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OnFlight receives Authorized Service Center approval for Embraer Executive Jets aircraft

OnFlight, Inc. (OnFlight) of Cincinnati, Ohio, announced today the milestone approval and authorization as an Embraer Authorized Service Center by Embraer Executive Jets. In this capacity, OnFlight further expands Embraer’s strategic network of MRO services, becoming an Embraer Authorized Service Center focused on Embraer aircraft.

OnFlight, a Part 135 Charter Operator since 2000, has operated Embraer aircraft since 2011, with exclusive Embraer focus since 2016. With this announcement, OnFlight’s strategy further expands to include Part 145 RepairStation Operations dedicated entirely to Embraer aircraft. Operations are expected to commence early Q1 2024 at the Cincinnati Lunken Airport.

David Crockett, OnFlight’s President, explained, “We have chosen to intentionally focus exclusively on Embraer’s product line, based on extensive knowledge of these aircraft, Embraer’s state-of-the-art technology, and overall quality of design and manufacturing. This singular focus ensures a high level of expertise and efficiency versus other independent alternatives who offer generalized service on numerous aircraft types and models, each presenting complex customer support challenges.”

“We are very pleased to deepen our relationship with OnFlight. This new approval will allow us to meet the high demand across the entire Executive Jets network. Expanding our capacity, capability, and footprint is an important step to continue to bring value to our customers,” said Frank Stevens, vice president of MRO Services at Embraer Services and Support.

The post OnFlight receives Authorized Service Center approval for Embraer Executive Jets aircraft appeared first on Avionics International.

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Redstar Aviation, Turkey’s leading Air Ambulance operator, has selected Centrik software

TrustFlight announced that Redstar Aviation, Turkey’s leading Air Ambulance operator, has selected the company’s Centrik software to streamline its safety and quality management system for real-time operational management of its Challenger 605, Learjet 45 XR, and Leonardo AW139 fleet.

Redstar Aviation, which provides air ambulance, medical escort, offshore oil and gas, and air taxi services, as well as MRO, CAMO, Part-147, and Part-21 services, has a long-standing reputation of excellence in safety and compliance. Redstar Aviation will leverage the full Centrik suite which includes safety, risk, compliance, training, forms, equipment, document, as well as its workflow modules, to enable enterprise-wide automation of critical tasks related to safety and quality management.

“Redstar Aviation deeply values safety and operational excellence,” said Yusuf Cizdan, Compliance Monitoring and SMS Manager, Redstar Aviation. “When evaluating ways to improve our internal processes, Centrik stood out as the ideal platform for us. TrustFlight, as subject matter experts, understand our commitment to scaling operations safely and efficiently—we’re excited to leverage their industry-leading software.”

Centrik provides a complete picture into an organisation’s operational profile. It removes costly, outdated paper-based processes and procedures for fleet operators, MROs, regulators, and airports around the world. Centrik is the world’s only all-in-one safety and quality management system for every element of successful maintenance and flight operations departments.

“We are pleased to see Redstar Aviation commit to TrustFlight’s Centrik for its SMS and QMS requirements,” said Karl Steeves, Director, TrustFlight. “Redstar Aviation is well-regarded as a leader in air medical services, and we look forward to supporting them and their growth in a safe, scalable manner.”

TrustFlight’s suite of solutions enable fully-digital workflows for crew and maintenance personnel by automating vital information to greatly enhanced speed and accuracy while reducing the man-hours required. In addition to TrustFlight’s Centrik SMS and QMS solution, the firm also offers Electronic Tech Log, MEL Manager, and Reliability Analytics software that seamlessly integrate for a unified user experience leading to accurate, actionable decision-making across the enterprise.

