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23 Nov 18. Queen’s researchers develop a quicker and more efficient system to prevent ice build-up on planes. Queen’s University Belfast researchers are preparing for winter and have developed a new system to prevent ice from building up on aircraft. When a plane travels through clouds in cold weather, layers of ice can form on its wings, propellers or jet intakes. This can increase drag and reduce lift, which may lead to loss of control of the aircraft. A number of fatal aircraft accidents have been attributed to the build-up of ice over wing surfaces. The conventional anti-icing system on most passenger aircraft is based on hot air which is ‘bled’ from the engines and piped to the inner surface of the wing. The heat is then transferred to the outer surface by thermal conduction, which stops the ice from building. This system adds weight and maintenance requirements, and is not energy efficient, particularly on the new generation of composite aircraft. A team of experts at Queen’s have developed a more efficient alternative – an ultra-light weight heater, based on ‘webs’ made from carbon nanotubes (CNT) – which can also be used for de-icing.
Professor Brian Falzon, from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering led the Queen’s team to the discovery and the research has been published in the journal Carbon.
He explains: “This research is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and forms part of a larger research programme aimed at developing the aircraft structures of tomorrow. We started by creating a ‘CNT web’, where individual CNTs are aligned in the draw direction, and horizontally stacking 10-40 layers of the webs, at different orientations, to achieve the desired heating characteristics. Each layer of CNT web can be as thin as 1/2000 the thickness of a human hair and the weight of a web large enough to cover a football field would be less than 30 sheets of A4 photocopy paper. These CNT webs were cured within a thin glass fibre laminate to provide structural support, and connected to a power supply.”
Professor Falzon continues: “When we carried out testing, we discovered that the newly developed CNT heaters achieved rapid heating which shows that the CNT heaters could quickly de-ice aircraft and provide effective ice protection in flight.”
Dr Xudan Yao, a PhD student from China, worked on the project under the supervision of Professor Falzon and Professor Stephen Hawkins. She said: “Compared with state-of-the-art heating systems currently used on aircraft, the CNT heater that we have created at Queen’s is lighter, provides rapid and more uniform heating and is more energy efficient. It is also more flexible in terms of fitting the shape and performance of any surface or power requirement to achieve rapid anti-icing and de-icing. It has been fascinating to be involved in this project. We have managed as a team to come up with a light-weight and efficient alternative, which could mean that aircraft can now be protected from ice more effectively.”
The team is developing further research on the system and it is hoped that it will be in use within a few years.
21 Nov 18. Kontron offering VX305C-40 Gb computers with 40 Gb Ethernet data plane. Kontron will begin first customer shipments of a new 3U (rack unit) VPX single-board computer by the end of November. The VX305C-40 Gb integrates the 12-core version of the Intel Xeon®-D processor architecture and represents a significant jump in performance as Kontron transitions from a PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) data plane to a 40 Gb Ethernet data plane. Kontron plans to begin production of the new system by end of the first quarter of 2019. The VX305C-40 Gb is intended to provide a new level of performance to battlefield server-class computing and digital signal processing (DSP). The new system is based on Kontron’s 8 core VX3058 board. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
21 Nov 18. AOC 2018: US Army looks to tactical edge encryption requirements. As part of the Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) concept being explored by the US Army, planners are revising the encryption requirements at the tactical edge of combat operations. At a media briefing, during the army’s recent Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 18.2 in November, army officials described the exploration of a ‘sensitive but unclassified’ philosophy concerning data at the lowest tactical echelons.
‘The army came to the realisation that, in order to take a radio down to that lowest level, and give it Level I, highest encryption to put secret information across, reduces range, increases power consumption, increases complexity and increases cost’, explained Col Charles Roede, deputy commander for the US Army’s Joint Modernization Command.
He added: ‘Even if the soldier who has that radio identifies his specific PLI [position location information], by the time that message is intercepted, potentially translated or decoded, and sent to someone who can bring an effect to bear on that location, that soldier is no longer there. They have moved.’
