Currently viewing the tag: "Aerospace"

The Dangers of Outsourcing

On November 13, 2015 · In Case Studies, Engineering, Manufacturing

“Outsourcing” is a loaded term. In today’s globalised world it has become to mean many things – from using technology to outsource rote work over the internet to sharing capacity with external partners that are more specialised to complete a certain task. However, inherent in the idea of outsourcing is the promise of reduced costs, […]

Continue Reading →

What Creates Lift – How Do Wings Work?

On October 10, 2015 · In Aerodynamics, Engineering, General Aerospace

How airplanes fly is one of the most fundamental questions in aerospace engineering. Given its importance to flight, it is surprising how many different and oftentimes wrong explanations are being perpetuated online and in textbooks. Just throughout my time in school and university, I have been confronted with several different explanations of how wings create […]

Continue Reading →

The Navier-Stokes Equation

On August 6, 2015 · In Aerodynamics

The name we use for our little blue planet “Earth” is rather misleading. Water makes up about 71% of Earth’s surface while the other 29% consists of continents and islands. In fact, this patchwork of blue and brown, earth and water, makes our planet very unlike any other planet we know to be orbiting other stars. […]

Continue Reading →

NASA Langley Research Center

On May 22, 2015 · In General Aerospace, History

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of working on a research project at NASA’s Langley Research Centre. Apart from interacting with world-renowned scientists and engineers, what impressed me most was the mind-blowing heritage of the site.

NASA Langley is the birthplace of large-scale, government-funded aeronautical research in the US. It was home to […]

Continue Reading →

Big Data in Aerospace

On March 26, 2015 · In General Aerospace, Technology

“Big data” is all abuzz in the media these days. As more and more people are connected to the internet and sensors become ubiquitous parts of daily hardware an unprecedented amount of information is being produced. Some analysts project 40% growth in data over the next decade, which means that in a decade 30 times the […]

Continue Reading →

Variable Stiffness Composites

On January 27, 2015 · In Composite Materials, Novel Materials/Tailored Structures

In previous posts I have discussed the unique characteristics and manufacturing processes of a certain type of composite material, namely continuous fibre-reinforced plastics (FRPs). Just like many other composite materials, FRPs combine two or more materials whose combined properties are superior (in a practical engineering sense) to the properties […]

Continue Reading →

The Airline Metro System

On January 17, 2015 · In General Aerospace, Technology

When I was travelling in Chile a short while ago I took a flight from the capital Santiago de Chile to the city of Calama in the Atacama dessert. What was interesting about this flight, was that on its way to Calama the airplane landed for a short stop in Copiapó. Immediately after leaving the runway […]

Continue Reading →

Human Fallibility in Aviation II: Case Study

On October 15, 2014 · In Case Studies, General Aerospace, History

Vanity Fair recently featured an excellent article on Air France Flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009. It is a long read, but if you have 30 min to spare it will be a great educational investment.

The author, William Langewiesche, does a good job at weaving multiple aspects of […]

Continue Reading →

Human Fallibility in Aviation

On September 6, 2014 · In General Aerospace

This blog has focused much on the technical side of aviation. One of the biggest drivers in civil aviation is passenger safety and the last 40 years have brought tremendous advances on this front, with aviation now being the safest mode of transport. A lot of this has to […]

Continue Reading →

Loads Acting on Aircraft

On February 2, 2014 · In General Aerospace

The flight envelope of an aeroplane can be divided into two regimes. The first is rectilinear flight in a straight line, i.e. the aircraft does not accelerate normal to the direction of flight. The second is curvilinear flight, which, as the name suggests, involves flight in a curved path with acceleration normal to tangential flight […]

Continue Reading →