September 2022 - Aviation, Inflight and Aero Connectivity Consultants

Boeing Agrees to $200M Settlement for Misleading Statements on 737 MAX Flight Control System

(Photo: Boeing)

Boeing and Dennis Muilenburg—who served as president and CEO of the company from July 2015 to December 2019—agreed to pay fines separately under a Sept. 22 settlement announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The separate settlements are related to misleading statements made by Boeing and Muilenburg about the 737 MAX’s flight control system following fatal crashes of the aircraft involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines in 2018 and 2019.

Both the October 2018 Lion Air and March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashes involved malfunctioning of the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). According to the SEC, Muilenburg and the Boeing Company violated “the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws,” by publicly stating the airplane was safe and had no gaps in its certification process despite already being aware of “contrary information.”

“Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Boeing and Muilenburg consented to cease-and-desist orders that include penalties of $200 million and $1 million, respectively,” the SEC writes in a Sept. 22 press release. “A Fair Fund will be established for the benefit of harmed investors pursuant to Section 308(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.”

The agency issued two separate cease-and-desist orders to Boeing and Muilenburg, each pointing to specific instances following the Lion Air Flight 610 crash and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash where each failed to “exercise reasonable care” in making statements about the safety of the 737 MAX.

As it has been shown in a series of international government-industry accident reports and reviews of both crashes, the fatal accidents were the result of erroneous activation of the 737 MAX’s MCAS system. Boeing originally developed MCAS as a feature on the MAX designed to automatically command the aircraft’s nose-down stabilizer to enhance pitch characteristics when entering steep turns with elevated load factors and flaps up conditions that are approaching stall.

Investigations into both the Lion Air and Ethiopian accidents revealed that neither flight was approaching stall conditions at the time MCAS activated. On both flights, erroneous signals from the system’s external sensor repeatedly triggered MCAS while the plane was climbing at a normal angle and the pilots were unable to regain control of the aircraft following the unintended activations, according to the cease-and-desist orders issued by SEC.

“Boeing and Muilenburg put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 MAX all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeing’s image following two tragic accidents that resulted in the loss of 346 lives and incalculable grief to so many families,” Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said in a statement. “But public companies and their executives must provide accurate and complete information when they make disclosures to investors, no matter the circumstances. When they don’t, we will hold them accountable, as we did here.”

The settlement is the latest regulatory action taken against Boeing by the U.S. government since October 2021, when former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot was indicted for fraud.

The FAA became the world’s first civil aviation regulatory agency to approve the MAX’s return to passenger-carrying service in November 2020, after the two crashes led to a 19-month grounding of the global in-service fleet. Since then, other agencies including EASA and Transport Canada issued individual region-by-region approvals of its return to service.

All of the approvals included requirements for software updates and improvements to the flight control laws that permit the activation of MCAS along with other display system and wiring changes to the system. In April, during Boeing’s first quarter 2022 earnings call, current president and CEO Dave Calhoun said that a little more than a year after its return to service, airlines had logged more than 1 million flight hours on the re-certified MAX.

Ethiopian Airlines also officially resumed flight operations of its first re-certified MAX in February. Boeing’s latest reported data shows that at the end of August, the company has received 373 total orders for the MAX this year.

The post Boeing Agrees to $200M Settlement for Misleading Statements on 737 MAX Flight Control System appeared first on Avionics International.

—————
Boost Internet Speed–
Free Business Hosting–
Free Email Account–
Dropcatch–
Free Secure Email–
Secure Email–
Cheap VOIP Calls–
Free Hosting–
Boost Inflight Wifi–
Premium Domains–
Free Domains

OPINION: Addressing the Skills Gap in the Aviation Industry

(Photo: Artemis Aerospace)

The pandemic and the associated fallout from numerous redundancies and furloughs has left the aviation industry struggling to find skilled and qualified personnel to support the ever-increasing demand for flights. Here, Jim Scott from U.K.-based aircraft component supplier Artemis Aerospace provides his views on how the industry can build momentum in highlighting careers in the sector and tackling the growing gap in relevant skillsets.

Earlier this year there was much furore when airlines were forced to cancel numerous flights due to a shortage of staff. While the shortage was for the most part due to staff illness, much of the blame was laid squarely at the feet of the airline carriers, who were accused of creating packed flight schedules they knew they couldn’t fulfill.

However, the staff shortage issue runs far deeper than illness or even the pandemic. It’s true that the pandemic was a catalyst for thousands of staff leaving the industry and, consequently, many have made a conscious decision never to return, citing job insecurity as a prominent reason for this decision. In reality, the aviation industry has been experiencing a downturn in skilled workers across all job roles for many years.

