January 26, 2017 - No. 008 In This Issue Demand for Training in Aviation Jobs is Soaring at Community College of Baltimore County Boeing launches engineering & technology centre in Bengaluru Optech4D pitches AR, VR training and testing solutions to aviation Two supersonic prototypes move towards first flights in 2017 Tesla Brings Unmanned Aerial Systems Training to East Los Angeles College Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi Raytheon pulls out of T-X competition Moon race: final five teams competing for Google's Lunar XPrize announced Demand for Training in Aviation Jobs is Soaring at Community College of Baltimore County Jan. 24--When Doug Williams became director of the Community College of Baltimore County's aviation program in 1996, it had a dozen students. Today, more than 400 students are receiving training to become air traffic controllers, dispatchers, pilots and flight attendants at a time when demand for skilled workers is high. One reason: In August 1981, President Reagan fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and those hired to replace them are nearing retirement. The number of certified air traffic controllers, as of August, is at a 27-year low, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Airlines are also projecting a global increase in passengers, climbing back from a downturn after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to government and industry reports. "The aviation industry is really booming," Williams said. "A lot of students have jobs before they graduate." The two-year aviation technology program, started in 1974, offers six associate of applied science degree programs on its Catonsville campus, including air traffic control, aircraft dispatcher, flight operations management and three professional pilot degrees. Graduates have taken jobs as air traffic controllers in 32 states, become pilots for dozens of airlines and also fly military and corporate planes, Williams said. The school's proximity to several airports, including Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, is beneficial because students get access to jobs, including de- icing or dispatching planes, collecting tickets for flights and handling baggage, Williams said. "No matter what job you go to in the aviation industry, they love to see you've held a job in the aviation industry," he said. The Catonsville location -- about 8 miles from BWI as the crow flies or 15 minutes by car - - also allows the school to attract faculty. The program has 38 adjunct faculty members teaching courses from aviation safety to airport management. Jonathan Dean, BWI communication manager, said in a statement the CCBC training gives students an education that will help them succeed in jobs in the aviation industry. Arjang Doorandish, a 2011 graduate of the CCBC program, is a pilot for United Express. Most of the major airlines require pilots to have at least a degree in aviation, he said. It was a childhood dream for Doorandish, 42, to fly a plane. After graduating, he worked at flight schools in Maryland and Florida before moving to the regional airline, where he has been for about a year. "This place helped me a lot to achieve my goals," he said. Typically, graduates of the pilot program leave school with about 300 hours of flight experience. They become flight instructors to build their flight hours to about 1,200, which takes about two years, before they become commercial pilots. About 65 percent of pilot students seek a degree in flying fixed-wing planes, with 25 percent training to fly helicopters, Williams said. The remainder are pursuing a degree in unmanned aircraft systems, a program that started in the fall of 2015 and is excepted to grow. Williams credits part of the growth in the college's program to the air traffic control degree's approval by the Federal Aviation Administration under its 2008 Air Traffic Control Collegiate Training Initiative. The Catonsville program is one of 36 in the country and the only one in Maryland. CCBC also is the only two-year college in the state that offers aviation technology as a statewide program, which means any resident of Maryland may enroll at the college at a reduced, in-state tuition rate. The program's graduation rate is about 80 percent. More minorities have entered the ranks within the past 10 years, Williams said. "We're always looking to get more women and minorities into the aviation industry," he said. "It's a FAA initiative and one of ours as well." Training comes to life At an airplane simulator, 34-year-old Sean Finnegan was working on a procedure that sets a pilot up for the final approach into an airport in a recent class. The simulator is one of six at CCBC -- three airplane simulators, a helicopter simulator and rooms dedicated to an air traffic control tower. The tower simulator allows students to train for managing takeoffs, landings and planes in the air. Finnegan, a superintendent for an elevator company, got a pilot's license 10 years ago when he was in the Coast Guard. He wants to improve his skills and see if there any opportunities he can pursue in aviation. He said the program will help fill a need for more pilots around the world. A shortage in pilots has resulted in schedule reductions and potential loss of service at airports. Between 2013 and 2016, 52 U.S. airports lost passenger service, according to the Regional Airline Association, an airline industry advocacy group. "There's going to be a lot of opportunity in the near future as baby boomers retire and pilots are retiring out of the industry," Finnegan said. "There needs to be better opportunities for young people to get into the aviation field and fill those gaps. It's only going to grow." Thaddeus Halstead, a 24-year-old from Bel Air, is a simulator instructor