Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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21 Jan 21. Abaco Systems Announces the MAGIC1A, a High Performance Embedded Computer with a Modular, Scalable Approach to System Design and Architecture. Abaco Systems, Inc. announces the MAGIC1A, a high performance embedded computer (HPEC) with a modular, scalable approach to system design and architecture; based on 3U-VPX technology. The MAGIC1A improves on a legacy design and delivers the latest in graphics and computer processing in a rugged SWaP-C3 display computer, which ensures seamless integration and showcases Abaco’s commitment to an extensive technology roadmap. This small factor system provides cutting edge processing and graphics, which meets rugged computer needs for industrial and military customers.
The MAGIC1A serves as an upgrade to its predecessor (the MAGIC1) by delivering increases in power supply capability, an enhanced removable hard drive, and a more modular approach to system design allowing for upgrades over time. It provides increases in CPU and GPU performance, with the Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6 (Quad Core) @ 3 GHz base frequency, up to 4.0 GHz Turbo Boost, and the NVIDIA® Pascal ™ Quadro® P2000 GPU with 768 cores, 4GBytes of GDDR5 memory and CUDA® support, capable of delivering up to 2.3 TeraFLOPS of floating point performance. The MAGIC1A features harsh environment survivability and reliability.
The MAGIC1A provides a fully capable next generation, rugged, mission computing platform with enhanced processing, modern communication interfaces and mission proven Avionics platform IO. The MAGIC1A is assembled and integrated from the factory, then delivered to the customer ready for their software application to be installed. Its upgrades ultimately remove costly development and integration schedules while delivering high quality, fully functional hardware, allowing more time to focus on software and intellectual property, as well as avoiding the risk of system obsolescence.
Pete Thompson, VP of product management for Abaco Systems, Inc. said, “Abaco is committed to leading the industry in commercial off the shelf rugged processing by paying close attention to technology advancement, quality and design. The MAGIC1A delivers on this commitment by providing high end computer processing in a small, off the shelf, rugged package prepared to perform.” (Source: PR Newswire)
22 Jan 21. Airbus unveils its helicopter Flightlab to test tomorrow’s technologies. Airbus Helicopters has started in-flight tests on board its Flightlab, a platform-agnostic flying laboratory exclusively dedicated to maturing new technologies. Airbus Helicopters’ Flightlab provides an agile and efficient test bed to quickly test technologies that could later equip Airbus’ current helicopter range, and even more disruptive ones for future fixed-wing aircraft or (e)VTOL platforms.
Airbus Helicopters intends to pursue the testing of hybrid and electric propulsion technologies with its Flightlab demonstrator, as well as exploring autonomy, and other technologies aimed at reducing helicopter sound levels or improving maintenance and flight safety.
“Investing in the future remains essential, even in times of crisis, especially when those innovations bring added value to our customers by targeting increased safety, reduced pilot workload, and reduced sound levels,” said Bruno Even, Airbus Helicopters CEO. “Having a dedicated platform to test these new technologies brings the future of flight a step closer and is a clear reflection of our priorities at Airbus Helicopters,” he added. Flight tests started last April when the demonstrator was used to measure helicopter sound levels in urban areas and to particularly study how buildings may affect people’s perception. First results show that buildings play an important role in masking or amplifying sound levels and these studies will be instrumental when the time comes for sound modelling and regulation setting, especially for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) initiatives. Testing was pursued in December to evaluate the Rotor Strike Alerting System (RSAS) aimed at alerting crews about the imminent risk of collision with the main and tail rotors. Tests this year will include an image-detection solution with cameras to enable low altitude navigation, the viability of a dedicated Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) for light helicopters, and an Engine Back-up System, which will provide emergency electric power in the event of a turbine failure. Testing on the Flightlab will continue in 2022 in order to evaluate a new ergonomic design of intuitive pilot flight controls intended to further reduce pilot workload, which could be applicable to traditional helicopters as well as other VTOL formulas such as UAM.
