February 15, 2023 - No. 008 In This Issue : Shortage of skilled airplane workers slows aerospace recovery : NASA aims to fly its experimental electric plane this year : All-Electric Zenith Flies : Guest column: Oklahoma's aviation industry can help students launch careers : Altair SimSolid will streamline Airbus teams in their development of the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft : Hill Says Turbine Engine for HX50 To Cost Under $100k : Mitsubishi Heavy gives up 1st Japan-made passenger jet project : Washington Bill Would Ban Leaded Fuel By 2030 : Flying High: Engineering Students Tour Boeing Helicopter Factory : Engine MROs Expand In Dallas-Fort Worth Shortage of skilled airplane workers slows aerospace recovery Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference concluded in Lynnwood with Boeing absent again. By Janice Podsada Saturday, February 11, 2023 9:39amHERALD BUSINESS JOURNALLOCAL NEWSAVIATION AND SPACELYNNWOOD LYNNWOOD — The tight labor market could get even tighter for scores of Boeing suppliers hoping to add new workers. In the quest to hire, they face greater competition from the aerospace giant that butters their bread, The Boeing Co. In January, Boeing said it expects to hire 10,000 production workers this year even as it plans to cut 2,000 white-collar jobs. Finding skilled labor has been an ongoing challenge for many aerospace manufacturers as they ramp up production to meet demand. It was also one of the main topics at the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference, held last week at the Lynnwood Convention Center. The air travel and aerospace industry is recovering nicely from the COVID-19 pandemic but labor shortages, inflation and the uptick in interest rates could add drag to the recovery, industry analysts say. Airlines are buying airplanes again, though demand for widebody jets such as the Boeing 787 and 777 series continues to lag. Airplane manufacturers are stepping up production to fill a huge backlog. Boeing has 4,000 of its 737 jets on backlog, while rival Airbus’ order book includes 6,000 of its A320neo series airplanes on backlog. Boeing’s plans to increase 737 Max output, not only in Renton but with the addition of a fourth 737 assembly line at the company’s Everett plant, bodes well for the company’s network of suppliers. It means more work for many smaller aerospace firms, including some 200 Snohomish County companies. To meet the demand, Art Brass Aerospace Finishing, a Boeing supplier that finishes metal aerospace parts, is hiring, said Chris Nussbaum, the firm’s sales and marketing executive. Shortage of skilled airplane workers slows aerospace recoveryThe company recently set up a third shop in Mukilteo, said Nussbaum, who attended the PNAA conference in Lynwood. Hundreds of aerospace manufacturers, aviation representatives and tech firms heard from companies such as Arlington’s Eviation Aircraft and Airbus, as well as industry analysts and trade groups. Boeing declined to attend for a second straight year. The aerospace giant cut ties with the nonprofit trade group last year without saying why. However, the move is widely believed to have been in response to a lawsuit filed by former PNAA executive Fiona McKay. The group, a promoter of the region’s aerospace sector, came under scrutiny after allegations of a toxic workplace surfaced. In 2020, Boeing publicly committed to creating a culture of inclusion and equity. The PNAA has said it has a proven track record of commitment to diversity. Filling open positions at Art Brass Aerospace, which also has shops in Seattle and Auburn, has been a struggle, Nussbaum said. With Boeing hiring, it’s become a greater challenge for smaller aerospace companies, such as Art Brass, to attract new workers. For one thing, the Boeing name carries enormous weight with recent graduates of aerospace or manufacturing programs. Other job-seekers are members of multi-generational Boeing families — mom, dad, grandpa worked there — and want to continue the tradition, Nussbaum said. The dynamic in which Boeing and its suppliers compete for the same pool of workers isn’t new, Nussbaum said. Instead it’s part of the longstanding cycle of rising and falling demand that defines the aerospace industry. “Boeing is great, but it makes it tough to hire,” he said. The hiring dilemma didn’t go unheard at this week’s aerospace conference. A panel discussion by AJAC: Advanced Manufacturing Apprenticeships offered tips on hiring and retaining workers. The nonprofit group helped tailor Everett-based Aviation Technical Service’s apprenticeship program, in its fifth year. Studies show that if you can keep them on the job for four years, they’ll stay for six or 10 years. An apprenticeship can be part of that, Demetria “Lynn” Strickland, AJAC’s executive director, told the gathering. So, think about establishing a registered apprenticeship with AJAC, Strickland said. Having trouble with younger workers who don’t always show up to work on time? “It takes some time for those skills to be built in,” Strickland said. Apprenticeships can help. They not only teach technical skills, but interpersonal skills. The latest