Research carried out by GOOSE Recruitment, in partnership with FlightGlobal, revealed that in 2019, a strong global demand for aviation services meant that many regions, including China, South America, and North America, were experiencing an acute skills shortage in the supply of experienced flight crew, and that this had been the case for almost two decades. It also revealed that, despite the impact of the pandemic, 43% of pilots surveyed believed there would not be enough experienced pilots to meet demand in five years’ time.

The problem isn’t isolated to pilots or flight crew. Research carried out in 2017 by Oliver Wyman’s MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) survey showed that there was an urgent shortage of skilled technicians in the aviation industry, and that demand far outweighed the number of workers needed to keep up with requirements.

At that time, the Oliver Wyman MRO survey also stated that 42% of industry leaders identified a labour shortage in the maintenance technician field as the most urgent challenge in the aerospace and aviation sector and that global demand was set to overtake supply by 2027. They identified two key reasons for this: a lack of interest in aviation from younger talent pools and an aging workforce creating a gap that wasn’t being filled.

It’s clear there needs to be greater collaboration across the whole industry to reach out to younger people in more targeted, creative, and compelling ways that will inspire them to seek out a career in aviation. Disadvantaged and minority groups are also incredibly valuable sources of talent.

Community outreach programs, visiting and speaking in schools, sign-up incentives, open houses, and workshops are all ways that the aviation sector can improve its ability and opportunity to attract new talent.

There are numerous recruitment options for young starters in the industry, and communicating these is key. While traditionally many young people might only consider becoming a pilot or taking up a role as flight crew, other less prominent opportunities, such as technician and air traffic controller positions, need to be highlighted to young adults much more extensively.

One way this is being achieved in the UK is through increasing the recruitment of apprentices and graduates into the UK workforce. Airbus, along with other major companies, including Atkins, MBDA, and Babcock, have committed to QinetiQ’s “The 5% Club,” which pledges to have 5% of their overall UK headcount on a formalized apprentice, sponsored student, and/or graduate program.

In 2021, two new apprenticeship standards were approved for aviation: aviation customer service operative and ground handler. These provide direct entry into the sector and vital operational knowledge to aid future progression.

In the U.S., Tulsa Tech, which offers a program of aviation-related workforce training and development courses and classes, has used a strategy of community outreach programs to reach students in primary and secondary schools with the aim of piquing their interest at a young age. As well as school visits, Tulsa Tech regularly holds open houses at their facilities, hosting various meetings and events to raise awareness of the courses they have on offer for aspiring students.

Tapping into the power of social media has been critical for reaching out to women, minority groups, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The action group, Women in Aviation International, is actively harnessing social media to reach out to young girls while highlighting the wide range of opportunities on offer and encouraging them to seek roles without limitations.

One example is Kenya’s Irene Koki Mutungi, Africa’s first female captain of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, who uses her personal Twitter account to tell the world about women in the industry.

Whoever and wherever someone is in the world, attracting fresh talent takes time, effort, and consistent communication across all levels. It’s only by being its own best advocate that the aviation industry can reap the benefits of appealing to the next generation of workers and continue to enjoy successful global growth in a highly rewarding and exciting industry.

Jim Scott started working in the aviation industry in 1989. Ten years later, with a desire to promote great customer service and exceed expectations, Jim launched Artemis Aerospace.
Jim oversees the management of all customer accounts and directs Artemis’ strategic and business development.

Article Sources

The post OPINION: Addressing the Skills Gap in the Aviation Industry appeared first on Avionics International.

Decision Expected This Year on Future Path for F-35 Engine

An F-35A Lightning II flies at Edwards AFB, Calif. on, Aug. 1. The plane was the first of six F-35s the 461st Flight Test Squadron and F-35 Lightning II Integrated Test Force will receive in the next few years. The upgraded fleet will be used to test the Technical Refresh 3 and Block 4 configurations of the fighter. (U.S. Air Force Photo)

A Pentagon decision on the future path for the F-35 engine may come this year.

Raytheon Technologies‘ Pratt & Whitney F135 equips the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter, but the F-35 program has said that the fighter will need a new or significantly upgraded engine with improved electrical power and cooling capacity to accommodate the 53 new capabilities slated for F-35 Block 4.

Technology Refresh 3 (TR3)–spurred by the L3Harris integrated core processor–is the computer backbone for Block 4, which is to have 88 unique features and to integrate 16 new weapons on the F-35.

Pratt & Whitney has said that its F135 Enhanced Engine Package (EEP) has “ample design margin” to allow for the envisioned Block 4 upgrades for the fighter and that EEP will save $40 billion in lifecycle costs.

General Electric has favored a new engine and said that it has tested out the company’s second XA100 adaptive cycle engine at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma, Tenn., for the Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP).

