March 18, 2019 - No. 022 In This Issue MRO Software Company, CloudVisit, Promotes Collaboration in Aviation Safety Etihad Aviation Group Signs Contracts with Sky Prime at the Saudi Airshow Mokulele ready to test hybrid aircraft between Kahului, Hana How a 50-year-old design came back to haunt Boeing with its troubled 737 Max jet AerinX Brings AR to Aircraft Maintenance UK signs post-Brexit air safety agreements with the U.S Rolls-Royce announces successful hybrid aero propulsion tests EASA's Data4Safety partnership programme provides European-wide aviation data exchange and analysis How State Farm Earned National Waiver for Drone Flights SpaceX's Starship heatshields test successful MRO Software Company, CloudVisit, Promotes Collaboration in Aviation Safety COLD SPRING, N.Y., March 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviation safety is at the forefront of peoples' minds in light of recent events. Currently, over a dozen regulators have grounded an aircraft model, and many have aviation maintenance teams inspecting the airworthiness of the aircraft. This is a global concern, and many regulators are looking for answers. Yet problems can arise from the sheer number of teams from around the world involved. Each plane must be thoroughly inspected, and without a centralized location, it will take longer to analyze data and reach conclusions about how to ensure international and national aviation safety. MRO Software company, CloudVisit, provides Aviation Maintenance Software, enabling live visual communication and collaboration between two or more people in separate locations. Potentially, CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software is the perfect solution for this difficult situation affecting aviation safety around the world. Using the software, inspectors do not have to travel from site to site and can collaborate with on site aircraft technicians and mechanics. Inspectors can work with their aircraft maintenance teams around the world, and with each other in a centralized location, to inspect aircraft, analyze data, and determine whether the aircraft is airworthy, and how to best keep people safe. Aviation Safety Efforts Must Centralized Aircraft Experts Aviation safety concerns impact the global community. There needs to be a centralized location for aircraft experts to collaborate and determine the safest course of action. Aircraft inspectors have a unique skillset and can assess maintenance issues as well as manage multiple large teams of aircraft mechanics and technicians. Flying these experts around the world will increase the time it takes to solve the problem, wasting time and resources. Additionally, this will create a backlog of everyday maintenance work outside the scope of special cases, further impacting airlines and passengers. CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software can also provide accuracy and accountability in the inspections of newer aircraft models. The proof of a quality inspection will bolster the global aviation community's trust in the plane manufacturer. CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software is an aviation-specific tool that offers essential functions to organize, document, share and store data for efficient analysis. The inspectors work from a centralized location, and use their desktops to communicate with on site maintenance teams. Maintenance teams need only a smartphone or tablet to use CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software. Using the software they can communicate with inspectors through high-definition videoconferencing, prioritize work, and document approved maintenance and repairs. Additionally, there are different ways to visually document aircraft maintenance and repair. Maintenance teams can take a video recording of completed work and save the recording to the cloud. This recording provides visual accountability and proof of quality control, and the inspector can use it to approve the completed work. Maintenance teams can also capture screen images as well as take high quality photos of the aircraft and aircraft components. The technician can send these images to the inspector, who can indicate what repairs need to be completed by marking the images with arrows, circles, notes, and more. All video and audio recordings, as well as images and chats, can be uploaded and stored on the cloud for a complete and comprehensive record of inspection. CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software renders manual logbooks and e-logbooks outdated. While technicians are able to include notes, visual inspections of the actual plane become the primary source of data, so inspections are completed as if in-person-on-premise. All data is organized by customized labels. Inspectors may choose to organize labels to indicate the date of inspection, the technician who performed the work, the component worked on, and more. CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software can be a leading solution to this complex problem. Aviation safety necessitates a solution that facilitates and records organized collaboration. This is precisely why Aviation Maintenance Software was designed-to promote safety in flying. CloudVisit's Aviation Maintenance Software offers these aviation-specific features to customize each aircraft inspection for individual aircraft or aircraft fleets. Aviation Maintenance Software optimizes quality control through collaboration so that work is performed accurately and efficiently, and in compliance with FAA regulations. CloudVisit MRO software enables remote inspections across multiple industries. Using CloudVisit's software, experts can inspect projects virtually. Remote inspections result in reduced travel and more efficient use of time for on-site workers. CloudVisit offers leading Aviation Software, Wind Turbine Inspection Software, Solar Panel Software, Transportation Software and Telemedicine Software, and is expanding. The company is backed by 15 years of success in software programming, video conferencing, telemedicine and telecommunications. CloudVisit has a proven record of excellence, efficiency, security and quality customer service. For questions about MRO software and remote inspections or to request a no-obligation demo, call 845-809-5770. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mro-software-company-cloudvisit-promotes- collaboration-in-aviation-safety-300812825.html Back to Top Etihad Aviation Group Signs Contracts with Sky Prime at the Saudi Airshow Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Etihad Aviation Group's Engineering and Aviation Training divisions have both signed contracts to collaborate with Sky Prime, the largest private aviation operator in the Middle East, based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The agreements were announced at the Saudi Airshow where Etihad is showcasing its Special Olympics liveried Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, alongside the Embraer Phenom 100E used in Etihad Aviation Training's flight school. Etihad Airways Engineering is exhibiting its extensive Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) capabilities, including the new Airbus A350 maintenance services announced earlier this week Etihad Airways Engineering and Sky Prime Etihad Airways Engineering has added another key customer to its VIP aircraft maintenance portfolio by joining hands with Sky Prime. The agreement allows the two companies to collaborate in multiple areas of operation, from heavy maintenance and cabin modification support including Part 21J and Part 21G engineering services. Under the scope of the new agreement, Etihad Airways Engineering has already delivered C-checks and cabin repairs to two VIP aircraft in the Sky Prime fleet, at its state-of-the-art MRO facility in Abu Dhabi. Additional projects are planned over the coming months which will see the engineering team deliver a wide range of engineering solutions to Sky Prime. Abdul Khaliq Saeed, Etihad Airways Engineering Chief Executive Officer, said: "Our team enjoys a strong reputation in the international market for expertise and experience on major commercial aircraft platforms. While we have been supporting luxury aviation operators locally for many years, we are now expanding our services to the VIP aviation sector across the region and beyond. Our partnership with Sky Prime is a perfect example of this expanded scope." Captain Mokhtar, Sky Prime Aviation Services CEO, said: "We value this co-operation with Etihad Aviation Group which will play an active role in supporting and growing the Saudi aviation sector." Aircraft hangars at the Abu Dhabi facility cover approximately 66,000 sq metres, including 10,000 sq metres of aircraft painting facilities and a custom-designed hangar that can accommodate up to three Airbus A380 aircraft simultaneously. The company has successfully completed maintenance projects over the years for airlines across the world. Etihad Aviation Training and Sky Prime Etihad Aviation Training (EAT) will for the first time collaborate with a partner in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after a landmark signing ceremony with Sky Prime, further strengthen business ties between the two nations. As part of the agreement, Sky Prime will dry and wet lease EAT's Full Flight Simulators at Zayed Campus, Etihad's training facility in Abu Dhabi. The training will be conducted by both Etihad and Sky Prime instructors. Paolo La Cava, Director of EAT, said: "EAT is looking forward to welcoming Sky Prime instructors and pilots to conduct Airbus A320, A340 and Boeing 777 and 787 training at Zayed Campus. Last year was a strong year following EAT's relaunch and we anticipate an even stronger 2019 with Sky Prime as our first Saudi Arabian partner." As part of the agreement, Crew Resource Management training, a tool for improving air safety, will also be conducted by EAT trainers for Sky Prime's pilots and cabin crew. Sky Prime Cabin Crew will also receive recurrent training with EAT's cabin safety trainers. Captain Mokhtar, Sky Prime Aviation Services CEO, said: "In line with the Saudi 2030 vision, we are delighted Etihad Aviation Training are helping us fulfill our development strategy. To use their best- in-class training facilities and pilots to train our flying crew will enable us to gain the trust of our customers." EAT currently boasts 11 Full Flight Simulators (FFS) including three Airbus A320 FFS devices, two Airbus A330/A340s, one Airbus A380, two Boeing 777s and three Boeing 787-9 devices. The facility is expanding and will soon see the arrival of a brand new Airbus A350 FFS, as well as an Airbus A320 Fixed Based Device, both of which will be available in Abu Dhabi to third party customers. There are 109 cadet pilots currently in EAT programmes, all of whom are UAE nationals. In addition to training pilots for Etihad Airways on our Multi- Crew Pilot License (MPL) program, EAT also trains pilots for third party customers, including L3 and Alpha Aviation. https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/maintenance-providers/press-release/21072271/etihad- aviation-group-signs-contracts-with-sky-prime-at-the-saudi-airshow Back to Top Mokulele ready to test hybrid aircraft between Kahului, Hana A California startup plans to begin test flights of a hybrid electric aircraft between Kahului and Hana later this year, technology that could eventually prove a "game changer" for interisland carriers like Mokulele Airlines. Ampaire is bringing the prototype plane to Maui this fall and will partner with Mokulele on a series of test flights over a period of six months, Mokulele President Rob McKinney said Thursday. "I think we would be the ideal launch customer for this technology with the length of route that we fly and the conditions that we fly in," McKinney said. "We don't have to contend with super cold weather." Ampaire started in 2016 with a focus on retrofitting aircraft to fly on electric power, a less expensive alternative to building them from scratch. The company's research on Maui will be funded by Elemental Excelerator, a Hawaii nonprofit that supports startups with innovative ideas in energy, water, food and agriculture and mobility. Every year, the nonprofit finds 15 to 20 companies that fit its mission and provides them with up to $1 million each. Ampaire is part of Elemental Excelerator's 2019 cohort. Brice Nzeukou, Ampaire product manager, said the company would be bringing a retrofitted Cessna 337 Skymaster to Maui. "It's a really unique aircraft because it has one combustion engine in the front and an electrical motor in the back," Nzeukou said. "We're bringing that aircraft to Maui and working with Mokulele to figure out how to operationally include a hybrid electric aircraft into a fleet." Nzeukou said the advantages of an electric aircraft come down to maintenance and fuel costs. Maintenance on a traditional combustion engine can be costly. For the kind of aircraft that Mokulele flies, it costs about $300,000 to $400,000 to overhaul the engine every 5,000 to 6,000 hours of operation. "For an electric motor, it's much less complicated," Nzeukou said. "It really only has one moving part, so the time between major overhauls is much longer." Fuel is another huge cost. Switching to electric generation is much cheaper, even