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The Current status of eVTOL Batteries

eVTOL batteries are still in a relatively early stage of development and maturity. “Each OEM has its own design and configuration, including the type of cells used,” Dr. Stefan says. “Standardization is maturing mostly relative to the safety standards, although differences exist between standardization bodies and OEMs, or from one region to another (USA, Europe, Asia). Electric mobility can be costly, but Amprius remains committed to commercializing high-power and energy battery solutions that enhance eVTOL use cases and increase cost-effectiveness.”

eVTOL batteries are in constant development to meet energy density and C rate requirements. Several manufacturers have already started working with the FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency to seek certification. “The FAA and other regulators impose strict certification requirements around battery solutions approved for eVTOL use,” Terranova says. “From a regulator’s perspective, eVTOL batteries present a ‘big data’ issue with handling and computational challenges. How is the FAA going to ensure that the right amount of battery data is collected and analyzed after every flight to give the public the assurance that these batteries are safe to fly?

Some FAA standards for testing and installation of batteries in aircraft do exist. These include RTCA DO-311 “Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries and Battery Design Testing Systems,” SAE AIR6897 “Battery Management Systems for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries Used in Aerospace Standards” and FAA AC 20-184 “Guidance on Testing and Installation of Rechargeable Lithium Battery and Battery Systems on Aircraft.” These regulations will inform new eVTOL-oriented regulations that provide more comprehensive oversight of propulsion batteries; Europe is also in the early stages of regulation.

The post The Current status of eVTOL Batteries appeared first on Avionics International.

Charge, Discharge and Temperature of eVTOL batteries

This is the second in a series of articles investigating electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

eVTOL operation is characterized by a higher discharge profile, especially during take-off and landing. “Traditionally, batteries are either designed to provide a lot of energy or high power,” Wang says. “For eVTOL batteries, it is important to have a good balance between energy and power. The power is needed to allow take-off and landing, and the energy is needed to have sufficient cruising range.”

In order to sustain the eVTOL use case, with repeated trips where the battery is mostly depleted, eVTOL batteries are designed to charge extremely quickly, often in 5 to 10 minutes. “Prototype batteries can sustain up to a 50-mile trip, with energy density of 270 watt-hours per kilogram,” Terranova says. “They typically can support up to 2,000 fast charging cycles over their lifetime. eVTOL batteries need to support high-power cell discharge, mostly during takeoff and landing. Not only is the level of discharge high, but the length of time where the battery is performing at peak capacity is much longer than in the EV case. While battery size and weight are a consideration with EVs, it’s even a larger factor with aircraft since it has a significant impact on the payload/range capabilities, not to mention making the aircraft too heavy to be flight worthy.”

eVTOL batteries are similar or larger than EV batteries in size, with more demanding usage profiles regarding power during charge and discharge. eVTOL batteries need to sustain a higher power level during takeoff and landing, typically two to four times higher than levels required for EV acceleration. Although high battery energy density is a plus in both EV and eVTOL applications, the energy density is usually traded off for power capability in eVTOLs, which makes high energy density technologies of higher importance for eVTOL.

Temperature can have a major influence on the level of eVTOL battery charge and discharge must be considered. With the high-power at takeoff and landing also comes a high temperature increase of the battery. “High-power operation conditions lead to self-heating, therefore, eVTOL batteries are not as sensitive to lower temperature,” says Dr. Stefan. “Typically, high temperature operation under active control is the norm.” Cuberg manages temperature through both passive and active cooling systems integrated into its aviation-specific battery systems.

“Prototype batteries can be heated to help them discharge their excess energy more quickly, allowing a quicker recharge when its resistance to charge is the lowest,” Terranova said. “Temperature also plays a role in fuel gauging. An eVTOL aircraft regularly executing two takeoffs and two landings on a single charge will impact degradation differently versus one that only executes one takeoff and landing.”

Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Joby Aviation’s pouch cells in its production airplanes are rated at 288 watt-hours per kilogram at the cell level, and the company demonstrated in its lab that they’re capable of more than 10,000 representative flight cycles. The result of assembling those cells into certifiable, aerospace-grade battery packs is a specific energy of 235 watt-hours per kilogram at the pack level.