clutch of workers care about the impact of their work and the larger contribution it makes, said Bri Durham, AJAC’s on-the-job trainer. “The kids want to know what your company does and how cool it is. Explain the why and the big picture — even if they get on your nerves,” Durham said. A company culture that answers those questions is a big selling point, she said. Most importantly, it’s critical for smaller companies to offer job-seekers and employees specific information on how to climb the ladder, Durham said. “Be specific about the steps they need to complete to get to the next level,” Durham said. No new airplane The conference featured a star-studded lineup of aviation analysts, including Kevin Michaels and Richard Aboulafia, managing directors at AeroDynamic Advisory, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, consulting firm, as well as Ron Epstein, senior aerospace equity analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Again, this year their focus was Boeing, and more specifically, its decision to stall development of a new commercial passenger airplane until the next decade. All three analysts puzzled over Boeing CEO David Calhoun’s recent announcement that the company would not introduce a new airplane model until mid-2030. Calhoun said a propulsion system that’s 20% to 30% more efficient than current models hasn’t yet been developed. Until then, no new plane. It’s an about-face for Boeing. In 2017, the planemaker floated the concept of a “middle-market airplane” that would fit somewhere between the largest 737 and the smallest 787. At that time, it was widely believed Boeing would move forward with a new jet. However, the Boeing 737 Max crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, which crushed air travel, intervened. Industry analysts say Calhoun’s decision is unwise and could erode the company’s market share. In a panel discussion Wednesday, Aboulafia didn’t mince words when he urged Boeing’s top executives to consider a remedial course in corporate strategy. “There must be a book at the Everett Public Library titled “’Management for Dummies’ they can check out, ” Aboulafia said. “They need to flex their engineering muscle,” he said. The market is ripe for a narrow-body airplane with 220 to 240 seats and a 5,700-mile range, basically a single-aisle 787, panelists said. The airlines want a new airplane,” Epstein said, citing a recent airline survey. “If you’re not developing new airplanes, you’re not going to be in the airplane business,” Epstein said. “It’s a risk for Boeing to continue to wait,” said Ken Herbert, managing director of RBC Capital Markets. Wait and Boeing risks ceding even greater market share to rival Airbus, which continues to rack up orders for the A320neo family of single-aisle aircraft, he said. Although Boeing borrowed heavily during the pandemic, taking on substantial debt, money isn’t an issue, Herbert said. Should the company decide to build a new airplane, “they will find the cash financing,” he said. Still, any hope that Boeing might reverse engines and engineer a new plane has mostly vanished. “As long as the current leadership is in place, they Shortage of skilled airplane workers slows aerospace recovery NASA aims to fly its experimental electric plane this year Following a turbulent development that saw some components dramatically failing during testing, the X-57 is set to finally take flight in 2023. Here's what's been happening. BY ROB VERGER | PUBLISHED JAN 25, 2023 6:00 PM EST Note: Graphics included in the original article. The X-57 will fly in a configuration like this one—with an electric motor on each wing. Here, it undergoes testing in April, 2021. NASA/Lauren Hughes Sometime later this year—perhaps this summer, perhaps this fall—an electric aircraft from NASA, the X-57, is set to take flight in California. It’s what NASA describes as its “first all-electric experiment aircraft,” and when it does lift off the ground, it won’t look the way that NASA has been depicting the plane on its website. Instead of a whopping 14 electric motors and propellers, the aircraft will have just two. But those two motors, powered by more than 5,000 cylindrical battery cells in the aircraft’s fuselage, should be enough to get it up in the air before 2023 is over, which is when the X-57 program is set to power down, too. Here’s what to know about how the plane will work, the challenges the program has faced, and how lessons from spaceflight helped inform the details of its battery system. Modification 2 If the plane does indeed take flight this year as planned, it will do so in a form called Modification 2, which involves one electric motor and propeller on each wing giving the aircraft the thrust it needs to take to the skies. While the aeronautics and space agency had hoped to fly the plane—which is based on a Tecnam P2006T—in additional configurations, known as Modifications 3 and 4, that won’t happen. Why? Because making a plane that flies safely on just electricity is hard, and the program is only funded through 2023. (IEEE Spectrum has more on the program’s original plans.) “We’ve been learning a lot over the years, and we