in a place like Hawaii where electricity is generally more expensive than other places, Nzeukou said. He estimated that an electric aircraft could reduce fuel costs for Mokulele by 50 to 70 percent. McKinney said that Mokulele will offer Ampaire hangar space at the Kahului Airport, as well as parts, supplies, pilots and mechanics to help further the research. He said the tests are scheduled to start in September and run over a period of six months in various weather conditions. The Kahului-to-Hana route "made sense" because it would take the plane across Maui and would be all over land, McKinney said. It's also representative of a route that's hard to drive but easy to fly. Mokulele isn't planning to retrofit any of its planes for now; the technology would first have to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and be "completely ready for the market before it would go on one of our airplanes," McKinney explained. However, he's hopeful it can eventually be "a game changer for the industry." "I think it's going to have to start in the short-haul market, kind of like what Mokulele does, until the technology advances," McKinney said. "I don't see it replacing large jets any time soon, but it could really make a huge difference for the carriers like us that do 100- to 200-mile legs." The technology could also allow carriers to offer short trips between cities that currently aren't as cost-effective with combustion engine aircraft. For example, McKinney said, there are "lots of tiny, short-hop" routes in the Los Angeles area, where Mokulele provides Essential Air Service. Clean aviation technology is a fast-growing frontier, spurred on by everyone from startups to industry giants. In 2016, the experimental single-seated Solar Impulse 2 became the first solar- powered aircraft to complete an around-the-world journey. In 2017, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens announced that they planned to develop the E-Fan X, a hybrid electric aircraft, with test flights scheduled to start by the end of 2020 and public flights projected the following year. And, last year, aviation startup Zunum Aero set a goal of delivering hybrid electric planes to the market in 2022. Nzeukou said that electric-powered aircraft could catch on faster than electric vehicles, because the cost of parts for an electric aircraft are comparable to the costs for a combustion engine. Components for electric vehicles, meanwhile, are more expensive than for gasoline-powered cars. In the long run, airports will have to start thinking about putting in the "robust charging infrastructure" needed for the new aircraft. Nzeukou said Ampaire is "laser-focused" on bringing retrofitted planes to the market, but that doesn't mean the company won't look into building all-electric aircraft from the ground up in the future. For now, "we see retrofitting as the most practical and most compelling proposition for aviation," he said. Nzeukou was excited for Ampaire to debut its technology in Hawaii, which has been on "the forefront of green technology" in many ways. "This is kind of the perfect proving ground for us, especially given the challenges of geography," Nzeukou said. "It kind of showcases really why electric aviation in the future is going to be really important. It will help make flights more accessible to more people." http://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2019/03/mokulele-ready-to-test-hybrid-aircraft- between-kahului-hana/ Back to Top How a 50-year-old design came back to haunt Boeing with its troubled 737 Max jet A set of stairs may have never caused so much trouble in an aircraft. First introduced in West Germany as a short-hop commuter jet in the early Cold War, the Boeing 737-100 had folding metal stairs attached to the fuselage that passengers climbed to board before airports had jetways. Ground crews hand-lifted heavy luggage into the cargo holds in those days, long before motorized belt loaders were widely available. That low-to-the-ground design was a plus in 1968, but it has proved to be a constraint that engineers modernizing the 737 have had to work around ever since. The compromises required to push forward a more fuel-efficient version of the plane - with larger engines and altered aerodynamics - led to the complex flight control software system that is now under investigation in two fatal crashes over the last five months. Boeing's problems deepened Thursday, when the company announced it was stopping delivery of the aircraft after the Federal Aviation Administration's decision Wednesday to ground the aircraft. "We continue to build 737 Max airplanes, while assessing how the situation, including potential capacity constraints, will impact our production system," the Chicago company said in a statement. The crisis comes after 50 years of remarkable success in making the 737 a profitable workhorse. Today, the aerospace giant has a massive backlog of more than 4,700 orders for the jetliner and its sales account for nearly a third of Boeing's profit. But the decision to continue modernizing the jet, rather than starting at some point with a clean design, resulted in engineering challenges that created unforeseen risks. "Boeing has to sit down and ask itself how long they can keep updating this airplane," said Douglas Moss, an instructor at USC's Viterbi Aviation Safety and Security Program, a former United Airlines captain, an attorney and a former Air Force test pilot. "We are getting to the point where legacy features are such a drag on the airplane that we have to go to a clean-sheet airplane." Few, if any, complex products designed in the 1960s are still manufactured today. The IBM 360 mainframe computer was put out to pasture decades ago. The Apollo spacecraft is revered history. The Buick Electra 225 is long gone. And Western Electric dial telephones are seen only in classic movies. Today's 737 is a substantially different system from the original. Boeing strengthened its wings, developed new assembly technologies and put in modern cockpit electronics. The changes allowed the 737 to outlive both the Boeing 757 and 767, which were developed decades later and then retired. Over the years, the FAA has implemented new and tougher design requirements, but a derivative gets many of the designs grandfathered in, Moss said. "It is cheaper and easier to do a derivative than a new aircraft," said Robert Ditchey, an engineer, aviation safety consultant and founder of America West Airlines, which purchased some of the early 737 models. "It is easier to certificate it." But some aspects of the legacy 737 design are vintage headaches, such as the ground clearance designed to allow a