“Part of the [future F-35 engine] conversation is what myself and [Air Force] Secretary [Frank] Kendall are a part of is we need to look at whatever the follow-on advanced propulsion is gonna be for the F-35, whether it’s AETP or EEP,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown told reporters during the Air & Space Forces Association annual conference on Sept. 20. “The other piece of this is actually doing the business case analysis, which is in OSD. We’d like to get to a decision this year to get to a point that we’d be able to say which way we’re gonna go, and then that way we could better invest and make sure we’re gonna provide opportunities in the future because there’s an aspect of the various variants of the F-35, which engine is gonna fit, is one thing to think through, and how do we do this, not just for the Air Force, or do we do this just for the Air Force, but also looking at the other services.”

It seems unclear whether AETP or EEP are the only options, or whether DoD may pursue an open strategy in which bidders may propose either a new engine or an upgraded one.

Since 2016, the Air Force has funded the AETP.

The Air Force plans to field full Block 4 on the service’s F-35As in 2028 when Lockheed Martin delivers F-35 Lot 20. The service may end up fielding some Block 4 functionality on unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft, especially if the Air Force decides to forego developing a new F-35 engine. The Air Force has pegged AETP development costs at $6.7 billion.

In addition to the possible release of an F-35 engine modernization solicitation this year, the F-35 program is also to submit to OSD a life cycle sustainment plan this year and is gearing up for first flights of an F-35 with TR3 and the Raytheon Next Generation-Distributed Aperture System (Next Gen- DAS) in the coming months.

The post Decision Expected This Year on Future Path for F-35 Engine appeared first on Avionics International.

Ampaire Chooses EP Systems to Supply Battery Packs for Hybrid-Electric Eco Caravan

EP Systems was selected to provide the propulsion battery packs for Ampaire’s Eco Caravan. (Photo: Electric Power Systems)

Ampaire, a Los Angeles-based company that upgrades existing aircraft to hybrid-electric power, recently announced that it has selected Electric Power Systems to supply propulsion battery packs for the Eco Caravan aircraft. The Eco Caravan is a hybrid-electric upgrade of the Cessna Grand Caravan that has a nine-passenger capacity. Ampaire is pursuing type certification of the aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration, and expects to receive supplemental type certification in 2024.

Michael Duffy, VP of Product Development for Electric Power Systems, remarked in a statement to Avionics on the announcement about Ampaire’s selection of the company to provide batteries for the Eco Caravan. “We believe that Ampaire’s Eco Caravan will be the first passenger carrying hybrid electric aircraft to reach certification in the United States,” Duffy said.

“EP Systems and Ampaire have worked together in previous projects, and we are excited to continue our support of Ampaire on their path to complete certification through rigorous flight testing.”

EP Systems offers an energy storage system called EPiC which will be integrated into the Eco Caravan. Other battery systems from EP are already being used to power manned and unmanned aircraft, such as the Embraer Ipanema, the Boeing CAV, the NASA X-57, the Diamond eDA-40, and the Aurora Flight Sciences Pegasus.

EP Systems’ EPiC products include EPiC Power, a 180Wh/kg lithium-ion battery system, and EPiC Energy, which has a 205Wh/kg energy density rating.

EP Systems has been selected to develop and manufacture battery systems for the SD-05 air taxi from SkyDrive. Hyundai’s Supernal also recently chose EP Systems as its first vehicle partner. Supernal and EP Systems will collaborate to develop lightweight batteries that will power electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) systems like Supernal’s aircraft.

Ampaire’s hybrid-electric retrofit of a Cessna Skymaster, the Electric EEL demonstrator (Photo: Ampaire)

Nathan Millecam, EP Systems Founder and CEO, commented on the collaboration with Ampaire, saying, “Ampaire’s practical approach to electrification is the start of a transportation revolution. We share a vision of lowering costs for aircraft operators and their passengers, while moving as quickly as possible to zero emissions aviation.”

In addition to the EPiC energy storage system, the Eco Caravan’s integrated parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system will also use the RED Aircraft AO3 series compression ignition engine. Dr. Susan Ying, Ampaire’s SVP of Global Partnerships, recently told Avionics in an emailed statement that the Eco Caravan will make its first flight by the end of 2022.

According to Ampaire, its EEL demonstrator aircraft completed the longest nonstop flight performed by a hybrid-electric aircraft in July. The EEL is a retrofit of the Cessna 337 Skymaster. The 1,135-mile journey took place along the route from Camarillo Airport in California to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The EEL testbed aircraft incorporates a prototype of the EPiC system.

The post Ampaire Chooses EP Systems to Supply Battery Packs for Hybrid-Electric Eco Caravan appeared first on Avionics International.

