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This paper deals about the importance of composites as engineering materials which is reflected by the fact that most of the materials which are available in the market are composites. These composites replaced cast iron and bronze alloys due to their poor wear and seizure resistance. Due to the wide choice of materials, today's engineers are posed with a big challenge for the right selection of a material and the right selection of a manufacturing process for an application. There are more than 50,000 materials available to engineers for the design and manufacturing of products for various applications. In the present study, based on literature review, the effect of Boron Carbide particle reinforcements are finding increased applications in aerospace, automobile, space, underwater and transportation applications. This is mainly due to improved mechanical and tribological properties like strong, stiff abrasion and impact resistant and it is not easily corroded. In a review of different researchers have been made to consolidate some of the aspects of mechanical and wear behaviour of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites reinforced with Boron Carbide particles.

The above referenced paper has been removed from publication. (March 10, 2020) Copyright © 2020 by ASME

Thin-walled tubular Crash box are extensively used as energy absorbers in numerous automotive and aerospace applications as a result of their higher energy absorption capacity. In past lot of research has been done on crash tubes. Crash box of various cross section/shape and materials have been analyzed. Some researchers have done quasi-static analysis whereas some have gone for dynamic analysis. Just in case of energy absorption through dynamic impact, Speed of impact & momentum of impact are influential factors. The dimensions viz. lengths, width, wall thickness, material, and loading conditions were also varied. Crash box with metallic/structural foam filling, multi-cell or tapered crash boxes have also been studied for axial or oblique loading conditions. Some researchers have used finite element based software's for their study while others used experimental method. Review of all the above factors & their effect on energy absorption capability of tubes is taken into account during this paper, based on which the parameters will be selected for further research.

This paper presents a project conducted at Bombardier Aerospace aimed at shortening span time and reducing duplicated effort during design. The current design processes were modeled at a high level of detail and analyzed for opportunities for improvement. After investigation of the critical paths and duplicated tasks, suggestions were proposed to add resources to critical tasks and to eliminate duplicated tasks by having only one department do them for all departments. Simulation of the suggested scenarios showed that span time could be reduced by more than 20% with almost no change in effort.

The Aerospace Force: Defending America in the 21st Century is a white paper and a key pillar to the new Air Force Vision. At the dawn of the new millennium, the Air Force is directing its strategic vision to meet the nation's requirements within a rapidly changing world. As a key pillar to the strategic vision, this document presents the Air Force view of the future of aerospace power. It pays tribute to those who led the Air Force into the air and then into space, and challenges the leaders of the next generation to take advantage of the synergies inherent in aerospace capabilities. It provides the conceptual foundation for the full spectrum aerospace force and establishes the context for the Aerospace Integration Plan that outlines the next steps the Air Force will take on its aerospace journey. The message of The Aerospace Force applies to the entire Air Force community, but this document is primarily for those of you who will be a part of, and will lead, the Air Force in the 21st Century. To succeed as tomorrow's aerospace leaders, your charge is to continue molding our air and space capabilities into a seamless force. Your support in the integration of air and space systems will lead to advances in our warfighting capabilities, new concepts of operations, and new technologies throughout the aerospace continuum. Your legacy will be a full spectrum aerospace force that is organized, trained, and equipped to control and exploit the aerospace continuum. It is our mission and our future-take us there.

With its contribution to trade, its coupling with national security, and its symbolism of U.S. technological strength, the U.S. aerospace industry holds a unique position in the Nation's industrial structure. Federal science and technology policy and Federal scientific and technical information (STI) policy loom important as strategic contributions to the U.S. aerospace industry's leading competitive position. However, three fundamental policy problems exist. First, the United States lacks a coherent STI policy and a unified approach to the development of such a policy. Second, policymakers fail to understand the relationship of STI to science and technology policy. Third, STI is treated as a part of general information policy, without any recognition of its uniqueness. This paper provides an overview of the Federal information policy structure as it relates to STI and frames the policy issues that require resolution.