thought we’d be learning through flight tests—it turns out we had a lot of lessons to learn during the design and integration and airworthiness qualification steps, and so we ended up spending more time and resources on that,” says Sean Clark, the principle investigator for the X-57 program at NASA. “And that’s been hugely valuable,” he adds. “But it means that we’re not going to end up having resources for those Mod 4 [or 3] flights.” It will still fly as an all-electric plane, but in Mod 2, with two motors. Exploding transistors One glitch that the team had to iron out before the aircraft can safely take flight involves components that electricity from the batteries have to travel through before they reach the motors. The problem was with transistor modules inside the inverters, which change electricity from DC to AC. “We were using these modules that are several transistors in a package—they were specced to be able to tolerate the types of environments we were expecting to put it in,” says Clark. “But every time we would test them, they would fail. We would have transistors just blowing up in our environmental test chamber.” [Related: This ‘airliner of the future’ has a radical new wing design] A component failure—such as a piece of equipment blowing up—is the type of issue that aircraft makers prefer to resolve on the ground. Clark says they figured it out. “We did a lot of dissection of them—after they explode, it’s hard to know what went wrong,” he notes, lightheartedly, in a manner suggesting an engineer faced with a messy problem. The solution was newer hardware and “redesigning the inverter system basically from the ground up,” he notes. They are now “working really well,” he adds. “We’ve put a full set through qualification, and they’ve all passed.” An older rendering of the X-57 shows it with a skinny wing and 14 motors; it will not fly with this configuration. NASA Graphic / NASA Langley/Advanced Concepts Lab, AMA, Inc. Lessons from space Traditional aircraft burn fossil fuels, an obviously flammable and explosive substance, to power their engines. Those working on electric aircraft, powered by batteries, need to ensure that the battery cells don’t spark fires, either. Last year in Kansas, for example, an FAA-sponsored test featured a pack of aviation batteries being dropped by 50 feet to ensure they could handle the impact. They did. In the X-57, the batteries are a model known as 18650 cells, made by Samsung. The aircraft uses 5,120 of them, divided into 16 modules of 320 cells each. An individual module, which includes both battery cells and packaging, weighs around 51 pounds, Clark says. The trick is to make sure all of these components are packaged in the right way to avoid a fire, even if one battery experiences a failure. In other words, failure was an option, but they plan to manage any failure so that it does not start a blaze. “We found that there was not an industry standard for how to package these cells into a high-voltage, high-power pack, that would also protect them against cell failures,” Clark says. [Related: The Air Force wants to modernize air refueling, but it’s been a bumpy ride] Help came from higher up. “We ended up redesigning the battery pack based on a lot of input from some of the design team that works on the space station here at NASA,” he adds. He notes that lithium batteries on the International Space Station, as well as in the EVA suits astronauts use and a device called the pistol grip tool, were relevant examples in the process. The key takeaways involved the spacing between the battery cells, as well how to handle the heat if a cell did malfunction, like by experiencing a thermal runaway. “What the Johnson [Space Center] team found was one of the most effective strategies is to actually let that heat from that cell go into the aluminum structure, but also have the other cells around it absorb a little bit of heat each,” he explains. NASA isn’t alone in exploring the frontier of electric aviation, which represents one way that the aviation industry could be greener for short flights. Others working in the space include Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Wisk Aero, and Eviation with a plane called Alice. One prominent company, Kitty Hawk, shuttered last year. Sometime this year, the X-57 should fly for the first time, likely making multiple sorties. “I’m still really excited about this technology,” says Clark. “I’m looking forward to my kids being able to take short flights in electric airplanes in 10, 15 years—it’s going to be a really great step for aviation.” Watch a brief video about the aircraft... NASA aims to fly its experimental electric plane this year All-Electric Zenith Flies By Ariana Rayment - January 31, 2023 Note: Graphics in the original article. All-electric Zenith CH 750 Cruzer completes first flight, with plans to transport medical supplies and doctors to remote areas of the world. The all-electric Zenith CH 750 Cruzer completed its first successful test flight on January 30 in the United Kingdom. The electric CH 750 or “Sky Jeep” as it’s often referred to, was developed by NUNCATS to provide sustainable transportation