There was a different vibe at this year’s Paris Air Show. Boeing’s ongoing efforts to recertify its 737 MAX jetliners for flight overshadowed the company’s usual numbers game with Airbus, where every firm order, letter of intent, or memorandum of understanding was cause to issue a press release (for the numbers, please see my Paris Air Show article beginning on page 12). Instead, I noticed more focus on the future of aviation – electrification, autonomous air vehicles, digitization, and plans to return to supersonic flight.

Much of the predicted future of aviation – air taxis, autonomous air vehicles, and personal mobility solutions – depends on establishing and maintaining robust data security. The systems affected include the electric grid, communications networks, navigation, air traffic and surveillance radar, engine and flight sensors, passenger screening, and physical access to airplanes.

Todd Probert, Raytheon Co. vice president in intelligence, information, and services told me that any part with a networked sensor is a potential penetration point for a cyber attack. A pedigree for data – blockchain is one method to maintain data integrity – allows security from materials source to CAD file, to production and installation, all the way through to parts scrapping. Probert says another key is cyber resiliency, so when the inevitable hacking occurs, quick recovery with minimal disruption is possible.

Another discussion I had was with Robin Lineberger, aerospace and defense principal for consulting firm Deloitte. He points out that elevated mobility – air taxis, cargo drones, electric vertical take-off & landing (eVTOL) aircraft, etc. – will require a massive scaling-up of all the systems that make it possible.

Are there enough commercial off-the-shelf collision avoidance systems available? How about fly-by-wire flight control systems? Energy management systems? Artificial intelligence processors to determine if it is safe to fly? An industry that requires such units in the hundreds or thousands per year now will need to provide 10,000 or more per year to realize the mobility dream in the next few decades. Is the aerospace supply chain able to respond with such volumes? Is the automotive world a source for these systems? Is there a structure to deploy and manage the investment capital needed to finance production of all these components?

Then there are questions of who will win the race to maximize electric propulsion-motor weight and efficiency. What energy management (batteries, recharging) schemes make most sense? Where will the charging, operating infrastructure be located to avoid congestion? What business models (ride sharing, fractional ownership, private fleets) will be most profitable? What skillsets will be required to produce and maintain these vehicles? Lineberger and others are carefully assessing the market to answer these questions. What they learn will steer development of air mobility for years to come. – Eric

The AbrasiMet M benchtop manual saw cuts samples for quality control and parts inspection. Its 5.5hp (4kW) motor can accommodate 10" to 12" (254mm to 305mm) diameter abrasive blades. A maximized cutter chamber space and sliding hood speed sample preparation.

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Buehler

Vahana – Airbus Urban Mobility’s electric tilt-wing aircraft demonstrator – confirmed its ability to transition from vertical take-off to full forward flight.

Vahana performed a similar feat in previous test flights, but during the flight on May 3, 2019, the wing and canard rotated to the full cruise configuration before the aircraft accelerated to 90kts (approximately 168km/h) before completing its transition and decelerating for descent, all in about eight minutes.

“Vahana’s successful full transition flight marks a major engineering milestone,” says Zach Lovering, vice president of UAM Systems, Airbus. “It represents everything we set out to achieve when we began our flight test campaign: to confirm the technical viability of the vehicle we first sketched out on a napkin years ago.”

The full transition flight marks Vahana’s 66th flight since flight testing began in 2018. Vahana has since completed more than a dozen additional flights to measure in-flight noise levels and its high-speed capacity in cruise mode.

Airbus aims to harness the lessons learned from Vahana to develop a future market-ready vehicle.

ANSI to host unmanned aircraft systems standardization meeting

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), is hosting its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) meeting Sept. 12, 2019, in Washington, D.C. The meeting is the kickoff to update the December 2018 Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

UASSC’s mission is to coordinate and accelerate development of standards and conformance programs to safely integrate UAS into the national airspace, emphasizing civil, commercial, and public safety applications. Goals for the updated roadmap include expanding the content to include spectrum, urban air mobility, and recreational operations, bringing in new subject matter experts. Target date for publication of the update is June 30, 2020.