who is watching Finnegan. He recently completed the CCBC aviation program and will graduate in the spring. He also works as a flight instructor at the Harford County Airport and hopes to become a pilot for an airline. He said he'll start applying for jobs in about a year, when he has more flight hours logged. "I love to fly, so I'd love to do it all day, every day, and make good money doing it," he said. The average annual wage for pilots was $136,400, according to federal statistics. Median pay for air traffic controllers, as of May 2015, is $122,950 per year, and flight attendants earn $44,860 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. When Williams joined the CCBC program, he saw growth potential. In the years ahead, he wants to see the school expand its unmanned aircraft systems program and provide more in aircraft maintenance. "We can definitely build on this program," he said. ___ (c)2017 the Catonsville Times (Ellicott City, Md.) Visit the Catonsville Times (Ellicott City, Md.) at www.baltimoresun.com/explore/baltimorecounty/publications/catonsville- times/ Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. http://www.aviationpros.com/news/12298327/demand-for-training-in-aviation-jobs-is- soaring-at-community-college-of-baltimore-county Back to Top Boeing launches engineering & technology centre in Bengaluru MUMBAI: American plane maker Boeing Corporation today launched the Boeing India Engineering & Technology Center in Bengaluru. The centre will employ hundreds of locals who will work to support Boeing, including its information technology & data analytics, engineering, research and technology, and tests, the company said in a statement. The company did not specify how many people the centre will hire or the investment gone into the facility. "The centre will leverage a talented pool of employees to increase productivity and long- term competitiveness to support Boeing's engineering growth in strong global markets like India," Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar said. In India we see a true path towards a mutual partnership for success, and the launch of this centre is a major step in that direction, he added. "Our IT has been working here with tier-1 suppliers for many years," Ted Colbert, Boeing chief information officer and a senior vice-president said, adding the new centre is instrumental in promoting our digital transformation by utilising India's talent seamlessly with our global teams. The centre will undertake high quality technology- driven work to support areas as diverse as the development of advanced environment-friendly coatings, data analytics for next generation airplane health management tools, software tools for airlines and airports to reduce their costs, and automation for more efficient next gen manufacturing, and analytics. Boeing has been active in the country for the past 75 years primarily with commercial plane. More recently, its military aircraft and services business are playing an important role in the defence forces http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/boeing- launches-engineering-technology-centre-in-bengaluru/articleshow/56763527.cms Back to Top Optech4D pitches AR, VR training and testing solutions to aviation Ask any hardcore gamer about virtual reality (VR) and you're likely to get a mouthful about the latest game-changing graphics upgrade on their VR system of choice, but after years of breathless media hype from the tech sector, the practical, everyday business and industrial uses for both VR and augmented reality (AR) are also finally coming to fruition. In fact, a recent report from the International Data Corporation predicts that the combined revenue from both the VR and AR market will grow from the current $5.2 billion in 2016 to more than $162 billion by 2020. And while that might be music to the ears of many in the VR and AR sector, it's all in a day's work for Optech4D. Established in 2013 as a VR simulation company for heavy industries like oil and gas, aviation and aerospace, Optech4D focused from the outset on providing hands-on simulation training for its customers versus the typical classroom or eLearning forms of training. And with VR technology having matured and become increasingly mainstream - especially over the past 12 to 18 months thanks to the soaring demand on the consumer front for products like Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR - and 2017 already being widely touted as the year AR finally hits the mainstream, Optech4D's longtime chairman and CEO, Vincent Higgins sees big opportunities to meet the needs of aviation companies looking to integrate both technologies into their daily operations. "Optech4D is the only company in the aviation industry today with both VR and AR solutions," Higgins claims, and "we see the future convergence of these technologies into a single platform in the years to come. By understanding both technologies, we have had tremendous interest from our customers and the market alike regarding current and future uses of these technologies. [But] to truly become mainstream, there must be a proven return on investment (ROI) that non-technical individuals can understand. Optech4D has several of these projects underway and we expect large scale adoption as a result." Citing Optech4D's "train as you work, work as you train" approach, Higgins says the firm has developed a number of VR simulators that assist not just with training and testing competence, but also with looking at things from a whole new perspective as well. "The ability to provide highly-realistic environments in a virtual world is much less expensive than recreating a hazardous environment in the real world." says the Optech4D chief. "[So] VR can actually have a very high ROI compared to