The Flightlab is an Airbus-wide initiative, which reflects the company’s approach to innovation focused on delivering value to customers. Airbus already has several well-known Flightlabs such as the A340 MSN1, used to assess the feasibility of introducing laminar flow wing technology on a large airliner, and the A350 Airspace Explorer used to evaluate connected cabin technologies inflight.
21 Jan 21. Thales unveils three quantum technologies set to revolutionise the world of tomorrow.
- Thales welcomes France’s ambitious quantum plan, which is crucial to supporting research in this sector.
- Thales researchers are playing a central role in the quantum revolution and are now developing the next generation of quantum solutions that will shape the world of tomorrow: quantum sensors, quantum communications and post-quantum cryptography
- Using cold atom technology, flawed diamonds and superconducting devices, the Group’s teams are combining their efforts to harness unexploited properties of matter and unleash a whole host of new opportunities.
- As a major player in the Saclay ecosystem and Europe’s leading industrial research laboratory in the field of physics, Thales is continuing to team with academia, industry and the start-up community to accelerate the development of sovereign quantum technologies
Accelerating the development of these technologies thanks to the France’s quantum plan
Thales welcomes the ambitious quantum plan launched by the French government, which will speed the development of the promising, sovereign technologies of quantum sensors, quantum communications and post-quantum cryptography.
The Group continues to invest 1 billion euros annually in self-funded R&D, pushing back the limits of the possible and helping to sustain the excellence of French and European research to serve Thales customers.
Quantum sensors: augmenting and expanding human senses to better understand our environment
Smart homes, self-driving cars, automated trains, air traffic control, Industry 4.0, new energy sources, connected medical devices and services, latest-generation defence and security systems… None of this would be possible without the countless types of sensors that exist in the world today.
Sensors come in all shapes and sizes. From the simplest meat thermometer in the kitchen to the most sophisticated radars used in air traffic surveillance, sensors play a crucial role in improving human understanding of the world we live in.
In an environment that is more and more connected and digital, quantum sensors augment and expand human senses to create new knowledge. Research is underway at Thales laboratoriesinto several types of sensors:
- Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) are being extensively studied today with a view to developing miniature quantum antennas to detect communication signals over a very large portion of the radiofrequency spectrum and offer a competitive advantage, particularly at low frequencies. These superconducting devices could have applications in a wide range of areas, including brain imaging and particle detection.
- Solid-state quantum sensors, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamonds, have demonstrated their ability to measure extremely subtle magnetic fields. This type of ultra-sensitive sensor could be used in numerous applications, ranging from bio-sensors to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and detection of defects in metals.
- Rare earth ions will be used to characterise and process radiofrequency and optical signals. Continuous, wideband radiofrequency spectrum analysers based on rare earth ions offer a way to relieve network congestion and optimise frequency utilisation — frequencies being a scarce resource — and could also have applications in military intelligence.
- Thales is also exploring the use of cold atom technology in future quantum inertial navigation systems for aircraft. At present, an aircraft taking off from Paris equipped with only a conventional inertial navigation system can land in New York with a precision of within a few kilometres. With future quantum sensors, aircraft will be able to navigate and land with a precision of within one metre.
Quantum sensors have a promising future in a broad range of sectors. New, ultra-sensitive, miniaturised magnetometers will revolutionise medicine, with numerous applications ranging from new-generation miniaturised MRI systems to diagnosis of brain tumours or changes in cognitive functions.
The key role of quantum communications: making communications completely trustworthy and managing future networks of quantum objects
In a digital economy where communications play a vital role, and with the relentless increase in data rates in fixed and mobile communication systems, quantum technologies will make it possible to secure communications with inviolable cryptographic keys based on the quantum properties of light. The principle of quantum communications has been established for some time in point-to-point networks, but the quantum Internet of the future will need to apply these concepts to large-scale networks. Thales is pioneering the design of these future network architectures, both for ground-based network elements and for the space-based components needed to share cryptographic keys over long distances. Thales is part of EuroQCI, a large-scale European project working to deploy a quantum secured network of this type to establish an ultra-secure Europe-wide network for sharing sensitive data.
