Gone are the days when the impact of products on the environment or human health were optional business concerns. Regulatory constraints on materials and chemicals are increasing, and many companies struggle to respond – and to do so quickly and efficiently. Restrictions on hexavalent chrome are one well-known example. Another is REACH – the European Union regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of Chemicals – which applies to products that are either manufactured in, or imported into, the EU. Companies are under obligations to report the use of restricted substances, and to limit or avoid their use.

DMG MORI manufactures a wide variety of conventional chip-cutting and ultrasonic machining centers for OEMs and production job shops serving the aerospace industry. Inherent in this industry are several factors that require great care and planning in the machining process.

Charles River Analytics
Cambridge, MA
617-491-3474
www.cra.com

Charles River Analytics Inc., a developer of intelligent systems solutions, has announced a two-year, $2 million Phase III contract to enhance the capabilities of its game-based maintenance training environment for the US Air Force. The Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Small Business Office recently praised Charles River's Maintenance Training based on an Adaptive Game-Based Environment using a Pedagogic Interpretation Engine (MAGPIE) as a “virtual solution that could revolutionize aircraft maintenance training.”

The aerospace sector places some uniquely challenging demands on electronics designers. For a start, the environments that the electronics are exposed to are much harsher than in almost every other scenario. Moreover, the life expectancy of the products is much higher, while the accepted failure rate is easily an order of magnitude lower than typical commercial products.

Aerospace industry component manufacturing is in a large growth cycle. Advancements to materials and engine efficiency have created clear benefits for replacing a surplus of older aircraft equipment. The advancements cover both engine and structural components. The demand is so significant that machine tool makers are challenged to supply equipment fast enough.

DO-254, the design assurance guideline for airborne electronic hardware, is considered by many to be a simple cut/paste of DO-178, its avionics software sibling. Surely, as with wine and beer, both are fermented liquids which become increasingly expensive with increased complexity. While similarities abound, so do their many differences. And truly, DO-254 is the benefactor, or bane, of avionics projects the world over. But is DO-254 really unduly expensive? Does it add value? Will it improve safety and reliability? Does it have benefits? What are the true costs versus benefits? These important questions are answered herein.

Unmanned vehicles for air, land, and water represent an increasingly-important capability for virtually all military services worldwide. Because each new generation of device technology promises capabilities and higher levels of overall performance for unmanned vehicles of all types, military customers expect these benefits in the latest UAV offerings. To meet these expectations, systems engineers must deal with increasingly difficult problems of thermal management, power budgeting, EMI emissions and susceptibility, weight, size, cabling, connectors, antenna management, and command/control functions. Several new technologies and innovative packaging concepts now provide better solutions to these issues.

Kittyhawk
San Francisco, CA
+1 415-598-7757
https://kittyhawk.io

Kittyhawk recently announced new features to its flight system software platform. Kittyhawk is adding an automated flight system to its Flight Deck feature set to work in conjunction with its recently released secure live streaming feature.

Rapid Deployment SIGINT Sensor

VStar Systems (San Diego, CA) announced the addition of a pod version of its MA-C SIGINT Sensor, the MA-C MiniPod™. Two active high frequency (HF) antennas allow for intercept and copy of land mobile radios from both direct Line of Sight (LOS) as well as Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) signals for Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communication methods. The MA-C MiniPOD can be installed on most standard airborne racks/missile launchers for integration on a wide variety of platforms.

General Micro Systems
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
(800) 307-4863
www.gms4sbc.com

General Micro Systems Inc. (GMS) recently announced that the U.S. Army will exclusively deploy powerful rugged server and display systems from GMS to run the multifunction video display (MVD) software within Type II medium mine protection vehicles (MMPV). The GMS system comprises four components – two chassis and two displays. It also includes an enterprise-class, ultra-rugged, secure server with an intelligent 12-port 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet switch, a router, mass-media storage, CITV/DVR, video-over-IP, and two ultra-thin, rugged smart-panel PCs. When coupled with a video encoder, the system is a complete full motion video and control system with storage.