Dynamic dispatching cycles need to be factored into state-of-health (SoH) and state-of-charge (SoC) computations, including loaded vs. unloaded takeoffs, distance traveled, power output profiles, ambient temperatures, wind conditions, etc. “Determining battery SoH and cell-level degradation becomes a considerable challenge if data is not properly curated and automatically analyzed after every charge/discharge cycle,” Terranova said. “The nature of lithium-ion cells and batteries negates the operating assumptions that pack-level or system-level SoH computations are ‘good enough.’”

The post Charge, Discharge and Temperature of eVTOL batteries appeared first on Avionics International.

Challenges, considerations and issues for tomorrow’s “flying cars”

To fulfill the emerging need for new aerial vehicles designed for urban air mobility, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft cannot be ignored. Different from conventional avionic components in many ways, eVTOL battery performance and safety requirements especially need to be considered and examined.

While avionics batteries are used primarily for backup systems and have a comparatively low rate of charge and steady predictable discharge, Manuel Terranova, CEO and president of Peaxy, San Jose, Calif., says eVTOL batteries need to support both high Crates during takeoff and maneuvering, combined with low C-rates during cruising. “Peak power performance needs are much more significant with requirements for operating at 10- 20 C rates. As a result, they have a higher energy density than conventional batteries. eVTOL batteries are also designed for increased thermal stability and to allow for more flexible deployments, with features such as enhanced modularity to suit different types of aircraft and trip distances.”

Battery technology impacts eVTOL development; it affects the range, carrying capacity, charging time, and maintenance costs. An aircraft’s different power requirements in each flight phase are more evident in the eVTOL. A typical eVTOL trip has five stages: takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, and landing, where the power output required by the battery at distinct states of the vehicle’s flight is different. Most eVTOLs use the most power while taking off and landing.

“Compared to many other electric mobility applications, eVTOL batteries typically require a higher level of performance, such as having higher specific energy and power, and the ability to work continuously at a high discharge rate while still having a suitable life span,” says Dr. Ionel Stefan, chief technology officer at Amprius Technologies Inc., Fremont, California. “Plus, in the quest to optimize eVTOL operational efficiency, minimizing charging times assumes paramount importance, particularly during peak demand periods. Conventional avionic batteries are used as backup power for auxiliary systems, while eVTOL batteries are the main energy source. As such, they are of much larger capacity and energy density is a critical metric directly linked to the weight of the battery.”

San Leandro, California-based Cuberg’s batteries enable eVTOLs to take off, coast and land. Cuberg technology uses a lithium metal anode and a proprietary liquid electrolyte to simultaneously solve the interlocking challenges of battery performance and manufacturability. “While incumbent battery technologies, such as lithium-ion, can be too heavy and low-performing to enable the business case for eVTOLs, Cuberg’s battery cells are lightweight and high-performance,” says Richard Wang, founder and CEO of Cuberg. “Our high energy-dense lithium metal cell provides more specific energy and power. Researchers have understood the potential of lithium metal anodes for many years, but we are making unique strides in actually commercializing this technology. Our proprietary liquid electrolyte stabilizes high-energy anode and enable long cycle life. This is key, in particular, to meet safety requirements for aviation.”

The post Challenges, considerations and issues for tomorrow’s “flying cars” appeared first on Avionics International.

eVTOL batteries gaining acceptance

The eVTOL industry is rapidly evolving, and as a result the acceptance of eVTOL battery use is growing. This is likely fueled by the increasing interest in electric aviation for urban air mobility and shorter flights. At a cell level, the focus is on finding ways to improve the material chemistry of lithium-ion batteries to increase the cell energy density by 30 percent.

Many companies are working to develop new cell chemistries, such as cells with silicon anode that have the potential to deliver the required energy density. But the majority of these chemistries are still in the technology demonstration phase or early-stage pilot scale development manufacturing phase, says Puneet Sinha, senior director, battery industry at Siemens Digital Industries Software, Plano, Texas.

