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Category Archives: Aerospace

Air France by Cityjet EI-RJE British Aerospace Avro RJ85 landing at Schiphol Amsterdam RWY 18R – Video

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Air France by Cityjet EI-RJE British Aerospace Avro RJ85 landing at Schiphol Amsterdam RWY 18R
Air France by Cityjet EI-RJE British Aerospace Avro RJ85 landing at Schiphol Amsterdam RWY 18R Polderbaan 11:40h 22-08-2013.

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Air France by Cityjet EI-RJE British Aerospace Avro RJ85 landing at Schiphol Amsterdam RWY 18R - Video

3-D Printing in the Aerospace Industry: How Lockheed Martin, Airbus, and Boeing Are Using This Techn

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If you're following the 3-D printing space, you might know that aerospace companies are quickly embracing this disruptive technology. While General Electric, which has plans to use the technology to produce fuel nozzles for its new Leap jet engine, gets the lion's share of the press, Boeing (NYSE: BA) , Airbus (NASDAQOTH: EADSY) , Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) ,and other aerospace companies are also involved, to varying degrees, with 3-D printing technology.

We're going to explore a sampling of how aircraft manufacturers Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin are using or planning to use 3-D printing in their production processes. Like many large manufacturers, these companies have been using 3-D printing for prototyping for many years. A previous article discussed why the aerospace industry is all-aboard the 3-D printing train (or plane), and highlighted the 3-D printing efforts of GE and United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney division.

Why should aerospace investors care how Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin are using 3-D printing? Aerospace companies that more quickly and successfully put to use 3-D printing throughout their operations will likely sport a competitive advantage over their slower-moving and less-effective peers due to the considerable cost savings and innovative possibilities that this technology can unleash.

Boeing: $94.1 billion market capNotably, Boeing was, reportedly, one of the earlier adopters of 3-D printing. This certainly speaks to the company's innovative chops.

That said, Boeing's received a lot more coverage than the other aerospace companies except for GE and there's way too much to cover in a short space. So, I'll just include one interesting tidbit here: Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner includes about 30 3-D printed parts, which is a record in the industry. The parts aren't critical aerospace components, but such things as hinges and air ducts. Boeing is, however, ramping up its 3-D printing efforts.

Airbus: $57.4 billion market capAirbus just announced last week that it was expanding its use of 3-D printing. The European aircraft manufacturer has started to use 3-D printed parts in its A300/A310 models, and its newly released A350 XWB. Peter Sander of Airbus was quoted by engineering.com as saying: "We are on the cusp of a step-change in weight reduction and efficiency producing aircraft parts which weight 30 to 55 percent less, while reducing raw material used by 90 percent. This game-changing technology also decreases total energy used in production by up to 90 percent compared to traditional methods."

Airbus already has produced many plastic and metal brackets for the A350 XWB aircraft. The company has worked with privately held German 3-D printer manufacturer EOS to test and validate material and structural properties of the parts produced using EOS's direct metal laser sintering technology, according to an article in 3ders.org.

Airbus is also exploring the use of 3-D printing to make out-of-production spare parts on demand. "This month, the first "printed" component a small plastic crew seat panel flew on an Airbus customer jetliner, an A310 operated by Canada's Air Transat," noted 3ders.org.

Lockheed Martin: $51.3 billion market capLockheed Martin is working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the largest lab in the U.S. Department of Energy's system, to scale up 3-D printing to produce parts up to 60-100 feet in size for the aerospace and other industries, according to Aviation Week. The ultimate goal is to be able to print structures such as the wings of a large unmanned aircraft.

ORNL has a premier materials science program, and it's the material that is the key to scaling up 3-D printing for industrial uses. This is because 3-D involves heating the material being printed, which often results in large printed parts warping because areas with varying thicknesses cool at different rates. The ORNL-Lockheed Martin project involves developing a "broad area" 3-D printer for printing the carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, which ORNL has specially developed for 3-D printing applications.

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3-D Printing in the Aerospace Industry: How Lockheed Martin, Airbus, and Boeing Are Using This Techn

Vector Aerospace UK's Mobile Repair Team Build Civil On-wing Capability

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Vector Aerospace UK (Vector - http://www.vectoraerospace.com),a leading provider of aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services continues to develop its civil client portfolio following the completion of yet another contract for a major fixed wing operator.

"November 2013 witnessed our initial foray into the commercial airline sector and demand has progressively increased since", said Mick O'Connor, the Component Services Business Director at Vector Aerospace UK. "Historically we have supported military rotary and fixed wing customers and it is evident from our growing order book that the expertise and experience we have developed in this sector is highly prized by civil and commercial aviation customers".

