Boeing Defense, Space, and Security recently revealed the single-engine, single-rotor helicopter it is proposing to the U.S. Army as part of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) prototype competition, initiated in 2018. The goal of the contest, part of the Army’s broader Future Vertical Lift program, is to develop a successor to the Bell OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support.
Mark Cherry, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing’s Phantom Works (source: Boeing)
“We’re offering more than a helicopter,” stated Mark Cherry, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Phantom Works. “We’re offering an affordable and fully integrated system for the Army, the mission and the future. We’ve blended innovation, ingenuity and proven rotorcraft experience with extensive testing and advanced analysis to offer a very compelling solution.”
Boeing emphasized that its FARA design meets the Army’s current mission needs “while evolving as technologies and missions change.”
The FARA competition awarded design in April 2019 to AVX Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Karem Aircraft, and Sikorsky Aircraft. Two manufacturers will be selected to proceed with their designs this year, and the prototypes will be delivered in 2023.
The Swedish Air Force has selected GKN Aerospace for technical product support and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). GKN Aerospace will provide these services as well as spare parts supply for the Gripen E RM16 aircraft engines of the Swedish Air Force. The RM16 is the Swedish name for the engine based on the General Electric F414 that powers the F-18 Super Hornet. GKN Aerospace’s continued support to the platform was confirmed by the Swedish Defense Material Administration (FMV) in January. GKN Aerospace will closely collaborate with Saab and GE to build up the necessary infrastructure and competence for the new engine type.
Joakim Andersson, President of Engines at GKN Aerospace
President of Engines for GKN Aerospace Joakim Andersson said, “GKN Aerospace is proud to further expand our relationship with FMV, GE, and Saab to the new RM16 aero-engine support. Our unique and efficient engine maintenance and support capabilities have served the Air Force operations since 1930.”
GKN Aerospace is also the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and type certificate holder of the Gripen C/D RM12 aero-engine and has been supporting the RM12 aero-engines since the first Gripen aircraft went into service in 1997.
The U.S. Navy has commissioned six new presidential helicopters. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, will build six production VH-92A presidential helicopters. These helicopters are part of the 23-aircraft program of record for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Sikorsky has transferred five VH-92A helicopters into government test with the sixth completing modification and entering government test Q2 2020. The VH-92A program is on track to enter Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) later this year.
“Now that we are ramping up production, the VH-92A program is gaining momentum,” said Dave Banquer, Sikorsky VH-92A program director. “This second contract award demonstrates the confidence the U.S. Marine Corps has in Sikorsky’s proven ability to deliver and support the next generation presidential helicopter. The men and women of Sikorsky treasure our legacy of building and providing helicopter transportation for every president and commander in chief since Dwight D. Eisenhower. We are proud to continue that legacy with the VH-92A helicopter.”
All six of the production aircraft from the first Low Rate Initial Production contract are undergoing modifications at Sikorsky’s Stratford, Connecticut, plant and are on schedule to begin deliveries in 2021. The remaining production aircraft will be delivered in 2022 and 2023.
VH-92A presidential helicopter (Source: U.S. Navy)
Composites Universal Group (CUG), an internationally recognized composite manufacturing company specializing in the production of high-quality composite components for aerospace, drones, industrial and space applications, recently received a large walk-in oven from DELTA H.
The oven features an interior volume of 12’ wide, 10’ tall, and 32’ deep, with high volume New York Blower plug fan, PowerFlame gas burner, and rapid cooling/chamber pressure control. For vacuum composite processing, the system features multiple part temperature as well as vacuum transducers for precision monitoring of process heating. Eurotherm Nanodac is featured with cascade control that selects the coolest part and automatically adjusts air temperature to precisely maintain the desired ramp rate, soak time, and cooling rate.
Richard Conway, CTO at DELTA H
CUG has multiple projects underway, including Vahana electric VTOL aircraft, Sierra Nevada Corp Dream Chaser Pressure Vessel, and Leidos Corp. Composite Beams. DELTA H CTO Richard Conway stated, “It is truly rewarding and exciting to be among the technology providers supporting these projects and to have a role in the cutting edge of transportation.”