Beyond quantum secured communications, quantum data such as qbits, the basic units of quantum information, could be shared across a quantum information network. This type of network could interconnect systems such as quantum sensors and quantum computers, leveraging quantum physics to build integrated systems delivering order-of-magnitude improvements in performance. Although it will be some time before these systems are available, the basic building blocks of quantum information networks, such as quantum memories, entanglement sources and protocols, are already being designed.
Post-quantum cryptography: acting today to protect our systems from the quantum computers of tomorrow
Communications security is a strategic necessity for governments, businesses and private citizens. Today, communications security mainly uses RSA crypto-systems, which rely on the difficult mathematical problem of breaking down a number into its prime factors. The algorithm for future quantum computers thatcould break RSA encryption, undermining the rationale behind existing cryptographic techniques, is already known. Thales is building on its experience in information systems security to develop alternative encryption methods using other mathematical problems to withstand quantum computers. These methods, combined with the use of quantum keys, will provide deeper, more persistent and more unconditional protection for our data assets.
20 Jan 21. AFRL and AFLCMC stand up facility to investigate in-flight oxygen issues. The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) have partnered to stand up a facility to investigate in-flight oxygen issues.
The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) have partnered to stand up a facility to investigate in-flight oxygen issues.
Named ‘Life Support Systems Scientific Test, Analysis, and Qualification Laboratory’, the new facility is completely accommodated within AFLCMC.
The new laboratory will majorly focus on the test and validation of current and next-generation systems.
It will also investigate the root causes of oxygen-related ‘unexplained physiological events’.
The laboratory comprises three test chambers to simulate an aircraft’s interior and exterior under ‘ambient’ temperature and humidity conditions.
AFRL OBOGS Test and Validation Laboratory programme manager Brian Lukey said: “This new laboratory will help both AFLCMC and AFRL keep airmen healthy and flying, avoid the loss of the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft, and to accomplish high-tempo, world-relevant missions.
“Together, these two world-class organisations form a team with expertise spanning basic research to fielding modern aircraft.”
During recent years, some airforce pilots have been experiencing physiological issues such as shortness of breath, confusion, and wheezing during flight.
These ‘hypoxia-like symptoms’ have threatened airmen, as well as aircraft, and resulted in the grounding of assets.
The possible cause of the problem was identified as On-Board Oxygen Generation Systems (OBOGS).
OBOGS Research and Development Team lead George Miller said: “We set up our one-of-a-kind OBOGS research, development, test, and evaluation laboratory here in the AFRL 711th Human Performance Wing starting in 2014 to investigate the cause for pilot physiological events, conduct OBOGS research, and guide developers in creating the best future systems for our airmen.
“In the meantime, we began receiving requests from AFLCMC to evaluate aircraft incident OBOGS and life support equipment using our unique test capabilities to determine if they were a factor in the physiological events. We were glad to assist the aircraft program offices in their investigations.” (Source: airforce-technology.com)
21 Jan 21. ANGOKA leads innovative drone security project, securing the future of flight. IoT security start-up partners with Cranfield University and Connected Places Catapult to protect drone communications. ANGOKA Ltd, a Belfast cybersecurity start-up, has partnered with Cranfield University and Connected Places Catapult in an exciting project to support and protect the future of drones and autonomous flying vehicles.
This project has been awarded funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Future Flight Challenge, part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, with an aim to revolutionise aviation and drone usage.
Drones are poised to become ubiquitous devices – they do not require runways, can be small and agile, and can hover over and survey areas that might be too risky for humans. Their commercial potential is staggering, and already companies like Wing (a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company) and Amazon are beginning to explore this market. Delivery of goods and medicine, search and rescue and infrastructure, agricultural and environmental monitoring are just a few of many use cases that will soon propel drones into everyday life, for business and personal use.
