April 4, 2019 - No. 027 In This Issue SPACE-BASED TRACKING SET TO REVOLUTIONIZE AVIATION Continental Rebrands as Continental Aerospace Tech Gogo and Phasor reveal next-generation connectivity Nano Dimension sells DragonFly Pro to top U.S. defense and aviation company U.S. Senate Probes 737 Max Whistleblower Claims Abu Dhabi to host Blockchain Aviation Conference Dassault Expands Bizjet MRO Network Thales Completes Acquisition of Gemalto to Become a Global Leader in Digital Identity and Security How The Auto Industry Is Inspiring Aviation Innovation SpaceX Starship 'Hopper' prototype finally lights up SPACE-BASED TRACKING SET TO REVOLUTIONIZE AVIATION Space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is a mouthful that will revolutionize the way aircraft fly and it has just gone live in trial across the North Atlantic. In a move that air navigation technology provider Aireon rightly claims marks a new chapter in aviation history, the system provides real-time air traffic surveillance of all ADS-B equipped aircraft across the planet. It will help minimize the chances of another airliner disappearing like Malaysia Airlines MH370 and help provide additional insights into aircraft accidents. NAV Canada and the UK's NATS are the first air traffic control providers to use the service and predict it will reduce overall flight safety risks by about 76 percent. They are also among a group of investors backing Aereon. Aireon says improved visibility and control over airspace will allow airlines to fly routes at optimal speeds and levels, saving about $US300 per trans-Atlantic flight and roughly two tonnes per flight of CO2 emissions. That might not sound huge on a per plane basis but multiply it by about 500,000 flights a year crossing the world's busiest oceanic airspace and the implications become obvious. That traffic is expected to increase to 800,000 flights a year by 2030. ADS-B is already used in conjunction with ground stations and relies on aircraft broadcasting every half second their identity, a precise Global Positioning System (GPS) location and other information such as altitude, heading and speed. Aireon takes that a step further by using the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation to provide full, continuous air traffic surveillance across the globe. The globe-spanning technology compares with coverage by conventional ground-based systems of about 30 percent of the Earth's surface and position updates every 10 to 14 minutes. "For the first time in history, we can surveil all ADS-B-equipped aircraft anywhere on earth," said Aireon chief executive Don Thoma. "Our air transportation system has operated with a safe but less than efficient system in the 70 percent of the world that does not have real-time surveillance. "With the launch of our space-based ADS-B service, Aireon now provides a real-time solution to that challenge-one that will radically optimize flight safety and efficiency." The trial over the Atlantic will allow air traffic controllers to reduce the in-trail separation between aircraft from 40 nautical miles to 14nm. NAV Canada chief executive Neil Wilson described space-based ADS-B as a transformation change to how air traffic controllers manage traffic. "The Aireon system provides an immediate boost to aviation safety and airlines will benefit from more fuel-efficient routings and flight levels,'' he said. "Over 95 percent of the North Atlantic traffic is already ADS-B equipped so the fuel savings, along with the reduced carbon dioxide emissions will be attained very quickly." NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe predicted the trial would demonstrate to the aviation industry how space-based AdSB could revolutionize the service air navigation service providers provide to airlines and the public. https://www.airlineratings.com/news/space-based-tracking-set-revolutionize-aviation/ Back to Top Continental Rebrands as Continental Aerospace Tech Mobile, Alabama-based and Avic-owned Continental engines, now Continental Aerospace Technologies (LD-004) is undergoing a sort of rebirth after 115 years in aviation, and the company came to Sun 'n' Fun 2019 this week with an OEM partnership with Piper Aircraft and some new engines and accessories. "This is an underserved market that has not been taken care of for a long time, and Continental sees a lot of opportunity in the piston aircraft engine line," Chris Pollitt, associate v-p of engineering for Continental, told AIN. Even though the company has an engine that burns jet-A, it remains deeply committed to its line of avgas-burning piston engines. "The need is there into the foreseeable future for piston-powered aircraft," he said. Foremost in the announcements at Sun 'n' Fun was the partnership with Piper Aircraft to launch the Pilot 100 and 100i training aircraft. Piper has selected the certified Continental Prime IO-370-DA3A engine for its new Pilot 100/100i piston single. "The engine is stroked more and runs cooler than the engine it replaces," said Chris Kuehn, v-p of sales and customer support for Continental. For the experimental homebuilt market, the company offers its Titan line of engines, which includes a direct replacement for the Lycoming IO-540 in various horsepower configurations. The