“This aircraft is truly a work of art. The style is clean, bright, and characterized by a minimalist color palette. It features many unique design elements,” said VIP Completions president Ben Shirazi. “We delivered this aircraft to a long-standing valued client and collaborated with her personal designer to deliver an exceptional level of customization. For example, the...
Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S), a technology company based in Exton, Pennsylvania, has announced that it has received a production order from The Boeing Company to provide its GPS sensor units for the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk trainer. Deliveries for the GPS units are slated to begin in July this year, with additional options for continuous deliveries throughout the ...
Cirrus Aircraft announced on April 11 that it had secured type certificate approval from Brazil’s national civil aviation agency, ANAC, on its SF50 Vision Jet with Garmin’s Safe Return Autoland system. The system had received its certification under the FAA in August 2020, and under the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in July 2021. Some aircraft already d...
Airbus has entered agreements to increase production of its A320 family of jets at the company’s assembly plant in Tianjin, China, and to deliver 160 aircraft to Chinese airlines, the manufacturer announced Thursday. The agreements also include plans to “intensify Chinese-European cooperation” in the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel. The company said the...
Serving the twin cities on the Mississippi River, this large joint civil and military airport has grown to become one of the busiest airports in the USA mostly due to the presence of Delta Air Lines. Read on to discover the best places for plane spotting at the airport. About Minneapolis St Paul Airport (MSP) This large hub is an important access point for many Asian...
Airport Layout The airport has a pair of parallel runways (13L/R, 31L/R), with the passenger terminal in the middle (alongside the Aero Park collection of preserved airliners). On the western side of the airport is the original terminal (now closed) as well as military and cargo ramps, and maintenance facilities which often have airliners undergoing work. A couple of r...
1. Auckland International Airport The main gateway to New Zealand is at Auckland. It is also the country’s busiest airport for airliner movements and sees the biggest range of opportunities for spotters. Auckland International has a single runway and two terminals, but is currently undergoing a revamp that will eventually see a second runway to the north, as well as new...
Stork STM is an autonomous aerial logistics vehicle that is capable of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations carrying payloads weighing 135kg over 400km. The Oxford-based company said that this payload capacity has been chosen as it is an optimum weight to resupply an eight-person section for two days. UASHLC Phase 2 is a joint endeavour between Defence Equipme...
Funded by EPSRC, ATRACT (A Trustworthy Robotic Autonomous system to support Casualty Triage) will see the development of a flying drone that can assist and speed up triage in the critical post-trauma minutes that are crucial to surviving battlefield trauma. The £850,000 project concludes in 2026. In a statement, Ardhendu Behera, Professor of Computer Vision and Artifici...
Usually the world’s longest flights would fill most fliers with some sense of trepidation, however Qantas’s latest renders mean that passengers are in for a more comfortable ride than they might have thought. While currently Qantas has only announced details of the business and first class cabin designs, premium and economy are being developed as well and will be announc...
AirJapan will be the new medium-haul international brand, as part of ANA, as such the airline that’s somewhere between a low-cost and full service carrier (think JetStar) will offer nothing but economy seating onboard its fleet of Dreamliner aircraft. AirJapan intends to begin operating flights in February 2024 and expand its network over time, focusing on destinations w...
SWISS First, SWISS Business and SWISS Economy are being totally redesigned – brought to life by studio Priestmangoode (the business class seat being a new product designed by PearsonLloyd) – while the popular SWISS Premium Economy which was introduced in 2022 will also be retained. The airline plans to gradually install the new cabins throughout its long-haul fleet from ...
These new seats replace the existing Super Diamond seats found on the rest of the A350 fleet, with a more condensed seating LOPA, yet the additional benefit of privacy thanks to full height walls – although no doors, even though this seat design allows for it. As highlighted on the airline’s facebook page, the seats feature a new design as well, with a brighter cabin lo...
With "We Fly High", Rotax has created a program exclusively for flight schools that train on aircrafts with Rotax engines. As program members, Rotax-powered flight schools benefit from value-added incentives and from our commitment to building power plants that take engine technology to new heights.
Space is a hostile environment. This – in addition to the vast distances – makes manned space travel pretty difficult. Central problems include weightlessness and exposure to cosmic radiation. Anyone planning long-duration journeys through the universe needs to be aware of and fully understand the effect that these problems have on biological processes. Space exploration...
Full production handoff at the end of January culminated in a project that began in August and involved a series of milestones surrounding delivery, installation, calibration, and testing. A 12-by-8.5-foot autonomous system, the AMR is used as a drill for the PA-46-600TP wings. It incorporates a light-duty drill unit, HSK-E25 tool holder, and programmable drill process,...
The Ku-band Plane Simple antenna is available now, while the Ka-band system is set for entry into service in the fourth quarter. Running a dual-dissimilar satcom system adds significant additional bandwidth to and from the aircraft for both passengers and flight crew. On the nearly 10-hour transatlantic flight, there were 40 devices tapping the connectivity for video str...
Adding Foresight MX to the UH-60 can give the aircraft this capability or replace existing capability with a package that is substantially lighter and less expensive, according to GPMS. While legacy HUMS equipment can weigh up to 100 pounds, Foresight MX has an installed weight of less than 17 pounds and is one-third of the cost, according to GPMS v-p of sales Todd Power...