traditional training approaches [and] we see these cost savings as a major factor for consideration." Providing a practical example, he says, "One of our clients performs training for Helideck Landing Officers (HLO) that reside on offshore oil rigs. Their normal operation is to fly someone throughout the year to the rigs to assess the HLO skills [and] it is very expensive to fly via helicopter for multiple days per rig. We have recreated the environment so the users can perform the assessment in a fully 3D-immersive world, whether back at the office or on the rig. Even better, we developed the ability to assess performance when things do not go right. We programed a helicopter crashing onto a helipad [which] assesses the users on how they react during an emergency scenario. The results are then uploaded to our cloud environment for historical records [and] the savings in travel costs alone pay for the VR assessment tool many times over." Optech4D's goal is to ensure technicians are fully competent before being asked to perform certain tasks; and its AR solutions are designed to assist the technician while they are performing their tasks in the field. This includes providing real-time access to relevant data and guided work instructions, access to an experienced resource back at the office through the firm's video 'remote expert' capability, or even equipment-specific maintenance information. "We provide all this information while they are on the tarmac or performing maintenance operations in the hangar," says Higgins. Optech4D also has a location-based solution called SafeBeacon that allows the user the ability to access equipment or location-specific data to enhance productivity, efficiency and process compliance. "It enables the AR technology with the ability to present very specific and relevant data to the technician," explains Higgins. But perhaps the coolest innovation Optech4D has on offer at the moment is the ability to "virtually explode" equipment for its customers. "To 'virtually explode' is to have the ability to display a piece of equipment in component parts in a 3D world. One of our demonstrations is that of a jet engine placed in the middle of a room using AR technology. Once the user says: 'expand', the jet engine 'explodes' into component parts that can be viewed from all angles in the room. You can walk around it, look inside, and even rotate it. "Optech4D also has applications that allow the technician to select component parts to identify subsequent training manuals, work instructions, documentation, etc., specific to that part. They can even order replacement parts by selecting a component and having the AR technology integrated with their order management system." And though there may still be some holdouts prone to taking a more measured, wait-and- see approach to adopting VR and AR technology, Higgins says Optech4D sees airlines and aerospace as among the top markets for adopting both technologies right now. "Like any emerging technology, customers are feeling their way based upon their own culture, willingness to adopt new technologies, appetite for change, etc. ... [but] we have not seen resistance as much as strong interest. Optech4D is in discussions with multiple airlines and manufacturers regarding potential relationships. Some are interested in targeted projects around specific use cases whereas others look to Optech4D for thought leadership." But any way you look at it, says Higgins: "We believe 2017 will be the year when AR becomes mainstream due to the level of interest and early adoption we are already seeing. We are committed to the aviation industry and expect these relationships to expand even further [and] you can expect to hear more in Q1 2017." https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2017/01/24/optech4d-pitches-ar-vr-training-and-testing- solutions-to-aviation/ Back to Top Two supersonic prototypes move towards first flights in 2017 Two subsonic prototypes of planned supersonic commercial aircraft launched by separate start-ups are on track to enter flight test later this year. Colorado-based Boom Technology has completed wind tunnel tests of a one-third-scale, subsonic prototype, the company announced on January. The start-up now has the data to begin building large structures for the scaled prototype aircraft by year-end. Last year, Boom announced plans to develop a 45-seat airliner capable of speeds up to Mach 2.2. The design makes no attempt to muffle the sound of the "boom" produced by the supersonic shockwave, so the airliner will be limited to subsonic speed over land. Despite that limitation, Boom's veteran staff of aerospace engineers believe there is a strong market for an all-business class airliner that can fly above the speed of sound over water. Separately, Boston-based Spike Aerospace says it is on track to complete first flight of a subsonic, scaled prototype for the Spike S-512 business jet by late summer. A series of larger prototypes will follow, leading to flights by a supersonic demonstrator by the end of 2018, the company said on 23 January. Spike plans to deliver the first aircraft in 2023. The S-512 is being designed to mask the noise produced by breaking the sound barrier, potentially allowing operators to fly the aircraft over populated areas if the US and European governments lift bans on supersonic flight by non-military aircraft. Both start-ups are the latest to chase the dream of commercial supersonic travel, since the retirement of the Aerospatial/BAc Concorde fleet in 2003. Billionaire Robert Bass founded Aerion in 2002 and it continues to work towards fielding the AS2 supersonic business jet in 2023. Engine selection for the AS2 is expected in the first half of this year. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/two-supersonic-prototypes-move-towards- first-flights-433482/ Back to Top Tesla Brings Unmanned Aerial Systems Training to East Los Angeles College Students at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) will soon have the opportunity to be on the forefront of an emerging technology field. ELAC has announced that the Tesla Foundation, the charitable arm of Tesla, is introducing a first-of-its-kind program that will train participating students for future careers in unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The program is funded through a $300,000 grant from the City of Los AngelesWorkforce Development Board. Using the Tesla Foundation's Training and Internship Partnership model, students will "be trained on available applications for UAS, including cinematography, photography, real estate, security, emergency response, agriculture, oil & gas, mining, construction, surveying, UAS programming and maintenance," according to the nonprofit. Tesla will work with ELAC's Engineering and Technologies Department to help develop 21st century curriculum to meet industry demands. "The City of Los Angeles and ELAC are truly setting the example for the rest of the educational system by establishing this program and allowing equal opportunity and access to its innovative learning design," said Keith Kaplan, CEO of the Tesla Foundation, in a statement. "Through the program's technology-focused training and work experience components, participants will learn what it takes to become a part of the emerging UAS workforce and be poised to secure good-paying jobs and careers. Many will become part of complementary aviation and technology industry sectors that are transitioning from the Information Age to the Autonomous Age." ELAC, one of nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, serves more than 60,000 students, of which the majority are first-generation college students from typically underserved communities. The student population is about 57 percent Latino and 14 percent African American, according to the district website. "Our college serves a region where the vast majority of residents are people of color and this program represents a historic step in providing access to cutting-edge technology to students traditionally underrepresented in STEM," said Martin Martinez, ELAC president, in a prepared statement. "This training will increase the number of highly qualified students of color transitioning to employment in the aviation and technology sectors." To learn more, visit the ELAC site. https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/01/23/tesla-brings-unmanned-aerial- systems-training-to-east-los-angeles-college.aspx?admgarea=news Back to Top Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi The NASA astronauts who fly aboard Boeing's new spaceship will wear sleek, blue suits that are lighter, simpler and more comfortable than the bulky orange gear of the space shuttle era, company representatives said. Unveiled today (Jan. 25), the new "Boeing Blue" spacesuits for the Starliner capsule weigh about 20 lbs. (9 kilograms) each with all of their accessories, compared to 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) for the old space shuttle suits, NASA officials said. Other advances include touch-screen-sensitive gloves, more-flexible material and soft helmets that are incorporated into the suit (rather than the hard, detachable helmets of the shuttle era). "It is a lot lighter, more formfitting, and it's simpler, which is always a good thing," NASA astronaut Eric Boe said in a statement. "Complicated systems have more ways they can break, so simple is better on something like this." Boe is one of four NASA astronauts currently training to fly aboard the Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which the two companies are developing to provide taxi services to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Both vehicles should start flying crewed missions in the next year or two, NASA officials have said. The Boeing Blue suit, and the one that SpaceX develops, will help keep astronauts safe in the event of an emergency during trips to and from orbit. The suits are not designed for spacewalks; the large, bulky "extravehicular mobility units" that astronauts use for this latter purpose are already aboard the ISS. "The spacesuit acts as the emergency backup to the spacecraft's redundant life-support systems," Richard Watson, subsystem manager for spacesuits in NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in the same statement. "If everything goes perfectly on a mission, then you don't need a spacesuit. It's like having a fire extinguisher close by in the cockpit. You need it to be effective if it is needed." Since the space shuttles' retirement in July 2011, NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get American astronauts to and from orbit, at a cost of about $70 million per seat. Starliner and Dragon will end this foreign dependence, if all goes according to plan. That plan is getting closer and closer to reality, said former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson, who is now director of crew and mission systems for Boeing. "To me, it's a very tangible sign that we are really moving forward and we are a lot closer than we've been," Ferguson said of today's spacesuit unveiling. "The next time we pull all this together, it might be when astronauts are climbing into the actual spacecraft." http://www.space.com/35456-boeing-unveils-starliner-spacesuits-photos.html Back to Top Raytheon pulls out of T-X competition Raytheon has withdrawn as the prime contractor for the Leonardo T-100 in a joint bid for the US Air Force T-X trainer contract, stating on 25 January that the two companies "have decided not to jointly pursue the programme." Raytheon