Aerospace

The small lithium-metal and lithium-ion batteries we use everyday can pose big safety problems on aircraft, especially when carried as bulk cargo. This video shows the intensity of those fires when just a few batteries enter a state known as thermal runaway. FAA engineers at the William J. Hughes Technical Center have quantified the risks and are now testing methods to potentially mitigate them.

Pratt & Whitney is poised to realize its decades-long goal of introducing the geared turbofan into commercial service, with certification of the PW1100G-powered Airbus A320neo achieved on November 24, and the PW1500G-powered Bombardier CSeries expected to follow within weeks.

Complex or risky tasks in flight testing or training can be simulated in the aircraft using a virtual display in the cockpit.

More engine types, more demonstrators planned under Europe’s second, larger public-private research initiative, Clean Sky 2.

Lightweight textile-based approach to blastproofing baggage containers could lead to wider market acceptance of device to protect airliners from terrorist bombs.

Flutter-suppression X-56 crashes; laser IDs target by vibrations; new venture to commercialize morphing structures; Airbus helo R&D in the U.K.; Iceye’s low-cost radar imaging from space.

Ten milestones on the road to hypersonics, from the first aero-engines to the wedge-shaped lifting body.

Airplane speeds rocketed ahead in the first 60 years of flight, but today most of the world’s fastest aircraft are in museums. How did that happen?

Since launching the Leap program, GE-Snecma joint venture CFM has added more engines to support Airbus, Boeing and Comac, partly to reduce risk as production begins.

General Electric is targeting the general aviation and business turboprop market with an engine using an integrated gas generator and propeller control.

Embraer Executive Jets has announced that the Legacy 500 midsize aircraft has set two new world speed records for its class, totaling six in 2015.

Tough lessons from Afghanistan fuel next-generation virtual training targets.

PowerPoint and whiteboards don’t cut it for teaching the new generation to fly, crew and maintain aircraft. This is what the military and civilian aviation worlds are doing about it.

As insurgents use drones for tactical missions, counter-drone systems deploy to neutralize them.

New students will soon be able to learn with a virtual instructor in an immersive environment as part of a new private-pilot curriculum soon to be released by Redbird Flight.

Wing-morphing adaptive-control surfaces have the potential to boost airfoil performance over a wide range of angles of attack, indicated airspeeds and Mach numbers.

GE's advanced turboprop represents an all-out assault on the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6's dominance of the business and general aviation turboprop market, and it builds on the bridgehead established with the smaller H80 engine.

Darpa program takes commercial tablets, digital communications and high-performance computing and enables air and ground forces to coordinate close air support using shared situational awareness.

Ten years in the making, Cobalt’s five-seat Co50 emerges first as an experimental aircraft with a plan for certification by 2017.

Insitu launches UAV from UAV; Airbus flies diesel helo; 3-D printing a fast-jet UAV; NASA explores Prandtl’s wing; XTI takes crowdfunding step.

Fatima Beyina-Moussa, CEO of ECAir, Equatorial Congo Airlines, chaired the proceedings of the 47th General Assembly of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) held this week.

Air Zimbabwe is to host the next African Airline Association (AFRAA) annual general assembly (AGA), which will take place on 20-22 November 2016, writes Victoria Moores.

Google X executive sets 2017 as the target date to begin commercial deliveries by unmanned aircraft, but will the technology and the airspace be ready by then?

Works in the Atlantic Council’s War Stories From the Future depict “how emerging antagonists, disruptive technologies, and novel warfighting concepts may animate tomorrow’s conflicts.”

Embraer is now assembling the first of its next-generation E2 regional jets and the programme is on track, the company's boss said at the Dubai Airshow yesterday.