company also announced a "shower of sparks" ignition system kit-which includes an STC'd installation of two magnetos, ignition harness, airframe specific vibrator kit, and mounting hardware-to replace Bendix or Slick magnetos typically installed on Lycoming 540 engines. The kit eliminates recurring mandatory 250- or 500-hour impulse coupling inspections affecting these magnetos. "Shower of sparks" technology improves starting capability, particularly when the engine is hot. Finally, Kuehn expressed excitement over the new Continental campus in Mobile. "We're expecting new equipment to be placed the middle of May and we will have a certificate of occupancy in the middle of June," he said. The 14-acre campus has 11 buildings totaling 285,000 sq ft of manufacturing space. "It will take a while to move in, but we are looking forward to eventually being all under one roof by the end of 2020," he said. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2019-04-03/continental-rebrands-continental-aerospace-tech Back to Top Gogo and Phasor reveal next-generation connectivity Gogo, a global provider of broadband connectivity products and services for aviation, and Phasor, a developer of enterprise-grade electronically steerable antennas (ESAs), today announced that their development partnership has achieved its initial core-technology performance objectives and will progress to the productization phase. During the next phase, the technology will be packaged as an airborne terminal to address the commercial aviation market. Phasor's very low-profile ESA will enhance the reliable and robust delivery of high-bandwidth airborne connectivity services. The antenna is solid-state, with no moving parts, eliminates several components associated with traditional connectivity solutions, and allows dual satellite signals to be tracked electronically. The ESA can be flat or conformal in form and is designed to be well-suited for traditional geostationary (GSO) satellite networks, high throughput satellites (HTS), as well as non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite networks. "Gogo is focused on continuing to add to our leading portfolio of technology solutions, which provides the highest quality Inflight Internet across the broadest range of aircraft types. We identified the promise of Phasor's innovative solution due to a range of factors, including its multi-constellation capabilities and form factor," said Oakleigh Thorne, CEO of Gogo. "We see a number of potential applications for this technology, with initial applicability targeted at smaller commercial aviation aircraft. We are pleased with the progress to-date and look forward to continuing our partnership during the next development phase." https://www.aircraftinteriorsinternational.com/news/inflight-connectivity/gogo-and-phasor-reveal-next-generation-connectivity.html Back to Top Nano Dimension sells DragonFly Pro to top U.S. defense and aviation company One of the top ten largest American global defense and aviation companies has reportedly purchased Nano Dimension's DragonFly Pro 3D printer. The technology, capable of printing electronic components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), is increasingly being adopted in the defense sector. Though the recent customers has remained unnamed, Nano Dimension emphasizes that the buyer is one of the biggest U.S.-based defense and aviation providers. The news follows a previous announcement this week that the company's DragonFly Pro 3D printer successfully printed side-mounting onto a PCB, opening up the potential for increased functionality. Released in 2017, the DragonFly Pro 3D printer is capable of producing functional electronics such as encapsulated sensors, conductive geometries, antennas, molded interconnected devices, PCBs and other types of circuitry. This capability-unique within the AM sector-has attracted customers from various sectors, though defense has remained a distinctly key market. Last June, for instance, Nano Dimension revealed that it had sold two DragonFly Pro systems to branches of the United States Armed Forces. More recently, in October, the company clinched a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency for two more systems. The technology has appealed to the defense and aviation markets because of its ability to accommodate strict timetables and produce fully functional prototypes. With the DragonFly Pro, security and aerospace R&D teams can effectively streamline production by lowering R&D overhead and lead times. Further, because of the platform's manufacturing flexibility, innovation and productivity can be enhanced. The newest customer in the segment will use its new DragonFly Pro 3D printer to manufacture functional electronic circuitry. The company will leverage the additive nature of the technology to produce complex circuits which can fit more features than standard circuits. This will enable the company to consolidate electronic components, reduce the weight of them, simplify assembly and, overall, enhance performance and reliability. "Our disruptive technology, the first of its kind, enables defense and aviation companies to prototype their innovative products without sacrificing either convenience or security," commented Amit Dror, CEO of