February 4, 2021 - No. 10 In This Issue : GMR Group, Airbus to collaborate on aircraft maintenance, airport services : Maintenance Group WAMA Surpasses 60 Years : Etihad Airways partners with GE Aviation on foam cleaning system : MecanAir Adds Full Mx Credentials for Daher Aircraft : Air Atlanta Icelandic is the Launch Customer for IQSMS in Iceland : PSA Begins To Return CRJs To Service Following Grounding : Smart Maintenance: getting a grip on maintenance processes : MTU to begin Serbia plant construction : How Airbus And Boeing Are Using Artificial Intelligence To Advance Autonomous Flight : Composites and 3D printing could boost Europe's SAT manufacturing capabilities for the 2030s : Pennsylvania billionaire buys a SpaceX flight to orbit with 3 others GMR Group, Airbus to collaborate on aircraft maintenance, airport services GMR Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus (a leading manufacturer of commercial aircrafts) to explore collaboration opportunities across aviation services, technologies and innovation. The MoU was signed at Aero India 2021, Bangalore. GMR Group and Airbus will team up to explore potential synergies in several strategic areas of aviation services including maintenance, components, training, digital, and airport services. As part of the MoU, GMR Group and Airbus will collaborate to explore a broad scope of aviation services, both for commercial and military aircraft to benefit the entire aerospace ecosystem in the country. SGK Kishore, Executive Director - South & Chief Innovation Officer, GMR Airports said: “Under this partnership, GMR and Airbus teams will work together and innovate across areas such as airport operations and air cargo supply chain among others to realize our shared goals.” Rémi Maillard, President and Managing Director, Airbus India & South Asia said, “Airbus and the GMR Group are committed to high standards of operational efficiency and innovation. Through this partnership we will align in our mission to provide world class aviation services in the region.” “We will work together towards developing solutions that will shape the future of aviation services in the region.” Airbus has a longstanding relationship of symbiotic growth with India. The company has been fostering and supporting the development of the Indian aerospace and aviation industry. As part of the partnership, Airbus and GMR Group will work together on several areas to support and further develop the aerospace ecosystem in the country. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/gmr-group-airbus-to-collaborate-on-aircraft-maintenance-airport-services/article33747367.ece Maintenance Group WAMA Surpasses 60 Years Westchester Aircraft Maintenance Association (WAMA), which claims to be one of the country’s first professional organizations for aviation maintenance professionals, passed its 60th anniversary in 2020 but because of Covid-19 it now hopes to formally mark the occasion at its annual gala in the second half of this year. Based at Westchester County Airport in New York, WAMA was founded in 1960 by a handful of aviation mechanics working for Fortune 500 corporate flight departments. The group aimed to create a social and educational organization to enhance the knowledge base of its members and to keep them abreast of the latest issues affecting the piston, turboprop, and jet aircraft they maintain. Today, the organization maintains a “100-percent focus” on training, a concept that is embedded in its charter. It offers training through hosting classes in aircraft maintenance and career and personal development, as well as monthly dinner meetings with aviation OEM briefings and industry guest speakers. WAMA also works to connect local aviation schools with aviation companies for internships and maintains a website where members can post their resumes and open job positions. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2021-02-03/maintenance-group-wama-surpasses-60-years Etihad Airways partners with GE Aviation on foam cleaning system Etihad Airways and GE Aviation have partnered to launch GE’s 360 Foam Wash, a groundbreaking jet engine cleaning system, to optimise performance of Etihad’s GE90 and GEnx-1B engines on its Boeing 777 and 787 fleets. GE’s 360 Foam Wash is an alternative to the water wash method, and restores engine performance leading to reductions in fuel consumption. The process involves injecting a specially-formulated, proprietary solution that removes dust and dirt particles in the engine. The system is self-contained, allowing it to be used inside maintenance hangars or outdoors. As one of the first airlines to partner with GE on the development of 360 Foam Wash, Etihad marked several milestones in the technology’s advancement. Etihad is the first airline to: trial GE’s Foam Wash with a GE90 engine on wing; receive a GE90 Foam Wash license; and receive licenses for multiple GE engine programs (GE90 and GEnx). The airline’s collaboration in the trial process was important to the product’s development, contributing to GE’s data collection and analysis, and improving reliability of 360 Foam Wash equipment. “GE Aviation shares a commitment to develop innovative solutions in aircraft engine maintenance with the team at Etihad Airways,” said Jean Lydon-Rodgers, Vice President and General Manager of GE Aviation’s After Market Strategic Solutions. “We are learning more about how our engines operate and how they respond in hot and harsh environments than ever before, and our longstanding relationship with Etihad has been integral to that process. The research that has gone into producing GE’s 360 Foam Wash is a shining example of that.” https://www.arabianaerospace.aero/etihad-airways-partners-with-ge-aviation-on-foam-cleaning-system.html MecanAir Adds Full Mx Credentials for Daher Aircraft Switzerland’s MecanAir, already an authorized Kodiak service center, has been awarded similar credentials for the TBM series turboprops by Daher. Tarbes, France-based Daher, which also owns Kodiak, said the addition of the TBM to MecanAir’s factory maintenance authorizations underscores its integration of the two turboprop product lines. “This is another important step in enhancing our global network after Daher’s acquisition of Kodiak in 2019,” explained Daher aircraft division senior v-p and Kodiak Aircraft CEO Nicolas Chabbert. “With MecanAir’s dual Kodiak and TBM authorization today—to be followed by other service centers in the future—customers will benefit from more comprehensive coverage...of our network worldwide.” MecanAir is based at Ecuvillens Airport near Fribourg, with maintenance workshops at the Swiss airports of Yverdon-les-Bains and Grenchenand. The EASA Part 145 MRO provider specializes in maintenance and repair of aircraft weighing less than 12,500 pounds, as well as overhaul of turboprop engines and accessories. Through the expanded service agreement with Daher, MecanAir can now perform scheduled and nonscheduled maintenance on Kodiak and TBM airplanes and airworthiness-related control and management under its CAMO authorization. “As a key member of services for the Kodiak aircraft family for 10 years, MecanAir distinguished itself as an extremely capable support partner,” said Daher aircraft division customer support v-p Raphaël Maître. “The next step was extending MecanAir’s capability to the TBM.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2021-02-02/mecanair-adds-full-mx-credentials-daher-aircraft Air Atlanta Icelandic is the Launch Customer for IQSMS in Iceland ASQS GmbH, the Vienna-based global provider of integrated aviation Quality and Safety Management Solutions, announced that leading ACMI and charter airline, Air Atlanta Icelandic, has chosen IQSMS (Integrated Quality and Safety Management System) to further optimize safety and quality standards within the organization. The company is ASQS’s first customer in Iceland enabling the Austrian aviation IT company to further expand its global footprint and presence in the Nordic region. The demand for uncomplicated, intuitive and powerful safety management solutions is what leads aviation companies of all kinds to ASQS. With its core product IQSMS, the company supports the daily operations of more than 200 operators worldwide. The web-based integrated SMS (Safety Management System) and QMS (Quality Management System) software enables users to automate daily processes, increasing safety compliance and business performance. In over thirty years of business history, the largest globally operating ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) and charter service provider in the world, Air Atlanta Icelandic, has continuously demonstrated a strong focus on excellent customer service while meeting the highest national and international safety standards. To further optimize safety processes, the company has put together its personal IQSMS Suite to meet the organization’s individual needs and has opted for a multi-phased implementation of the IQSMS core modules, including the respective offline applications, as well as two additional modules. Sigurjon Thordarson, Director Safety & Compliance at Air Atlanta Icelandic commented: “Air Atlanta Icelandic is excited to implement IQSMS for the administration of its Safety Management and Compliance Monitoring systems. We believe that IQSMS will assist in further streamlining the SMS and CMS processes and improve the co-ordination of SMS and CMS in all departments by integrating them into one system. We look forward to work with the IQSMS team.” “We are very excited to have won Air Atlanta Icelandic as our first IQSMS customer in Iceland,” added Günther Schindl, CEO at ASQS.” Teaming up with such a renowned and worldwide recognized operator proves once more the quality of our product IQSMS. We are also very excited about Air Atlanta Icelandic