AW&ST fyller 100 år neste år og legger ut små blogger

Interessant bilde. 747`en er prototypen som nå står på Museum of Flight ved Renton, sjekk bildet nederst.

Modified Boeing 747 In Refuelling Tests With SR-71

May 28, 2015by Rupa Haria in From The Archives

This photo of a Boeing 747 modified to a tanker configuration conducting a dry refueling hookup test with an Air Force/Lockheed SR-71 Mach 3 long-range reconnaissance aircraft on a flight from Edwards AFB, Calif, appeared on the October 2, 1972 cover ofAviation Week & Space Technology. USAF was making the evaluation to determine the feasibility of using large transport aircraft to fill a future requirement for new tanker aircraft.

See also: SR-71 Pilot Report

Boeing photo by Vernon T. Manion.

► Aviation Week is approaching its 100th anniversary in 2016. In a series of blogs, our editors highlight editorial content from the magazine's long and rich history, including viewpoints from the industry's most iconic names and stories that have helped change the shape of the industry.

Museum of Flight 2011 - Foto: Per Gram

Helikopter - Mi-26 - En bjønn blir sterkere

 

Foreløig har Russian Helicopters laget kun den ene prototypen

av Mi-26T2. Nå er det klart for serieproduksjon av det moderniserte

kjempehelikopteret. Foto: Russian Helicopters

Mil Mi-26 «Halo»

Verdens sterkeste helikopter blir enda sterkere

Det russiske helikopteret som reddet det norske redningshelikopteret blir modernisert.

Av  Per Erlien Dalløkken

Publisert 28. mai 2015 kl. 06:00

 

Det regnes som verdens største og sterkeste serieproduserte helikopter.
Nå kommer en oppgradert og enda litt kraftigere versjon av Mi-26.
Les også: Her flyr S-97 Raider: – Den viktigste jomfruferden siden 1939

Digitalisering

Mi-26T2 heter den moderniserte versjonen som fløy første gang 17. februar 2011.
Prototypen har vært i testing siden da, og helikopteret settes nå i serieproduksjon på Rostvertol-fabrikken ved Azovhavet, melder Russian Helicopters.
Mi-26T2 er utstyrt med såkalt glasscockpit, altså digitale instrumenter, med ny navigasjon og autopilot.
Den nye avionikken (BREO-26) bidrar til at besetningen kan reduseres fra fem til to-tre og helikopteret har dessuten fått nattkapasitet.
 

Mi-26T2-prototypen ble vist fra på det russiske forsvarsdepartementets innovasjonsdag i Moskva i august i fjor. Foto: Russian Helicopters

Enda litt mer kraft

Den digre åtteblads hovedrotoren, med en diameter på 32 meter, drives av to enorme Lotarev D-136-motorer som hver kan yte 8 500 kW.
Til sammenligning har nye Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion tre nyutviklede GE38-1B-motorer som hver yter maksimalt 5 600 kW.
Med andre ord er det med ørliten margin (200 kW) at Mi-26 kan kalles verdens sterkeste helikopter.
Imidlertid har T2-versjonen moderniserte D-136-2-turbiner med elektronisk motorstyring (fadec/«full authority digital engine control») som bidrar til å øke effekten med 184 kW ved fullt pådrag.
Det gir en samlet effekt på 17 368 kW/23 630 hk.
Les også: Russisk helikopter satte høyderekord

Kan løfte 20 tonn

Etter det produsenten oppgir, vil helikopteret fortsatt ha en maksimal takeoffvekt på 56 tonn.
Det kan bære 20 tonn nyttelast, enten i lasterommet eller på slynge.
Her til lands så vi Mi-26 i aksjon rett før jul i 2012 da det løftet ned et av 330-skvadronens Sea King-helikoptre fra toppen av Divgagáisá i Porsanger.
 

Mi-26 med norsk Sea King i slynge. Foto: Forsvarets 330 Skvadron

 

82 soldater

For troppetransport er kapasiteten 82 fullt utrustede soldater.
– Mi-26T2 er i stand til å fly oppdrag hvor som helst i verden og vil bidra til en kraftig styrking av den russiske militære beredskapen, påpekte Russian Helicopters da prototypen deltok på det russiske forsvarsdepartementets innovasjonsdag i fjor.
Russian Helicopters er et datterselskap av UIC Oboronprom som igjen tilhører statlige Rostec.