Kongsberg Geospatial Advances Solutions for Airspace Monitoring and Managing Unmanned Traffic

The IRIS UxS platform enables an operator to manage one or more unmanned aircraft flying BVLOS operations. (Photo: Kongsberg Geospatial)

Kongsberg Geospatial, based in Canada, develops software for geospatial visualization and situational awareness that is used for air traffic control and air defense applications. One of Kongsberg’s products is IRIS UxS, an airspace visualization system for operators conducting unmanned aircraft beyond a visual line of sight (BVLOS). The company also offers IRIS AM, a real-time airspace management system that was designed to facilitate the safe integration of unmanned systems.

The IRIS software platform is essentially the user interface built on top of Kongsberg’s TerraLens, a geospatial SDK that provides real-time 2D and 3D mapping, according to Paige Cutland, VP of Sales and Marketing. TerraLens is optimized for mission-critical, real-time applications like air traffic control.

During a webinar hosted by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) this week, Cutland explained how unmanned aircraft operators use the IRIS platform for monitoring BVLOS operations at remote operations centers, and he shared some of the recent projects the team has worked on.

One of the new features that will be released soon for IRIS is a sensor correlator function. “We’re doing our first trials onsite with live sensors next week, providing a correlator for Echodyne’s EchoGuard radars,” Cutland said. “They have four different radars and don’t want to see duplication as it goes from one radar coverage area to overlapping coverage area in another.”

Kongsberg Geospatial also provided a similar multisensor correlator for the sensors in Iris Automation’s Casia G ground-based surveillance system. With the IRIS solution, operators will have a simplified view of the data even when sensor coverage overlaps.

Another of the company’s customers is funding development of a suggested avoidance visualization feature for IRIS. “This builds on our conflict prediction service,” Cutland explained. “It provides visualization to the operator for the suggested avoidance maneuver they should take, which will greatly improve their ability to make decisions very rapidly based on a variety of constraints and data they’ve entered.”

The next step, which he says will be coming soon, is to take the human out of the loop and to direct automated avoidance maneuvers straight to the autopilot.

Kongsberg’s team has also recently integrated with FlytBase, an enterprise drone automation platform, to develop a tool for controlling vehicles through the cloud.

The IRIS platform can be used for managing a variety of autonomous aircraft, from small drones to unmanned VTOL aircraft. (Photo: Kongsberg Geospatial)

The main function of IRIS, Cutland explained, is to combine all sensor and data feeds into a single picture that allows the operator to monitor the airspace and to deal with situations as they arise. This prevents any of the problems that come along with adding a new data feed.

The IRIS platform aggregates available information “to allow for flexible presentation of different data feeds containing information from the airspace: terrain information, satellite imagery, periodic aeronautic data, live data, ADS-B, traffic feeds, etc.,” said Cutland.

He added that Kongsberg Geospatial can integrate numerous types of data feeds into the IRIS remote operations software, including LiDAR, RF detection, UTM feeds, ATC feeds, and EO camera/video.

The IRIS platform could be particularly useful for last-mile drone delivery companies to enable a single operator to control multiple drones at once. With a fleet of autonomous drones, the operator simply monitors what the aircraft are doing, and IRIS allows the operator to be in the loop for certain aspects of the mission or for any contingencies that arise along the drone’s route.

One company offering drone delivery services, Skyports, partnered with Kongsberg Geospatial last year to enable BVLOS operations during a three-month-long medical drone delivery project in Scotland. The partners were able to conduct 14,000 kilometers of BVLOS drone flights carrying COVID-19 test samples and kits, medicine, and PPE during the project.

The Canadian Coast Guard uses Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS UxS software to safely pilot the Shield AI V-BAT aircraft, a long-endurance, unmanned vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) surveillance system, for offshore sea trials. Kongsberg’s Modular ISR Data Analysis and Storage system (MIDAS) takes in data feeds from the cameras and sensors onboard the VTOL aircraft. The IRIS software displays information from the data feeds and provides a comprehensive situational awareness picture of the airspace.

Pictured above is the Shield AI V-Bat aircraft, used by the Canadian Coast Guard to conduct offshore sea trials. (Photo: Kongsberg Geospatial)

The post Kongsberg Geospatial Advances Solutions for Airspace Monitoring and Managing Unmanned Traffic appeared first on Avionics International.

Regent’s CEO Shares Insights On All-Electric Seaglider Demonstrator’s First Flight

The quarter-scale prototype of Regent’s seaglider recently performed its first successful flight during a series of flight demonstrations in Rhode Island. (Photo: Regent)

Regent announced this week that its all-electric quarter-scale seaglider technology demonstrator completed its first flight. The seaglider is the first vehicle to take off from a controlled hydrofoil to wingborne flight, the company claims. The hydrofoiling increases the seaglider’s wave tolerance while on the water, and it retracts once the aircraft takes flight.

