by Joy Finnegan | Oct 25, 2023 | BUZZ
We hope to see many new and familiar faces at our event, Aerospace Tech Week in Atlanta! If you are joining us here and reading this at the event, welcome! If you are receiving this magazine at home, please look ahead and consider attending our next event in Munich on April 17 and 18.
For those interested in learning about the latest in technology that can help airlines be more efficient, save money and be sustainable, or those working in the avionics, connectivity, MRO IT, flight ops IT, testing, MRO, MOSA/SOSA/FACE areas, this is the conference to attend.
At the show you will have access to multiple experts in these areas that will speak and share experiences from their operations and about their products and offerings. In this issue of Aerospace Tech Review, we also look at some of the same topics that will be covered at the show. One of those topics is cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is or should be top of mind for all in aviation. Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and will likely become more devastating. Being prepared, as much as possible, is key.
Back in June, Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Louisiana experienced a cyberattack on its administration system as part of a larger attack by a ransomware group. Fortunately, flight operations were not affected. In April, the international cyber hacking group Anonymous Sudan claimed credit for website outages of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and UPS. Both websites were restored within a couple of hours, and both said there was no impact on operations.
In February, seven German airport websites including those for Dusseldorf, Nuremberg and Dortmund, were knocked offline by a cyberattack.
All of these folks got lucky and these are a few examples of the cyberattacks that target the aviation industry. But concerns about aircraft and their interconnected functions, interfaces and systems, including ground, in-flight and maintenance operations and related processes, are real. These incidents could impact safety, business operations and the company reputations.
Experts from around the world are quoted in our story on cybersecurity by Jim Romeo that touts planning and preparation to anticipate possible cybersecurity breaches as key to preventing or minimizing damage due to them. Cybersecurity awareness, standards and best practices are discussed in the article starting on page 20.
Also in this issue we have an update on blockchain use in aviation. Aviation and blockchain seem like a match made in heaven. Accuracy and integrity of data is crucial to aviation. Blockchain can potentially provide extremely efficient, digitized and incorruptible parts tracking, as well as many other applications. It promises to improve data security, reduce costs and increase the efficiency of processes.
How would blockchain be used in our aviation world? Recording the location of assets in real-time, providing information like flight path, baggage onboarding, tracking down a lost asset, passenger details are some of the ways.
More specifically, in the world of caring for and maintaining aircraft, the experts at consulting firm PwC say it can provide “a boost of power and efficiency” to the MRO side of the airline business. “A picture of each plane’s configuration and maintenance history, accurate up to the second, would make it easier to predict when serious maintenance issues could ground a plane, and to analyze its condition and diagnose potential issues during MRO,” PwC says.
Blockchain offers the promise of continuously updating the logs for each aircraft part’s condition. This could help reduce the time needed for the inspection and maintenance of aircraft. Blockchain may also assist in predictive maintenance efforts. MRO service providers can also use blockchain and provide verifiable documentation for the components they have serviced or installed.
Beyond all that, this technology can help automate payment processes, and improve the ease with which airlines can keep track of the entire life cycle of an aircraft, from the manufacturing process to maintenance and repair process, to end of life.
The experts say cybersecurity is built into blockchain technology because it is a decentralized system built on principles of security, privacy and trust. According to a Deloitte white paper, blockchain is a “promising innovation … towards helping enterprises tackle immutable cyber-risk challenges such as digital identities and maintaining data integrity.”
But the Deloitte paper cautions that, “blockchain’s characteristics do not provide an impenetrable panacea to all cyber ills, to think the same would be naïve at best. Instead, as with other technologies blockchain implementations and rollouts must include typical system and network cybersecurity controls, due diligence, practice and procedures.”
You can see our story on blockchain starting on page 40.
So whether you are joining us either in Atlanta, Munich or both, to learn more about areas of technology that could be so important to your business operations like cybersecurity and blockchain — welcome. We hope you also enjoy the many other areas we will be covering including avionics, connectivity, testing, flight operations IT, MRO IT or MOSA/SOSA/FACE. We look forward to hosting this event and creating the environment of learning, information sharing and provoking new avenues of thought about how to improve aviation and aerospace.
by Joy Finnegan | Oct 25, 2023 | Avionics
PCB Piezotronics announced the release of a new ultra-high temperature pressure sensor for combustion testing and thermoacoustic pressure measurements with a unique design element that eliminates the need for water cooling. The new model 176A33 pressure sensor features a temperature rating of 1400 °F (760 °C).
This new pressure sensor measures combustion dynamics as well as gas turbine measurements, thermoacoustic measurements, rocket motor combustion instability or any high temperature, dynamic gas pressure measurement. In these demanding test environments, PCB’s UHT-12 sensing element uses a crystal designed for more accurate, lower noise measurements during large temperature variations.
The 176A33 single ended pressure sensor has a high sensitivity of 6 pC/psi, a measurement range of 3000 psi (207 bar), and a maximum pressure rating of 5,200 psi (359 bar) with a 3 foot (1 meter) hardline cable terminating in a double isolated 10-32 connector.
“This new design eliminates the need for water cooling up to 1400 °F,” said Bob Metz, director of sales and marketing for aerospace and defense division at PCB Piezotronics. “This makes the new 176A33 pressure sensor an excellent choice for research facilities that perform thermodynamic and acoustic measurements during combustion research.”
by Joy Finnegan | Oct 25, 2023 | Innovation
USA-based Skydio recently introduced the Skydio X10 drone featuring a customized Teledyne FLIR Boson+ thermal camera module at its Ascend Conference on September 20. Thanks to the Thermal by FLIR collaboration, professional public safety and critical infrastructure inspection pilots can now access the most advanced uncooled thermal imaging technology on the market.
