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Eviation CEO Shares Updates on All-Electric Aircraft

The all-electric Alice aircraft, developed by Eviation, recently made its first flight. (Photo: Eviation)

Global Crossing Airlines Group, or GlobalX, recently signed a letter of intent to order 50 all-electric aircraft from manufacturer Eviation. The airline plans to use these aircraft for new routes in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.

Ed Wegel, Chair and CEO of GlobalX, commented on the announcement by Eviation, saying, “We plan to offer the aircraft to our cruise line, tour operators, leisure travel providers, and business clients with a need for short-haul charter flights across Florida.”

Another big announcement came from Eviation last week. Its Alice aircraft completed its first flight on September 27, flying for a duration of eight minutes. The team is working towards entry into service of the all-electric aircraft by 2027. They hope to achieve type certification with the Federal Aviation Administration by 2025.

Cape Air has also placed an order with Eviation for 75 Alice aircraft. Cape Air’s founder and board chairman, Dan Wolf, remarked that the first flight of the Alice aircraft is a transformational milestone for the industry. “Alice can easily cover 80 percent of our flight operations,” he noted in the press release from Eviation.

GlobalX and Cape Air have both placed pre-orders for the Alice aircraft. (Photo: Eviation)

Eviation is based in Washington State and was founded seven years ago. A recent announcement shared that Gregory Davis was appointed as CEO of Eviation after serving as interim-CEO since February 2022. Davis has also been the company’s president since May 2021.

Check out our question-and-answer session below with Eviation’s CEO, Gregory Davis.

Avionics: Could you share any details about the letter of intent from GlobalX?

Davis: The Global Crossing deal is very important to us. It certainly increases our pre-order book for Alice, and this shows more confidence in the option of electric aircraft in the commuter market. We’re excited to see that aircraft go into service in their region. There’s plenty of opportunity for the network of transportation flights that they’re looking at setting up.

It’s exciting times for our company and for our industry. With the Global Crossing deal, it’s very important to see the continued, sustained interest in our product. Every one of those deals comes with a lot of interaction, and we learn a lot about the marketplace when we do a deal. Each of these opportunities to engage with customers makes us stronger as a company and better able to serve our future customers.

Avionics: What is Eviation’s current focus?

Davis: We recently did our high-speed taxi test for Alice, and the first flight of our proof-of-concept prototype aircraft is one of the biggest milestones. Look at the technology development that we’ve got to get through here in order to actually advance electric aviation. We have line of sight on battery technology that will allow us to make a commuter aircraft to fly on the kinds of routes that people are going to want to fly it. We’re looking at the nine-passenger commuter segment or the equivalent of a 2,500-pound cargo capacity. We’re building our entry-into-service plan right now. We’re figuring out how to do all of the steps necessary to get the aircraft through certification into the hands of the customers on the right timeline.

Eviation’s aircraft is powered by two magni650 electric propulsion units from magniX. (Photo: Eviation)

Avionics: Do you foresee any challenges or obstacles for the company in the near future?

Davis: The main challenge that we face in the electric aircraft industry is battery technology. It is going to be a constant challenge for us, for the foreseeable future. The good news is that it’s an industry problem. We have to work together to overcome this and develop the batteries that will take our aircraft, and other aircraft in the electric space, through to market. We’re going to be going through that for the next several years.

Avionics: What will this industry look like in 10 years?

Davis: By then, we will have delivered many, many aircraft to our customers, not only filling our current order book but the future order book that we’re developing right now. We’re going to get to a point in the not-too-distant future where people are simply flying on all-electric aircraft. It’s going to be normal to get on a short-range flight, such as Alice, to go to your destination, or to use these aircraft to have your package delivered with zero specific impact on the environment. The technology is going to adapt very quickly. We’ve seen the evolution of the EV ground vehicle space—people don’t really think twice about it when they see one driving next to them. It’s become very normal very quickly. We’re going to see the same thing happen with electric aviation.

The post Eviation CEO Shares Updates on All-Electric Aircraft appeared first on Avionics International.

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Lockheed Martin, Verizon Demonstrate Real-Time Drone ISR Over 5G Networks

Strategic partners Lockheed Martin and Verizon this year have demonstrated the capture and seamless, secure transmission and processing of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data in real-time over private and public next-generation wireless networks, showcasing Lockheed Martin’s efforts to develop 5G.MIL capabilities for the digital all-domain battlespace.

The demonstrations in May and September have involved the use of 5G-enabled small quadcopter drones flying simulated missions and capturing streaming video and high-band digitized radio frequency data to geolocate ground-based targets on the battlefield to enhance situational awareness for deployed troops and command and control leadership, Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL Programs at Lockheed Martin, said during a virtual media roundtable on Tuesday.

The demonstrations showcased three technology capabilities for military applications, he said.

“The high-speed, real-time transfer of that data from multiple drones simultaneously through those 5G private networks is an example of the applicability of 5G.MIL and edge processing technology to support military forces’ increased situational awareness on the battlespace,” Rice said. “The radio frequency data that we transferred enabled advanced signal processing algorithms to be executed at the tactical edge.”