A number of companies and battery suppliers are working at the product design level to develop new batteries that will meet the operating requirements for eVTOLs while also ensuring safety and compliance with all FAA requirements. As they are able to deliver new technologies that are safe, FAA compliant and meet the operating demands of eVTOLs, we will see increased acceptance by the aircraft industry and in time the general public as well.

Some of the eVTOL companies are exploring hybrid power solution such as use of H2 fuel cells paired

with a smaller battery. The ability to offer longer flight time beyond and faster charge time than what

today’s commercially available Li-ion battery can deliver is a key motivation to pursue such hybrid

solutions. Such an approach, however, brings its own challenges such as additional complex controls and

power sharing, and safe handling of not only battery but also hydrogen. Increased system complexity

may add to the challenges for system certification and cost.

The post eVTOL batteries gaining acceptance appeared first on Avionics International.

Southwest’s New Electronic Flight Bag Will Eliminate 88M Pages of Paper a Year

Southwest Airlines has chosen AvioBook to equip its fleet with digital technology designed to streamline operations and help eliminate 88 million pages of paper the carrier prints every year.

The electronic flight bag technology is in use with more than 65 airlines including United, Frontier, KLM, IndiGo and Wizz. Southwest brings it to the largest U.S. airline in terms of domestic passengers. Southwest should have the technology in 2024, AvioBook, owned by Thales, said.

Southwest’s multi-year contract with AvioBook provides pilots with a technology platform that includes the only fully-integrated Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) and Electronic Logbook (eLB) solution on the market to improve efficiency throughout the operation, the company says.

“Southwest is thrilled to collaborate with AvioBook to modernize our operation and introduce cutting-edge technology solutions directly benefiting our frontline employees,” said Steve Christl, vice president of operations, strategy and implementation at Southwest Airlines. “These advancements not only streamline processes but also eliminate numerous paper-based documents. This shift empowers our Employees to dedicate more time and focus on delivering Southwest Hospitality to our valued Customers.”

The airline also signed an agreement to equip the entirety of its Boeing 737 NG fleet with the company’s Aircraft Interface Device (AID), known as AvioCast, which will provide real-time aircraft data to various operational groups.

Once installed, it will provide real-time aircraft data to various operational groups to mitigate safety risks, enhance compliance, add technology redundancy and resiliency, and increase environmental sustainability, all while enabling shorter turn times.

Southwest says this is one in a list of trailblazing moves incorporating digital technologies to improve travel experience for customers and for its employees.

At least 4,000 aircraft and 100,000 flights per week carry AvioBook, the company said. .

“We look forward to helping bring together all Southwest stakeholders from across the airline, improving communications and workflows while eliminating paper,” said AvioBook Chief Executive Frédéric Dru.

State Department Approves $582 Million Spy Plane Upgrade For Saudi; Radar for UAE

The State Department on Monday said it has approved a potential $582 million foreign military sale (FMS) to Saudi Arabia for the modernization of the RE-3A Tactical Airborne Surveillance System aircraft that would include new sensors and communications equipment.

L3Harris Technologies [LHX] is the prime contractor for the upgrades. The RE-3 is a modified Boeing [BA] 707 commercial aircraft.

The upgrades include seven embedded GPS/inertial navigation system security devices, M-Code capability, five L3Harris BlackRock communications intelligence sensor suites, KY-100M narrowband/wideband secure communications terminals, KIV-77 MODE 4/5 identification friend or foe cryptographic appliques, AN/PYQ-10 simple key loaders, integrated electronic intelligence/signals intelligence systems, L3Harris multiband receivers/transmitters, RTX [RTX] ARC-210 radios, high frequency radios, secure communications equipment, test and integration support, spare and repair parts.