However, for drones to truly take off, there needs to be a way to ensure that the communication crucial to controlling and flying the drones is protected. Without this key element, drones are at risk of being hacked and hijacked by nefarious actors, endangering not only the mission of the drone, but the environment around it. Securing drone communication ensures that national infrastructure, such as airports and mobile towers, is also protected.
The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Authentication System (UASAS) project brings together these three collaborators to create an authentication system that will provide a trusted identification service for drone usage. This system will protect communications from potentially devastating cyberattacks. Trusted identification will allow organisations to ensure that drones are flying in the right zones and without adverse effects to other parties, increasing overall confidence in drone technology.
21 Jan 21. Second B-21 Under Construction. Production of a second B-21 stealth bomber is underway at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Palmdale, Calif., while the first Raider is expected to roll out in early 2022 and fly in the middle of that year, according to Randall Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
The Air Force predicted it could fly the secretive B-21 for the first time in December 2021. But in an exclusive interview with Air Force Magazine, Walden said that forecast was always a best-case scenario, and that first flight in mid-2022 is now a “good bet.”
The first Raider hasn’t yet reached final assembly, he said, but is “really starting to look like a bomber.” A second plane, now moving down the production line, will allow the Air Force to vet the airframe, Walden said.
“The second one is really more about structures, and the overall structural capability,” he explained. “We’ll go in and bend it, we’ll test it to its limits, make sure that the design and the manufacturing and the production line make sense.”
Lt. Gen. James C. Dawkins, Jr., deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said Jan. 14 that the B-21 will be available for service around 2026 or 2027. According to the Congressional Budget Office in 2018, the Air Force estimated the cost of developing and buying the first 100 aircraft at $80bn in 2016 dollars.
The bomber leg of the nuclear triad is comprised of “B-52s and B-2s, and in another six or seven years, the B-21,” Dawkins said during a Heritage Foundation event on the nuclear-tipped Long-Range Standoff Weapon.
Lessons learned from producing the first airplane are being applied to the second, Walden said. That work is progressing “much faster” as workers figure out how to build the airplane in real life, rather than operating off of a blueprint’s assumptions. The team is creating more space for test aircraft as the two bombers come together, he added.
“It’s looking pretty good,” Walden said. “We’re very pleased with the … very high percentages of efficiency” in building the second aircraft, “as compared to No. 1.”
First flight will only happen after elaborate coordination with Northrop Grumman, major suppliers, and the test community to ensure “that we are ready to go,” Walden said.
“Just like any aircraft program, there’s going to be surprises” during engine runs and other prep work that could affect first flight, he said. “We will correct those as it makes sense.”
Program officials are trying to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic’s effects on the aerospace industry before they can drastically affect the B-21’s progress.
“Suppliers across the country are actively delivering parts to Palmdale and we’re doing what we can to help in that regard,” Walden said. The program is closely working with the supply base to ensure slower parts delivery don’t delay the airplanes at the same rate.
“It seems to be working quite well,” he said.
Spirit Aviation of Wichita, Kan., which supplies aerostructures on the B-21, shifted workers from Boeing’s 737 branch to the B-21 at the program’s request. That bolstered the B-21 effort by repurposing Boeing 737 MAX workers who otherwise would have been laid off, Walden said.
Orders for the MAX have dried up in the aftermath of that airplane’s two deadly crashes and the steep dropoff in air travel during the pandemic.
“The pandemic has slowed us in certain areas, but I think we have compensated,” Walden said. “I don’t think we’ve got significant delays to … first flight.”
Delays on the production line “will be mitigated,” he added, and any changes to the 2022 timeline will be communicated to Pentagon and congressional leadership. He believes the Air Force may bring more details about the bomber to light as its debut flight nears.
Walden also said the program is reducing risk by using a business-class jet as an avionics testbed, working out hardware and software kinks before transferring them to the B-21. Randall said it was analogous to Lockheed Martin’s Cooperative Avionics Testbed aircraft—nicknamed CATbird.