Following the initial flight demonstration, Regent completed a series of flights in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. The company is targeting entry into commercial service by 2025 following passenger-carrying test flights that are expected to start in 2024. Orders for Regent seagliders currently total more than $7 billion.

Currently, the team at Regent is focusing on development of the full-scale prototype, which will have a 65-foot wingspan (the quarter-scale demonstrator has an 18-foot wingspan).

“Regent is the first team in history to overcome the deficiency of low wave tolerance with past designs by combining high-speed hydrofoils with ground-effect flight—a crucial innovation that will revolutionize coastal transit,” remarked Mike Klinker, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), in the announcement by Regent.

Regent’s seaglider prototype in flight (Photo: Regent)

Last month, Regent selected Siemens Digital Industries Software to provide its Xcelerator portfolio of software and services for the seaglider. Regent’s team is also partnering with Allocortech, an aerospace engineering company that will provide avionics components for Regent’s vehicle.

Billy Thalheimer, CEO and co-founder of Regent, spoke with Avionics International about flight testing their seaglider prototype and about the company’s long-term vision.

Avionics: How does Regent’s electric seaglider work?

Thalheimer: The hydrofoils, which are basically underwater wings, give us high wave tolerance and maneuverability through a harbor. Once we get through the harbor, traffic dies down, and we’re in open water, we take off. The vehicle flies within a wingspan of the surface on a cushion of air, known as ground effect, that creates aerodynamic efficiencies. We can go 180 miles on a totally battery-powered system with existing battery technology.

Seagliders really combine the hydrofoiling wave tolerant maneuverability with the speed of an aircraft out in the open waters to create a vehicle that is essentially the speed of high-speed rail and the convenience without the infrastructure costs—the speed of an aircraft and the convenience of a boat. It fills a gap in regional travel—Los Angeles to San Francisco, Boston to New York City—these are the really painful routes, and seagliders are solving that problem.

Avionics: What is the operational experience of the seaglider like?

Thalheimer: It’s technically operated by a captain, not a pilot. You don’t fly seagliders, you drive them. The controls are boat controls—left and right, fast and slow—think all two-dimensional. Regent has taken all the hard, historically dangerous parts of aviation—the roll, pitch, altitude control, take-off and landing transitions—and we’ve wrapped that up into our digital flight control system which controls all these phases. With our quarter-scale prototype, we just have a remote operator, but with our full-scale vehicle we will have a captain at the helm doing boat controls, and our digital flight control system is doing the rest. It’s a hugely lower bar to entry compared to the years it takes to get a pilot’s license.

In August, Regent received an Approval in Principle (AiP) from Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore for the Viceroy seaglider. The AiP offers a clear path for the vehicle’s classification as a wing in ground effect (WIG) maritime vessel. (Photo: Regent)

Avionics: When do you expect to complete development of the full-scale prototype?

Thalheimer: The goal is to have humans flying by the end of 2024.

Avionics: What are some of the challenges facing the company over the next few years?

Thalheimer: It’s really been about proving that this technology works—proving that we can transition between the floating, foiling, and flight modes which we’ve now proven on the quarter-scale prototype. We’ve also been proving that the technology will scale to the full-scale model, which we’ve done. We recently announced completion of our full-scale blown wing testing—a full-scale section of the wing with multiple propellers on it that shows us how the aerodynamics will scale up.

We’ve now completely de-risked the technology. The next step is really just implementation. We’ve already reached our first major milestone with our maritime regulator, Bureau Veritas, that’s called the Approval in Principle.

Avionics: Could you share any details about Regent’s long-term strategy?

Thalheimer: We want seagliders to be part of the transportation canon, where people are used to taking seagliders on all coastal routes. In terms of our path toward commercialization, we’ll size up our prototype, build something with roughly a 65-foot wingspan, build our full-scale prototype, set up our manufacturing line, commercialize these, and get them into hands of our customers who are already ready for delivery. That’ll be by the end of 2025 for commercial operations. From there, we’ll build them even bigger. Our first model is called Viceroy with 12 passengers. From there, we’re going to build Monarch, a 100-passenger vehicle. That’s the goal—to have 100-passenger Monarch seagliders on every coast on the planet, servicing the 40% of the world’s population that lives in coastal communities.

The post Regent’s CEO Shares Insights On All-Electric Seaglider Demonstrator’s First Flight appeared first on Avionics International.

Air Canada Signs Purchase Agreement for Heart’s Updated ES-30 Electric Aircraft

Air Canada on Sept. 15 announced a purchase agreement for 30 ES-30 electric-hybrid aircraft under development by Heart Aerospace of Sweden. (Photo: CNW Group/Air Canada)

Heart Aerospace has replaced the 19-seat design of its previous ES-19 aircraft with the 30-seater battery-powered ES-30. The Swedish startup has also confirmed Air Canada as a new minority shareholder with a $5 million investment and a purchase order for 30 ES-30 aircraft.

