Volume 01 | Issue 38 | March 15, 2021
eVTOL Flight Test Prep, Recycling Carbon Fiber, Fifth Generation Fighters Indo-Pacific

Welcome back to the Future of Aerospace, where each week we dive into a few of the trends rapidly defining the next generation of aircraft and aerial markets.

SpaceX launched another batch of 60 Starlink satellites early on Thursday morning as it increases the service area of its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. This week, SpaceX launched in beta testing in Germany and New Zealand, and is expanding beta service in the United Kingdom, SpaceX engineer Jessie Anderson said during Thursday’s launch broadcast.

A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 3:13 a.m. ET on March 11. After stage separation, the first stage booster landed on a drone ship about 8:30 into the mission. The Starlink satellites were deployed one hour and five minutes after liftoff. This was SpaceX’s 21st Starlink launch overall, and the launcher’s seventh mission of 2021. More on that here.


THIS WEEK: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will be testing with Joby Aviation in the coming months as a part of its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign (NC). In preparation for these flights, NASA is creating a blueprint for its flight plan using a Bell OH-58C Kiowa helicopter to simulate the hurdles AAM vehicles will face, according to the agency.
(Electrification and Sustainability)

Researchers at the University of Sydney have developed an improved process for recycling carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites that are featured in modern commercial airframes. (Advanced Manufacturing)

Adm. Phil Davidson, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told lawmakers this week that fifth generation fighters, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22, are vital to respond to future crises in the region.  (Public Policy)





Thanks for reading.

— The Future of Aerospace Team
How is NASA Preparing for Upcoming eVTOL Flight Tests?
Image: NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will be testing with Joby Aviation in the coming months as a part of its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign (NC). In preparation for these flights, NASA is creating a blueprint for its flight plan using a Bell OH-58C Kiowa helicopter to simulate the hurdles AAM vehicles will face, according to the agency.

“We need a vehicle that has a vertical lift capability to test our flight test plan and that flight test plan is basically the blueprint of moving forward with our vehicle partners,” Starr Ginn, NASA AAM NC lead, told Aviation Today. “It's to tease out what are going to be even some certification hurdles for the vehicles because the whole airspace architecture and infrastructure is built around the performance of the vehicle and so you got to come up with some minimum safety standard.”

What is NASA testing?
  • NASA is testing UAM task elements that address the gaps in FAA standards that are presented with this new technology.

  • “There's things today in the standards that don't speak to electric airplanes, right,” Ginn said. “My example I always give people is Part 33 is endurance testing for piston engines and when you read that and you look at doing a motor propeller test you're like one of these things doesn’t look like the other. So you have to understand the logic that went into that procedure but you have to come up with very different language.”

  • They are also working on terminal operations in which they are looking at steeper angle approaches for AAM aircraft to avoid obstacles.

  • “We're trying to understand when you do place these in an urban environment there is going to be obstacles, tall obstacles, to avoid,” Ginn said. “So we're looking at much steeper angle approaches but trying to also take into consideration pilot comfort. Monitoring the G's that were maneuvering, doing our maneuvers at or the bank angles or how far is the initial approach fix to the final approach fix, and how much does the airplane have the bank to get there. It's balancing vehicle performance and making sure you still have enough control margin and passenger comfort.”
In 2021 NASA will also be announcing more partners and collaborations for this project, Ginn said. They will be continuing to do test flights for these partnerships based on the readiness levels of their technologies.

“By the end of calendar year ‘21, we should be well in, it just depends on the readiness level of their technologies,” Ginn said. “What we're realizing is everybody's just at a different readiness level...We have all of ‘22 to be testing the entire calendar year. 2022 is kind of when NC-1 is supposed to be but what our team has been super adaptable to when people are ready and getting them ready.”


Read the full story here.
New Research Could Improve Recycling and Remanufacturing of Commercial Airplane Carbon Fiber
Image: University of Sydney

Researchers at the University of Sydney have developed an improved process for recycling carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites that are featured in modern commercial airframes.