Russisk-kinesisk helisamarbeid

Russian Helicopters har underbrukene Rostvertol og Mil-fabrikken i Moskva som til sammen produserte og leverte 271 helikoptre i 2014.
Selskapet opplyste tidligere denne måneden at Kina og Russland skal samarbeide om å utvikle et nytt, tungt transporthelikopter.
Helikopteret kalles foreløpig Advanced Heavy Lift (AHL), og foreløpige spesifikasjoner lyder på maksimal avgangsvekt på 38 tonn og evnen til å bære 15 tonn nyttelast på slynge eller 10 tonn internt.

 

Drone - AirMule har Israel holdt på med i 10 år

Israel’s ‘AirMule’ in Flight Testing

by Bryant Jordan on September 15, 2014

562126

An Israeli company that spent a decade developing an autonomous, unmanned vertical takeoff and landing craft utilizing internal lift rotors says its first prototype is now going through flight tests and it’s at work on a second prototype.
Called the AirMule, the rotorcraft is envisioned for use as an unmanned transport – ferrying supplies into a combat zone or taking out wounded – operating in areas where helicopters and fixed-wing planes cannot.
Defense Tech first came across this work-in progress in 2009, when Urban Aeronautics Ltd. of Israel was preparing to demonstrate flight tests using a smaller, electrically-driven model to validate the basic technology. It now has a full-scale version being put through its paces.
Tactical Robotics Ltd., the UA subsidiary now handling development of the AirMule, says the vehicle will weigh 1,700 lbs, carry a payload of 1,400 pounds and fly at a maximum altitude of 12,000 feet. It will also make speeds of about 112 miles per hour.
The company says on its website that the UAV was designed to address lessons learned from its 2006 war in Lebanon as well as those learned by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of these is an urgent need to evacuate wounded personnel in situations where anti-aircraft fire poses too great a threat to helicopters, or from terrain where traditional helos cannot operate.
In addition to combat, the company is pitching AirMule – in particular a version it will manufacture as an ambulance – for homeland security, natural disaster and first responder missions.

Droner, fly og eLORAN

UAS-Friendly GPS Backup System

The comment period on the US Federal Register is about to close on a potential navigation backup system for GPS that could be very useful for unmanned systems.

Enhanced Loran or eLoran is an invigorated version of the old Loran system formerly operated by the Coast Guard. The new system, which has been described as high definition television compared to the black-and-white technology of Loran, would cover the continental United States with a low-frequency signal for navigation and timing that is completely independent of GPS. The system is already in operation in Europe and parts of Asia.

ELoran could be very beneficial to unmanned aerospace systems (UAS) given the shortcomings of GPS, said Girish Chowdhary, an engineering professor at the Oklahoma State University. Chowdhary is working on navigation systems for unmanned aircraft.

“I think the problem is that GPS is not a very high integrity signal,” Chowdhary told Inside Unmanned Systems, “So it can be very easily jammed or overpowered.”

That is not the case with very powerful eLoran signals, which are nearly impossible to jam.

“The average received signal is 1.3 million times stronger that than of GPS, “ said

Dana Goward, president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, which advocates for the adoption of eLoran in the U.S. “For applications where you really, really want to make sure you have a navigation signal of some kind, eLoran would be a great supplement to GPS.”

The signal’s frequency also enables it to penetrate where GPS cannot. The signals can be received in metropolitan areas where concrete blocks the GPS signal.

The L in Loran stands for low frequency, Chowdhary said, and lower frequencies can travel farther and travel through buildings and other obstacles like forest canopies. “So it should be just like your AM radio — it is receivable over really long distances.”

That penetration capability could be essential to some applications.

“Amazon is talking about delivering things in urban environments, Chowdhary said, “and nobody’s really talking about how well GPS is going to work in urban environments. In those situations I think these alternate signals are going to be important.”

Accuracy is not an issue, he added, nor is the fact that eLoran offers a 2- dimensional signal as opposed to GPS’s 3-dimentional signal.  You usually integrate other sensors to get the altitude, he explained, because GPS does not have the best vertical accuracy. Such sensors can include barometric altimeters or downward pointing lasers and sonars.