to remote communities. The first chunk of NUNCATS stands for “no unnecessary novelty,” which is their guiding principle—To create the simplest possible solutions for difficult problems. The second part stands for “community air transport services.” They hope to transport doctors and medical supplies to some of the most isolated areas of the world. NUNCATS, a husband and wife team, chose Zenith’s popular CH 750 because it’s well suited for off-airport operations and shorter runways. They partnered with Zenith and several start-up investors, and took the existing CH 750 Cruzer light sport aircraft design and adapted it for all-electric operation. Tim and Helen Bridge, the founders of NUNCATS. “While we all know that today’s battery technology will not permit the range and endurance available with ICE [internal combustion engines], there are some clear advantages of electric power in addition to the more obvious sustainability claims,” explained Sebastien Heintz, president of Zenith Aircraft Company. “The simplicity of electric motors has the potential to make light aircraft propulsion systems more reliable and easier to install and maintain (especially important for amateur aircraft builders and owners), and near-instantly available torque of electric power can further improve upon the STOL (short take-off and landing) performance of Zenith kit aircraft designs.” NUNCATS has been working on the build these last three years. They plan to tap into ground-based networks of solar powered energy grids in remote villages and towns so that the aircraft can deliver vital medical staff, supplies and teachers without relying on outside fuel needing to be flown in. The ongoing test program will continue to establish range, payload and other performance figures with different battery configurations. While they still have a lot of work ahead of them, the successful first flight is one big step toward providing rural and hard to reach communities with healthcare. All-Electric Zenith Flies Guest column: Oklahoma's aviation industry can help students launch careers Grayson Ardies Perhaps our most important responsibility as Oklahomans is to educate our youths and prepare them to have a successful career in whatever arena makes them happy. We want to see our children grow up and be able to succeed right here in the place we love so much. Norman is being provided with an amazing opportunity to do just that with the Oklahoma Aviation Academy. The aviation and aerospace industry is our state’s second-largest and fastest-growing sector, with more than 120,000 direct employees and almost $44 billion of annual economic activity. Aviation and aerospace have a rich history in Oklahoma, dating back to the days of Wiley Post, Clyde Cessna, Bessie Coleman and Pearl Carter Scott. Oklahoma is considered one of seven centers in the world for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of aircraft, since we have both the largest military (Tinker Air Force Base) and civilian (American Airlines) MRO facilities located here. Why is aviation and aerospace so important to Oklahoma, and why visit about it in conjunction with our education system? Because this industry has the potential to diversify Oklahoma’s economy dramatically. Our industry in Oklahoma is stable, with a healthy mix of public- and private-sector companies. Growing it can help us better weather our state’s economic booms and busts. But to do that, we need a workforce that’s educated and trained in the industry. That’s a challenge, not only in Oklahoma, but across the nation. Pilot shortages causing flight delays, mechanic shortages, ground worker shortages affecting aircraft turnaround time ― are just a few headlines from the commercial airline industry we’ve seen in recent months. It doesn’t begin to touch what the rest of the industry ― whether MRO or new manufacturing, public/government sector or private company, large multinational organizations or small local businesses ― is facing. We simply don’t have enough aviation and aerospace workers. Oklahoma is accepting the challenge. Last summer, more than 200 teachers and industry personnel gathered at the National Weather Center in Norman for the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission’s inaugural AERO Education Summit. They learned 57 Oklahoma school districts had agreed to teach the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s “You Can Fly” four-year high-school curriculum, which introduces students to aviation concepts and prepares them for careers or further education after they graduate. Norman Public Schools (NPS) was among that group, but went a step further in its approach to aviation and aerospace education, creating the Oklahoma Aviation Academy ― a full-immersion, aviation-based high school that includes partnerships with the University of Oklahoma and the Moore Norman Technology Center. The vision for the OAA was created by Rick Nagel, a member of the OU Board of Regents, the owner of Acorn Growth Cos. and a longtime leader in the state’s aviation and aerospace industry. The OAA will prepare students for aviation and aerospace careers using a new model for education