staircase that's now obsolete. "They wanted it close to the ground for boarding," Ditchey said. Andrew Skow, founder of Tiger Century Aircraft, which develops cockpit safety systems, and a former Northrop Grumman chief engineer, said Boeing has had a good record modernizing the 737. But he said, "They may have pushed it too far." To handle a longer fuselage and more passengers, Boeing added larger, more powerful engines, but that required it to reposition them to maintain ground clearance. As a result, the 737 can pitch up under certain circumstances. Software, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, was added to counteract that tendency. It was that software that is believed to have been involved in a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October. The software erroneously thought the aircraft was at risk of losing lift and stalling - because of a malfunctioning sensor - and ordered the stabilizer at the rear to put it into a series of sharp dives that ultimately caused the plane to crash into the Java Sea. What happened on the Ethiopian Airlines flight is less clear, but tracking data show that it also encountered sharp changes in its vertical velocity and at one point in its climb after takeoff lost 400 feet of altitude. The FAA grounded the jetliner Wednesday, saying that new satellite data showed the Ethiopian Airlines flight dynamics were "very close" to those of the Lion Air jet. Ethiopia sent "black box" recording devices recovered from the crashed jet to France for analysis, after refusing to hand them over to U.S. authorities. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board still plans to send investigators to France to help its Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety. Airline crashes seldom are caused by a single factor, and the two 737 accidents may yet involve poor maintenance, pilot errors and inadequate training. But it appears increasingly likely that Boeing's software system and the company's lack of recommendations for pilot training on it may have played an important role in the crashes. The entire need for the software system is fundamental to the jet's history. The bottom of the 737's engines are a minimum of 17 inches above the runway. By comparison, the Boeing 757 has a minimum clearance of 29 inches, according to Boeing specification books. The newer 787 Dreamliner has 28 inches or 29 inches, depending on the engine. The 737 originally was equipped with the Pratt & Whitney JT-8 series jets, which had an inner fan diameter of 49.2 inches. "They looked like cigars, long and skinny," Moss said. By comparison, the LEAP-1b engines on the Max 8 have a diameter of 69 inches, nearly 20 inches more than the original. There wouldn't be enough clearance without some kind of modification. In the 737-300, which came after the original planes sold in West Germany, Boeing came up with an unusual fix: It created a flat bottom on the nacelle (the shroud around the fan), creating what pilots came to call the "hamster pouch." "They made it work," said Ditchey, whose America West was one of the original customers of the 737-300. But the LEAP engines required an even bigger change. Boeing redesigned the pylons, the structure that holds the engine to the wing, extending them farther forward and higher up. It gave the needed 17 inches of clearance. The company also put in a higher nose landing gear. The change, however, affected the plane's aerodynamics. Boeing discovered the new position of the engines increased the lift of the aircraft, creating a tendency for the nose to pitch up. The solution was MCAS, which ordered the stabilizer to push down the nose if the "angle of attack" - or angle that air flows over the wings - got too high. The MCAS depends on data from two sensors. But on the Lion Air flight, the MCAS relied on a sensor that was erroneously reporting a high angle of attack when the plane was nowhere near a stall. The pilots tried to counteract the nose-down movements by pulling back on the yoke. But even pulling with all their might they could not counteract the forces, according to data in a preliminary accident investigation report. Skow criticized Boeing's MCAS system, saying it acted only on the basis of angle of attack. The Lion Air jet was traveling so fast that when MCAS ordered the stabilizer to pitch the nose down it was a violent reaction. The software should have factored in air speed, he said, which would have better calibrated the pilots' reaction. Skow's firm has developed a cockpit display system, known as Q-Alfa, which he says would have identified the failure of the angle of attack sensor and allowed the crew to abort the takeoff. "We believe we could have prevented the accident," he said. If the results of the investigation do not undermine the fundamental design of the aircraft, then the 737 Max's future may not be in peril, aviation experts said. It may turn out all that's needed is a software fix or additional pilot training. The 737 has survived other crises. In a 1988 accident on a flight between Honolulu and Hilo, the entire top of the plane came off in an explosive decompression. A flight attendant was sucked out and 65 passengers and crew were injured. It was blamed on faulty lap joints in the aluminum skin of the fuselage, which Boeing reengineered. "The 737 is the most successful commercial jet ever produced," said John Cox, an air safety expert and veteran pilot, adding that commonality among its models helps airlines with pilot training. "It is nearing the end of its production life. The technology will eventually drive Boeing to a replacement." https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-fi-boeing-max-design-20190315-story.html Back to Top AerinX Brings AR to Aircraft Maintenance "Bence [the founder] is a born innovator, who previously had several innovational ideas in a variety of industries," the company told the Budapest Business Journal. "So he saw the possibilities in AR in 2015, and developed a way to apply it in one of his beloved fields: the aviation industry. The development of AerinX began in 2016." Traditionally, aircraft inspection happens manually, involving maintenance engineers and experts checking for damage with their eyes, and using manual tools for measurements. The documentation happens on paper or in PDF. "However, AerinX offers a digital solution to all this," the startup noted. "Firstly, it projects the data related to the size and position of any damage, as well as the aircraft's damage history onto the hull via AR glasses. Secondly, the documentation takes place immediately on the spot, digitally, but it is naturally accessible in a print version as