will not enter the trainer competition again with another partner, a Raytheon spokesman told FlightGlobal. "While we remain confident that the T-100 is a strong solution, our companies were unable to reach a business agreement that is in the best interest of the US Air Force," Raytheon said in a statement. "Consequently, Raytheon and Leonardo will not jointly pursue the T-X competition." The team announced their joint venture in February 2016]. The T-100 contender is based on Leonardo's Aermacchi M-346 advanced trainer, which is employed by air forces in Italy, Israel and Singapore. Raytheon's abrupt withdrawal leaves Leonardo with a difficult decision: bid on a US programme without an American partner or lose one of the most lucrative contracts from the USAF outside of its bomber and fighter programmes. Leonardo could also seek out another US partner and launch a new team, but the clock is ticking with the contract award date expected in 2017. Raytheon made an aggressive pursuit of the T-X contract earlier this fall with the announcement that the T-100 would be assembled in Meridian, Mississippi. The company also discussed its bid at the 2016 Farnborough air show, where Leonardo also unveiled a new multi-role version of the M-346. On 30 December, the USAF released its final request for proposal to replace more than 420 of its legacy T-38Cs. The $16.3 billion RFP outlined a total of 350 aircraft, including delivery of the initial five test aircraft. The service is expected to award the contract in 2017 and reach initial operational capability by the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. With Raytheon out of the picture, three competitors remain. Boeing and Saab unveiled their clean-sheet trainer last September. Northrop Grumman has also rolled out its new Model 400, while the Lockheed Martin/Korea Aerospace Industries team has highlighted its low-risk asset with the existing T-50A. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/raytheon-pulls-out-of-t-x-competition- 433534/ Back to Top Moon race: final five teams competing for Google's Lunar XPrize announced JANUARY 25, 2017 -The space race is back, but this time the competitors are companies, with Google serving as a friendly referee. Five international teams have qualified as finalists in a race to the moon worth millions, the XPrize Foundation announced on Tuesday. Funded by Google, this Lunar XPrize aims to stimulate the development of space technologies by rewarding the first team to land an operational rover on the moon's surface with $20 million, a feat previously accomplished only by the Russian, American, and Chinese governments. The final five are: Florida-based Moon Express, Japan's Hakuto, Israel's SpaceIL, India's Team Indus, and an international team composed of members hailing from over 15 countries, known as Synergy Moon. "We're thrilled to have five contenders that are working from all over the world on this one mission," XPrize Senior Director Chanda Gonzales-Mowrer said in an email to Reuters. All they have to do now is get there. To make it to this final stage, each team had to find someone to take them, signing a launch contract by end of 2016. Rides into space are in short supply, but SpaceIL will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Synergy Moon will rely on American aerospace company Interorbital Systems, and Team Indus and Hakuto will share a ride on the Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Moon Express is betting on new aerospace company Rocket Lab, which will soon begin test flights. The contest's fine print requires that the winning team launch before the end of this year and accomplish, at minimum, a soft moon landing, a rover excursion of 1640 feet, and the transmission of high-definition footage back to Earth. Google will also reward a number of stretch goals such as detecting water, surviving the lunar night, or imaging relics of the Apollo program with prizes ranging from $1 to $4 million. Google has extended the deadline for the contest, which was first announced a decade ago, three times. Contest organizers say the current timeline is firm, however, so this is the final chance for the five teams that remain out of what was an original field of 33. Some teams are aiming at more than just the prize money. Japan's Hakuto has scientific ambitions, hoping to explore mysterious holes in the lunar surface that some suspect hide underground caves or lava tubes. Such formations could serve as pre-made habitats for future moon bases, shielding inhabitants from dangerous radiation. Moon Express is more business minded. Their long term plans include a lunar delivery service catering to companies with mining interests. The final prize winner may not be decided until early next year, but Google is already handing out money. In addition to $5.25 million in "milestone" prizes along the way, the company recently announced that its $1 million diversity prize would be split between 16 teams for their outreach efforts. "Each of these teams has pushed the boundaries to demonstrate that you don't have to be a government superpower to send a mission to the Moon, while inspiring audiences to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics," said Ms. Gonzales-Mowrer. The XPrize foundation currently organizes nine active competitions that aim to spur "moon shot" breakthroughs in areas such as artificial intelligence, water security, and education. The original XPrize encouraged the private development of suborbital spaceflight technology, and the winning vehicle went on to become the basis for space tourism company Virgin Galactic. http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Spacebound/2017/0125/Moon-race-final-five-teams- competing-for-Google-s-Lunar-XPrize-announced Curt Lewis