“We’re getting a lot of good feedback” from this effort, Walden said. The business jet is flying “real B-21 software” and helping illustrate how sensors and code will be added into the bomber test fleet.
“In the last few months, we did another successful end-to-end demonstration to further mature that hardware and software, and it’s working quite well,” Walden said. “We’re working not only in the flight test activities, but also working with the government test infrastructure to make sure that what we’re doing, from a system integration point of view, makes sense.”
“We’re preparing ourselves not just for first flight, but ultimately, the subsystem testing that will be required during those flight test phases,” he added.
Hardware and software will be vetted on the ground and in the air, and the bomber development team has “a lot of confidence” about powering up the first aircraft for its maiden voyage thanks to the risk-reduction efforts, Walden said.
As ranking member on the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) is one lawmaker tasked with oversight of the multibillion-dollar program that is among the Pentagon’s top acquisition priorities to counter other advanced militaries. In 2018, Wittman said the B-21 was experiencing thrust issues related to the bomber’s inlet and serpentine ducting.
Those issues were fixed, Walden said.
“Overall, what Congressman Wittman did bring up was an example of one of those ‘surprises,’” Walden said. “We made that work.”
He declined to discuss the technical details of the problem, but said the fix “required some … basic changes to the design, of which we have a good understanding today through ground testing and engine testing.”
“It looks like we have solved it and we are moving forward with that final design,” Walden said.
Raytheon Technologies’s acquisition of engine maker Pratt & Whitney hasn’t caused hiccups for the B-21, and the change has been transparent, he noted.
Walden also reported that the beddown program is going well, saying a recent industry day at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., to discuss military construction and other support projects was a success.
The Air Force plans to spend about $300m on military construction projects for the B-21 in fiscal 2022, Walden said, and $1bn over five years. The service requested $2.8bn for the plane’s research and development in fiscal 2021 alone, though the price tag is still evolving. (Source: UAS VISION/Air Force Magazine)
19 Jan 21. Honeywell, Curtiss-Wright Receive EASA Certification for 25-Hour Cockpit Recorder for the Air Transport Market. New Cockpit Voice Recorder receives EASA Technical Standard Order.
Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) and Honeywell (NYSE: HON) today announced that their 25-hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) developed for the air transport market has received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Technical Standard Order (TSO) certification. Based on Curtiss-Wright’s compact, lightweight Fortress® CVR technology, the new Honeywell Connected Recorder-25 (HCR-25) surpasses the requirements of the upcoming 2021 EASA minimum 25-hour cockpit voice recording mandate for aircraft weighing over 27,000 kilograms.
“The importance of reliable cockpit voice and flight data recorders cannot be overstated. That’s why we are working alongside Curtiss-Wright to design and develop the next generation of recorders that leverages our full hardware and software expertise to meet the 25-hour requirement, and identify the right information and make it available to accident investigation agencies when it’s most needed,” said Amanda King, vice president and general manager, Aerospace Connected Secure Solutions, Honeywell Connected Enterprise. “With the new regulatory requirement, we saw an opportunity to evolve our recorder technology to not only meet the conditions of governing agencies, but also make this product more powerful and better connected, providing aircraft operators with another source of data collection that can be used to improve aircraft maintenance and performance.”
“Both companies are pioneers and innovators of crash-protected recorders, providing flight recorders to the industry for over 60 years,” said Lynn M. Bamford, President and CEO of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. “Working together, we will take flight recorder connectivity and performance to new heights, with extended operation and greater survivability.”
Developed for customers that require Class 6 cockpit voice recorders, the HCR-25 CVR is ideal for both new installations and retrofit applications. It weighs less than 9.5 pounds (4.3 kilograms) and includes a 90-day underwater locator beacon.