Model-based fault detection, identification and reconfiguration (FDIR) methods rely on the idea of analytical redundancy in which, in contrast to physical or hardware redundancy, real physical measurements are complemented with analytically computed redundant variables. A standard method to analytically detect the existence of a failure is to look for anomalies in the plant's output relative to a model-based estimate of that output generating a signal called residual. If the generated residual includes enough information to precisely identify the fault, then it can be used to ameliorate the fault effects or help degrade the performance of the system in a controlled fashion. Model-based FDIR methods have been studied and matured in Academia during the last 20 years but in the realm of the aerospace domain they have not achieved the desired attention due to the critical nature of faults and the difficulty of testing, verifying and validating the resulting designs. In this paper, main efforts by Deimos Space to bring these methods to a mature stage for industrial utilization and deployment are reviewed with emphasis on H ∞ optimization FDI technology.

Design for assembly is the concept of carrying out critical thought early in the design stage to create assembly easement at the production stage. In the aerospace industry, products have very long lives, frequently being optimised rather than introducing new products. This has meant older products, which are stable income generators, have not benefited from the latest design for assembly methods and manufacturing technology suffers from obsolescence. It has been established that a large percentage of overall product cost is determined at the design stage; thus, existing products suffer from preloaded costs. This paper takes existing design for assembly methodologies and analyses them with respect to the unique challenges involved in legacy product redesign. Several novel factors that contribute to redesign analysis are identified such obsolescence impact and a holistic operation difficulty assessment. A tool is developed to identify potential redesign for assembly projects. The tool is demonstrated through the application of real data and comparing against business decisions. The tool was found to provide a strong indication of where profitable projects may be launched.

The increase of internal temperature capability of electrical machines is a major challenge for building high power density actuators for many applications in transport systems and in aerospace industry. Today, the main limit is the thermal class of the organic Electrical Insulation System (EIS), but a breakthrough toward very high temperature is possible with inorganic insulation technologies. An inorganic EIS is proposed and tested for designing motors able to work permanently up to 500 °C in the heart of windings. After a review of several high temperature (HT°) insulation solutions, the paper focuses on currently available ceramic-coated wires insulated with a very thin inorganic layer, which is a favorable solution for high current densities in machines of small sizes. The electrical limits of this technology are investigated, the weak points of the HT° wire are circumvented using impregnating cements able to provide adequate mechanical and electrical properties up to 500°C for designing HT ° electrical machines fed by a standard PWM inverter connected to the HVDC bus of the more electric aircraft, for example.

The IEEE wishes to announce the publication of a new journal dedicated to the expanding field of guided wave technology. The first issue is scheduled for publication in March 1983 and quarterly thereafter for the remainder of 1983. In 1984, bimonthly publication is planned. This new journal is intended to be the principal forum for publication of guided light technology papers and recognizes the growth and importance of this technology area. Participating IEEE Societies include: Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Circuits and Systems, Communications, Computers, Electron Devices, Instrumentation and Measurement, Microwave Theory and Techniques. Quantum Electronics and Applications, and Sonics and Ultrasonics. Wide distribution is planned through the Optical Society of America and the IEEE, and the pricing of the journal to subscribers will further ensure a circulation to a large number of individuals and institutions.

International audience; Purpose-Aerospace actuation systems are currently tending to become more electrical and fluid free. Methodologies and models already exist for designing the mechanical and electrical components but the actuator housing design is still sketchy. This paper proposes preliminary design models of actuator housing that enable various geometries to be compared without requiring detailed knowledge of the actuator components. Design/methodology/Approach-The approach is dedicated to linear actuators, the most common in aerospace. With special attention paid to mechanical resistance to the vibratory environment, simplified geometries are proposed to facilitate the generation of an equivalent formal development. The vibratory environment imposes the sizing of the actuator housing. Depending on the expected level of details and vibration boundary conditions, three levels of modeling have been created. Practical Implications-This approach is applied to a comparison of six standard designs of linear actuator geometries after validation of the consistency of the different models. Early conclusions can be drawn and may lead to design perspectives for the definition of actuator architecture and the optimization of the design. Finding-This article shows that the vibrations induced by aircraft environment are not design drivers for conventional hydraulic actuators but can be an issue for new electromechanical actuators. The weight of the latter can be optimized through a judicious choice of the diameter of the housing. Originality/value-This article has demonstrated the importance of the vibratory environment in the design of linear actuator housing, especially for electro-mechanical actuators with important strokes. Developed analytical models can be used for the overall design and optimization of these new aerospace actuators.