that’s unique not just for the region, but for the nation. It will be one of only a handful of full-immersion aviation high schools in the U.S. The next step is to build a fully integrated learning center for the OAA at Max Westheimer Airport. NPS is hopeful that its upcoming bond proposal on Feb. 14 will provide the necessary funding to partner with existing ARPA allocations provided by the state Legislature to bring this concept to reality. The OAA will help students in Norman see the many potential education pathways they can take as they learn about aviation and aerospace and how to apply those educational skills to suit the career field they desire. Careers ranging from aerospace and mechanical engineers, to maintenance technicians, pilots, drone operators, air traffic controllers, software developers and many others are available to students who want to join this industry. These are good-paying jobs, with an average annual salary of more than $73,000. The best news is, there’s a wide range of careers ― some that require college degrees, others that require 12-18 months at a Career Tech program and some that require just a high school diploma. These careers will allow our students to remain in Oklahoma after they’ve completed their education, raise a family, enjoy a good quality of life, continue the Oklahoma standard we’re so proud of and be a part of what is the most exciting industry our state has to offer. Guest column: Oklahoma's aviation industry can help students launch careers Altair SimSolid will streamline Airbus teams in their development of the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft TROY, Mich., January 31, 2023 — Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence (AI), announced that Airbus Commercial has selected Altair SimSolid® – the game-changing simulation technology that performs structural analyses on fully featured CAD assemblies within minutes – in its ZEROe global initiative, which aims to create the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft. “Altair SimSolid is the premier simulation technology for engineers, designers, analysts, and manufacturers. It eliminates geometry preparation and meshing, which are the two most time-consuming, expertise-extensive, and error-prone tasks in conventional structural simulations,” said Sam Mahalingam, chief technology officer, Altair. “Airbus choosing Altair SimSolid further solidifies Altair as a leader in worldwide sustainability initiatives and continues the two companies’ long and fruitful history of successful collaboration.” Altair SimSolid will save Airbus’ design and engineering teams time, money, and hassle. Altair SimSolid was selected because it has shown that it will reduce elementary part analysis delivery times from days to minutes, and cuts complex assembly delivery times from several months to less than one week in some cases. Additionally, Altair SimSolid’s intuitive, easy-to-implement operations and interface lets users work without needing to clean geometry or prepare models beforehand. Altair SimSolid also allows Airbus’s design and engineering teams to explore more design iterations in shorter timeframes, which will expedite project timelines and deliver sustainable innovations quicker. The ZEROe project aims to create the world’s first hydrogen propulsion-powered commercial airline fleet and enables Airbus to explore a variety of configurations and hydrogen technologies that will shape the development of future zero-emission aircraft. Airbus is working towards a mature technology readiness level for a hydrogen-combustion propulsion system by 2025. Altair SimSolid will streamline Airbus teams in their development of the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft Hill Says Turbine Engine for HX50 To Cost Under $100k by Mark Huber - February 6, 2023, 9:34 AM Hill Helicopters says the unit cost of its GT50 turbine engine will be less than $100,000. (Photo: Hill Helicopters) Hill Helicopters CEO Jason Hill claims his company can build its GT50 turbine engine for less than $100,000 each. Hill called available engines “unreasonably expensive,” giving his company “no choice” but to “think bigger” for its HX50 helicopter, he told AIN. While the GT50 traces its origin in an industrial engine to provide “low development risk,” the design has been modified for the helicopter. Hill replaced the three-chamber combustor with an annular combustor to improve the size of the package and reduce weight. It also swapped the two-stage turbine with a single-stage model that is slightly higher loaded and optimized the secondary air system to improve cooling. Referencing the engine, Hill said his team began with performance targets, including the ability to carry five 210-pound passengers and their luggage, cruise for three hours, and hover out-of-ground effect at 10,000 feet msl at ISA+15. “That set the parameters for the engine,” Hill said, adding he aims for the GT50 to produce 400-shp max continuous, 440-shp for five minutes, and 500-shp for 30 seconds. That power provides enough margin to get pilots “out of trouble,” he said. Hill is building parts for the first engine now and plans