These findings helped shape the sensitive but unclassified concept. He explained further that whilst the information is sensitive and the aim is to protect it – the data does not need the highest level of encryption because once the enemy is in position to challenge the data it is no longer pertinent.
Roede was quick to note that the thought process was only being applied at the company level and below, offered, ‘at battalions and above we think that the risk goes up. Those battalions are relatively less mobile that companies, platoons and squads.’
He said that, within the army’s emerging ITN architecture, the introduction of a one-way Cross Domain appliance allows PLI data to enter the classified network secret feed that goes to battalion levels and higher.
‘It’s still encrypted with AES-256 commercial grade encryption’, added Col Bert Shell, chief of the Joint Modernization Command Network Integration Division. ‘That is secure enough to protect even some of our banking systems. By the time a nation state could get access to that encryption and the algorithm you are using, by the time they get that information, that information has already perished’.
Shell continued: ‘In the past we have always said that we had to be secret down to the tactical edge. And in doing so we added a little more cost to the radios… and it was too much to protect the information exchange that was at that lowest echelon.’
He continued that the army is utilising the technology and the commercial encryption is providing the service with a lot of flexibility from an interoperability point of view. (Source: Shephard)
21 Nov 18. UMS SKELDAR and ESG Demonstrate MUM-T. UMS SKELDAR has joined forces with partner ESG to complete a range of successful exercises with the German Armed Forces demonstrating for the first time the capability of Manned – Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) between the Unmanned Mission Avionics Test Helicopter (UMAT), based on the SKELDAR R-350, and the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) Bell UH-1D Huey manned helicopter.
As part of a live demonstration, ESG Elektroniksystem und Logistik GmbH and UMS SKELDAR revealed their technological expertise for system integration and mission systems in the field of manned and unmanned aerial systems. Proving the tactical benefits of UAV deployment in operations, the demonstration realised the increase in reach and forward reconnaissance of manned platforms to potentially dangerous situations including frontline battlespace.
ESG carried out joint demonstration flights of the (manned) mission equipment carrier (MAT) on behalf of the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Federal Armed Forces (BAAINBw) at the airfield of the Wehrtechnische Dienststelle WTD-61 (Bundeswehr Technical and Airworthiness Centre for Aircraft), Manching Air Base, near Munich.
In the joint exercise, the German Army Aviation experimental pilot took the role of Mission Commander, co-ordinating with in-air displays to monitor the UMAT payload data / video stream, as a UMAT position on a Sense & Avoid display / moving map. ESG proved how a UAV teamed with a manned helicopter can be controlled as an Unmanned Wingman on a command basis.
“By partnering with UMS SKELDAR, we have successfully demonstrated to the Bundeswehr a range of manned-unmanned teaming missions,” explains Christoph Weber, head of the Business Unit Defense and Public Security for ESG Elektroniksystem und Logistik GmbH. “This proved both the comprehensive functionality of the manned/unmanned platforms as well as the secure communication and data transmission over the appropriate data links.”
Missions included the provision of reconnaissance data from a location, exploration of forest perimeters between positions and the clarification of possible landing zones for the helicopter. These highly complex tasks were only possible thanks to the high degree of automation of systems in the unmanned UMAT platform, including route, sensor and data link management. The route planning took place, for example, considering threats, flight areas, sensor characteristics and data link coverage.
Axel Cavalli-Bjorkman, CEO of UMS SKELDAR explains: “This demonstration project is a significant development and is testament to our enduring relationship with ESG and the long-term partnership with the German Armed Forces in delivering flexible and mission-proven UAV assets. Throughout, we provided real evidence of the development of appropriate technologies and procedures for a wide range of deployment scenarios of the joint Manned-Unmanned team for the German Armed Forces.”
The flights were a key milestone in the project MiDEA (mission monitoring by drones for reconnaissance), forming an integral element of the ESG MUM-T (Manned-Unmanned-Teaming) programme and VTOL-UAS technology roadmap. (Source: UAS VISION)
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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