Additive manufacturing offers several potentials such as the freedom of design, part consolidation, function integration, or time and cost-savings. These potentials make AM interesting for industries such as aerospace, automotive and medical implants, and are also seen as enables for the creation of entirely new business models. Additive manufacturing has the potential to change the current manufacturing landscape substantially and has attracted much attention of industry and academia over the last decades.However, these developments require improvements concerning the technology itself and its successful implementation into the value creation chain. Driven by the promising market opportunities and upcoming technological developments, many research activities started.This paper presents a literature review of publications from the last 20 years. Based on this analysis, the evolution of the AM research landscape is portrayed. The research landscape is organised into four areas: machine and process, material, digital process chain and methodology. The paper summarises developments in each of these areas and concludes by presenting current and discussing future research topics.

This paper gives a brief overview of investigations into the strength, reliability, and life of aerospace and power engineering structures conducted along the following reseach line of the Institute of Technical mechanics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the State Space Agency of Ukraine: the strength, reliabiliyty, and optimization of mechanical systems, launch vehicle, and spacecraft. The basic literature sources of 1991–2021 are cited. A more detailed consideration is given to the results obtained in 2014–2021 and published (monographs, articles indexed in international citation databases, and international conference papers). They involve the simulation of deformation of inhomogeneous material, in particular concrete, in heat-and-power engineering structures, the life estimation of shell structures of rocket/space hardware in the presence of stress concentrators in the form of openings, inclusions, and cracks, and the development of a methodological basis for the strength, reliability, and life of launch complexes for launch vehicles of different spacecraft classes. The methodological stages of calculation are considered, and high-intensity thermomechanical loads are classified. The life of launch complexes is determined using the notion of low- and high-cycle fatigue. Consideration is given to the development of fast projection-iteration schemes of the finite-element method and the method of local variations, which significantly reduce the computational time and may be used to advantage when a large body of calculations is needed in the design and development of new aerospace hardware and power engineering structures with the use of experiments at the developmental stage. In doing so, the effect of inelastic deformations in the vicinity of cutouts is analyzed. A numerical simulation of the strength and stability of inhomogeneous shell structures with the use of the above-mentioned new computational schemes is considered. Investigations of this type first of all involve inhomogeneous thin-walled shell structures at local loads and the effect of reinforcing inclusions on stress and strain concentration.

We are living in a time where the emphasis is given on the development of new and improved materials having high strength and are correspondingly light in weight for application in fields such as transportation, aerospace, medical and other such related areas. These new materials developed need to be processed and joined with oneself and other materials as well. The paper presents a brief understanding of the advanced joining processes namely friction stir welding, microwave hybrid heating, electron beam welding, laser beam welding, thermo-hydrogenated diffusion bonding, electromagnetic welding and ultra sonic welding. The purpose of these advanced joining techniques is to increase the efficiency of the joining process and prevent failure. The objective of this review paper is to provide an insight into the principles, current trends and research gaps in advanced joining techniques.