well. There is also a database belonging to the system, which stores all data digitally, and is digitally accessible to everybody involved." AerinX was founded by four experts with a decade of experience in their areas: Kiss, László Gonda, Zoltán Wéber, and Imre Hanyecz. Currently, there are ten people working on the project. At the end of last year, AerinX concluded an agreement with X-Ventures Alpha Zrt., which handles the X-Ventures Gamma Venture Fund. The company will invest HUF 250 million into the startup. "With this help, we will be able to develop a final product from the prototype, and we can create the basis for a market launch," the startup notes. The firm has also reached an agreement with Aeroplex of Central Europe Kft., a Budapest-based, Hungarian-owned aircraft maintenance company. Fine Tuning "Within the framework of the partnership, we will further develop and fine-tune the system in real industry circumstances, involving the firm's colleagues, engineers, and experts in order to perfect AerinX's functionality." The company was selected for the finals of the "Hello Tomorrow" global competition from 500 initial entrants. The startup will present its system in Paris in March alongside five other aviation industry innovators. "The team of Hello Tomorrow Hungary played a major role in us getting to the finals, helping greatly in preparations and networking as well," the startup tells the BBJ. Additionally, the firm has also been invited to the MRO Americas conference in April, the most significant event in the United States focusing on aviation and aircraft maintenance industries. "AerinX was selected among the most promising startups there as well; we will again present our system in front of industry experts and investors alongside five other innovative companies." The company says its system will reach pilot phase in six months, with AerinX conducting a live test with the help of other industry players. The startup expects testing to take nine months, which will prepare it for an international market launch. At the end of 2019, AerinX expects to involve more venture capital from domestic and international investors in a Series A funding round. https://bbj.hu/business/aerinx-brings-ar-to-aircraft-maintenance_161999 Back to Top UK signs post-Brexit air safety agreements with the U.S. Details of new implementing procedures agreed under the bilateral air safety agreements (BASA) between the UK and U.S. have been discussed with aerospace and aviation industry representatives at an event at the Embassy of the United States in London. The agreements ensure that the level of cooperation between the two authorities and their systems will remain the same if the UK leaves the European Union (EU) without a negotiated exit in place. The agreements were reached following detailed discussions between the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Department for Transport (DfT) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). They provide assurance for airlines and aerospace companies in both countries that transatlantic trade may continue, with minimal change, to the current oversight regime in a no-deal scenario. At present, safety regulation between the two countries is conducted under a framework established between the U.S. and the EU. While the UK Government and CAA have consistently stated that it is their collective preference to continue to participate in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) system after the UK leaves the EU, this would not be possible in a no-deal scenario. These agreements form part of the CAA's comprehensive contingency measures for such a scenario and mean that effective and equivalent regulation would continue should the UK cease to be a member of the EASA system. As examples, these agreements ensure that: * There will be no change to maintenance oversight, with continued acceptance by the UK and US of each other's aviation maintenance approvals * Any products, parts and appliances currently manufactured by UK and US companies will continue to be accepted in both countries * Any aircraft designed in the US and previously validated by EASA will continue to be accepted by the UK CAA for operation by UK companies * Design validation processes will be similar to those implemented under the EU-US BASA, except that an application will need to be made to the CAA for FAA validation of designs produced in the UK. Speaking at the U.S. Embassy in London, Richard Moriarty, Chief Executive at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: "We are grateful to the Federal Aviation Administration for the positive way in which it has approached our discussions. These agreements are an important component of our comprehensive contingency plans to ensure a smooth transition for consumers and the industry as the UK leaves the EU." The UK is currently finalising similar bilateral safety arrangements with aviation authorities in Canada and Brazil. https://www.internationalairportreview.com/news/82987/uk-post-brexit-safety-u-s/ Back to Top Rolls-Royce announces successful hybrid aero propulsion tests Rolls-Royce has taken a significant step towards realizing its ambition to provide hybrid-electric propulsion systems for the next generation of aviation, with successful ground tests of a hybrid system using its M250 gas turbine - a highly successful engine usually powering helicopters. The tests are part of one of the world's most comprehensive hybrid aerospace turbine engine development and integration programs and pave the way for experimental flights on aircraft in 2021. Rolls-Royce successfully tested the hybrid version of the M250 gas turbine in a ground demonstration setting in three operating modes: Series Hybrid, Parallel Hybrid and Turbo-Electric. The M250 hybrid is planned to be used as a propulsion plant with power ranging from 500kW to 1MW and has the potential to transform aviation power. The system will be used across a range of transport platforms to enable distributed electric propulsion, including eVTOLs (hybrid electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles), general aviation aircraft and hybrid helicopters. Dr Mike Mekhiche, Deputy Director, Rolls-Royce Electrical said: "Rolls-Royce has always been a pioneer in aviation and one of the key elements of our strategy is to champion electrification across all our businesses. The successful testing of the hybrid M250 system is an important step forward in providing a hybrid-electric propulsion system that will enable a new class of quieter and cleaner air transport." Rolls-Royce engineers based in the United States, U.K. and Singapore have developed this engine into a