There is no fee to participate in the meeting but advance registration by Sept. 3, 2019, is required. The draft agenda is posted on the UASSC website.

Global civil UAS production to nearly triple

Aerospace and defense market analysts at Teal Group predict civil unmanned aerial systems (UAS) will be the most dynamic growth sector of the world aerospace industry this decade as commercial applications take off and civil governments adopt systems for new roles.

“Venture capital investment in the sector has soared and technology giants increasingly envisage drones as part of their future,” says Philip Finnegan, Teal Group's director of corporate analysis. “Regulators are loosening airspace rules. Governments are turning to UAS to monitor borders and provide public safety.”

Teal Group’s “2019 World Civil UAS Market Profile and Forecast” projects that non-military UAS production will total $88.3 billion through the next decade, soaring from $4.9 billion in 2019 to $14.3 billion in 2028, a 12.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in constant dollars.

Commercial use is expected to surpass the consumer UAS market in 2023, becoming the largest segment, growing more than 8x to reach $9.5 billion in 2028.

Venture capitalists and Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Apple, and other companies poured $455 million into UAS startup investments in 2018. U.S. startups received 67% of the total, Chinese firms 15%, and European firms 9%.

Industrial inspection will lead the commercial market during the next decade, with construction as the largest segment.

At the Paris Air Show, chief technology officers (CTOs) of seven aerospace manufacturers committed to improve aviation sustainability and protect the planet.

Aviation contributes to 2% of human- made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which the industry has challenged itself to reduce while demand for air travel and transport grows. Through the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), the aviation industry targets reducing CO2 emissions to half of year 2005 levels by 2050, and limiting the growth of net CO2 emissions by 2020.

“We are on track to meet those near-term commitments, including the 2019 implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) program as agreed upon by the nations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),” according to the statement.

The CTOs outlined three major targets:

• Develop aircraft, engine technology to improve fuel efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions
• Support commercialization of sustainable, alternate aviation fuels
• Develop new aircraft designs, propulsion technologies using advanced digitization, artificial intelligence, materials, manufacturing

During the last 40 years, investments in materials, aerodynamic efficiency, digital design and manufacturing methods, turbomachinery developments, and aircraft systems optimization have reduced CO2 emissions by a yearly average of more than 1% per passenger mile.

Global agreements reached through ICAO call for a fuel-efficiency performance standard to be part of every aircraft certification process.

The CTOs expect aviation to continue relying on liquid fuels for large, long-range aircraft for the foreseeable future, so sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) that use recycled carbon are essential. The initiative calls for an expansion of government support for reusable fuel technology development, production facility investment, and fuel production incentives globally.

The joint statement was issued by technology leaders Grazia Vittadini (Airbus), Greg Hyslop (Boeing), Bruno Stoufflet (Dassault Aviation), Paul Stein (Rolls-Royce), Stéphane Cueille (Safran), Paul Eremenko (United Technologies Corp.), and Eric Ducharme (GE Aviation).

Rolls-Royce to buy Siemens’ electric aerospace propulsion business

Aero-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce plans to acquire the electric and hybrid- electric aerospace propulsion activities of Siemens’ eAircraft business. The acquisition is expected to be completed in late 2019.

The eAircraft business, based in Germany and Hungary, employs about 180 specialist electrical designers and engineers who develop various all-electric and hybrid electric aerospace propulsion solutions. The eAircraft and Rolls-Royce teams already collaborated on Airbus’ E-Fan X demonstrator project to demonstrate hybrid electric propulsion for regional aircraft.

“Electrification is set to have as dramatic an impact on aviation as the replacement of piston engines by gas turbines. We are at the dawn of the third era of aviation, which will bring a new class of quieter and cleaner air transport to the skies,” says Rob Watson, director of Rolls-Royce Electrical.

“We believe that pure electric, or all- electric propulsion will power smaller aircraft in the foreseeable future, while larger aircraft will rely upon hybrid electric solutions that combine electrification with evolutions of the gas turbine,” adds Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Paul Stein.