Separately, the State Department approved a potential $85 million sales of 18 man-portable AN/TPQ-50 radar and related equipment to the United Arab Emirates. The proposed sale also includes 107mm high explosive rockets for testing in the U.S., computer digital military laptop radar control display units, 5kW advanced medium mobile power source trailer-mounted, diesel engine driven power unit PU-2001 spares, mission, communications, and navigation equipment, repair parts and other equipment.

SRC, Inc. is the principal contractor for the lightweight radar.

The State Department said that radar will be used to “recognize incoming threats from hostile nations or agents of adversary nations” and will support the UAE’s “efforts to protect critical infrastructure and high value civilian targets, as well as military installations and forces from rocket, artillery, and mortar and unmanned aerial system threats.”

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Monday notified Congress of the potential FMS deals.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

TTTech Aerospace Talks Deterministic Networks in Avionics

In our latest podcast episode, Kurt Doppelbauer, Vice President of Strategic Sales and Business Development for TTTech’s aerospace business (TTTech Aerospace), discusses the company’s solutions for networking and computing platforms for onboard systems in the aerospace industry, deterministic networking solutions, safety and security, and future, more autonomous applications.

Learn More

Website: https://www.tttech.com/aerospace

About Kurt Doppelbauer

Kurt Doppelbauer joined TTTech in 1999 and held various positions in management control, R&T project management, and cross-industry sales. He was appointed as commercial head for the business unit Aerospace (2006-2018), as Chief Sales Officer for TTTech’s North American subsidiary (2009-2013), and as Senior Director Marketing for TTTech Group (2019-2022). Since October 2018, he has been holding the role of ‘Vice President Strategic Sales and Business Development’ for TTTech Aerospace, most recently focusing on Aviation.

About TTTech Aerospace

TTTech Aerospace provides deterministic embedded network and platform solutions for aviation and space applications. Its products have already completed over 1 billion flight hours in Level A safety-critical applications like fly-by-wire, power systems, avionics, engine controls, and environmental control systems and covered distances of more than two million kilometers in deep space. Proven, mature solutions help customers in the aviation and space industries to develop integrated, modular, and scalable deterministic network platforms that increase safety, fault tolerance, and availability. In addition, integrated solutions reduce size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), allowing for easier handling of equipment and lowering total lifecycle costs.

TTTech Aerospace is part of the TTTech Group, a globally oriented group of high-tech companies, founded and headquartered in Vienna, Austria. TTTech is the innovator of Deterministic Ethernet and a driving force behind the IEEE TSN and the SAE AS6802 Time-Triggered Ethernet standards. TTTech North America Inc, headquartered in Andover, MA, and with offices in, among others, Houston, TX, is also part of the TTTech Group.

FAA’s MOSIAC Rule Change Could Pave Way For Ultralight, eVTOL Certification

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on FAA certification of light sport and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The first can be found here.

The FAA is proposing a rule modification for certifying light sport aircraft called the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification, or MOSAIC, to incorporate the development of emerging technologies, in particular electrically-powered rotorcraft.

Two decades of data show that flying LSA-approved aircraft was safer than amateur-built kit and ultralight aircraft, according to Vertical Flight Society Director of Strategy Mike Hirschberg. This, he said, demonstrated that the LSA “experiment” was successful and could be modified to include larger aircraft, small rotorcraft and electric aircraft.

MOSAIC will enable companies targeting personal/private and recreational use of their aircraft because the proposed rule allows LSA pilots to fly for recreational purposes and not for carrying persons or property for compensation or hire. Hirschberg said companies with smaller one- and two-seat eVTOL aircraft would be able to sell their factory-built air vehicles for private or recreational use in the US, allowing some ultralight aircraft, which are more severely restricted by speed and weight, to be approved as compliant with MOSAIC requirements. This would allow larger designs with a higher expectation of safety.

AIR of Israel plans to have its AIR ONE two-seat multi-copter with collapsible wings approved for use in US airspace under MOSAIC if the rule is finalized as written. Roni Flouts, AIR CEO, told Avionics on Nov. 2 that approval under MOSAIC would allow the company to offer its aircraft in the US much sooner than competitors.