launching our Report Import API, as they will be the first client using both the data import and export APIs for bidirectional data exchange between different applications in their entire IT infrastructure. As every client brings unique requirements, we always strive to find a solution for their individual needs. This allows us to steadily grow our horizon and to continuously optimize our products and services,” Schindl added. https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/maintenance-providers/press-release/21208521/asqs-gmbh-air-atlanta-icelandic-is-the-launch-customer-for-iqsms-in-iceland PSA Begins To Return CRJs To Service Following Grounding Regional carrier PSA Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group, is once again flying its fleet of CRJ regional aircraft after many were abruptly grounded last week to complete a standard inspection. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the airworthiness directive prompting the grounding was triggered “by a report that corrosion was found on the shock strut cylinders during unscheduled maintenance of the nose landing gear.” Back in the air According to FlightGlobal, PSA Airlines has returned its CRJs to service after the grounding to complete a sudden inspection. The news comes from the airline’s parent company, American Airlines. Simple Flying received the following statement from PSA Airlines: “PSA Airlines resumed regular operations on Jan. 29 following the temporary removal of its aircraft from service. All aircraft inspections are complete.” Data from AirNav RadarBox shows numerous PSA flights currently in the air. At the time of writing, most of PSA’s scheduled flights have departed Charlotte, NC, en route to their respective destinations. The situation last week This sudden grounding took place after the Federal Aviation Administration published an airworthiness directive (AD) for the Bombardier BD-100-1A10. In effect since January 27th, the AD “was prompted by a report that corrosion was found on the shock strut cylinders during unscheduled maintenance of the nose landing gear.” Although the Bombardier Challenger 300 is a different type of aircraft, the jet has enough similarity to the CRJ700 and 900 to prompt the inspection. In a statement sent to Simple Flying last week, an American Airlines spokesman wrote, “Out of an abundance of caution, PSA Airlines has temporarily removed most of its aircraft from service in order to complete a necessary, standard inspection on the nose gear door. We are working with PSA and the FAA to immediately address the issue. We are working with our customers to arrange new accommodations on other flights and we are working to return the impacted aircraft to service.” PSA Airline’s fleet PSA Airline’s fleet consists of 130 Bombardier-built CRJ regional aircraft. 61 of these are the smaller CRJ700, which seats nine in business and 54 in economy class. The other 69 jets are CRJ900s, which seat 12 in business and 64 in economy class. The average age of the CRJ700s is 14.8 years, while the CRJ900s are much newer, averaging just 4.7 years of age. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group, PSA Airlines operates under the American Eagle brand. American Eagle is the regional brand of American Airlines and connects American’s larger hubs with smaller communities. Philadelphia and Charlotte are among two of PSA’s largest hubs. https://simpleflying.com/psa-returning-crjs-to-service/ Smart Maintenance: getting a grip on maintenance processes Brabant is famous all over the world for its high-tech manufacturing companies. It is precisely this position that could make the province a top player in the field of maintenance, an essential part of a properly functioning high-tech ecosystem. Roughly speaking, you can divide the cost of a product into one-third purchase and two-thirds maintenance. But now that end products are increasingly being delivered to the customer as a service rather than as property, maintenance has changed from a cost item into a market opportunity. Brabant has everything it needs to acquire a position in the field of smart maintenance, the already existing activities are showing. For the big players – companies like VDL, ASML, Philips, Vanderlande – smart maintenance is now fully part of the business processes. By already taking into account the later maintenance process in the design phase of a system, they ensure that their products are not only designed for quality but are also reliable in their use. This is certainly not the case for all smaller companies: according to PWC calculations, no less than 89% of companies do not take predictive maintenance sufficiently into account. If they did, these companies could increase their returns by tens of percent annually, McKinsey has calculated. And maintenance also provides a lot of employment: the maintenance market in the Netherlands already has a value of