Nano Dimension. "The ability to manufacture electronics in-house is especially appealing in the defense sector, where privacy and IP are crucially important." https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/nano-dimensions-dragonfly-pro-defense-sale/ Back to Top U.S. Senate Probes 737 Max Whistleblower Claims U.S. Senate Commerce Committee chairman Roger Wicker on Tuesday launched an investigation into any potential connection between inadequate training and certification of aviation safety inspectors who might have participated in the evaluation of the Boeing 737 Max 8. In a letter to acting FAA administrator Daniel Elwell, the Mississippi senator said the committee had received information from "multiple whistleblowers" alleging insufficient training and improper certification of Federal Aviation Administration aviation safety inspectors (ASI). "Allegations from these whistleblowers include information that numerous FAA employees, including those involved in the Aircraft Evaluation Group (AEG) for the Boeing 737 Max, had not received proper training and valid certifications," wrote Wicker. "Some of these FAA employees were possibly involved as participants on the Flight Standardization Board (FSB)." The AEG formed an FSB to evaluate the 737 Max 8 to determine the requirements for pilot type ratings, to develop minimum training recommendations, and to ensure initial flight crewmember competency. "In light of recent 737 crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, the committee is investigating any potential connection between inadequate training and certification of aviation safety inspectors who may have participated in the FSB evaluation of the 737 Max," added Wicker. "Specifically, the committee is concerned that such potential lack of training and certification of FAA ASI, and participation of those ASI on the FSB, may have led to an improper evaluation of the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS). If true, this raises the question of whether a specific reference to the MCAS should have been included in the FSB report." According to the whistleblowers and related documents obtained by the Commerce Committee, the FAA might have received notification about the deficiencies as early as August 2018 and the FAA had completed an investigation into the allegations "recently." Wicker requested that Elwell provide answers to nine specific questions related to the allegations by April 16. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2019-04-03/us-senate-probes-737-max-whistleblower-claims Back to Top Abu Dhabi to host Blockchain Aviation Conference UAE has confirmed that it will host the blockchain Aviation Conference whose theme will be the increasing adoption of blockchain technology in the aviation business. It will be held in Abu Dhabi starting on 2nd April 2019 to 4th April 2019. The conference is expected to have representatives from over 100 countries with a total attendance of over 800 people. The official press release on 31st March indicated that the conference will be sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is Abu Dhabi's crown prince. Other dignitaries in attendance will be a minister from UAE (economy) as well as a representative from Heathrow Airport. The speakers will mainly be the UAE's minister and the representative from Heathrow. Over the recent past, UAE authorities have worked extremely hard to ensure that blockchain technology is adopted at almost all the aspects of the country's local economy. This is the reason as to why it was actually chosen to host the conference. Suwaidi, the UAE's GCAA Director General, commented by saying that the selection of UAE to host this conference was as a result of the continued efforts by all sectors (government and private) to ensure that new technologies are implemented at every level of the economy. Details of the conference show that it will cover a range of blockchain uses in the aviation industry. It will look at how the blockchain technology can be incorporated in aircraft, other aviation assets as well as in other business deals which affect aviation. In short, the conference will look at all possible applications of blockchain in aviation. This is the second event in a row that Abu Dhabi will host in a period of less than 30 days. 14 days ago, it had hosted another event on blockchain's role in the fintech industry. And with such developments and world leaders choosing UAE and specifically Abu Dhabi to host blockchain related events, Abu Dhabi could become a haven of cryptocurrencies. https://www.cryptopolitan.com/abu-dhabi-blockchain-aviation-conference/ Back to Top Dassault Expands Bizjet MRO Network Dassault Aviation's acquisition of two major maintenance networks in business aviation signals a strategic shift to capture more of the revenue its Falcons generate over their service lives. A business aircraft may be in service for 25-30 years. While sales of new business aircraft remain slow, growth prospects for maintenance, repair and overhaul activities appear much more attractive. The expected income may fuel research and development in the context of fierce competition with Bombardier and Gulfstream. MRO services for turbine-powered business aircraft will total $14 billion in 