AIR also has the aircraft undergoing type certification. Flouts said the company plans to offer the AIR ONE not only as a recreation and commuting aircraft but also as a training platform. AIR wants to use the AIR ONE to train powered lift pilots for flying eVTOL aircraft being developed by companies such as Joby, Beta Technologies and Archer.

The FAA created the LSA category to establish rules for the manufacture, certification, operation and maintenance of light-sport aircraft such as airplanes, gliders, balloons, powered parachutes, weight-shift-control aircraft and gyroplanes weighing less than 1,320 lbs or 1,430 lbs for aircraft intended for operation on water. The FAA uses experimental amateur-built aircraft for the safety continuum or requirement, discussions since they are similar to light-sport category aircraft in the MOSAIC proposal.

Amateur-built aircraft are largely used for recreational purposes, are flown by sport pilots and pilots with higher grade certificates, and generally have the same flight envelope and occupancy limits. Amateur-built aircraft have no regulatory design requirements for the suitability of materials used, structural integrity, or instruments, equipment and systems. MOSAIC would prescribe design requirements for light-sport aircraft for these items.

The FAA said light-sport category aircraft, since 2004, have shown a lower accident rate than experimental amateur-built airplanes. As of 2021, there have been 984 accidents, or incidents involving light-sport category aircraft, with roughly half of those accidents or incidents occurring during the landing phase.

Of the 501 landing accidents, seven resulted in a fatality. The second highest number of accidents or incidents, 164, occurred during an emergency descent.

Carl Dietrich, Jump Aero Inc. founder and president said the safety record of light sport aircraft since the category was established is somewhat remarkable considering the durability issues these aircraft had in the field due to the weight limit in the existing definition. The FAA, he said, now has data from the past 20 years that the process of declaring compliance with industry standards results in a safety record that is almost as good as certified aircraft that have gone through the more burdensome FAA certification process.

The FAA considers that the safety record of light-sport category aircraft validates certification requirements originally established and provides support for expanding the scope of certification for light-sport category aircraft and operations.

“The FAA intends for these expansions to increase safety by encouraging aircraft owners, who may be deciding between an experimental aircraft or a light-sport category aircraft, to choose aircraft higher on the safety continuum and, therefore, meet higher aircraft certification requirements,” the administration said in its Federal Register notice.

The proposal would also expand the type of aircraft sport pilots can operate and allow them to use their aircraft for a wider range of operations, such as some aerial work. If MOSAIC is finalized, Hirschberg said, small eVTOL and electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) aircraft could be operated by sport pilots. Although sport pilots could operate aircraft designed with up to four seats, they would remain limited to operating with only one passenger.

Pivotal, developer of the BlackFly and Helix single-seat tilt eVTOL with fixed rotors and tandem wings, supports MOSAIC. Kristina Menton, company COO, told Avionics on Nov. 8 that Pivotal is specifically in support of adopting a performance-based requirement for LSA.

Pivotal, she said, also endorses allowing increased aviation training device credit for simulator time beyond the 2.5 hours that would be permitted for sport pilots under MOSAIC. This is because not only are modern simulators highly realistic to actual flying of alternate types of aircraft, but flying on a Cessna or similar fixed-wing aircraft is not the best training for flying a BlackFly or Helix. The FAA does not currently permit the use of flight simulation training devices (FSTD) or aviation training devices (ATD) to meet sport pilot experience requirements for a certificate or rating.

Not everything is potentially positive for electric aircraft developers under MOSAIC. Hirschberg said that if light-sport aircraft under the proposed rule amendment are not sufficiently airworthy, or their pilots are not sufficiently risk-adverse, they could tarnish the image of rotorcraft and electric aircraft in the minds of the public and the FAA.

The administration announced on Oct. 4 that it extended the comment period for MOSAIC through Jan. 22.

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