to build “three or four” more engines in the course of bench testing before it finds its way onto the HX50, which is expected to make its first flight later this year. Hill said he thinks he can get individual engine cost below $100,000 “easily” based on a run rate of 500 helicopters a year, the company’s ultimate production goal. Hill Says Turbine Engine for HX50 To Cost Under $100k Mitsubishi Heavy gives up 1st Japan-made passenger jet project KYODO NEWS - Feb 7, 2023 - 21:25 | All, Japan Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said Tuesday it will terminate its plan to develop Japan's first domestically manufactured passenger jet, pulling the plug on a public-private project that was repeatedly hampered by delays before being frozen more than two years ago. The enterprise, which officially started in 2008 and cost about 1 trillion yen ($7.6 billion), was suspended in October 2020 after frequent technological problems, as well as a sharp fall in air travel demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Note: Graphics available in the original article. Mitsubishi Heavy initially expected to roll out its first plane by 2013, but a lack of know-how and technological snags caused the company to postpone its delivery date six times, leading to repeated design changes. The single-aisle passenger jet with less than 100 seats, named SpaceJet, drew about 450 orders at one point, with customers that included ANA Holdings Inc. and Japan Airlines Co. But the figure nosedived to about 270 as airlines started retracting orders. Mitsubishi Heavy said it will cancel all of the remaining orders. "We cannot deny that we lacked the know-how (in developing passenger jets)," Mitsubishi Heavy President Seiji Izumisawa said at a press conference. "We are no longer sure of its business viability." In addition to the around 1 trillion yen already spent on the project, the company said it would have to invest about 100 billion yen annually for the next several years to obtain a type certificate, which is a permit that attests to the airworthiness of an aircraft. The project, supported by Japan's industry and transport ministries, initially raised hopes among many small and medium-sized aircraft parts suppliers across Japan, prompting them to increase capital spending in hopes of growing demand. But as the company repeatedly failed to meet its delivery date, many suppliers and customers started to see the project as "a lost cause," industry insiders say. Industry experts believe that the company's corporate culture of preferring in-house development rather than utilizing outside resources is partly responsible for the failure. The experts say Mitsubishi Heavy was too confident in developing commercial jets, given its history in making military aircraft, including Zero fighters during World War II. The company said it will liquidate its plane-making subsidiary Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. and will transfer its staff to defense business-related departments, with an eye to developing next-generation fighter jets based on expertise acquired developing the SpaceJet. "Our initial estimate for its development costs was too optimistic," Izumisawa said, adding, "We didn't have engineers with such know-how, and it was rather (hard to find) any in Japan." Mitsubishi Heavy gives up 1st Japan-made passenger jet project Washington Bill Would Ban Leaded Fuel By 2030 By Russ Niles - Published: February 5, 2023 Updated: February 6, 2023 Washington State legislators have tabled a bill that would ban the sale of leaded aviation fuel in the state by 2030. The bill was introduced in the House and has been referred to committee. It has a long way to go before it’s law but if it survives the process, the phased-in ban would begin with select airports in the Seattle area and spread to less densely populated areas over the ensuing four years. It would also require airports selling leaded gas in the meantime to “submit and implement a plan to minimize lead exposures based on Ecology’s guidance and best practices identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, beginning November 1, 2024, and to develop a plan and budget to finance aircraft fueling infrastructure improvements to allow for the supply of unleaded aviation gasoline on the same timeline as the phase-out of leaded gasoline.” A coalition of aviation groups have written a letter opposing the bill, urging the lawmakers to allow the plans already in place to permit the orderly and safe phase-out of lead nationwide. The group said general aviation is already working with the FAA and EPA to get lead out of fuel and the Washington bill won’t help that effort. “The premature effort of phasing out leaded avgas in HB1554 will not support this initiative and could have negative consequences on aviation safety in the State of Washington and hinder progress by causing distraction and redirecting resources,” the letter reads. Washington Bill Would Ban Leaded Fuel By 2030 Flying High: Engineering Students Tour Boeing Helicopter Factory Note: Graphics available in the original article. TCNJ Engineering students recently had the exciting opportunity