hybrid-electric propulsion system. The M250 gas turbine engine has powered more than 170 varieties of fixed-wing military, civilian aircraft and helicopters since its initial development. Rolls- Royce selected this engine for its maturity, power-density, ease of maintenance, and high reliability. In the past half-century, M250 variants have logged more than 250 million flight hours and nearly 33,000 M250 engines have been delivered to customers. Complete engine testing took place at Rolls-Royce's state-of-the-art facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, where each component and sub-system of the hybrid engine was individually tested for electrical performance. These tests included simulating use across take-off, cruise, landing and taxiing and confirmed the system's suitability for a range of transport platforms including aircraft with a range of up to 1,000 miles and weighing up to 2,000 kg. This would support the Rolls-Royce eVTOL concept which was unveiled during the Farnborough Air Show in the U.K. last year as well as meeting many other customers' requirements. Dr Mekhiche added: "Electrification is one of the most exciting developments in aviation since the birth of the jumbo jet. We are determined to use our pedigree in aerospace to be at the forefront of developing innovative propulsion systems to meet the needs of the next chapter in aviation. When this happens, it's going to transform the way aero transport is designed and produced, reducing the time required to travel, revolutionizing cargo delivery and changing the way we design our cities and infrastructure." The Rolls-Royce hybrid electric propulsion system demonstrator integrates a M250 gas turbine engine with a high energy density battery system, electric generators, power converters and an advanced power management and control system. The power management system optimizes overall propulsion performance in order for the system to be suitable across a variety of platforms, including eVTOL, while delivering efficiency gains, reduced noise and lower emissions. Tests were successfully carried across three system configurations: ˇ Series Hybrid: In this configuration, the engine operates as a turbo-generator that charges an on-board battery system, and does not contribute to thrust directly. All power required for thrust and other onboard systems is supplied by the battery. ˇ Parallel Hybrid: In this configuration, the platform thrust is supplied by a combination of the engine (mechanical thrust) and the electrical system (electrical thrust), while the other power needs of the aircraft are met by the battery. ˇ Turbo-Electric mode: In this configuration, the battery system is redundant. The engine operates as a pure turbo-generator supplying electric power for thrust and any other power needs on the aircraft. The next step is to further advance the hybrid propulsion system towards integration on an aircraft and experimental flights in 2021. The M250 hybrid power pack complements the AE 2100 2.5MW system being developed for larger aircraft, including regional aviation, and is being tested with Airbus on the E-Fan X demonstrator platform. https://www.verticalmag.com/press-releases/rolls-royce-announces-successful-hybrid-aero- propulsion-tests/ Back to Top EASA's Data4Safety partnership programme provides European-wide aviation data exchange and analysis to improve safety What is the Data4Safety programme? Data4Safety (also known as D4S) is a data collection and analysis programme that will ensure the highest common level of safety and environmental protection for the European aviation system. The programme aims at collecting and gathering all data that may support the management of safety risks at European level. This includes safety reports (or occurrences), flight data (i.e. data generated by the aircraft via the Flight Data Recorders), surveillance data (air traffic data), weather data - but those are only a few from a much longer list. As for the analysis, the programme's ultimate goal is to help to "know where to look" and to "see it coming". In other words, it will support the Performance-based Environment and set up a more predictive system. More specifically, the programme will allow to better know where the risks are (safety risk identification), determine the nature of these risks (risk assessment) and verify if the safety actions are delivering the needed level of safety (performance measurement). It aims to develop the capability to discover vulnerabilities in the system across terabytes of data. A voluntary partnership for aviation safety Highly innovative and ambitious, this programme is not an initiative that EASA contemplates doing alone. As of day one, the idea is to implement an EU-wide partnership with EASA's safety partners. First and foremost, aviation organisations will be fully members of the programme. They are the usual safety partners from the European Aviation Community, namely Airlines, Manufacturers, Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP), National Aviation Authorities (NAA), Pilots, Airports, Maintenance Organisations, etc. Such a programme is meant to be run with them as they have both the safety data and - as important, the required expertise to analyse and properly interpret the outputs. Ultimately, we all share the same objectives of enhancing safety. EASA's safety partners are meant to be programme members and will be part of the D4S governance. As data owners, they need a system of checks and balances to ensure that their data will be used in an appropriate manner. The Agency has also associate partners from universities and research centres that have developed expertise and savoir-faire on how to use the Big Data and other leading-edge IT technologies/data science methodologies (such as text mining/natural language processing) when applied to aviation data. There is a need to include a considerable amount of research efforts in the programme, but we also rely as much as possible on what has already been done and is available. Taking data collection and analysis to another level Collecting and analysing data is not new in aviation. A number of regulations oblige the different organisations involved in aviation safety to report, collect, analyse safety data such as occurrences or flight data, and act on it. However, each organisation is collecting only a sample of the overall data set available. If you collect a part of the data you will only get a part of the picture. The main innovation with D4S is that, for the first time in Europe, a programme has the ambition to provide the full and complete picture. D4S aims to organise the collection of all the safety data that is