The Thermal by FLIR program is a cooperative product development and marketing program. It supports original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as Skydio, to integrate Teledyne FLIR thermal camera modules into products, along with go-to-market support for ensuing product innovations. The Skydio X10 includes a first-of-its-kind thermal imaging payload using a customized radiometric Boson+ thermal camera module, providing unmatched thermal performance and improvements in size, weight, and power (SWaP), critical for inspections, situational awareness, and search and rescue missions.
“The Thermal by FLIR program is designed to help our customers innovate and create applications and capabilities that don’t yet exist,” said Dan Walker, vice president, product development, Teledyne FLIR. “For the Boson+ collaboration with Skydio, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Skydio customers will soon have access to the most effective uncrewed thermal imaging capabilities ever created for a drone of this size and mission.”
“Skydio customers represent the critical industries that our core civilization runs on, such as public safety, energy utilities, and defense, who need highly accurate data to make timely decisions that benefit us all. This requires high-definition thermal imagery in a SWaP-optimized package,” said Abe Bachrach, chief technology officer, Skydio. “That is why we chose to integrate the Teledyne FLIR Boson+ thermal camera module within the Skydio X10 platform, as it provides the right mix of performance and features required for pilots to complete the mission.”
Thermal Performance and SWaP Enhancements
The USA-manufactured Boson+ not only provides four times the thermal resolution at 640 x 512 pixels versus the predecessor thermal camera on the Skydio X2, but it also doubles the thermal sensitivity of competitive payloads at 30 millikelvin (mK) or better. It is the most sensitive commercially available uncooled longwave infrared (LWIR) camera module for drones. The increased sensitivity and resolution provide sharper scene detail, improving detection, specifically in outdoor, low-contrast scenes—a critical need for thermal inspectors and first responders, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, and search and rescue personnel.
The Teledyne FLIR team also worked closely with Skydio to develop custom optics to reduce the weight of a standard Boson+ camera optics by 48%. The weight reduction helps maximize flight time while also decreasing the volume of the thermal camera module by 43% for an improved payload form factor.
The Skydio X10 boasts customized thermal image signal processing that leverages Teledyne FLIR’s Prism ISP, further improving imaging quality. The resulting thermal imagery is available as radiometric JPEGs (R-JPEG), meaning that each image captured includes temperature data of every pixel in the scene for granular, quantitative insights needed for solar panel, machinery, and utility inspection.
That R-JPEG data captured from the X10 can then be combined with the R-JPEG data captured from handheld Teledyne FLIR thermal imaging cameras to create comprehensive inspection reports from the air to the ground. Skydio X10 users can also utilize FLIR Thermal Studio software with advanced thermal imaging processing and analysis for creating custom, sharable PDF reports with colleagues, partners, and clients.
by Joy Finnegan | Oct 23, 2023 | Innovation
StandardAero announced that it now offers CFM International CFM56-7B turbofan engine test services from its DFW Center of Excellence at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. StandardAero recently completed test cell correlation for the popular CFM56-7B powerplant at its state-of-the-art, six-cell DFW test complex.
Introduction of the new capability enables StandardAero’s DFW team to undertake pass-off testing for workscopes undertaken at its 220,000 sq. ft. DFW-based CFM56-7B service center, which was opened earlier this year. The correlated test capability also allows Boeing 737NG operators and other CFM56-7B asset owners to ensure the performance of their powerplant following line maintenance or long-term storage, or to perform exploratory engine runs to investigate potential issues.
StandardAero holds CFM International General Support License Agreement (GSLA) approval for the CFM56-7B, and the DFW Center facility added the engine to the operations specifications for its FAA Part 145 Repair Station at the beginning of 2023, with the first of four dedicated gantries introduced shortly thereafter. CFM56-7B capabilities offered at the location include ‘quick turn’ services such as borescope inspections, boroblend repairs, engine module changes and QEC/LRU removal/installation, along with fan, top case, bottom case, hot section and LPT repairs.
“The introduction of StandardAero’s DFW-based CFM56-7B service center has generated overwhelming interest from customers far and wide, and we are proud to deliver on our promise of adding test capabilities at the location,” said Jay Aiken, vice president of Turbofan Sales, Airlines and Fleets for StandardAero.
by Joy Finnegan | Oct 19, 2023 | Flight Ops IT
As part of its global expansion, NAVBLUE, Airbus’s flight operations services subsidiary, opened an office in Poland in October 2022 and is celebrating its first anniversary.
The city of Gdansk was chosen because of its recognized position as an aerospace and software hub in Europe. The NAVBLUE Gdansk office has already recruited 40 people and should reach 100 by the end of 2024.
Leveraging on the local talent ecosystem, NAVBLUE has chosen to rely on the Polish tech and software talents to develop, produce and deliver state-of-the-art flight operations products and solutions aimed at increasing airline operational efficiency and supporting sustainable aviation.
“The success of the hiring campaign for our office in Gdansk demonstrates the high performance and attractiveness of our company,” said Marc Lemeilleur, CEO of NAVBLUE “This new office reinforces our expertise and our network in Europe and around the world, facilitating working relationships with our other teams based in Europe, Asia and America.”
NAVBLUE says its presence in Poland strengthens Airbus’ technological presence in the country and brings the number of NAVBLUE sites in Europe to four (France, UK, Poland and Sweden), as well as offices in Canada, the USA, Thailand and Singapore.
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