This is a review paper on 3D printing, its significance, and future scope in the aircraft industry.In this article, additive manufacturing is compared with traditional manufacturing in the context of the aircraft industry that gives more accurate knowledge about how additive manufacturing is more effective in terms of cost-cutting, waste prevention, customization, and large-scale production. We will go into the need for 3D printing technology, how it has taken in step over other manufacturing process and are being used for a host of different applications. The paper gives sufficient information about various types of material used in additive manufacturing with the applications, examples, requirements, and process moreover some overview of limitations as well. How Rapid tooling is used with a different process to reduce time and get more productive and efficient parts for the aircraft industries. The use of 3D printing technology in the aircraft industry plays a major role and gained immense applications. It has greatly affected the production line due to its flexibility and ease of production. It is capable of producing intricate parts, a more resilient and lightweight structure that achievesa weight reduction of 40-60%, subsequently result in a leaner cost structure, material saving, and lower fuel consumption.The last section deals with the future scope of additive manufacturing in the aircraft industry with various parameters design aircraft wings, complex design parts, additive manufacturing in space. More companies and the aerospace industry continue to see the value of 3D printing and begin developing on-site 3D printing operations and investing in the technology.

Additive manufacturing (AM) promises a major transformation for manufacturing of metallic components for aerospace, medical, nuclear, and energy applications. This perspective paper addresses some of the opportunities for alloy and feedstock design to achieve site-specific and enhanced properties not attainable by conventional manufacturing processes. This paper provides a brief overview of the role of powders, as well as solidification and solid-state phase transformation phenomena typically encountered during fusion-based AM. Three case studies are discussed that leverage the above to arrive at microstructure control. The first case study focuses on approaches to modify the solidification characteristics by in-situ alloying. The second case study focuses on the need for concurrent design of alloys and processing conditions to arrive at the columnar to equiaxed transition during solidification. The third case study focuses on the design of a cobalt alloy for AM, with emphasis on tailoring liquid and solid state phase transformations. The need for comprehensive knowledge of processing conditions during AM, in-situ and ex-situ probing of microstructure development under AM conditions, and post-print processing, characterization, and qualification are articulated for the design of future alloys and component geometries built by AM.

Product development projects, especially in the aerospace industry, still suffer from significant cost and schedule overruns. Many researchers and scientists focused first on process and tools to shorten the time and reduce the cost of new product development projects. The results were far from resolving this issue. Thus, the focus was reoriented toward enhancing the accuracy of estimates. Thereby, a large number of research papers were published regarding effort and time estimation in new product development. Most of them are modeling based on the use of some specific drivers for estimation matter. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no rules or frameworks about which drivers are relevant to use and which are not. This paper proposes a new and original framework that characterizes and organizes effort and time drivers in aerospace product development. The aim is to identify and support the understanding of most relevant drivers for aerospace product development effort and time. The framework was developed based on an extensive literature review and a postmortem analysis of cost and time overruns of a significant product development program in the aerospace industry. The final list of the frameworks’ drivers was validated and refined using a survey. Results suggested that, beside risks and uncertainty, technologies maturity, degree of change in design, ambiguity of requirements, functional decompositions, severity of standards, process overlapping and variety of key stakeholders drive effort and time as complexity drivers while processes maturity, experience with technology, risk management, change management, level of trust in suppliers and team skills drive effort and time as proficiency drivers.

Coal remote sensing technology was founded in the period of coal resources survey after the founding of People’s Republic of China. Aerophoto Grammetry & Remote Sensing Bureau of China National Administration of Coal Geology was established, specializing in the application and promotion of coal remote sensing technology. With the rapid development of coal geological exploration in China, coal remote sensing technology has evolved from coal geology based survey to comprehensive survey that factors in resources, environment, ecology and so on. This paper summarizes the general situation, theories, development process, key research and future of remote sensing technology for coal mining in China. Spanning over 50 years, the history of China’s coal remote sensing technology can be divided into five stages: aero-geological mapping, coal remote sensing theory experimental research, application research and promotion, architecture planning and productionisation, “3S” technology integration and application. This paper expounds the main technical progress, application fields, major projects and major achievements in various historical periods, and points out that the coal remote sensing has entered a unified development stage of “Aviation, Aerospace and Ground”, with a focus on high-resolution remote sensing, hyperspectral remote sensing, radar remote sensing, “3S” technology integration and multi-means comprehensive exploration and evaluation. In the future, coal remote sensing technology will develop rapidly in data mass, technology integration, evaluation intelligence, integration application programming, system visualization, etc. Coal remote sensing technology has entered the industrial development from technology application.