2025, thanks to average annual growth of 2%, according to New York-based consultancy Oliver Wyman. That is faster than the expected annual 1.4% growth of the global fleet. MRO activities are so regulated that forecasts are generally much more solid than those for new-aircraft sales. To secure revenues, Dassault-like other airframers-offers a "pay-as-you-fly" program, which the Paris-based company has branded Falcon Care. Such worry-free arrangements are proving popular with customers. The airframer takes a comfortable profit margin, notes Jerome Bouchard, aerospace partner at Oliver Wyman. Not only does MRO bring an increased turnover with high margins, it also provides valuable data. Learning how the customer uses his or her aircraft could help salespeople make a more attractive offer for a new Falcon. Bringing Falcon aircraft maintenance into a company-owned network helps to control quality and "directly manage the customer relationship over the entire maintenance life cycle of our aircraft," says Dassault Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier. Company engineers are likely feeling confident about customer support. After almost two decades, Dassault's support services are recognized as among the best in the industry. The company announced its takeover of ExecuJet's worldwide maintenance activities (from Luxaviation) in January. In February, it acquired TAG Aviation's European maintenance activities, which expands the share of Falcon maintenance controlled by Dassault. The existing company network has sites in Europe (including Russia), the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Africa and South America. The recent acquisitions extend the company's footprint to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific and boost European and African coverage. Increased revenue from expanded MRO services may help Dassault maintain R&D spending at a high level after years of slow sales (a record-low 41 deliveries was posted last year). For decades, the company has striven to stay at the forefront of business-aviation technology. Its FalconEye combined-vision system is the first head-up display to blend synthetic terrain-imaging with actual thermal and low-light camera images for enhanced situational awareness. Development of the large-cabin, 5,500-nm-range Falcon 6X, set for entry into service in 2022, is in full swing. And a step change is planned in its use of big data analytics. The Falcon 6X will offer a much more powerful means of collecting and processing data, with real-time transmission to the ground multiplied by 1,000. "Big data is key to offering new services," says Trappier. The airframer is simultaneously gearing up for the launch of a new design. No details are available, but Dassault's recent research work-in aerodynamics, composite materials and fuel cells-suggests significant technology advances. Such projects require hefty funding. Instead of seeing R&D expenditure as having to be amortized on a given number of aircraft sales, the calculation may now also factor in after-sales revenue. ExecuJet and TAG's brands will eventually be replaced with the Dassault name, says Trappier. Aircraft from other manufacturers will still be serviced, he notes. TAG specializes in the Dassault and Bombardier product lines. https://www.mro-network.com/airframe/dassault-expands-bizjet-mro-network Back to Top Thales Completes Acquisition of Gemalto to Become a Global Leader in Digital Identity and Security, Extending U.S. Footprint Completed in 15 months, the acquisition of Gemalto by Thales for €4.8 (US$5.6) billion creates a Group on a new scale and a global leader in digital identity and security employing 80,000 people. The larger Thales will master all technologies underpinning the critical decision chain for companies, organisations and governments. Incorporating the talent and technologies of Gemalto, Thales will develop secure solutions to address the major challenges faced by our societies, such as unmanned air traffic management, data and network cybersecurity, airport security or financial transaction security. This combination creates a world-class leader with an unrivalled portfolio of digital identity and security solutions based on technologies such as biometry, data protection, and, more broadly, cybersecurity. Thales will provide a seamless response to customers, including critical infrastructure providers such as banks, telecom operators, government agencies, utilities and other industries as they step up to the challenges of identifying people and objects and keeping data secure. Research and development: inventing the world of tomorrow Thales and Gemalto share a passion for the advanced technologies that serve as a common foundation and focus for their 80,000 employees. Research and development (R&D) is at the core of the new Group, with its 3,000 researchers and 28,000 engineers dedicated to R&D. Thales has been developing state-of-the-art technologies to meet the most demanding requirements of customers around the world for decades. Today the Group has become a giant laboratory inventing the world of tomorrow, with a portfolio of 20,500 patents, of which more than 400 new ones were registered in 2018. Technological synergies The new Thales will cover the entire