Aircraft Sales and Parts

Calm excitement filled the ground control station. Engineers stared intently at their computer screens as the pilot, sitting next to them, flexed his fingers on the controls. Ground crew tending the aircraft finished putting away their equipment. Preparations for the first flight of the unmanned X-48B Blended Wing Body research aircraft were complete. Years of research, design, construction, wind tunnel and ground tests coalesced into this one moment of time.

Filed under: Uncategorized by ScienceDaily: Aviation News - Comments Off

An engineer has helped find a way to "cut the chatter" in high-speed machining of aluminum and titanium aircraft parts. Chatter in milling is an instability that arises because the cutting tool vibrates, making oscillating patterns on the work piece. The tool goes over the patterns, making the tool vibrate even more, yielding deeper patterns in the work piece, worsening until eventually the chatter destroys the tool or work piece.

Filed under: Uncategorized by ScienceDaily: Aviation News - Comments Off

Aircraft wings and dashboards are shaped in metal molds. These have to be 'greased', just like cake tins, before each molding process so that the plastic parts can be extracted at the end. A permanent coating has been designed to provide help in future. Baking a cake without greasing the tin is usually a disaster: The cake cannot be taken out in one piece. The same principle applies to the manufacture of fiber-reinforced plastic parts such as aircraft wings. Before the engineers can pour the mixture of resin, plastic and textile fibers into the metal mold, they have to apply four to six layers of release agent -- mostly by hand.

Filed under: Uncategorized by ScienceDaily: Aviation News - Comments Off