(Image Source: Leidos Investor Relations)
“The DELTA H Composite Oven has performed flawlessly ever since initial startup. It’s become a critical part of our equipment listing here within CUG. . . . It is critical to our operations and the curing of our high temperature parts fabrication,” states Steve Ruege, President and Director of Sales at Composite Universal Group.
Joby Aviation has spent the last 10 years hammering out the designs and flight dynamics of its tilt-rotor eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft . Thanks to an investment round led by Toyota, they now have substantial funding to continue development.
Toyota's share of the US$590 million series C finance round was $394 million, and it comes with a commitment to bring its manufacturing, quality, and cost control approaches to the table as Joby prepares to move closer to FAA certification and commercialization of its five-seat electric VTOL air taxis.
Joby's full-scale prototype features thin wings supporting four tilting prop units, the outer ones on swivel mounts and the inner two extending out and upward on short arms. A V-shaped tail unit carries two more swivel units for a total of six rotors, each about six feet (1.8 m) in diameter with five uniquely shaped blades.
The idea is to have an electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically on a helipad or similar that can then transition to winged forward flight once it's airborne for efficient cruising at high speeds. Joby claims its vehicle is capable of 200-mph (322-km/h) flight, and that its small rotors produce about 1 percent of the noise of a regular aircraft on takeoff. In winged cruise mode, the company says it will be virtually silent on the ground.
With six tilting rotors, Joby's eVTOL can do 200 mph, with a range of more than 150 miles per charge (credit: Joby Aviation)
Toyota may also bring hydrogen powertrain to the table. Toyota and Hyundai/Kia are more or less the only companies still forging ahead with hydrogen powertrains for cars, but Japan and Korea are investing in hydrogen in a massive way, envisioning a transport future largely running on fuel cells, using imported energy from overseas to move some of their emissions out of their choked megacities and into the skies of countries like Australia, which is gearing up to become an energy exporter in the form of liquid hydrogen.
Moving to a hydrogen powertrain solves the problem of energy density for eVTOLs in a single stroke. Liquid hydrogen might be a pain to handle and deal with (and explosive in an accident), but its energy density is superb. Running a hydrogen eVTOL air taxi service would enable super-quick refueling and ultra-long-range flight, maybe 10 times the range of what current battery technology can deliver.
A common topic regarding eVTOL is safety, a problem that still needs an answer. The Joby aircraft, like the vast majority of other designs, offers a certain degree of redundancy in case of rotor failures. The problem nobody seems to be able to deal with yet is what happens in case of total catastrophic failure below a height of about 120 ft (37 m). Ballistic parachutes remain troubling, and while helicopters have the ability to autorotate safely to land without power, multirotor eVTOLs do not.
Joby is right at the forefront of eVTOL development right now, alongside other well-funded companies. It has recently signed a deal with Uber to supply and operate these aircraft under an Uber Elevate service. Uber is promising to build and run the skyports and support services for these air taxis as well as managing last-mile connection transport at either end of a journey. Uber is targeting 2023 as a launch date.
Lockheed Martin is developing a ground-launched, mobile, hypersonic missile system thanks to a US$31.9 million award by DARPA. The contract will allow them to begin the Operational Fires (OpFires) Phase 3 Weapon System Integration program for the boost-to-glide weapon system.
Hady Mourad, director of Tactical and Strike Missiles Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control
“The OpFires missile is critical to providing the US Army with a highly maneuverable and rapid response solution capable of operating from unpredictable land-launch positions to suppress hostile threats,” says Hady Mourad, director of Tactical and Strike Missiles Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “Lockheed Martin will deliver the prototype missiles utilizing the experienced production teams that currently produce the ATACMS, GMLRS and PAC-3 missile systems.”
The new contract, which involves Lockheed, DARPA, and the US Army, will draw on Lockheed’s three decades of hypersonic missile development, combined with DARPA’s work on new hypersonic propulsion systems and boost-glide technologies. Lockheed is tasked with taking the present design based on initial requirements and taking it through the Critical Design Review (CDR) in late 2021. This will be followed by component and subsystem tests in the same year and integrated flight tests in 2022.