over thirty billion, or more than 4% of the gross domestic product, with employment for approximately 300,000 people. Key technologies Essential to this is the use of key technologies such as data science and artificial intelligence. With these, even smaller companies can make the step to predictive maintenance faster and thus become more sustainable, safer, and internationally competitive, says Roland Grimm, Program Manager Maintenance & Services at the Brabant Development Agency (BOM). “The way we build things is as smart as it can get; maintenance is often more of a challenge. How can we make the maintenance of machines, planes, wind turbines, and factories future-proof and thus strengthen the industry’s sustainability and international competitiveness? That is what ‘Smart Maintenance’ is all about: it ensures that the innovative strength of Brabant will also be an international success in the future.” That these are not empty words is also confirmed by Michael Pecht, founder and director of the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), and professor at the University of Maryland. “Problem around the world is that many companies, especially in the tech corner, are already satisfied when their products leave the factory ‘clean.’ Quality is just a snapshot; reliability creates a structural value.” Pecht says data science is an indispensable part of smart maintenance, for example, to determine the time-to-failure and remaining life of a product, but also to predict the moment when specific maintenance actions are needed. “Data science helps us gain knowledge when we are still testing. By reading data as early as during testing, we can see what is actually happening in the electronics. Data science can see things that a human can’t see.” It’s not just about testing, however. Thanks to sensors and “digital twins” (a digital copy of a product that can accurately track its twin’s real-life life journey), usage information can remain visible continuously. “In fact, the product can monitor itself and in some cases, potential disasters can be mitigated or prevented in this way. You can imagine that this way of working could be crucial for the medical or aviation industries.” Working together, better These are exactly the industries within which Brabant also wants to play a bigger role with smart maintenance. To do so, Grimm says, it is essential that, in addition to focusing on key technologies, companies in the value chain work together even better. “In Brabant, we can connect the strengths, by making cross-sectoral connections between the high-tech manufacturing industry and the maintenance industry, for example around the aircraft maintenance industry in West Brabant. That offers opportunities to make innovations fundamentally circular, maintenance-friendly and recyclable.” John den Ridder, Program Manager Hightech Maintenance at REWIN, sees West Brabant as a key player in the Smart Maintenance ecosystem, “with a link to Zeeland, central Brabant, Rotterdam, and Antwerp.” The focus is on sectors such as aerospace, maritime, and the industries around food, chemicals, and mechanical engineering. “There are many companies that understand the importance of smart maintenance, but at the same time we have to conclude that there is still a lot of work to be done.” Den Ridder is committed to cooperation between educational institutions, companies, and the government in order to build a future-proof maintenance sector. “Together with the business community, municipalities, Curio and Avans University of Applied Sciences, for example, we are working on robotization and digitization. Partly thanks to European funding, we can set up hubs where we can bring together companies and knowledge institutions to inspire others to give smart maintenance the attention it deserves. This is especially essential for the somewhat smaller companies.” Aviation Aviation is a good example of Brabant’s successes in smart maintenance, says Grimm. “Look at what we have already done around the maintenance of the flying systems of the Ministry of Defense in Woensdrecht, but also GKN in Helmond, KMWE in Eindhoven, DCMC and GKN/Fokker MRO in Hoogerheide.” For the BOM, Aerospace was one of the focus areas in 2020, but now the focus has broadened. “The importance of life cycle management applies to all sectors within the high tech manufacturing industry. An MRI scanner from Philips, a wafer stepper from ASML, the engine parts of an F-35 fighter jet, everything needs a good maintenance process. Getting a grip on this is where the true benefits can be found. Organize your processes in such a way that you can keep track of everything, even for decades. Who built what part and when, what maintenance was done and who managed it? You have to keep track of everything. We want to improve our way of control in the coming years.” The commitment to Smart and High Tech Maintenance fits with