Aviation

The category that features all aviation related posts.

Internationally Recognized Dutch Designs
Aviation, Specials, Student projects

Internationally Recognized Dutch Designs

Students from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft, Netherlands have been actively competing in prestigious International design competitions that are organised by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This year, two teams, one undergraduate and the other graduate, both achieved second places in the competitions. Dutch Designs can be typically characterized as minimalist, experimental and innovative. Not only do these traits apply to chairs and buildings designed by famous Dutch engineers, they also extend to aircraft designs created by students of the Aerospace faculty. Every year AIAA organizes aircraft design competitions in three different categories: undergraduate, undergraduate individual, and graduate. Students are asked to submit a proposal for a n...
CFD in the Nuclear Industry
Aerodynamics and wind energy, Aviation

CFD in the Nuclear Industry

Bechtel is a large construction company working on one of the largest environmental cleanup projects in history. As an intern, the task at hand was to help ascertain the reliability of a pulsejet mixing system that is used to mix various compositions of nuclear and chemical waste byproducts from Cold War era plutonium enrichment processes. Bechtel as a company works on some of the largest engineering projects in the world, having worked on the Hoover Dam, the Euro tunnel, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, it currently employs approximately 50,000 people worldwide. Within the company, a small band of engineers known as the Advanced Simulation and Analysis (ASA) group, operates. One of the projects on which Bechtel and the ASA group are currently working is known as...
The Hidden Runway
Aviation, Specials, Time Flies

The Hidden Runway

In the wake of World War II, Vietnam had become the next major battleground of the 20th century. It started with a battle for independence against the French, led by Ho Chi Minh and backed by the communist nations. Along with Laos and Cambodia, Vietnam finally became independent, but the country was split up in a communist northern and a democratic southern part. After attempts to reunite the country through elections failed, the southern part sunk deeper into political instability. Prime Minister Diem had failed to sustain peace and unity among its citizens, and as a consequence, the pro-communist National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, started guerrilla attacks from within South Vietnam. As the South Vietnamese army proved incapable of dealing with this disturbance, th...
Formation Flight: The effect of trimmed flight
Aerodynamics and wind energy, Aviation, Operations

Formation Flight: The effect of trimmed flight

A flock of birds flies in formation when travelling long distances, due to an energy saving advantage. Research on this phenomenon has been conducted throughout the beginning of the twentieth century, and it focused on how much can be gained using formation flight, where unfavorable effects have only been a topic of research for the last few decades.   Background The phenomenon of birds in formation has been researched since 1914 by Wieselberger (Wieselberger, 1914), who initially identified a benefit. This benefit was defined in aerodynamic theory by Lissaman et al. in 1970 (Lissaman, 1970). Behind a finite lifting surface, a region of upwash and downwash is created. Both regions are separated by the tip vortex, present due to the finiteness of the lifting surface. A grap...
EASA, the European authority for aviation safety
Aviation, Operations

EASA, the European authority for aviation safety

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is the European Union authority for aviation safety. Its mission is to provide the EU citizens safe air travel in Europe and worldwide. Three Delft Aerospace alumni provide an inside on the Agency’s activities. What is EASA? EASA was established in 2002 as an Agency of the European Union (EU). The main activities of EASA include the certification of aviation products, development of common safety and environmental rules on European level, the oversight of approved organizations, the oversight of (standardization inspections) and support to Member States in fields where EASA has shared competence (e.g. Air Operations , Air Traffic Management) and safety management and analysis activities at European level. The Agency staff...
System Identification in Aerospace
Aviation, Dynamics and control

System Identification in Aerospace

Engineering relies heavily on mathematical models of real systems. However, physical processes are often highly complex and not entirely understood, so the modeling of the first principles can be challenging, sometimes even impossible. System identification allows for any system, however complex or obscure, to be modeled solely on the basis of measurements. System identification is the science of extracting a model from a set of observations or measurements. By looking at how a system behaves in specific situations, we can determine whether there are patterns in the behaviour and what factors influence it. The underlying idea is to formulate a basic model structure containing a number of unknown parameters, and then estimate these parameters such that the difference between measurements...
Plasma Enhanced Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics and wind energy, Aviation, Dynamics and control

Plasma Enhanced Aerodynamics

An experimental study on plasma characteristics Active flow control by the use of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators has been proven to be a promising concept for the delay and even elimination of boundary layer separation. Both the simplicity of the system as well as the potential for flow and even flight control make plasma actuators increasingly interesting for research in aerodynamics worldwide.   Plasma actuators for flow control In the past few years, the term plasma actuator has made its entry into the aerodynamics’ flow control jargon. In this field, two different types of dielectric barrier discharge actuators are currently investigated. Alternating current (AC-DBD) and nanosecond pulsed direct current (ns-DBD) plasmas differ in terms of input vol...
A Nuclear-Powered Passenger Aircraft
Aviation, Propulsion

A Nuclear-Powered Passenger Aircraft

Could the RECREATE cruiser fly us into the future? A thorough rethinking in the working of the aircraft industry is required to cope up with diminishing fossil fuel reserves, including aircraft design, propulsion systems and operation,. The European Commission sponsors the RECREATE research project to investigate the cruiser-feeder set-up, in which cruise-optimized aircraft stay aloft for extended periods while feeder aircraft transport passengers between airports and the cruiser. This study focuses on the design of a cruiser aircraft that uses nuclear power to transport up to 1000 passengers. A nuclear-powered passenger aircraft requires extensive safety considerations to be operated with minimal danger to its passengers as well as the environment. Even though the Cold War era, rese...
Solar Impulse 2: New record
Aviation, News, Propulsion

Solar Impulse 2: New record

Solar Impulse 2 set a new world record for the furthest flight for an aircraft, simply powered by the sun. As a first piece of its trip around the world the Solar Impulse 2 took off in Abu Dhabi and landed twelve hours later in Muscat, Oman. With this the Swiss project has completed its very first objective; it has proven that it works. Since the aircraft is extremely slow, the world trip will have various stops. The biggest challenge for the aircraft and the pilots (Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschbeg) will have to overcome is the trip over the Pacific Ocean, which is expected to be a 5 days non-stop flight. During these stops the team will be able to maintain the aircraft, rest and promote clean technologies, such as the Solar Impulse 2.
Self-Healing of Creep Damaged Steel
Aviation, Manufacturing

Self-Healing of Creep Damaged Steel

Creep is often seen as an undesired effect in metals, which may be a limiting factor in the lifetime of steel components. It may lead to premature fracture below the yield strength when exposed to elevated temperatures for long times, in combination with constant high stress. Self-healing is a promising approach to increase the lifetime performance of iron-based alloys and steels, which could drastically reduce maintenance and material costs for aerospace propulsion systems.  Improving the lifetime of critical air- and spacecraft components in high temperature environments is an essential aspect when it comes to making future airplanes more sustainable. Conventionally, making the material as strong as possible, preventing damage to evolve in the material, increases the lifetime of mater...