Developing the Next Generation of Voice and Data Recorders
In 2019, Curtiss-Wright and Honeywell announced a partnership to develop a new way for airlines to monitor and analyze flight data. The companies signed an agreement to develop the next generation of mandate-compliant voice and data recorders, using real-time connectivity. This means the aircraft data can be used for more efficient operations, allowing for additional predictive maintenance and real-time playback of data and voice communications. Along with added connectivity, these next-generation recorders provide an easy upgrade that saves installation time and lowers costs due to being form-fit replacements for Honeywell’s HFR-5 series Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorders (FDRs).
As a source of critical aircraft data, “black boxes” passively collect large amounts of information from multiple sources during each flight. This ensures that in an accident, investigators can use the data to learn more about the chain of events leading up to it. This new recorder will serve as a “Black Box in the Sky”, meaning owners, operators and manufacturers can access the data at all times, resulting in the potential for better maintenance predictability and operational insight through data analytics. In addition, in an emergency, the data on board will be quickly accessible to investigators. As part of the development of the new recorders, Honeywell will offer the product in several variants, including as a standalone CVR, as a standalone FDR, or as a combined voice and flight data recorder. (Source: ASD Network)
20 Jan 21. Exovent Ventilator set for Mass Production. A new negative pressure ventilation assistance device using knowledge developed by Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group during the Covid-19 pandemic looks set to go into mass production thanks to a new partnership with Indian based ventilator manufacturer Skanray.
The non-invasive Marshall Exovent-19 prototype negative pressure ventilation assistance device was developed to provide additional treatment options for any patient with respiratory failure, including those with COVID-19, with the benefit of offering greater patient comfort as they don’t need to be asleep or have an artificial airway in place.
Marshall has shipped two of its protoype exovent machines designed and manufactured at its Cambridge headquarters, direct to Skanray who hopes to be able to use them, along with the supporting design information to develop a relatively low cost production model that can be rapidly approved and developed for mass distribution as quickly as possible. Once approved by the relevant regulatory bodies, the device will have wider applications beyond COVID for the treatment of patients with other respiratory conditions.
MADG Chief Engineer Mark Johnston explains: “We were approached early on in the pandemic by the exovent Task Force of academics and medics who had come up with the idea of developing a non-invasive, negative pressure ventilator to help address the potential shortage of ventilators for Covid-19 patients.
“We very quickly saw the massive benefits that the exovent could deliver and took the decision to offer up the services of our engineering and on-site manufacturing teams to help develop the concept into a fully functioning product.
“This involved the rapid understanding of the medical drivers that would make this a success. We very quickly came up with a prototype that allowed the medical team to gain first-hand experience of a realistic unit. That was a really great feat, from the start to the point at which the medics were able to get their hands on it was about four weeks in total.
“We could not have done that without the skills of our engineering and manufacturing teams working closely together. With the great feedback from that prototype we then matured the product and built four pre-production units that have gone through some stringent testing. These ranged from tests to ensure that the product does not interfere with other critical medical devices to how it can be effectively cleaned; both really important in an intensive care setting.
19 Jan 21. Orolia recently organized a series of flight tests to demonstrate and qualify capabilities of the GADSS global aircraft safety program’s end-to-end Emergency Locator Transmitter Distress Tracking (ELT-DT) system, including Orolia’s Ultima-DT solution.
With these successful flight test results and the exceptional performance of its Ultima-DT system, Orolia is now the world’s first industry supplier to offer a compliant solution to GADSS Autonomous Distress Tracking requirements, as required for new-built commercial aircraft after January 2023.
This major European initiative has been led by Orolia with the support of French and Spanish government partners such as France’s CNES, the Spanish and French Air Traffic Service Units, the Spanish and French Mission Control Centers, the Spanish and French Rescue Coordination Centers, as well as two major Airline Operation Centers from Air France and Iberia. This was the first opportunity to evaluate a system-level implementation of the new Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS), particularly its Autonomous Distress Tracking component (ADT).
This evaluation included Orolia’s Ultima-DT, the latest generation of Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) with Distress Tracking capability. The flight tests were conducted in a business jet, flying along a trajectory across Spain and France. The robustness of the alert and tracking transmission, which involves the Cospas Sarsat MEOSAR satellite constellation, as well as the performance of ground reception and distribution, were confirmed- even with extreme aircraft attitudes.