developments in the market, says Den Ridder. “Products are increasingly being delivered to customers as a service rather than property. That means that the responsibility for sustainable and efficient maintenance remains with the manufacturer throughout the life of a system. And this manufacturer, therefore, has an interest in good maintenance: the more efficient and sustainable a system is designed, the higher the margin the manufacturers can achieve on their performance contract.” ‘Availability’ is a global trend, clarifies Tiedo Tinga, Professor of Dynamics based Maintenance at the Faculty of Engineering Technology at the Twente University. “And with that, the life cycle of a product has become a revenue model. But that can only work if you can continue to monitor usage properly – for example, via the sensors that collect data. Thus, this provides input for the algorithms that deliver their information using data science. In that situation, maintenance has really become an integral part of your process.” Predictive maintenance A key development to increase efficiency and margin on capital-intensive goods is, therefore, the implementation of predictive maintenance. Grimm: “If you can predict when maintenance is required, you can anticipate all kinds of processes. In this area, for example, World Class Maintenance at Gate2 is active with the field lab Campione2. Think about the availability of talents and components, the optimal intervention moment, logistics of componentss and mechanics, and financial planning.” Den Ridder and Grimm see lots of examples in Brabant to make smart maintenance a spearhead. “Crossovers are occurring with, among others, the maintenance of wind turbines, automotive, and bridges. We also see more and more initiatives in important sectors such as AI, 3D printing, robotization, and the development of sensors and new materials such as ‘self-healing’ coatings. At Breda Robotics, robotics companies and educational institutions are working on maintenance robots as part of smart maintenance labs. We are working with NLR and TU Delft for this and at Aviolanda in Woensdrecht the field lab DCMC is developing a hub where companies and educational institutions are trying to shape the total maintenance chain in the field of composites.” Den Ridder also sees great opportunities for the composite industry: “A considerable part of the current civil aviation fleet will be replaced in the coming years by full-frame composite. That is cheaper and lighter. It is therefore only logical that there is still a lot of work to be done in the area of certification, monitoring, and repairing. That’s something we can now capitalize on.” https://innovationorigins.com/smart-maintenance-getting-a-grip-on-maintenance-processes/ MTU to begin Serbia plant construction Leading German aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines will begin construction of its new repair facility (pictured) at an industrial park near Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport this year, with the opening scheduled for 2023. “This industrial park definitely has growth potential. It could well attract our suppliers and partners”, Rainer Becker, Project Manager and Managing Director of MTU Maintenance Serbia, said. He added, “In the first phase, we plan to have capacity for 470.000 repair hours per year. All the planning is being done in close collaboration with the responsible authorities in Serbia to ensure that the new building complies with all regulations and specifications”. He and his team are also making every effort to extend OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] and customer licenses for the repair of engine parts to the new location. Applications for the necessary approvals by aviation authorities such as Germany’s Federal Aviation Authority must also be filed. A team of about thirty MTU specialists in repair technologies, quality, logistics, finance and human resources is already working to establish the new maintenance location. The MTU office in Belgrade is now up and running, and the project team has defined the plant and process technologies. This means it will be possible to place early orders for particularly complex machinery with long delivery times. All work areas had to be determined and the building layout had to be defined accordingly, so that the commissioned architects could work on the plans for the shop. To coincide with the construction of the new repair facility, MTU is starting to recruit suitable employees and train future skilled workers. In order to support existing qualifications, the shop will offer on-the-job training in the future. Last year, MTU and the government of Serbia signed a declaration of cooperation to establish close collaboration on the dual-track training of skilled workers - as practiced in Germany. This guarantees the technical foundations required for a high-tech industry such as