to visit and tour Boeing’s Ridley Park, PA factory, where the aviation giant produces the CH-47 Chinook and V-22 Osprey helicopters. They also heard from Boeing engineers, including a TCNJ alum, who described the endless possibilities for new engineers in the aviation industry. As the students walked through the 3-million-square-foot factory, they observed each step of the manufacturing process and looked closely at the individual parts that come together to form the massive helicopters. “I was captivated by the assembly line of V-22 Ospreys,” said Sam Akinlolu, a senior Engineering Science major. “Even on our short visit, I felt like I was a part of something great. The technology and history I witnessed is nothing short of amazing.” The students heard from Boeing engineers Cynthia Ramirez ’21 and Hannah McKee. The Chinook is an aviation classic, having been developed in the 1960s, while the Osprey is an airplane-helicopter hybrid, taking off as a helicopter before adjusting its rotors to fly like a plane. “I was impressed by the sheer scale of everything– the size of the facilities, quantity of personnel, and how fast they can accurately and efficiently produce aircraft,” said Daniel Peterson, a junior mechanical engineering major on the trip. TCNJ Engineering alum Cynthia Ramirez ‘21 (Mechanical Engineering) told students about her path from the College’s engineering labs to becoming a Design Engineer at Boeing. She emphasized the importance of getting involved with engineering organizations on campus and choosing electives wisely that fit students’ career goals. – Matthew Kaufman ‘25 Flying High: Engineering Students Tour Boeing Helicopter Factory Engine MROs Expand In Dallas-Fort Worth Lindsay Bjerregaard February 07, 2023 Credit: MTU Aero Engines Two MRO providers are expanding their engine capabilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year. StandardAero has established a CFM56-7B Service Center at its Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) facilities. It is laying the groundwork for new equipment and capabilities at the 220,000 ft.2 facility to support the engine platform. StandardAero has installed the first of four dedicated gantries at the facility to support the CFM56-7B, which it says will allow it to begin offering a range of services this year, including: borescope inspections, boroblend repairs, engine module changes, quick engine change and line replaceable unit removal and installation, as well as other ‘quick turn’ shop visits. It plans to add other service capabilities soon, including repairs for engine fans, top cases, bottom cases, hot sections and low-pressure turbines. Later this year StandardAero also plans to introduce CFM56-7B test capabilities at the facility’s six-cell engine test center. It plans to have test capabilities set up in early summer, after which it will add CFM56-5B test capability. “The introduction of our new DFW-based service center and test capabilities will allow operators to undertake quick turn engine events at a convenient location close to one of the world’s busiest airports, thereby enabling them to rapidly get their aircraft back into service,” says Lewis Prebble, president of airlines and fleets at StandardAero. The MRO provider already offers CFM56-7B services from its facility in Winnipeg, Canada. It says its DFW-based technicians are cross-training with their counterparts in Canada to prepare for the new capabilities. Meanwhile, MTU Maintenance Dallas is relocating to a significantly larger facility at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. Its old facility in Grapevine, Texas—approximately 20 mi. from the airport—was only around 41,000 ft.2, whereas the new facility will be nearly 430,000 ft.2, which it says is 400% larger. According to MTU Maintenance Dallas, the move will accommodate growing workforce and enable engine testing on-site. It plans to begin operating an engine test cell facility capable of supporting engines with up to 100,000 lb. of thrust by the fourth quarter of this year. According to a spokesperson for MTU, the facility features an existing test cell that it is renovating by adding Safran test equipment. “The expanded operations, with the addition of engine testing capability, will allow MTU Maintenance Dallas to offer our customers comprehensive, one-stop maintenance solutions at one of the largest on-site service and level one maintenance facilities in North America,” says Nezam Moghadassian, general manager at MTU Maintenance Dallas. According to MTU, the added capacity and test capability will give it flexibility to add more engine types to its maintenance portfolio in the near future. It currently supports CFM56, CF34, CF6, GE90, PW2000 and V25000 engine platforms. While MTU is not sharing specific estimates for how many new staff it plans to hire, it is actively recruiting for roles including airframe and powerplant technicians, test cell support technicians and other support roles. The move is scheduled for the second quarter of this year. MTU says there will not be an operational impact during the relocation period. Engine MROs Expand In Dallas-Fort Worth Curt Lewis