Electro-hydraulic control valves are key hydraulic components for industrial applications and aerospace, which controls electro-hydraulic motion. With the development of automation, digital technology, and communication technology, electro-hydraulic control valves are becoming more digital, integrated, and intelligent in order to meet the requirements of Industry 4.0. This paper reviews the state of the art development for electro-hydraulic control valves and their related technologies. This review paper considers three aspects of state acquisition through sensors or indirect acquisition technologies, control strategies along with digital controllers and novel valves, and online maintenance through data interaction and fault diagnosis. The main features and development trends of electro-hydraulic control valves oriented to Industry 4.0 are discussed.

This paper presents a review of recent research inventions in the field of supersonic particle deposition (SPD) additive manufacturing (AM) technology. The SPD, also known as cold spray, is a coating technique that has gained popularity recently because of its ability to apply multi-component coatings. The SPD has the potential to revolutionize the global parts manufacturing and logistics landscape. The state-of-the-art, rapidly emerging cold spray manufacturing technology is an alternative to traditional additive manufacturing (AM) based on powder melting. It enables the rapid fabrication of parts that have properties similar to the parts developed by conventional manufacturing. In this paper, the history and process of SPD are explained. A broad background of metallic SPD AM is provided. SPD parameters, including substrate and particle properties, are discussed. Common challenges in creating consistent SPD coatings as well as challenges specific to metal and ceramic SPD are discussed. This paper explores the material science, processes, and performance gain. Several applications of SPD, including nuclear, aerospace, and electrical industries, are discussed.

As one of the most important additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, laser metal deposition (LMD) has been extensively studied specially during the last few years. Similar to other AM techniques, the quality of LMD parts is highly dependent on the processing parameters that need to be optimized so as to obtain geometrically accurate parts as well as favorable microstructures and, thus, mechanical properties. The present review paper therefore aims to present a critical analysis and overview of the relationship between processing parameters, microstructure, and mechanical properties of LMD components made from the Ti–6Al–4V alloy. Moreover, we discuss the applications of LMD parts in the aerospace and biomedical industries as well as the potential of LMD techniques for fabrication of more complex parts such as cellular structures. The paper concludes with a summary of the most important findings and suggestions for future research.

In this paper, a high-level methodology for the transition to environmentally sustainable practices in the manufacturing industry is developed. The methodology presented in this paper is at the conceptual level and is developed to be applicable to a wide array of industrial settings. The sustainability transitioning methodology provides decision-makers with a roadmap timeline for the methodical decision-making to adopt environmentally sustainable technologies and practices. This is accomplished through integrating two key tools for the selection of new technologies: the technology readiness level, and the ease of implementation versus the impact analysis. The proposed methodology informs decision-makers of the priorities and the perceived impact of the potential technologies. Test and validation are carried out with a case study from the United Kingdom’s aerospace sector. Results from the case study revealed that applying the methodology could influence decision-makers to approve or dismiss the use of new technologies.

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. The Aerospace Industry has been undertaking strategic changes towards digital manufacturing. One of the challenges is the lack of rationalisation for a cost-benefit analysis of automating certain manufacturing and assembly processes within a customer order. The rigidness and complexity of aerospace lifecycle, and tight industry restrictions does not leave much room for high risk innovations in manufacturing and production lines. This research addressed this problem by investigating an automation adoption scenario with BAE Systems, Electronic Systems, which is a UK based aeronautical systems integrator. This paper reports findings from the general manufacturing industry via an industrial survey. These findings are compared with original findings from an empirical study carried out with BAE Systems within the New Product Introduction team to automate product transportation logistics in an environmental test facility. The paper describes the challenges particularly related to skills, and labour workforce required to manipulate heavy standing products in and out of a production line and how their requirements can be addressed within an automation solution package. The solution includes key design factors related to intricate handling of aeronautic systems via the gripping interface design, and the rest of the operational issues surrounding the testing objectives such as transportation, and test setup. The findings are presented in the form of a requirements analysis for businesses looking to automate manually-intensive tasks in the future, and provide some insights into the lessons learnt in the development of the solution to benefit UK manufacturing tactics to some similar challenges. European Commission (improving the design of flexible and responsive manufacturing systems involving autonomous and Collaborative Robots (CoRoT, Project No: 99)), in collaboration with and co-sponsored by BAE Systems.