critical decision chain in an increasingly interconnected and vulnerable world, with capabilities spanning software development, data processing, real-time decision support, connectivity and end-to-end network management. With €1 (US$1.4) billion a year devoted to self-funded R&D, the Group will continue to innovate in its key markets, drawing in particular on its world-class digital expertise in the Internet of Things, Big Data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The first illustrations are as wide as the Group's portfolio: *Banking: Big Data analytics *Defense: biometrics *Aerospace: unmanned traffic management *Ground transportation: Internet of Things *Space: Internet of Things *Telecommunications: Big Data analytics An extended global footprint Following this acquisition, Gemalto will form one of Thales's seven global divisions, to be named Digital Identity and Security (DIS). Gemalto will interact with all of the Group's civil and defense customers and will significantly strengthen its industrial presence in 68 countries. Thales will considerably expand its operations in Latin America (2,500 employees, up from 600), triple its presence in Northern Asia (1,980, from 700), Southeast Asia (2,500, from 800) and India (1,150, from 400) and North America (6,660 employees, up from 4,600). "With Gemalto, a global leader in digital identification and data protection, Thales has acquired a set of highly complementary technologies and competencies with applications in all of our five vertical markets, which are now redefined as aerospace; space; ground transportation; digital identity and security; and defence and security. These are the smart technologies that help people make the best choices at every decisive moment. The acquisition is a turning point for the Group's 80,000 employees. Together, we are creating a giant in digital identity and security with the capabilities to compete in the big leagues worldwide." Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO, Thales https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/airport-technology/press-release/21074429/thales-thales-completes-acquisition-of-gemalto-to-become-a-global-leader-in-digital-identity-and-security-extending-us-footprint Back to Top How The Auto Industry Is Inspiring Aviation Innovation The lines between transportation industries are starting to blur as aerospace companies more frequently team with automotive specialists to innovate. Within the last few years, the industry has seen pairings between Boeing and automotive seating specialist Adient, Lufthansa Technik and Mercedes-Benz, Liebherr-Aerospace and General Motors (GM) and Airbus and Audi-and the list continues to grow as the urban air mobility (UAM) market begins to take off. It is becoming increasingly clear that crossover between the two industries will be necessary for innovation to proceed. Electric-powered vertical-takeoff- and-landing (eVTOL) air taxi startup Lilium, which hired renowned car designer Frank Stephenson as its head of product design in 2018, sees the automotive industry as a natural source of inspiration-particularly in terms of meeting high production demand. "The aerospace industry, and particularly those of us engaged in developing UAM, can learn a lot from the automotive industry," says a Lilium spokesperson. "Independent studies of the UAM market suggest there will be the need for a significant number of these aircraft, meaning they will need to be produced at volumes more akin to those in the automotive sector." Aside from production and supply chain practices, UAM is blurring the lines between aerospace and automotive even further. Innovators such as Elon Musk are exploring both autonomous cars and aircraft, while large tech companies including Google and Uber are dipping their toes into both industries to explore how autonomous vehicles can create new business opportunities. Lilium says that although it plans to operate its aircraft with a pilot at first, the Lilium jet is designed to operate autonomously. A company source says Lilium will be looking to learn lessons about technology for autonomous driving from the automotive industry. According to Ella Atkins, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan and founder of the Autonomous Aerospace Systems Laboratory there, both cars and aircraft likely will become increasingly autonomous over time. "In terms of perception and decision-making, there's a lot of overlap in that both types of vehicles need to be aware of what's around them, be in communication with other vehicles and make safe decisions," says Atkins. "I think a lot of deep learning and decision-making based on other traffic work that is happening in the auto industry-in particular with lidar [light detection and ranging] vision systems and their fusion-is going to move into the skies." Atkins says smaller unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) such as the Lilium jet, which will be flying in close proximity to buildings and other UAS, will use these types of technologies to maintain safe clearance and coordinate location of other aircraft independent of sensors. Meanwhile, Atkins says automotive technology development knowhow is also making its way into energy systems for aerospace. "There's