Saab, the Swedish aerospace and defense manufacturer, joins Air Canada as the newest minority shareholder in Heart Aerospace with its own separate $5 million investment in the company. According to details about the ES-30 released by Heart Aerospace last week, the ES-30 is powered by four electric motors using lithium-ion batteries as a primary source of power and two sustainable aviation fuel-powered turbo generators as reserves.

Heart Aerospace describes this as a “reserve-hybrid configuration” where the pair of turbo generators “can also be used during cruise on longer flights to complement the electrical power provided by the batteries.” On battery charge alone, the ES-30 is being developed to fly a range of 200 kilometers (124 miles) with an altitude ceiling of 20,000 feet.

(Air Canada released this computer-generated concept video of the ES-30 flying with an Air Canada livery Air Canada: ES-30 from Air Canada on Vimeo.)

The company also specifies an extended range of 400 kilometers with 30 passengers and the ability to fly up to 800 kilometers with 25 passengers. Heart’s targeted range for the ES-30 is similar to the ES-19 that was also being developed to fly up to 400 kilometers.

Air Canada expects the ES-30’s battery system to have a charging time of “30-to-50 minutes.”

“The introduction into our fleet of the ES-30 electric regional aircraft from Heart Aerospace will be a step forward to our goal of net zero emissions by 2050,” Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada, said in the press release. “Already, Air Canada is supporting the development of new technologies, such as sustainable aviation fuels and carbon capture, to address climate change. We are now reinforcing our commitment by investing in revolutionary electric aircraft technology, both as a customer for the ES-30 and as an equity partner in Heart Aerospace.”

Over the last year, Heart Aerospace has continued to make progress on what has now become the ES-30 aircraft development program. Key achievements include confirming Garmin International to supply its G3000 integrated flight deck for the ES-30 cockpit. Garmin explained in an interview with Avionics International last year how their work with Heart will focus on interfacing the aircraft’s battery management system, motor control units, and other electric drive train components to the G3000 computers.

In January, Heart completed a test flight with a 1:5 scaled model of the ES-19 that was powered by commercial off the shelf electric motors. The startup also noted at the time that its electric drivetrain had been in ground testing for more than a year. No other details about a timeline for the first flight or ground test of a full-scale ES-30 aircraft have been released.

Heart Aerospace is building offices and production and flight test facilities which, together, will form a new campus called the Northern Runway. (Photo: Heart Aerospace)

On the same day as the Air Canada and Saab shareholder investment announcements came the addition of a new industry advisory board and plans released for the development of an electric aircraft development campus. Heart is building new offices and production and flight test families for the new campus, “Northern Runway,” to be located in Gothenburg.

Their new ES-30 industry advisory board includes representatives from 21 airlines, including Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Cebu Pacific, Icelandair, and United Airlines among others. United Airlines also committed to a future purchase agreement for up to 100 electric aircraft from Heart Aerospace. The startup has also received letters of intent from SAS, Wideroe, Air Greenland, and Finnair, among others.

The post Air Canada Signs Purchase Agreement for Heart’s Updated ES-30 Electric Aircraft appeared first on Avionics International.

Experts Discuss Considerations for Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure and Integration

At the Vertical Flight Society’s 6th Workshop on Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure this week, representatives from NASA, Five-Alpha, and Urban Movement Labs discussed some of the most important considerations for vertiport site selection and integration of AAM operations. (Photo: PS&S)

NASA recently published a whitepaper outlining more than 450 considerations for selecting vertiport locations. According to Nancy Mendonca, Deputy of the AAM Mission Integration Office at NASA, there was previously a lack of understanding in vertiport site selection. The Community Integration Working Group, of which Mendonca is the Technical Lead, gathered input from subject matter experts in a variety of areas in order to create this extensive list. The objective of this working group is to address social concerns surrounding safety, security, affordability, noise, privacy, and legality to achieve successful integration of AAM (advanced air mobility) vehicle operations in metropolitan areas.

Researchers, local transportation planners, and other members of the advanced air mobility (AAM) ecosystem can use these considerations for analyzing demand, developing AAM networks, and identifying potential gaps in policy and research.

The list of considerations is focused on vertiports that facilitate air taxis operating within a metropolitan area, Mendonca remarked during the 6th Workshop on AAM Infrastructure hosted by the Vertical Flight Society this week. She noted that there is a large degree of uncertainty around regulatory issues, both at the federal and state levels in addition to local regulations.