In this paper, we describe the needs and specific requirements of the aerospace industry in the field of metal machining, specifically, the concept of an edge-computing-based production supervision system for the aerospace industry using a tool and cutting process condition monitoring system. The new concept was developed based on experience gained during the implementation of research projects in Poland’s Aviation Valley at aerospace plants such as Pratt &amp, Whitney and Lockheed Martin. Commercial tool condition monitoring (TCM) and production monitoring systems do not effectively meet the requirements and specificity of the aerospace industry. The main objective of the system is real-time diagnostics and sharing of data, knowledge, and system configurations among technologists, line bosses, machine tool operators, and quality control. The concept presented in this paper is a special tool condition monitoring system comprising a three-stage (natural wear, accelerated wear, and catastrophic tool failure) set of diagnostic algorithms designed for short-run machining and aimed at protecting the workpiece from damage by a damaged or worn tool.

Switchable thermal insulation, in the form of an opaque panel that alternates between thermally conductive and insulated states, can be an effective means of regulating the thermal environment by selectively transferring heat between the indoor and outdoor environments. Pioneering work has been undertaken by researchers to develop switchable insulation technologies intended for applications in the built environment, automotive, and aerospace, where conventional space heating and cooling technologies are either too bulky or too energy consuming to meet design requirements. Switchable insulation technologies are in their infancy and the emerging research on this topic is unstructured and fragmented across disparate application sectors and very few of the adaptive insulation concepts and technologies are actively being pursued by the buildings research community. The aim of this paper is therefore to advance the understanding of switchable insulation for possible applications in the building envelope, by reviewing and classifying the existing technologies systematically, with a particular focus on their working principles, theoretical performance and improvement opportunities. The paper provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the most promising switchable insulation technologies for building envelopes and identifies the opportunities for further research in each of the technologies.

There has been a growing need for high specific power electrical machines for a wide range of applications. These include hybrid/electric traction applications, aerospace applications and Oil and Gas applications. A lot of work has been done to accomplish significantly higher specific power electrical machines especially for aerospace applications. Several machine topologies as well as thermal management schemes have been proposed. Even though there has been a few publications that provided an overview of high-speed and high specific power electrical machines [1-3], the goal of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive review of high specific power electrical machines with special focus on machines that have been built and tested and are considered the leading candidates defining the state-of-the art. Another key objective of this paper is to highlight the key “system-level” tradeoffs involved in pushing electrical machines to higher specific power. Focusing solely on the machine specific power can lead to a sub-optimal solution at the system-level.

Carbon-epoxy composite materials, due to their high strength in relation to mass, are increasingly used in the construction of aircraft structures, however, they are susceptible to a number of damages. One of the most common is delamination, which is a serious problem in the context of safe operation of such structures. As part of the TEBUK project, the Institute of Aviation has developed a methodology for forecasting the propagation of delamination. In order to validate the proposed method, an aerial structure demonstrator, modelled on the horizontal stabilizer of the I-23 Manager aircraft, was carried out. However, in order to carry out the validation, it was necessary to "simplify" the demonstrator model. The paper presents a numerical analysis conducted in order to separate from the TEBUK demonstrator model a fragment of the structure, which was used to study the delamination area, as an equivalent of the whole demonstrator. Subcomponent selection was carried out in several stages, narrowing down the analysed area covering delamination in subsequent steps and verifying the compliance of specific parameters with the same parameters obtained in a full demonstrator model. The parameters compared were: energy release rate values on the delamination front line and strain values in the delamination area. The numerical analyses presented in the paper were performed with the use of the MSC.Marc/Mentat calculation package. As a result of the analyses, a fragment of the structure was selected, which allows to significantly reduce the time and labour consumption of the production of the studied object, as well as to facilitate experimental research.