aviation. While the on-the-job training will initially take place at MTU locations in Germany and Canada, the aim is to conduct this training exclusively in Serbia from 2024. By 2027, the new repair location is expected to grow to around 440 employees. https://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/02/mtu-to-begin-serbia-plant-construction.html How Airbus And Boeing Are Using Artificial Intelligence To Advance Autonomous Flight Pilot-less jetliners may still be far off in the future due to several reasons, public trust in automated systems not being the least of them. However, this does not mean the software technology to support such operations has not developed in leaps and bounds. While there are several start-ups in tech-driven unmanned airborne vehicles, let’s take a look at how the two main aircraft manufacturers use artificial intelligence in the quest for safe autonomous flight. AI will revolutionize aviation Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a divisive subject. Some herald it as the key solution to everything from Alzheimer’s and cancer to food shortages and climate change. Others, more pessimistically or dystopically inclined, say it will be the end of humanity or, at the very least, take most of our jobs. One thing is for certain, though; AI is here to stay, and it will have a massive impact on our everyday lives in the future. Aviation is often critiqued for having been slow on the ball when it comes to AI. However, things have begun to change, and its various applications will transform the industry in the decades to come. Data-driven sophisticated algorithms will revolutionize everything from ticket pricing, air traffic control, crew and maintenance schedules to aircraft assembly, natural language processing in the cockpit. And, of course, it will have an enormous impact on more advanced technology such as autonomous vision-based navigation or pilot-less planes, if you will. Airbus using image recognition A little over a year ago, on January 16th, 2020, Airbus completed the first fully automatic vision-based take-off and landing within the framework of its Autonomous Taxi, Take-Off and Landing (ATTOL) project. Rather than relying on an Instrument Landing System (ILS), the AI-controlled take-off was governed by image-recognition software installed on the aircraft. Image recognition is software’s ability to identify people, places, objects, etc., in images. You are involved in it every time you respond to a prompt to identify yourself as a human online by clicking on all the images containing a cross-walk, traffic light, or motorcycle. In the video below, it is clearly distinguishable how the software reads the visual input of the aircraft’s surroundings to perform the take-off procedure. The ATTOL project was completed in June last year. However, Airbus has stated that its goal is for autonomous technologies to improve flight operations and overall performance – not to reach autonomous flight as a target in itself. Pilots, the planemaker says, will remain at the heart of operations. Boeing’s Phantom Works is leading the way in automated data-sharing Over in the other corner, in December 2020, Boeing completed a series of test-flights exploring how high-performance uncrewed aircraft can operate together controlled by AI using onboard command and data sharing. Aircraft were added one by one over a period of ten days until five operated as an autonomous unit, reaching speeds of up to 167 miles per hour. “The tests demonstrated our success in applying artificial intelligence algorithms to ‘teach’ the aircraft’s brain to understand what is required of it,” Emily Hughes, director of Phantom Works, Boeing’s prototyping arm for its defense branch, said in a statement shared with Vision Systems Design at the time. “With the size, number and speed of aircraft used in the test, this is a very significant step for Boeing and the industry in the progress of autonomous mission systems technology,” Hughes continued. While December’s test-flights were part of its defense part of the business, Boeing stated that the technologies developed from the program would not only inform its developmental Airpower Teaming System (ATS) but apply to all future autonomous aircraft. Meanwhile, Boeing’s subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, part of Boeing NeXt, is building smaller autonomous flight vehicles. This includes the Centaur, configured for autonomous flight featuring a detect-and-avoid technology supported by radar. https://simpleflying.com/airbus-boeing-artificial-intelligence-flight/ Composites and 3D printing could boost Europe's SAT manufacturing capabilities for the 2030s The Small Air Transport (SAT) category, defined as aircraft with between 4 and 19 passenger seats, is the technologically neglected niche of air travel— the Cinderella of aviation. Manufacturers have been hesitant to invest heavily in new