Titanium is a crucial component in aerospace and defense applications as well as in the biomedical field. The high ratio of strength to density of titanium and its alloys mean that it is as strong as some steels, but with a fraction of the density. However, titanium is more difficult than steel to prepare as a metallographic sample due to its ductile nature that renders it easily susceptible to damage.
In this HTTBest of the Web Technical Tuesday feature, Buehler’s Tech Notes explores efficient preparation of titanium grade 2 samples.
An excerpt: “Titanium and its alloys’ high strength to density ratio and good corrosion resistance make them invaluable in aerospace, defense, and marine applications. Good biocompatibility also makes it quite useful in biomedical applications. It is as strong as some steels but a fraction of steel’s density. When preparing metallographic samples, one quickly learns, titanium is more difficult to prepare than steel as it ductile and readily damaged, but also has a relatively slow material removal or recovery rate, which poses a challenge to sample preparation.”
Buehler takes readers through the methods of sectioning, mounting, grinding and polishing, and etching when preparing grade 2 titanium for a sample.
NASA Glenn Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, has partnered with Boeing to test how shape-memory alloys can be used in deployable vortex generators (VGs), the tiny fins on airplane wings that help control airflow during flight. Currently most VGs on airplanes are static. They are fixed devices always present to improve performance during takeoff, landing, and irregular conditions.
Materials Research Engineer and ASM International’s SMST Society President Dr. Othmane Benafan is part of the team at Glenn developing the shape-memory alloy parts. The alloy pieces are small metal rods that are inserted along the hinge line of a VG where it connects to the aircraft wing. The shape-memory alloy twists as it cools off, which pulls the fin down to lie flat against the wing. Then as the aircraft moves into warmer conditions, the alloy retracts to its original shape, lifting the fin into an upright position.
Dr. Othmane Benafan, Materials Research Engineer, Glenn Research Team
“There are no heaters, no coolers,” says Dr. Benafan. “The alloys are tuned exactly to environmental temperatures. They sense, and then they do their thing.”
Innovations with shape-memory alloys allow development of VGs that move when they sense a change in the environment, which will make future airplanes capable of adjusting in response to changes in temperature, altitude, and airspeed, just like birds.
Photo Credit for Dr. Benafan’s picture: the Moroccan Times
An aerospace company has made a contract with Lockheed Martin to provide critical components of NASA’s spacecraft. Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has obtained a contract with Lockheed Martin to provide critical subsystems to produce NASA’s Orion spacecraft fleet for Artemis missions III through VIII. The systems Collins Aerospace is providing will play an important role in enabling NASA’s goal of boots on the moon by 2024 and establish a sustained presence on and around the moon to prepare for missions to Mars.
Kevin Raftery, VP and general manager of ISR and Space Solutions, Collins Aerospace.
“We’ve been providing life-sustaining solutions for space for 50 years, and we’re proud to be working with Lockheed Martin and NASA to enable decades of future exploration to the moon, Mars, and beyond,” said Kevin Raftery, vice president and general manager, ISR and Space Solutions for Collins Aerospace.
Work for the Orion systems will be performed at Collins Aerospace facilities in Connecticut, Texas, Illinois, and California.
A modern airplane’s fuselage is composed of multiple sheets of different materials, not unlike a phyllo dough pastry. Once these layers are stacked and molded into the shape of a fuselage, they are transferred into warehouse-sized ovens and autoclaves, where the layers fuse together to form a resilient, aerodynamic shell.
MIT engineers have now developed a method to produce the same high level of composites without the enormous ovens. This discovery may speed up the manufacturing of airplanes and other large, high-performance composite structures.
In this HTT Best of the Web Technical Tuesday feature, Design and Development Today introduces us to carbon nanotubes, their usefulness in potentially taking airplane manufacturing to new heights, and what the future of the research surrounding this discovery looks like.
Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT
An excerpt: “‘If you’re making a primary structure like a fuselage or wing, you need to build a pressure vessel, or autoclave, the size of a two- or three-story building, which itself requires time and money to pressurize,’ says Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. ‘These things are massive pieces of infrastructure. Now we can make primary structure materials without autoclave pressure, so we can get rid of all that infrastructure.'”