While the GT50 traces its origin in an industrial engine to provide “low development risk,” the design has been modified for the helicopter. Hill replaced the three-chamber combustor with an annular combustor to improve the size of the package and reduce weight. It also swapped the two-stage turbine with a single-stage model that is slightly higher loaded and optimized t...
Pyka is one of a growing number of startups developing uncrewed cargo aircraft with substantially larger payloads and longer ranges than the small drones now being used to deliver medicines and other supplies. Skyports is a launch customer for Pyka’s Pelican Cargo, an autonomous electric aircraft with a 400-lb. payload and range up to 200 mi. Pyka’s Pelican Cargo to fly...
Composite materials, especially carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, are gradually becoming widespread in airframe construction, thanks to their light weight. That quality translates into lower fuel consumption and a path toward sustainability. Fuel savings are the preponderant outcome of using composites over an aircraft’s life cycle, allowing the high energy consumption o...
The HPDM-30 integrated motor drive weighs 4.1 kg (9 lb.) and has been tested at up to 33 kW continuous power, suitable for use in uncrewed aircraft and smaller vehicles. Denver-based H3X is developing advanced radial-flux permanent-magnet motors that use novel materials and manufacturing to maximize power density. The startup is targeting 10 kW/kg for the integrated mot...
The cargo boom has accelerated Airbus’ expansion into a market once heavily dominated by Boeing. This has turned newer aircraft types into conversion candidates while sustaining conversions of older types, such as the Boeing 767 and 757. Higher fuel prices and stronger pressures to reduce CO2 emissions have tilted airlines toward newer, more efficient models, increasing...
Avionics International covered some updates from the company in a recent issue of our magazine. We spoke with Unifly’s co-founder and CEO, Andres Van Swalm, last May following the news of a €10 million investment from Terra Drone Corporation and Japanese government fund JOIN. Unifly has partnered with ENAIRE, a Spanish ANSP, to develop an automated digital drone manageme...
Under a Funded Space Act Agreement, Boeing will work with NASA to build, test, and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft and validate technologies aimed at lowering emissions. Over seven years, NASA will invest $425 million, while the company and its partners will contribute the remainder of the agreement funding, estimated at about $725 million. As part of the agreeme...
In 2022, at least 143 incidents with disabled aircraft have occurred globally, averaging approximately 3 incidents per week. The longest recovery operation took at least 168 hours (seven days). An overview of the statistics can be found in the RESQTEC Aircraft Recovery Statistics Report 2022. Aircraft recovery: A shared responsibility When an incident occurs, it is alre...
In the aftermath of COVID-19, the usual pressures of matching airport capacity with increased demand has been matched with the need for sustainability. Airports must substantially minimize costs, improve the usage of expensive assets, reduce carbon footprint and energy consumption, while at the same time provide an even more safe and secure environment for passengers and...
Altair SimSolid is able to perform incredibly efficient structural analyses on fully featured CAD assemblies. Sam Mahalingam, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Altair, explained in the announcement: “Altair SimSolid is the premier simulation technology for engineers, designers, analysts, and manufacturers. It eliminates geometry preparation and meshing, which are the two...
The eVTOL aircraft are expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year. Customers are able to reserve the RECON for purchase at ryseaerotech.com. RYSE’s aircraft was also the first eVTOL to take flight at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. RYSE started conducting manned test flights of its RECON aircraft last summer, with the first manned fli...
A UK non-profit is developing an all-electric version of the popular Zenith CH-750 for use as medical transport for personnel to use in hard-to-reach places. The organization, which goes by the unlikely acronym of NUNCATS and even less likely name of “No Unnecessary Novelty Community Air Transport,” says that the goal is to provide clean air transport to help the estimat...
It’s not so much an emerging aircraft as an emerging family of aircraft or, if the technology pans out at larger scale, a new paradigm for propulsion. Jetoptera (yeah, we’re still figuring out how to pronounce it, too) has been developing this concept for a while now, and its latest scale model, without question, puts on an impressive performance using the new propulsion...
The DisruptiveLab will evaluate a new aerodynamic architecture intended to reduce fuel consumption, as well as pursuing the implementation of hybridisation with a fully parallel hybrid propulsion system that enables battery recharge in-flight. The new demonstrator will take to the skies before the end of 2022 in order to begin flight testing and maturing these new techno...
With its international headquarters in Reading, Altitude Angel has developed UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technology that provides the software and infrastructure required for drones to fly safely, without a pilot, over large distances. The £5m deal with Etc. - the incubation team in BT Group’s Digital unit - will accelerate Altitude Angel’s roll-out of its ARROW te...
The technologies demonstrated and tested as part of the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD) program will inform future designs and could lead to breakthrough aerodynamics and fuel efficiency gains. When combined with expected advancements in propulsion systems, materials and systems architecture, a single-aisle airplane with a TTBW configuration could reduce fuel cons...
The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is part of the INFINITE consortium, which has been launched to address the control of aerostructure manufacturing processes and operating conditions, as well as reduce component costs. Engineers from the AMRC’s composites team are supporting the consortium - which is funded by Horizon Europe and l...
CubCrafters—the manufacturers of Part 23 light sport and experimental backcountry aircraft—is about to make it easier for pilots to play in the snow. The Yakima-based aircraft company has acquired Summit Aircraft Skis, including the company’s design and manufacturing assets, unique patents, and related intellectual property, from the Summit Aircraft Corporation of Sandpo...