The whitepaper, titled “Advanced Air Mobility Vertiport Considerations: A List and Overview,” categorizes various considerations including those that are physical—both fixed and temporary. Some fixed considerations include buildings, trees, power lines, and billboards. Mobile and temporary considerations are listed as noise, weather, building cranes, and temporary vertiports.

Clint Harper (left), Rex Alexander (center), and Nancy Mendonca (right) discuss advanced air mobility at the 6th Workshop on AAM Infrastructure hosted by VFS this week.

Rex Alexander, Advisor for VTOL Infrastructure at VFS and president of aeronautical consulting firm Five-Alpha, shared his thoughts on the importance of establishing consistent terminology for AAM and educating the community during the AAM Infrastructure workshop this week. “Harmonization of the terminology across the federal, state, and local levels is one of the first things we want to do,” Alexander explained.

He drew a comparison to the helicopter industry: the difference between a heliport and a helistop is the same as the difference between a vertiport versus a vertistop. “There’s no hangar, no refueling, no scheduled maintenance, and no storage at a vertistop,” he said.

“And it’s at the local level that this makes the biggest difference. The terminology is going to drive what local municipalities do, and it’s one of the elements that we want to get right from day one.”

Alexander is also an ASTM International working group volunteer and member. ASTM published a new standard for designing vertiports and vertistops at the end of last month.

Community engagement, or lack thereof, has also been a big concern in the helicopter industry, Alexander remarked. To establish vertiports and other infrastructure for AAM operations, it’s necessary to address community engagement and to educate the community on the benefits of the industry.

Communicating the benefits of advanced air mobility for emergency medical services is one way to encourage public acceptance. However, regulations for air medical operations vary from state to state, Alexander said.

Another potential area of concern is that the Federal Aviation Administration does not have oversight over private-use facilities, and many vertiports—like heliports—will be private facilities. For public-use facilities, the FAA can protect the airspace from obstructions. It will be up to individual owners to protect the airspace over private-use vertiports by having the surrounding area rezoned.

“The challenge is that zoning is tied to politics,” Alexander noted, “and politics change, so zoning can be changed depending on who’s in office. In comparison, avigation easements are ironclad. An easement is permanently attached to a property, whereas zoning is not.”

Clint Harper, Advanced Air Mobility Fellow at Urban Movement Labs in Los Angeles, agreed with Alexander that proper definitions are especially important at the local level. “For a local jurisdiction to put out any kind of regulations around vertiports, they’re going to look at what the legal definition of a vertiport is. They aren’t going to create their own definitions,” Harper explained during the AAM Infrastructure workshop.

He also noted that establishing AAM operations will not solve traffic congestion in cities. “Adding capacity for more passengers is just a temporary fix,” he said. Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that use vertiports will only carry, at most, five passengers per flight. With an estimated four or five arrivals or departures at a vertiport facility per hour, these operations won’t have a significant impact on road traffic.

“We need to have a clear end outcome for the community as a whole,” Harper explained. “Even for private use facilities, it’s going to take community resources. We need to make sure we know what story we’re telling—and that is not clearly identified yet.”

The post Experts Discuss Considerations for Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure and Integration appeared first on Avionics International.

Boeing and Wisk Release Concept of Operations for Urban Air Mobility in the U.S.

Boeing and Wisk released a concept of operations for integrating urban air mobility services into the airspace this week. (Photo: Boeing and Wisk)

Boeing and electric air taxi developer Wisk unveiled a concept of operations this week that includes recommendations for deploying and integrating urban air mobility (UAM) in the United States. Wisk, which is developing an autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, is backed by both Boeing and Kitty Hawk Corporation.

Boeing made a $450 million investment into Wisk in January to support the development of Wisk’s Cora eVTOL. Earlier this year, Wisk released another concept of operations as part of a long-term partnership with UK-based Skyports, a company that designs and develops vertiports. The ConOps lists requirements for advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure to enable safe, autonomous eVTOL services.

As joint venture partners, Wisk and Boeing also collaborated with the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA to develop the roadmap for UAM released this week. Aurora Flight Sciences, SkyGrid, and other industry partners participated in the effort as well.

The document describes the process of safely integrating uncrewed aircraft into the national airspace by 2030 and proposes that safe and affordable UAM for all should be a foundational principle. Other recommendations are to automate these aircraft in order to reduce the burden on air traffic controllers and pilots, and to ensure support via onboard and ground-based automated systems.

The ConOps covers key principles for uncrewed UAM aircraft, third-party service providers, vertiport management, and airspace infrastructure. The authors of the document define public acceptance of highly automated UAM operations as the most important factor for scaling the market.

“Fostering public acceptance of UAM will be a crucial component to scale the market and justify the business case,” according to the ConOps. “It will be crucial for industry to work with local cities and economic development organizations to effectively evaluate, plan, and implement the changes required to safely integrate UAM in the airspace.”