currently scattered and fragmented all over the different organisations in Europe. The data will then be integrated into a Big Data platform. Thanks to powerful algorithms and adapted coordination of the experts' work, D4S will permit to efficiently process the data and extract high added-value knowledge nuggets. However, just amassing data could be quite a futile exercise if you are not able to analyse it. Therefore, another novelty is the creation of an analysis platform that will gather aviation experts from all domains and organisations in a way we have never seen before in Europe. The aviation experts will be supported by Data Scientists who analyse and interpret complex digital data and develop the famous algorithms. D4S organisation in practice EASA launched the initial phase called the "Proof of Concept" (PoC) in 2017. The objective is to build a prototype with a limited number of partners and a limited scope (limited set of analytics) to test and demonstrate technical and organisational solutions to successfully run such a programme before launching the operational phase planned for late 2020. The programme Founding Members agreed on a first set of Use Cases (the "outputs") to be implemented during the PoC: a set of Metrics (Safety Performance Indicators) computed based on all aggregated data available i.e. at systemic level, blind-benchmarking visualisations that will provide organisations with the capacity to assess their level of safety performance compared to peer-organisations and two Directed Studies (deep dive "360°" analysis) focusing (1) on the management of Go-Around manoeuvres and (2) on Adverse Weather phenomena and their impacts on the safety of Air Operations. When the next communities of aviation stakeholders will be on-boarded on the programme as it will progressively transition to its operational phase, new potential Use Cases will be discussed and collaboratively selected and specified with them. In particular, for airports, these Use Cases will focus on safety and environmental matters linked to the air operations in departing and arrival areas. Measures of success There are three elements that will be closely monitored and will be good measures of this programme's success. First, our ability to build trust. If the safety partners (and data owners) do not trust that their data are in good hands with D4S - not only secured technically, contractually and legally - but also that the programme will use them for the sole purpose of safety, they will simply not share them. Delivering trust is therefore a priority. On this point, the fact that the founding members have signed the programme charter is already a milestone achievement (i). Second, the programme will have to live up to the expectations of technical delivery. No one will care if we are capable to amass terabytes of data on an IT platform. The measure of success will be assessed by our ability to develop the algorithms that will infer intelligence and knowledge out of the data. Ultimately, this means our ability to discover the vulnerabilities of the aviation system through this programme. Last but not least, this programme must be fully integrated into the European safety system. Indeed, Data4Safety is an enabler, not an objective in itself. The outputs (again, "know where to look" and "see it coming") will be useless if they do not support the processes to decide and implement the relevant safety actions. For instance, D4S must become the main feeder for the EPAS (European Plan for Aviation Safety). Beyond Europe, D4S must also be connected to similar international initiatives. The cooperation with the US counterpart programme (ASIAS) has already been formally established, and we are also in discussion with IATA and others. http://www.airport-business.com/2019/03/easas-data4safety-partnership-programme-provides- european-wide-aviation-data-exchange-analysis-improve-safety/ Back to Top How State Farm Earned National Waiver for Drone Flights As Hurricanes Florence and Michael made landfall in the southeastern United States last year, their timing coincided with the last stages of a project seeking a federal waiver to allow drone flights for storm damage inspection. The project was a dual effort between insurance agency State Farm and the Virginia Tech Mid- Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP). The two groups had been preparing the waiver for nearly a year, and it became one of the most substantial the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had ever granted. The waiver has now enabled State Farm to conduct drone flights to assess property damage anywhere in the country. The team had spent months meticulously picking apart every conceivable risk the flights presented and exhaustively testing ways to address each one, assisted by Virginia Tech engineering faculty with crucial expertise on injury biomechanics. "We've taken a progressive approach to drone technology, policy, and workforce development in the commonwealth because we believe in the value it will add to our economy and our communities," said Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. "Now we can see that those investments are paying off in milestone achievements like this one, which reflect the expertise and the resources that we're able to bring to the table." For State Farm, the waiver is a new tool that helps them serve their customers more efficiently. For the aviation partnership - known as MAAP - which has pioneered a process for securing approvals for new kinds of drone flights, it's a validation. "To move the industry forward, you have to achieve a level of safety that satisfies the regulator and still conduct an operation that's viable from a commercial standpoint," said Mark Blanks, MAAP's director. "Now we have the evidence to say, 'this process works.'" Selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2013 as one of a handful of official national test sites for unmanned aircraft systems, MAAP is best known in the media for their involvement in celebrated drone deliveries of burritos, popsicles, and medical supplies. But in the drone industry, where breathlessly advertised potential has been stymied by slow progress, they've earned a reputation for carefully and methodically extending the boundaries of what's possible. Assessing storm damage to policyholders' homes is the kind of task practically tailor-made for unmanned aircraft, which can zip over roof lines to capture high-resolution imagery of crushed eaves and missing shingles without a claims adjuster having to climb a ladder. State Farm said it recognized the technology's potential and became the first insurance company to win FAA approval