A new study published by the Australian school outlines their method of recycling CFRP composites while maintaining up to 90 percent of their original strength, making them more viable for re-use in the airplane manufacturing process. Dr. Ali Hadigheh, who leads the University of Sydney's research team, told Aviation Today that the recycled composites, when their original strength is maintained, are suitable for airframe sections with "strong curvature or sharp edges."


What is the University of Sydney research team's new method for recycling carbon fiber composites?
  • "In this research, we are focusing on both recycling, and remanufacturing of composites from recycled carbon fiber. The main challenge with recycled carbon fiber (rCF) is that rCF is short, fluffy and discontinuous. Currently, rCF is mainly used in nonwoven forms using automated composite manufacturing techniques (ACMTs)," Hadigheh said.

  • "Nonwoven composites made of filamentous and random fibers can achieve fiber volume fraction (FVF) of maximum 30-40 percent. Methods such as carding, combing and grilling have been successfully used to improve orientation of fibers, however, these intense mechanical processes are likely to cause severe damages to the rCF. We have been working on this aspect as well and currently have a patent for realignment of fibers. This enables us to precisely control the fiber orientation and also push FVF of recycled composites to higher values which would be suitable for the use in airplanes," according to Hadigheh.

  • Hadigheh's research describes CFRP composites as anisotropic materials with high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion and wear resistance that makes them ideal for use in aircraft parts, wind turbines, automobiles and consumer products like laptops and smartphones.

  • As manufacturers across multiple verticals have increased the use of CFRP in new products, they have also increased associated waste, which is harder to recycle with CFRP because of the way it is developed.

  • Until now, however, the global manufacturing supply chain has found it challenging to recycle and reuse carbon fibers, especially in new airplane parts, because most of the existing recycling methods involve shredding, cutting or grinding the fibers in a way that wears the material down making it too weak materially to reuse in a new product.

  • Their method involves pyrolysis to break the carbon fiber material down using heat and oxidation, which uses higher temperatures to remove the chars imposed on the materials by the pyrolysis process.




Read the full story here.
Fifth Generation Fighters Vital to Respond to Future Crises in Pacific Theater, Commander Says
Image: Lockheed Martin

Adm. Phil Davidson, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told lawmakers this week that fifth generation fighters, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22, are vital to respond to future crises in the region.

“Certainly, fifth gen fighters, I would tell you, are the backbone of any of our planning for a crisis forward in the theater and would be needed at dispersed locations within the first and second island chain,” he said during a March 9 posture hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in response to a question from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).


How will fifth generation fighter jets provide the backbone of U.S. planning in the Indo Pacific moving forward?
  • The first island chain runs from the Kuril Islands through Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines to Borneo, while the second island chain runs from Japan south to the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Micronesia, Palau and Papua New Guinea.

  • “Alaska will soon have over 100 fifth generation fighters stationed there,” Sullivan said before Davidson’s remarks. “If you have the right mix of tankers, those assets could be in, for example, the South China Sea or Taiwan Strait within hours with the right tankers.”

  • Amanda Coyne, a spokeswoman for Sullivan, wrote in an email that U.S. Alaskan Command had told Sullivan’s office that there are 54 F-22s at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska (JBER) and that there will be 54 F-35As at Eielson AFB, Alaska “once the beddown is complete” for a total of 108 fifth generation fighters in Alaska. The Air Force has said that Eielson will have 54 F-35As by the end of this year.

  • In response to a question on the F-35 from Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) during a March 10 posture hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Davidson said that “fifth gen fighters, the F-35 and the F-22, are critical to any future war fight we might have in the theater.”
While the U.S. Air Force still is officially committed to buying 1,763 F-35As, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has said that he favors curtailing the F-35 buy and pursuing less costly options to deter China.

Read the full story here.
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