a ton of crossover because everyone wants higher-energy-density batteries that are fast to charge," she says. "That gets into materials, operations, monitoring technology, safe handling-all of those things." In addition to batteries for UAM vehicles, aerospace companies are looking to automotive specialists to develop energy systems for both commercial and defense applications. Liebherr Aerospace and Transportation partnered with GM last year to introduce fuel-cell technology into aircraft onboard power-generation systems. In late 2017, Airbus began a collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering-the engineering and tech arm of Formula One racing company Williams Grand Prix Engineering-to explore potential areas for technical collaboration. A representative for Airbus says the company is looking to Williams because of its cutting-edge research on structures, batteries and electrical power. Although Airbus is not releasing specific details about the progress of the collaboration, it is looking to leverage innovations within its Zephyr High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite program that could also apply to commercial aviation in the future. Airbus also has collaborated with automotive partners on UAM on passenger experience. The company worked with Audi last summer to provide ground transportation to its on-demand helicopter-booking platform Voom, starting in Sao Paulo and Mexico City. If successful, this service could presumably be offered for the OEM's CityAirbus eVTOL, which made its public debut last month in Ingolstadt, Germany (where Audi is located). Atkins says other traditionally automotive-focused companies such as Uber, which has partnered with eVTOL makers Bell and EmbraerX, are looking to get in on the ground transportation element of UAM. "Something that puts them in a really good position with respect to UAM is that if you fly people from point to point, likely those planes or VTOL UAM platforms will need secure areas to land, take off and handle passengers. So it is absolutely the case that the only way that's going to be convenient is if there's, for example, an Uber car delivering someone to take off and ready to pick someone up when they land," she says. AI And Passenger Experience Looking to the future, Atkins believes other areas of UAM crossover between aerospace and automotive will be maintenance and human-artificial intelligence interaction. "If we have a fleet of vehicles that are autonomous, they're not necessarily going to be parked in their garages at night," says Atkins. "Maybe some of the vehicles will be parked at 3 a.m., but there will be a lot of common procedures for dispatching and managing maintenance and making sure the right parts are at the right place at the right time. I think a lot of that is going to be common to the different autonomous vehicle industries." As for the passenger experience within autonomous vehicles, Atkins says there will be major differences between how the human-AI interface will need to work. "In cars, we all know how to drive, and we all know what the car is going to do because most of us have been riding in cars all our lives. In planes, it's going to be quite different because we're used to sitting in the back with a TV in front of our faces, but we're not used to being in a small vehicle zipping low over cities," says Atkins. She adds that the industry will need to figure out how to bridge the divide by sorting out how autonomous systems will interact with passengers in aircraft versus the way that is being handled in cars With the move toward autonomous vehicles, cabin design within cars may begin drawing more inspiration from aircraft cabin seats in terms of storage, space for eating meals and other leisure activities. However, when it comes to the experience of sitting in an aircraft cabin, aerospace designers have been taking inspiration from the auto industry for years-particularly for business- and first-class seating products. Boeing's seating joint venture Adient Aerospace says its premium seating concepts-such as the Ascent business-class seating system it will debut at the Aircraft Interiors Expo this month-draw inspiration from luxury vehicles through design choices such as "well-managed gaps and removing fasteners from the passenger's line of sight," creating a feeling of attention-to-detail similar to that experienced in luxury vehicles. UK-based design house Factory-design-which has created specialty aircraft cabin interiors for carriers such as British Airways, Etihad Airways, Delta Air Lines and Scandinavian Airlines-has drawn styling cues from automotive in everything from hand-veneered wooden tabletops in business-class lounges to premium aircraft seats with cross-pattern stitching and side bolsters. According to Adam White, partner at Factorydesign, much of the automotive inspiration for aircraft cabin design is to create a feeling of luxury rather than replicating specific design details from cars. "What we do is take the persona or the character," says White, pointing to the example of touchpoints passengers interact with such as interface controls to recline and adjust seats, which he says have become increasingly refined in their design. In business class, White says one area