technology here, due to the relatively low production volumes and the tight budgets of operators. Other factors are also at play: “The market for SAT aircraft is not so developed in Europe, nor elsewhere in the world, for several reasons,” says Clean Sky project officer Antonello Marino. “Technical and social barriers relating to passenger comfort, consumer perceptions around the safety compared to larger aircrafts, manufacturing, operating and recurring costs finally lead to high costs for passengers.” Looking to the future, however, with major hubs reaching capacity, an opportunity is arising for those who recognize that regional aviation could experience a renaissance — if only SAT costs could be reduced using innovative technologies. “Small air transport fulfills a market segment that cannot be filled by other types of aircraft, nor can be addressed by other modes of transport,” says Marino. “The Flightpath 2050 target of four-hour, door-to-door travel implies higher use of smaller aircraft. We have a large number of under-utilized regional airports in remote areas of Europe that are not suitable for large passenger aircraft but would be very suitable for smaller aircraft. So, in Clean Sky we decided to grant the SAT-AM project, which focuses on developing and testing advanced technologies that can reduce the manufacturing and maintenance costs of small aircraft.” The five-year project, which runs until June 2021, is investigating a host of technologies that reduce the number of parts required for such aircraft and that also streamline manufacturing and assembly times. These technologies will be evaluated regarding their suitability for reducing costs in the SAT sector. Technologies and demonstrators “Fuel consumption can be reduced by aerodynamic optimization of the aircraft element as well as technologies that will allow for weight reduction, while the energy consumption related to the manufacturing process can be addressed by manufacturing time optimization, through reducing machine-hours, or through the use of less energy-consuming manufacturing equipment,” says the coordinator of the project, Paweł Guła, head of the Aviation Structures and Design Department at Poland's Łukasiewicz Research Network – Instytut Lotnictwa. The technologies under investigation include: friction stir welding, additive manufacturing (3D printing), block structures, high-speed machining, composites, superhydrophobic coatings and structural health monitoring. The idea is to assess, downselect and validate, at aircraft level, the most relevant technologies through two full-scale demonstrators based on the PZL Mielec M28 short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft. One demonstrator is the full-scale ground cabin demonstrator and the other is the engine nacelle flight demonstrator. “Currently our first demonstrator, a fuselage cabin part, is in the final stage of assembly,” reports Guła. “The second demonstrator, an engine nacelle, passed static test. After that, Zakłady Lotnicze Margański & Mysłowski, in cooperation with project partners, has produced the second necelle dedicated for flight test stage. On December 2020, PZL Mielec successfully completed flight test with composite engine nacelle on M28 aircraft. It was a very important milestone in the Clean Sky 2 project, which aim is to develop innovative technologies for the manufacturing of the aircraft structures.” From the Clean Sky perspective, Antonello Marino observes that some results are already available and are very promising. They were able to reduce the number of parts by more than 37%, to reduce weight by up to 10% and to reduce manufacturing costs by 26% by substituting joints and mechanical fasteners such as bolts and screws with new technologies in composites and additive manufacturing. Guła predicts that this initiative will greatly increase the competitiveness of the European aviation industry for smaller aircraft. “The results of the SAT-AM project will influence the revitalization of the small aircraft industry,” he says. The consortium undertaking the project is composed of eight entities including: Sieć Badawcza Łukasiewicz – Instytut Lotnictwa; Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze; EUROTECH; SZEL-TECH Szeliga Grzegorz; P.W. “Metrol” Dariusz Dąbkowski; ULTRATECH; ZAKŁADY LOTNICZE Margański & Mysłowski; and Italian research entity CIRA. The project has already strengthened bonds between industry and academia, and Guła points out that five of the eight companies in the project consortium are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who are focused on developing the technologies. https://www.compositesworld.com/news/composites-and-3d-printing-could-boost-europes-sat-manufacturing-capabilities-for-the-2030s Pennsylvania billionaire buys a SpaceX flight to orbit with 3 others CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A U.S. billionaire who made a