The paper highlights the changes in the requirements for training of engineering personnel in connection with the rapid development of new machine-building technologies. Along with traditional engineering knowledge and skills, this training should provide the development of students’ competencies in the field of computer technology for design automation, production preparation. It is noted that the rich practical experience of engineers and teachers of the older generation in new conditions becomes obsolete; they can hardly acquire the rapidly changing computer systems of scientific research of subject areas, new technologies, such as 3D graphics and engineering analysis of structures, the system digitalization of production technologies as a whole. To train specialists of a new generation, technical universities should provide: modern educational and laboratory facilities including various computer and controller systems; applicants who have sufficient basic background and technical aptitude; high-skilled teaching staff specialized in modern computer technology willing to upgrade their teaching skills and personal qualifications. The paper dwells on the state support measures for universities to improve personnel training for high-tech industries, which include as a priority the system of personnel training for the military-industrial complex. The authors present an accumulated experience of the Aerospace Institute of the Orenburg State University in the area of stage-by-stage construction of modern educational and laboratory facilities, the formation of student contingent, retraining and raising qualification of the teaching staff, interaction with employers and partners.

Purpose This paper aims to provide details of the growing uses of robots by the aerospace industry. Design/methodology/approach Following an introduction, this paper discusses and highlights the benefits of the following robotic applications and technologies: drilling and riveting; painting and stripping; composite structure manufacture; three-dimensional printing; and in-service engine inspection. Finally, brief conclusions are drawn. Findings Robots are increasingly being used by the aerospace sector in a diversity of applications. They confer a number of significant benefits including reduced costs, manpower and timescales, improved quality and novel manufacturing capabilities. The market is forecast for rapid growth as new applications emerge. Originality/value This paper illustrates the growing importance of robots in the aerospace sector.

Manipulation of deformable linear objects (DLOs) has potential applications in the fields of aerospace and automotive assembly. In this paper, we introduce a problem formulation for attaching a set of interlinked DLOs to a support structure using a set of clamping points. The formulation describes the manipulation planning problem in terms of known clamp poses; predetermined ideal clamping locations on the cables, called “reference points;” and a set of finite gripping points on the DLOs. We also present a prototype algorithm that generates a solution in terms of primitive manipulation actions. The algorithm guarantees that no interlink constraints are violated at any stage of manipulation. We incorporate gravity in the computation of a DLO shape and propose a property linking geometrically similar cable shapes across the space of cable length and stiffness. This property allows for the computation of solutions for unit length and scaling of these solutions to appropriate length, potentially resulting in faster shape computation. Note to Practitioners —This paper was motivated by the problem of automated robotic installation of electrical wiring into an aircraft fuselage. This process typically involves the alignment of a set of long cables along the side of the fuselage with temporary fasteners, followed by final clamping. The cables are connected to each other through electrical interlinks at certain intervals, and cannot be treated as independent entities during installation. Previous approaches have addressed the problem of motion planning for only a single DLO; these methods would fail to model interlinked DLOs. Here, we present a mathematical formulation for modeling the installation process as a manipulation planning problem. This approach would generate a plan to complete the installation process using a finite set of primitive actions. We demonstrate the use of this algorithm to produce plans for installation of cables into an aircraft fuselage, using specifications for an actual aircraft in production.