for commercial flights. But getting permission to expand beyond the limits of those initial operations would be challenging, so they reached out to MAAP. "State Farm has earned a reputation for providing an industry leading catastrophe response," said Todd Binion, staff consultant at State Farm. "Drone technology is an additional tool to help us assess damage and serve our customers and communities impacted by catastrophic events. We also understand that safety is paramount. MAAP and Virginia Tech have been instrumental in helping us understand how drone technology can safely meet the needs of the public and private sector." State Farm and MAAP are both members of Virginia's team in the federal UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP), which brings together companies, government organizations, and communities to sort through how to integrate drones into commerce and public service with the maximum possible benefit and minimum possible risk. Damage assessment is one of three focus areas for Virginia's team, whose operations are managed by MAAP. The program's winners were announced in May, and work on individual projects was underway by summer. "That Virginia has accomplished so much this early in the IPP program speaks to the talent, commitment, and influence of our team members and the genuine value of the drone applications we're working on," said Ed Albrigo, the president and chief executive officer of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, which heads the commonwealth's IPP team. "It's strengthened existing partnerships and forged new ones as we've all come to the table to figure out how to deploy this technology in a way that makes sense for both companies and communities." FAA permission launches drone inspections across the nation For aerial damage assessments to be practical from a business perspective, State Farm said it needed to be able to do two things: fly beyond the drone operator's visual line of sight, so they could survey multiple homes in one mission, and fly over people, so they could operate in populated areas. Both provisions lay outside FAA regulations for commercial drone flights. The FAA's rules are designed to keep drones out of potentially risky environments. But if there's solid evidence that expanding the scope of the operation doesn't also magnify its risks, some of those rules can be waived. "Our job was to get the data that would address their concerns and make it easy for the FAA to say 'yes,'" Blanks said. MAAP tackles these demanding waivers by starting with a broad, generalized version of the operation and combing through it to tabulate every hazard they could think of. That outline guides them as they refine the parameters of the operation, picking conditions that winnow down their list of risks. Months of testing, scenarios The State Farm project was the most complex trial the team's process had faced. For every risk the team couldn't eliminate, they proposed at least one strategy - and sometimes many - for mitigating it. Then, over months of field tests, they painstakingly collected the data to prove that those strategies worked. It added up to hundreds of experiments testing dozens of parameters. They tested how far the aircraft could fly before a visual observer couldn't see it anymore, and when the observer could spot a manned aircraft nearby. They tested what happened if the aircraft abruptly lost power, if the communications link was severed, or if a drone climbed above its prescribed altitude. They worked with Virginia Tech's team of injury biomechanics experts to simulate several ways the drone could potentially collide with a human during the operation, and evaluate the injury risk of each one. The team was in the middle of compiling all that data into the waiver application when Hurricane Florence hit the coast. "We put everyone on it to get the waivers in time," Blanks said. The team scrambled to get all the paperwork in just before the storm hit. The FAA's approval came back a day later. The original waiver covered four states; it was expanded to include Florida when Hurricane Michael hit. When the company applied to have the waiver extended across the country about a month later, the FAA said yes. State Farm said it used the waiver to conduct damage inspections after both hurricanes. But the real impact, Blanks said, will be the flexibility a nationwide waiver gives them to respond to future storms, whether it's a hurricane churning slowly toward the East Coast or a tornado slicing through a Midwestern town with little warning. He said it also sends a signal to the industry that the right kind of research can win approvals for operations with legitimate commercial value. "Sometimes it takes a while to solve the hard problems," Blanks said. "This was a hard problem, but what it shows is that it's possible to make progress in a way that works for the industry and for the regulator. It shows a reproducible path forward." https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/unmanned/how-state-farm-earned-national-waiver/ Back to Top SpaceX's Starship heatshields test successful San Francisco: After successfully launching its first commercial crew capsule, Crew Dragon, to the International Space Station (ISS), Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has completed heatshield tests for its much-awaited Starship rocket. Starship is a big Falcon Rocket which is a privately-funded, fully-reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft system. "Testing Starship heatshield hex tiles," Musk tweeted on Sunday, along with a short video of white glowing hexagonal sheets that will eventually protect the craft from searing heat. Replying to a user, he confirmed that the tiles had passed the tests throughout full duration. Musk explained that the hottest parts of the heatshield reached a maximum temperature of around 1,375 degrees Celsius. He suggested that this could withstand the extreme temperatures associated with returning to Earth, but it is slightly lower than the temperatures NASA's Space Shuttles were built to withstand, which is around 1,500 degrees Celsius, CNET reported. "On March 12, the Raptor rocket engine -- which will eventually help power Starship to the moon and beyond -- was spotted in Texas, where SpaceX is gearing up for Starship's first test 'hops', expected to begin within this week -- to test the take-off and landing capabilities of a Starship prototype, affectionately known as 'Starhopper', and the Raptor engine," the report said. Last week, a Twitter user shared photos of the Raptor engine affixed to the "Starhopper" for the first time. https://www.livemint.com/ Curt Lewis