fortune in tech and fighter jets is buying an entire SpaceX flight and plans to take three “everyday” people with him to circle the globe this year. Besides fulfilling his dream of flying in space, Jared Isaacman announced Monday that he aims to use the private trip to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, half coming from his own pockets. A female health care worker for St. Jude already has been selected for the mission. Anyone donating to St. Jude in February will be entered into a random drawing for seat No. 3. The fourth seat will go to a business owner who uses Shift4 Payments, Mr. Isaacman’s credit card processing company in Allentown, Pa. “I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit,” Mr. Isaacman, who turns 38 next week, told The Associated Press. “I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way.” He’s bought a Super Bowl ad to publicize the mission, dubbed Inspiration4 and targeted for an October launch from Florida. The other passengers aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule — what Mr. Isaacman calls a diverse group “from everyday walks of life” — will be announced next month. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk expects the flight to last two to four days. Mr. Isaacman’s trip is the latest deal announced for private space travel — and it’s No. 1 on the runway for an orbital trip. “This is an important milestone toward enabling access to space for everyone,” Mr. Musk said during a press conference Monday from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. While expensive, these initial private flights will drive down costs over time, he noted. Last week, a Houston company revealed the names of three businessmen who are paying $55 million apiece to fly to the International Space Station next January aboard a SpaceX Dragon. And a Japanese businessman has a deal with SpaceX to fly to the moon. In the past, space tourists had to hitch rides to the space station on Russian rockets. Mr. Isaacman would not divulge how much he’s paying SpaceX, except to say that the anticipated donation to St. Jude “vastly exceeds the cost of the mission.” While a former NASA astronaut will accompany the three businessmen, Mr. Isaacman will serve as his own spacecraft commander. The appeal, he said, is learning all about SpaceX’s Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. The capsules are designed to fly autonomously, but a pilot can override the system in an emergency. A “space geek” since kindergarten, Mr. Isaacman dropped out of high school when he was 16, got a GED certificate and started a business in his parents’ basement that became the genesis for Shift4. He set a speed record flying around the world in 2009 while raising money for the Make-A-Wish program, and later established Draken International, the world’s largest private fleet of fighter jets. Mr. Isaacman’s $100 million commitment to St. Jude in Memphis, Tenn., is the largest ever by a single individual and one of the largest overall. “We’re pinching ourselves every single day,” said Rick Shadyac, president of St. Jude’s fundraising organization. Besides SpaceX training, Mr. Isaacman intends to take his crew on a mountain expedition to mimic his most uncomfortable experience so far — tenting on the side of a mountain in bitter winter conditions. “We’re all going to get to know each other … really well before launch,” he said. He’s acutely aware of the need for things to go well. “If something does go wrong, it will set back every other person’s ambition to go and become a commercial astronaut,” he told the AP over the weekend from his home in Easton, Pa. Mr. Isaacman said he signed with Mr. Musk’s company because it’s the clear leader in commercial spaceflight, with two astronaut flights already completed. Boeing has yet to fly astronauts to the space station for NASA. While Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin expect to start flying customers later this year, their craft will just briefly skim the surface of space. Mr. Isaacman had put out spaceflight feelers for years. He traveled to Kazakhstan in 2008 to see a Russian Soyuz blast off with a tourist on board, then a few years later attended one of NASA’s last space shuttle launches. SpaceX invited him to the company’s second astronaut launch for NASA in November. While Mr. Isaacman and wife, Monica, managed to keep his space trip hush-hush over the months, their daughters couldn’t. The girls, ages 7 and 4, overheard their parents discussing the flight last year and told their teachers, who called to ask if it was true dad was an astronaut. “My wife said, ‘No, of course not, you know how these kids make things up.’ But I mean the reality is my kids weren’t that far off with that one.” https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2021/02/01/SpaceX-first-all-civilian-flight-mission-orbit-billionaire/stories/202102010154 Curt Lewis