“Just like what humans do,” explained Chowdhary. “We don’t use just one sensing modality. We use our eyes, or sound or touch — we put it all together to create an idea of where we are. Similarly, one can definitely put together eLoran signals within inertial navigation systems. Together they can result in a very high accuracy signal.”

ELoran could be particularly important for detect and avoid he said, because, unlike other technologies for collision avoidance including Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B), it does not relay on GPS signals.

“Why would you fly an unmanned system with of one source of navigation if you could have two?” said Goward, “especially if they were different phenomenologies and have different interrupts and failure modes.”

An eLoran network would most likely be funded by a public private partnership though the government needs to permit the use of the old Loran sites and infrastructure.

The federal government is currently taking comments as it weighs its whether to support building the system. The deadline is Friday May 22.

The system has the wide support of the navigation community but that may not be enough. Eloran had similar support when it was cancelled in 2010 for budget reasons.

The RNT Foundation background information and comment links at its web site atrntfnd.org.

Arctic Challenge - Video fra TU

Sjekk fin video her: http://tinyurl.com/og649gj

Foto: Forsvaret

Helikopter - Bell 525 Relentless flyr snart

Bell Looks for 525 First Flight 'Within Weeks'

Bell Helicopter is completing final preparations for the first flight of its 525 Relentless, which it expects within weeks, the company’s VP of that program told Rotor & Wing. Larry Thimmesch said the company is transitioning from manufacturing of Flight Test Aircraft No. 1 to pre-flight prep activity. Current work includes calibrating the flight test aircraft’s rotor blades and fuel system, determining final empty weight and performing “J2” overall manufacturing inspection. Once that is done, the aircraft will move into ground runs. “That’s where we do telemetry checkouts, rotor track and balance, ground resonance, torsional stability,” said Thimmesch, who worked as a program director at Bombardier Learjet and a senior designer at Boeing Commercial Airplanes before joining Bell in 2010. “Then we start powering up and doing functional checks of the engines and auxiliary power unit, checking out avionics heading calibrations and the overall electrical and generating-distribution systems.” Flight tests will be done at Bell’s Amarillo, Texas facility. The company plans five aircraft for the flight test program.

3D printing - SpaceX leads the way

Why 3D Printing a Jet Engine or Car Is Just the Beginning

The 3D printing (digital manufacturing) market has had a lot of hype over the past few years.

Most recently, it seems this technology arena has entered the "trough of disillusionment," as 3D printing stock prices have taken a hit. But the fact remains: this exponential technology is still in its childhood and its potential for massive disruption (of manufacturing and supply chains) lies before us.

This article is about 3D printing's vast potential - our ability to soon 3D print complex systems like jet engines, rocket engines, cars and even houses.

But first, a few facts:

Today, we can 3D print in some 300 different materials, ranging from titanium to chocolate.
We can 3D print in full color.
We can 3D print in mixed materials - imagine a single print that combines metals, plastics and rubbers.
Best of all, complexity and personalization come for free.

What Does It Mean for "Complexity to Be Free"?

Think about this: If you 3D print a solid block of titanium, or an equal-sized block with a thousand moving components inside, the time and cost of both 3D printings is almost exactly the same (the solid block is actually more expensive from a materials cost).

Complexity and personalization in the 3D printing process come for free - i.e. no additional cost and no additional time. Today, we're finding we can 3D print things that you can't manufacture any other way.

Let's take a look at some of the exciting things being 3D printed now.


3D Printing Rocket Engines
SpaceX 3D printed main oxidizer valves (MOVs).
SpaceX SuperDraco rocket engines.

In 2014, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket with a 3D-printed Main Oxidizer Valve (MOV) body in one of the nine Merlin 1D engines (the print took less than two days -whereas a traditional castings process can take months).

Even more impressive, SpaceX is now 3D printing its SuperDraco engine chamber for the Dragon 2 capsule.

According to SpaceX, the process "resulted in an order of magnitude reduction in lead-time compared with traditional machining - the path from the initial concept to the first hotfire was just over three months."