Keyholes—designed carve-outs—in terminal airspace eliminate tower controllers’ responsibility for overseeing the airspace above vertiport locations. The figure above suggests that a vertiport further away from an airport would not need a keyhole, while vertiports placed close to an airport may require keyholes. (Photo: Boeing and Wisk)

Wisk CEO Gary Gysin commented in the announcement by Boeing, “The important work we’re sharing today provides a stepping stone in the advancement of UAM in the U.S. and the world. This document offers the most comprehensive framework proposed to date with a vision for enabling UAM in the national airspace.”

To fully enable UAM, evolutionary and pragmatic methods are required, according to the ConOps. The document also recommends creation of vertiports and other new types of infrastructure for UAM aircraft. Boeing and Wisk propose that the industry will need fleet operations centers to ensure safety. Air traffic control instructions can be implemented from these centers, and supervisors stationed there can each monitor multiple flights simultaneously.

The ConOps from Boeing and Wisk outlines the key stakeholders for establishing and integrating UAM into the national airspace. These stakeholders include the flying public and community; regulatory agencies such as the FAA and EASA; trade associations; standards development organizations; the UAM industry (OEMs); research and development testing agencies; and policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels.

Brian Yutko, Vice President and Chief Engineer of Sustainability & Future Mobility at Boeing, stated, “We’re working to enable a future of aerospace that is safe, sustainable and at scale. Uncrewed operations will be fundamental to realizing that vision, and we have to exceed the current safety standards for the air transportation system.”

Yutko added that the teams from Boeing and Wisk believe this ConOps will shape the future of UAM operations and will influence public stakeholders along with government, policy, and regulatory stakeholders as the industry grows.

The post Boeing and Wisk Release Concept of Operations for Urban Air Mobility in the U.S. appeared first on Avionics International.

Raytheon to Provide Dual Frequency Upgrades for Wide Area Augmentation System

The Wide Area Augmentation System, or WAAS, monitors and evaluates all GPS signals over North America to enable pilots to fly using augmented GPS data for safety of life missions like precision landing and en-route navigation. The system allows pilots to safely land in places that were previously inaccessible because of the airport location and/or weather. It also makes airports without ground-based navigation available to pilots. (Photo: Raytheon Intelligence & Space)

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new 10-year contract to Raytheon Intelligence & Space that will provide a technical refresh for the Wide-Area Augmentation System (WAAS)—a space-based precision navigation system that first became operational in the U.S. in 2003. Under the contract, which has a $375 million “ceiling value,” according to Raytheon, the WAAS system will receive Dual Frequency Operation (DFO) upgrades.

WAAS is a system of satellites and ground stations that correct the errors in GPS signals caused by effects like ionospheric disturbances. With such signal corrections, WAAS provides position accuracy that is better than three meters. The FAA has worked with Raytheon—the prime contractor for WAAS since 1996—and other major industry players on a series of upgrades to the system over the last two decades, including the development of a new WAAS satellite payload contracted to Intelsat in 2018.

FAA’s latest reported statistics on WAAS-enabled landing procedures available at North American airports include 4,092 LPVs available at 1,989 airports and 726 LPs at 531 total airports.

A representative for Raytheon, in an emailed statement to Avionics International, confirmed the contract will include several ground infrastructure upgrades for WAAS, including new Ground Uplink Station (GUS) receivers, new processors, a new Internet Protocol (IP)-based Telecommunications Network, and “enhanced system cybersecurity.”

“Dual Frequency service, the namesake upgrade of the DFO-2 contract, will provide the biggest benefit by giving users an extra dataset to calculate their own ionospheric errors,” the representative said. “Currently, ionospheric corrections are calculated centrally for single frequency. Dual frequency will provide improved accuracy, availability, and safety to users, especially during periods of high ionospheric activity like solar storms.”

According to an overview of WAAS featured on Raytheon’s website, the addition of the dual frequency service is “anticipated by 2028.” WAAS users with dual frequency WAAS-enabled GPS receivers will find that, once the DFO service becomes operational, the system will “support better positioning determination even during solar storm periods.”

“There is no margin for error during take-off, flight or landing,” Denis Donohue, president, Surveillance & Network Systems at RI&S, said in a statement. “Our modernization effort for WAAS will improve system robustness during ionospheric events and ensure safety-of-life requirements continue to be met.”

The post Raytheon to Provide Dual Frequency Upgrades for Wide Area Augmentation System appeared first on Avionics International.

Monthly Archives: September 2022

(Air Canada released this computer-generated concept video of the ES-30 flying with an Air Canada livery Air Canada: ES-30 from Air Canada on Vimeo.)