Aviation – Page 4 – Leonardo Times

EASA, the European authority for aviation safety

28Dec

By LeonardoTimesNo Comments

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...

13Nov

By LeonardoTimesNo Comments

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...

25Sep

By LeonardoTimesNo Comments

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...

20Sep

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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...

15Sep

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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.

13Jul

By LeonardoTimesNo Comments

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...

14Jun

By LeonardoTimesNo Comments

Aviation, Operations

European Airline Market

Low cost vs Legacy carriers Since the advent of low cost airlines in European Skies, the Airline industry has seen fierce competition. On point-to-point short haul flights, low costs carriers have bled legacy carriers dry. On long-haul services, these same low costs operators are breaking their teeth trying to enter a market, which is owned mostly by well-established legacy carriers. The European aviation market is a very dynamic environment. It is composed of a multitude of airlines, most of which are old national flag carriers, challenged by their own lack of flexibility and new low cost airlines. The sky is littered with failed airlines such as Sabena or Swissair, faltering airlines such as Corsair, AF-KLM, Alitalia or Lufthansa, and flourishing airlines such as Iberia or Ryanair....

12Jun

By LeonardoTimesNo Comments

Aerodynamics and wind energy, Aviation

Large Eddy Simulation of Wind Farms

Numerical Experiments with Energy-Conserving schemes To predict the power produced by a wind farm, one must at least know the velocity of the air flowing through the farm. The wind velocity can be measured using meteorological masts with devices that can assess wind speed and direction a given point or even over a limited area. However, this data is not enough to study complex flow phenomena like gusts, kinetic energy transport, and the effect of the wind farm on local weather. This article explains the challenges involved in complementing experimental data with that from simulations. A wind farm consists of a cluster of wind turbines placed over a piece of land or at sea, that work together to produce electricity from the wind. The wind turbines are generally placed in a manner that...