Prognostics and health management (PHM) is becoming one of the most popular topics for research and development in the aviation industry. The reasons for this are varied, but one of the main ones is that PHM affords the operator with a way to reduce lifecycle operating costs without necessarily adding expensive accessories that might need to be certified. Many of the papers in this special issue discuss PHM techniques that are based on post flight, or off-board, data processing that adds benefits without additional regulatory constraints. On the other hand, regulators themselves are keenly looking at changing regulations to allow more PHM equipment on board and to allow suppliers and operators to gain maintenance credits from their use. All in all, it is a exciting time to be a engineering working on these topics in the aviation sector. While progress is being made in developing better sensors, models, and analytical methods, the field of aviation itself is changing rapidly. It is seeking to become more sustainable by increasing propulsion efficiencies, it has many players looking to develop and commercialize electrical systems, and it is fast undertaking a digital transformation of the entire ecosystem. In response, system developers and researchers in the field are working on a number of key technologies and methodologies to solve some of the issues that these changes have wrought. This special issue on PHM for Aerospace Systems provides a forum to discuss recent advances pertaining to papers that address topics in this field with an emphasis on Prognostics and Health Management. These topics include advances in anomaly detection and diagnostics, uncertainty management for prognostics, resilient design for fault-tolerant operations, systematic evaluation of PHM for maintenance processes, assessment of retrofit solutions for particular aircraft systems, PHM informed decision-making for safe operations of autonomous aerial systems, impact of noise on prognostic performance, and lessons learned from trends in aircraft fatigue failure accidents for Structural Health Monitoring. We hope that this special joint issue of the International Journal of PHM and SAE International Journal of Aerospace will increase the awareness about innovations in the development of PHM technologies in aerospace and believe that this inspires researchers to focus more attention on this important topic. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the reviewers of this issue who have generously contributed their valuable time and effort to ensure that it lives up to the Journal’s high quality.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of doping element on the microwave absorption performance of hexagonal nano boron nitride (h-nBN)-reinforced basalt fabric (BF)/epoxy composites. A new type of hybrid composite that will be produced by the use of boron nitride as an additive that leads to increased radar absorption capability will be developed and a new material that can be used in aeronautical radar applications. Design/methodology/approach This study is focused on the microwave absorption properties of h-nBN doped basalt fabric-reinforced epoxy composites. Basalt fabric (BF)/epoxy composites (pure composites) and the BF/h-nBN (1 Wt.% h-nBN doped composites) hybrid composites were fabricated by vacuum infusion method. Phase identification of the composites were performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), the 2θ scan range was from 10 to 60 with the scanning speed of 3°/min and surface morphologies of the composites were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Microwave properties of samples were investigated through transmission/reflection measurements in Agilent brand 2-Port PNA-L Network Analyzer in the frequency range of 3–18 GHz. The prepared sample is positioned between two horn antennas with and without metal plate. Findings Experimental results show that h-nBN doped composite was synthesized successfully and the produced hexagonal nano boron nitride-added fiber laminated composite material has good absorption behavior when they are used with metallic sheets and good for isolation applications at many points in the 3–18 GHz band. Originality/value This paper will contribute to the literature on the use of basalt fabric, which are new types of fibers, and hexagonal nano boron nitride and the effects of boron nitride on radar absorption properties of composite material. It presents detail characterization of each composite by using XRD and scanning electron microscopy.

GeMini is a high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer designed for planetary-science exploration. GeMini serves as the basis for instruments being flown on three upcoming deep-space missions: NASA’s mission to the M-class asteroid (16) Psyche, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency sample-return mission to the moons of Mars, and NASA’s Dragonfly mission that will land on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. These science missions require high-resolution spectroscopy in a low-power, low-mass, rugged design that can survive in a variety of environments. GeMini addresses these needs by providing a cryogenically cooled crystal of high-purity germanium that can operate with as little as 10 to 20 watts, depending on the implementation and mission, and has a mass of less than 2 kg. GeMini helps determine the elemental composition of planetary bodies by measuring gamma rays emitted from the surface. This paper describes the mechanical, thermal, and electrical design of GeMini as well as its performance. It also describes testing that was performed to validate the design with respect to launch loads and radiation damage. Although the basic design of GeMini is common to all three missions, each planetary body has unique environmental conditions and mission specifications. This paper concludes by describing these upcoming missions and how GeMini is customized for each.

This Special Issue reports some papers in the extended version originally presented at 2020 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Aerospace ( http://www.metroaerospace.org )—MetroAeroSpace. The papers are related to the measurement methods and instruments for aerospace applications. This field of measurement science and technology is exciting for its rapid development and the opportunities given for broken the borders of the knowledge, in particular, for space exploration.