where aerospace has drawn ideas from automotive is lighting. "If you picture cabin and seat lighting as recently as a few years ago, there was really very little other than the main cabin lights, the reading lamp and perhaps a sort of ambient light on the bulkhead, whereas in the automotive world, at night you could change the whole color of your cabin, and there was edge lighting around controls," he says. "We're getting a lot more of that cross-fertilization, where LED technology is increasingly making the whole theater of the seat that you sit in more exciting and more like a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, for instance." The VIP cabin collaboration between Lufthansa Technik and Mercedes-Benz unveiled in 2018 drew on the S-Class and featured dashboard-inspired black panels and carbon-fiber elements. Lightweight materials such as carbon fiber have an obvious appeal for both the automotive and aviation industries. "The world of performance cars has been obsessed for decades with creating the strongest, lightest possible product-hence the enormous development they've made in composite materials," explains White, adding that the aviation industry has increasingly become sensitive to the weight of products in the cabin. "If you stand back and look at a first-class suite [or] even a lot of the old business-class products, they're mammoth structures, and there's a considerable amount of weight in them. It would simply be unthinkable to approach design in that way in a supercar, so there are extremely valuable learnings from the automotive industry, particularly at the high end." When it comes to the materials themselves, White says designers are restricted within aviation, given the high level of testing required, but the industry is still striving to push the envelope with materials. Adient Aerospace suggests that certain steel alloys used in automotive might offer advantages over conventional applications of aluminum alloys in aerospace. Conversely, the company says some materials offering weight advantages within aerospace provide challenges when scaling to automotive volumes. Other big differences that must be considered for aircraft-cabin interiors are aerospace's strict flammability standards and the durability required. In terms of maintenance, "the bar is high in automotive but can be higher in aviation," an Adient Aerospace spokesperson says. "For example, a typical business-class seat can average 20 cycles between the seated and bed position every day. Most of us don't adjust our car seats nearly that often." Despite these differences, White believes crossover between the two industries will continue to grow along with commercial fleets and the UAM model. "At the very high end, if you go back a few decades, a supercar really was a very specialist product-whereas now, there's a surprisingly large number of extremely refined and very fast vehicles that are relatively affordable to a lot of people," says White. "The market has grown significantly, and it can only grow [if] manufacturing [gets] better. Aviation and automotive have kind of reached a point where the interests are mutually self-serving." https://www.mro-network.com/emerging-technology/how-auto-industry-inspiring-aviation-innovation Back to Top SpaceX Starship 'Hopper' prototype finally lights up It was a lot of build up for a little bit of flame, but a single-engine prototype of the rocket Elon Musk hopes will take passengers to Mars one day has been fired up for the very first time. After weeks of waiting and airspace closures over the SpaceX test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, Musk confirmed that the "hopper" version of his Starship (formerly known as "BFR") completed a "tethered hop" Wednesday evening. SpaceX has used so-called hopper prototypes in the past to test its rockets. Basically, they're less powerful versions that don't travel all the way to space and then come back down for a landing. In this case, a "tethered hop" is really the same as a static or hold-down fire test, which is a standard procedure before most launches as well. Interestingly, SpaceX was also supposed to conduct a static fire test for its Falcon Heavy rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday. However, that test has been delayed once again and is now set to happen Thursday, ahead of a planned launch on Sunday. This will be the first commercial launch for Falcon Heavy (it's carrying a commercial communications satellite to orbit) and the first we've seen of the powerful rocket since its demonstration launch last year that sent Musk's red Tesla toward Mars. The firing of the Starship prototype's Raptor engine was the first to be started up at the company's Texas launch pad. It seems Texas will be the home for Starship's development for the time being after a deal to build the big rockets at the Port of Los Angeles fell through. SpaceX needs to move Starship from this first test to mission-ready in less than four years. The company already has a paying customer in Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who hopes to take a group of artists on a flight around the moon in 2023. https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-starship-hopper-prototype-finally-lights-up/ Curt Lewis