These tests also provided the opportunity to review some organizational and process aspects, in particular the insertion of the Distress Tracking process into the general aircraft alert management process, including communication between Air Traffic Service Units, Rescue Coordination Centers, and Airlines Operations Centers in France and Spain
Though test data still need to be applied to ongoing program development, preliminary results showed excellent system performance with 100 percent scores for the transmission/detection rate, as well as geo-location functionality. All stakeholders were able to receive distress information in a timely manner.
“This successful evaluation enabled all participants to collect large quantities of critical data in an accurate operational context. The maturity level of the GADSS distress tracking system, including Orolia’s Ultima-DT, has now been verified with the same level of reliable performance both in flight and on the ground,” said Christian Belleux, aviation product line director at Orolia. Ultima-DT was developed through the Helios initiative, with funding support from the European GNSS Agency under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, grant agreement No 687554.
15 Jan 21. USAF to develop detect and avoid capability with Sagetech and NPUASTS. Sagetech Avionics reports a US Air Force Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract for the initial development phase of components for a type-certifiable detect-and-avoid (DAA) system. The system is designed to enable UAS to safety operate beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) in the National Airspace System (NAS).
According to the Sagetech press release, the company is working in partnership with the University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation and the Northern Plains UAS Test Site for test flights and data analysis.
Under this Phase 1 contract, Sagetech will develop the ability to provide an acceptable safety case for tracking cooperative targets as part of an Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) solution, while not overloading the 1090 MHz spectrum. The results of this contract will enable Sagetech to further develop integrated low size, weight, and power (SWaP) ACAS-compatible DAA solutions for unmanned aircraft use in the anticipated Phases 2 and 3.
Unmanned aircraft expected to require certified ACAS Xu and ACAS Xr-based DAA systems include those weighing more than 55 pounds, flying above 400 feet and BVLOS. Examples of expected applications include air taxis, longer-haul cargo transport, ocean patrol, commercial agriculture, energy, and other military, commercial, and civil government applications.
“Just like manned aircraft, unmanned aircraft operating in the NAS will require type-certification. Compliant detect-and-avoid systems will be a key part of those certifications,” explained Tom Furey, CEO of Sagetech. “This contract enables us to continue the development and analysis of the critical technologies that will serve as a basis for these systems.”
For more information visit: www.sagetech.com (Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
18 Jan 21. Avon Protection launch intelligent heated undersuit. Avon Protection are pleased to announce the launch of the Core Intelligent, a heated undersuit which maintains diver body temperature in all water conditions.
Global Militaries are realising the impact of Non-Freezing Cold Injury (NFCI) and its effect to both training and operations. In the diving sphere the prevalence and diagnosis of this injury is on the rise, particularly with the adoption of diver propulsion systems and underwater vehicles.
The Core Intelligent undersuit is designed specifically to combat Non-Freezing Cold Injuries, and in turn, protect and maintain a diver’s operational effectiveness. This new capability is highly versatile and can be deployed to combat exposure in all environments, both sea and land. Core Intelligent consists of several autonomous heating zones located on the torso, hands and feet. Utilising active sensing, each zone is monitored by a sensor and can be heated individually or all at once to maintain the diver’s body temperature.
Compatible with both wet and drysuit diving systems or for use as a surface under-garment (small boat work etc.) Core Intelligent’s capability is the result of close collaboration with key military users and partnership with market leading industry manufacturer Santi.
Commenting on the launch Kevin Gurr, Maritime Technology Officer, at Avon Protection, said:
“Understanding the requirements of users has been the key to the successful development of the Core Intelligent undersuit; creating an intelligent thermal solution where users don’t have to compromise on mission endurance, decompression management or manoeuvrability. At Avon Protection we are continuously working with our customers worldwide to design, develop and deliver world leading capability to guarantee their safety and to equip them with the latest technology.”
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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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