The second area was the use of the technology to detect and geolocate low-power RF signals that adversaries may use for communications, sensing and jamming, Rice said. That data was captured by the drones, transmitted over a private network, and processed by Lockheed Martin algorithms at the tactical edge to geolocate the sources as part of a larger common operating picture, he said.

Finally, during the exercises the companies securely transmitted the data over the private 5G network tailored for military missions in austere environments and a surrogate public network, Rice said. The ability to securely combine the private military and public networks will extend the range of the 5G.MIL technologies and “creates unique opportunities for the military to extend and diversify its communication pathways,” he said.

The key to these advanced, seamless capabilities “across the military depends on the adoption of an open architecture 5G and military communications systems network of networks,” Rice said, highlighting that this is what Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL Program is developing.

5G networks began rolling out in the U.S. several years ago and offer increased bandwidth, lower latency and more advanced edge processing than 4G networks. Moreover, 5G allows the “seamless handovers” between the private and public networks and “orchestrate data and applications back to enterprise level clouds,” Rice said.

Srini Kalapala, senior vice president for Technology and Product Development at Verizon, said private 5G networks for the military will eventually allow the ability to configure different priorities and outcomes for users and devices depending on sensitivities. This will be tested out in the coming months, he said.

5G will also enable the connection of many more devices and sensors in a smaller footprint, Kalapala said.

“And with the low latency and edge computing, all of these IoT sensors that were collecting all of this data will now be able to throw the data quickly to the edge and you’ll be able to apply AI or whatever other mechanisms and get the right outcomes so that you can then put it back into whatever activity that they’re trying to do,” he said. “So that’s what makes 5G lot more attractive.”

The first round of demonstrations in May involved using the drones and edge processing to locate and identify the RF emitters and stream the video data of a ground target, Rice said. From mid-September on, the team is doing the same thing against moving ground targets, he said.

Next, the companies plan to demonstrate the geolocation and tracking of an aerial target in real-time by putting an RF emitter on another drone, Rice said. This exercise will begin this fall and move into 2023.

Then, the technology will be put on “longer-range fixed-wing assets” to “extend the operational envelope of where we can do this detection and geolocation,” he said. “So, that will stress both the range of our sensing capability, the range and performance of the 5G networks that we’re using to move the information back to that edge processing capability.”

Verizon supplied two of its private network nodes on-site for the testing, which occurred at Lockheed Martin’s 5G test range in Waterton, Colo.

This article was first published by Defense Daily, a sister publication to Avionics International, to view the original version, click here.>>

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Inmarsat Forms Partnership with Teledyne to Improve Flight Tracking for European Airlines

Inmarsat is partnering with Teledyne Controls in an effort to improve flight tracking for airlines operating in European airspace by leveraging several of their satellite connectivity services for adequately equipped aircraft in the region.

Inmarsat announced the partnership on Sept. 28. Under the partnership, the two sides will integrate Inmarsat’s SB-S platform, powered by its Elera satellite network, with Teledyne’s Aircraft Interface Device (AID+) enabled GroundLink Comm+ communication system and third-party electronic flight bag (EFB) software.

The partnership will “enhance and support airlines’ digital operations across Europe as part of the ground-breaking Iris air traffic modernisation programme,” the company writes in its announcement.

Iris, developed in a public-private partnership launched by ESA, is a service designed to offer high bandwidth and cost-effective satellite datalink communications between air traffic controllers and pilots. It allows aircraft to send and receive live data with ground systems during the entire flight. The service operates on Inmarsat’s SB-S platform.

Teledyne describes the GroundLink Comm+ system as being capable of supporting real-time data streaming, cabin and flight crew connectivity, wireless distribution of field-loadable software parts and automated flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) data downloads. More than 14,500 GroundLink Comm+ units are currently in service with more than 200 commercial airlines, according to Teledyne.

ELERA is the upgraded narrowband L-band network that Inmarsat rolled out last year using capacity from two new I-6 satellites.

In addition, the new partnership will see Inmarsat and Teledyne will integrate and test with commercial off-the-shelf EFB applications from a variety of third-party partners. Demonstrating applications collaboratively, such as real-time multi-source meteorology, system wide information management (SWIM), flight profile optimization, and electronic document management for crew, will validate further the commercial advantage of connected aircraft to airlines.

“By leveraging Inmarsat’s Elera network and SB-S platform through this partnership, we are able to extend our capabilities and the innovations they bring to customers even further. Our combined technologies will promote sustainability for the airlines through optimisation with real-time data to the flight deck and the ground. Now more than ever, we want airlines to be able to reap the rewards of their investment in technologies, and we are thrilled to be working with Inmarsat to deliver this for our customers,” Jim Jackson, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at Teledyne Controls said.

This article was first published by Via Satellite, a sister publication to Avionics International, it has been edited. View the original version here>>

The post Inmarsat Forms Partnership with Teledyne to Improve Flight Tracking for European Airlines appeared first on Avionics International.