The recent contract delivery saw the Mobile Repair Team (MRT), based at Vector Aerospace's Almondbank facility located near Perth in Scotland, complete the on-wing plating repair to a high specification and to the airline's satisfaction. The company's growing, civil fixed wing portfolio has coincided with an investment in a site based composite repair capability, allowing an expansion of the MRT to offer customers on-wing welding, sheet-metal, NDT, brush plating and composite repairs.Vector Aerospace's five year growth strategy has highlighted the civil and commercial aviation market as a prime sector for development - leveraging its experience and knowledge in defence to achieve similar results in this target market.

"The growing breadth and depth of the capability at Almondbank provides Vector Aerospace with a distinct competitive advantage across a wide range of aircraft components,"said Michael Tyrrell, Managing Director for Vector Aerospace UK. "The site offers a unique, affordable and comprehensive MRO service, strategically positioning the company for further success in the future".

The strategic and flexible nature of the capability at Almondbank was recently demonstrated by the deployment of some of its mobile repair teams to the Philippines in order to aid foreign militaries in their efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to typhoon victims. "Our ability to deploy teams across the globe to operate upon aircraft on the ground is a unique asset of which we are especially proud", said Mick O'Connor. "Not only does it demonstrate the benefits of our investment in a highly trained workforce, but it is also proving an attractive offering to existing and prospective civil clients."

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Vector Aerospace UK's Mobile Repair Team Build Civil On-wing Capability

2014 AUSA Winter Symposium – Dr. Deborah Barnhart – Preparing Next Gen Aerospace Workforce – Video

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2014 AUSA Winter Symposium - Dr. Deborah Barnhart - Preparing Next Gen Aerospace Workforce
"Preparing the Next Generation Military and Industrial Aerospace Workforce" Dr. Deborah E. Barnhart Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director United Sta...

By: Association of the U.S. Army

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2014 AUSA Winter Symposium - Dr. Deborah Barnhart - Preparing Next Gen Aerospace Workforce - Video

Ball Aerospace-Built GMI Instrument Launches Aboard NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement …

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BOULDER, Colo. - The Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) successfully launched on NASA's GPM Core Observatory satellite from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan at 1:37 p.m. EST on Feb. 27, 2014. The satellite flew onboard an H-IIA launch vehicle.

Built for NASA, Ball's GMI is a multi-channel, conical-scanning microwave radiometer that flies aboard the GPM Core Observatory. GMI is an essential part of an international satellite mission that will capture next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours. The GPM Core Observatory will deliver unprecedented 3-D views of hurricanes and snowstorms and contribute to monitoring and forecasting weather events such as droughts, floods and landslides.

"GMI will provide significantly more accurate data to forecasters tracking extreme weather," said Ball Aerospace President Rob Strain. "GMI's greater accuracy will also enhance the global precipitation dataset used by the world's scientists."

The Ball Aerospace GMI, will deliver more frequent and higher quality data collection than currently available. The eight-foot tall GMI instrument rotates at 32 revolutions per minute and uses four extremely stable calibration points on each revolution to calibrate the data it scans. The instrument minimizes solar intrusion for added accuracy and features higher frequency channels to measure smaller particles of precipitation such as light rain and snow.

GMI will fly aboard the GPM Core Observatory satellite with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA-s) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instrument. The GMI captures precipitation intensities and horizontal patterns, while the DPR provides insights into the three dimensional structure of rain, snow and other precipitation particles. Together, these two instruments will provide a database of measurements that will be used with observations of other partner satellites to upgrade the quality of all collected data and to provide uniform precipitation estimates everywhere in the world every three hours.

GMI's design is based on successful microwave sensors built previously by Ball Aerospace, including the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C), the GEOSAT Follow-On (GFO-2) and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS).

The company is currently performing risk reduction work for the U.S. Air Force on the Defense Weather Satellite Follow-On microwave sounding and imaging instrument. This sensor will greatly leverage the advanced design and hardware of the GMI instrument to measure tropical cyclone intensity, sea ice, soil moisture and ocean surface vector winds for military forecasting.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions for national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. For more information, visit http://www.ballaerospace.com/.

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2013 sales of $8.5 billion. For more information, visit http://www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Source Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

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CubeSat World – Satlite CubeSat World Observacin Global del Planeta Tierra (JAPON) – Video

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CubeSat World - Satlite CubeSat World Observacin Global del Planeta Tierra (JAPON)
SUSCRBETE http://goo.gl/oPUqJp https://www.facebook.com/pages/Comando-bayer/256298267865050 CubeSat World; Proyecto de Exploracin Aeroespacial diseado por...

By: COMANDOBAYER

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CubeSat World - Satlite CubeSat World Observacin Global del Planeta Tierra (JAPON) - Video


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