliability of the components, the design, and the installation. With the vast array of MIL-STD-1553B...

New Products & Services: December 2017 Aerospace Manufacturing & Fabrication

Metric-Sized Metal Shapes

Parker Steel Company (Maumee, OH) offers metric-sized metals suitable for applications where presized metric parts are needed....

Identifying and Isolating Signals Using Radio Frequency Photonics

A single antenna can be used for both transmission and reception. To accomplish this, the transmission must be isolated from the reception. In Figure 1, a radio frequency...

Using Thermoplastic Composites for Aerospace Applications

Recent advancements in composite production and processing are making thermoplastics a viable option in a wider array of aerospace applications.

Improving the Surface Finish of Additive Manufactured Parts

South West Metal Finishing has been working on an additive manufacturing surface treatment process for the last three years and believes it could be the future choice of aircraft...

WIAMan

The newest crash test dummy in development is actually a blast test dummy. WIAMan (Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin) is a ground-breaking anthropomorphic test device (ATD) being developed by the U.S. Army. It’s the first...

High-Reliability Capacitors

Maintaining technological superiority remains critical for national defense forces. Many face informal adversaries that are adept at harnessing today’s sophisticated civilian technologies, like mobiles, M2M...

High Temperature Graphene-Peek Adhesive

Joining of composites can be a challenging issue. If adhesives are used, the joints are permanent and cannot be undone. If they need to be undone, inserts are often used and these inserts increase cost...

Bioinspired Surface Treatments for Improved Decontamination: Commercial Products

In January 2015, the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) began an effort to evaluate and develop top-coat...

Processing and Characterization of Lightweight Syntactic Materials

Conventional composite materials, in which a matrix material is reinforced by particulates, whiskers, and/or continuous fibers, have long been of interest as potential...

Mechanical Characterization and Finite Element Implementation of the Soft Materials Used in a Novel Anthropometric Test Device for Simulating Underbody Blast Loading

Anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) have been used in automotive safety...

Stress-Corrosion Cracking and Corrosion Fatigue Impact of IZ-C17+Zinc-Nickel on 4340 Steel

The protection of cathodic metallic materials used for aircraft components, like 4340, Aermet 100, and PH 13-8 corrosion-resistant steel, is critical...

Sensors Detect Aircraft Damage as it Occurs

The Army developed and tested networked acoustic emission sensors that can detect airframe damage on conceptual composite UH-60 Black Hawk rotorcraft. The sensing method can be used to reliably...

NASA Unveils the Future of Science Drones

NASA scientists now have use of two agency-developed unmanned aerial systems that some say represent the future for drone aircraft. The drones purposely were designed for scientific...

NASA, Boeing Test Synthetic Vision

NASA and Boeing are working together under a new Space Act Agreement to improve flight training and aviation safety using NASA’s synthetic vision technologies and Boeing’s 787 simulators. Synthetic...

Renewable Jet Fuel Takes Flight

In 2016, U.S. military and commercial flights together used more than 20 billion gallons of jet fuel. So how do we make air travel easier on the environment? University of Delaware researchers are working...

Technique Predicts Early Warning Signs of Structure’s “Wellness”

Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have shown that early fatigue damage behavior in structures may be predicted through the study of the microscale...

UAV Has Dual Flight Modes

Engineers have revealed a new technology concept –Adaptable UAVs – which can alternate between fixed and rotary wing flight modes in the same mission. When in rotary wing mode, the UAVs can be launched and...

Flights Less Risky with Digital Copilot

Digital Copilot is an intuitive technology that listens, talks—and to some extent—thinks like a human, offering enhanced air safety. It performs like a virtual copilot, helping to increase...

Controlling Drones with the Human Brain

A researcher from Arizona State University wants to command machines with the human brain. In fact, within ten years, Panagiotis Artemiadis, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at...

Rare Material Could Shorten Air Travel Times

An average flight from Miami to Seattle takes about six hours and 40 minutes, but imagine being able to reduce that time to 50 minutes or less. A recent study by NASA and Binghamton University...

Shaping Aviation: Metal with Memory

Through NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Project, a team of engineers working within its Spanwise Adaptive Wing (SAW) project is investigating the feasibility of bending or shaping...

Drone Control: How the Human Brain Can Guide Robotic Swarms

Who needs a keyboard, a mouse, or a joystick? A researcher from Arizona State University wants to command machines with the human brain.