COMAC C919 Achieves Certification in China

China’s C919 passenger jet has received type certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). (Photo: COMAC)

The Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China’s C919 passenger jet has achieved certification approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, according to a Sept. 30 announcement from the company.

CAAC’s delivery of the type certificate to COMAC this week comes 15 years after COMAC first development plan for the new jet was approved in 2007 and five years after making its maiden flight in 2017. Several updates released on social media accounts and digital news managed by Chinese state-run media websites have also provided more updates on the certification of the narrow body jet COMAC wants to use to compete with Airbus and Boeing.

A statement released by COMAC celebrating the type certificate received from CAAC for the C919 thanks the aircraft development program’s “global suppliers, partners, customers and all circles for their support and encouragement.”

“We have worked together for a long time, hand in hand, to succeed in developing the C919 aircraft,” COMAC writes in its statement.

The C919 features seating for up to 168 passengers and has a range of 2,200 nautical miles, placing it in direct competition with two of the world’s most delivered passengers jets, the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

COMAC’s original planned first delivery and entry into service timing for the C919 was 2016, although technical difficulties delayed the program’s commercial service launch multiple times since then.

(Photo: COMAC)

The majority of the C919 program’s key components, such as the engines and avionics systems, are supplied by western companies such as Collins Aerospace, GE Aviation and Honeywell Aerospace – which all have joint ventures and partnerships with Chinese companies supplying COMAC. The corporation requires foreign suppliers to manufacture parts made for the C919 in China.

An update on the certification published by CGTN, a Chinese state media publication, notes that the first delivery of China’s first domestically produced jet could occur by the end of the year to launch customer China Eastern Airlines. According to CGTN, 28 different airlines have ordered a combined 800 C919 aircraft from COMAC.

The post COMAC C919 Achieves Certification in China appeared first on Avionics International.

WATCH: Eviation’s All-Electric Alice Completes First

Eviation completed the first flight of its all-electric Alice aircraft this week. (Photo: Eviation)

Eviation’s all-electric commuter aircraft, Alice, completed its first flight on Sept. 27 at the Grant County International Airport in Washington. The aircraft remained airborne for eight minutes at an altitude of 3,500 feet for its maiden flight—which has occurred seven years after the company was founded and launched its vision for a zero emissions fixed-wing commuter aircraft.

Omer Bar-Yohay co-founded Eviation in 2015 and the company first unveiled its full-sized functional Alice prototype at the 2019 Paris Air Show—the event where Yohay originally wanted to complete the first flight. Several years later, following a number of program delays, a CEO change and a move of its headquarters to Arlington, Washington, Eviation achieved a major milestone in the Alice electric aircraft development program.

Full flight of Alice:

“Today we embark on the next era of aviation – we have successfully electrified the skies with the unforgettable first flight of Alice,” Eviation President and CEO Gregory Davis said in a Sept. 27 press release. “People now know what affordable, clean and sustainable aviation looks and sounds like for the first time in a fixed-wing, all-electric aircraft. This ground-breaking milestone will lead innovation in sustainable air travel, and shape both passenger and cargo travel in the future.”

Davis, a commercial pilot and engineer, was appointed interim CEO in February and officially took over as chief executive on Sept. 16. He takes on the position after serving as president since May 2021.

Eviation is developing three different variants of Alice, including a nine-passenger commuter, six-passenger executive cabin, and an air cargo version. The aircraft has a maximum operating speed of 260 knots with a maximum useful load of 2,500 lbs for the passenger version and 2,600 lbs for the cargo version.

In the cockpit, Eviation features a fly-by-wire system touchscreens and other avionics technologies from Honeywell Aerospace, including its BendixKing AeroVue touchscreen displays. The Alice technical demonstrator operated by Eviation for the maiden flight is also powered by two magniX magni650 Electric Propulsion Units (EPUs).

The magniX Electric Propulsion Unit (EPU) featured on the Alice Aircraft.

Since launching the Alice development program, Eviation has received orders from U.S.-based regional carriers Cape Air and Global Crossing Airlines for 75 and 50 Alice aircraft respectively. DHL Express, the German cargo operator, has also placed an order for 12 Alice aircraft.

Richard F. Chandler, Chairman, Clermont Group, Majority Shareholder of Eviation; Steve Crane, Test Pilot; Greg Davis, President and CEO of Eviation. (Photo: Eviation)

“The first flight of Alice represents a transformational milestone for the aviation industry,” Cape Air Founder and Board Chairman Dan Wolf said, commenting on the maiden flight. “We currently fly more than 400 regional flights per day, connecting more than 30 cities across the United States and Caribbean. Alice can easily cover 80 percent of our flight operations, bringing sustainable, emission-free travel to the communities we serve.”

Eviation’s latest targeted timeline on developing Alice includes working toward achieving type certification from the FAA by 2025, with the aircraft eventually being ready for deliveries and entry into service by 2027. These dates are however subject to change, according to the company.

The post WATCH: Eviation’s All-Electric Alice Completes First appeared first on Avionics International.

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.

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.

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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)

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