Contoured rotor blade flies faster
ROTARY-WING Sikorsky has patented a new rotor blade design for a high-speed compound rotorcraft with a contrarotating coaxial rotors and auxiliary propulsion. The blade has a unique planform in which chord increases to a maximum at around 70% radius then reduces towards the tip, resulting in a contoured, scimitar-like trailing edge. In Sikorsky's high-speed rotorcraft, at speeds up to 250kt (460km/h), the advancing blades of the upper and lower rotors produce lift while the retreating blades are offloaded. Compared with conventional helicopter rotors, the advancing blades encounter higher tip Mach numbers while more of the retreating blades are immersed in reverse flow. Aerofoil distribution and twist gradients along the new blade's span are tailored for tip speeds greater than M0.9 on the advancing side and up to 80% reverse flow on the retreating side.
www.sikorsky.com
In-wheel brake and motor saves fuel
TAXI Delos Aerospace hopes to announce the first application of its electromagnetic aircraft braking and ground manoeuvring system, on a very light jet, later this year. The Ashburn, Virginia-based company's in-wheel electric motor/generator system provides electromagnetic braking using permanent magnets in the brake rotors, while also generating electricity to recharge the lithium-ion batteries used to power the wheel-hub motors during taxiing. Delos says the in-wheel motor/generators are powerful enough to manoeuvre any size of aircraft on the ground, 160kg (350lb) of batteries storing enough power to taxi a Boeing 747-400 for 45min, and would allow the aircraft's engines to be shut down from landing to take-off, saving fuel.
www.delosaerospace.com
TILES links text to satellite images
INTELLIGENCE California based-Geosemble Technologies has won a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract for a system to link online data sources with satellite imagery. The Text-to-Image Linking and Embedding System (TILES) "will superimpose summaries of related news articles and online information on top of target imagery", providing the information chronologically. Users could view a satellite image and automatically find and apply online text, video and mapping intelligence to the location.
www.geosemble.com
Modelling helps cabins stay cool
DESIGN A mathematical model that predicts temperatures within aircraft cabins and equipment pods has been developed by Scottish consultancy RFT Systems. The company says its model predicts the heating and cooling required to maintain cabin temperature throughout all phases of flight. The model first sizes the heating and cooling systems based on worst-case steady-state environments then dynamically models the cabin through typical flight profiles to determine the system response required. Farnborough Aircraft has used the model to size and specify a vapour-cycle system for its prototype Kestrel.
www.rftsite.co.uk
E1553 expands databus for video
UPGRADE The US Air Force has completed an operational assessment of Extended 1553 databus technology in a Lockheed Martin F-16, demonstrating roughly 100 times higher throughput over existing wiring without interfering with legacy 1553B databus operations. The flight test was a step towards use of E1553, developed by Kanata, Ontario-based Edgewater Computer Systems, to upgrade aircraft for high-speed data such as video. E1553 increases existing databus capacity from 1Mb/s to as much as 200Mb/s.
www.edgewater.ca
China developing a wingship
CROSSOVER A wing-in-ground-effect (WIGE) aircraft is under development at Shanghai based-Tongji University, according to Chinese media. With a design payload of 4,000kg (8,800lb), top speed of 162kt (300km/h) and maximum altitude of 16ft (5m), the aircraft is claimed to consume half to two-thirds of the fuel of an "ordinary aircraft" while carrying "more weight" and being up to six times faster than an ocean-going ship. The report says further development could lead to a 50-seat prototype by 2013, with future versions able to carry up to 400,000kg by 2017.
Source: Flight International
