Model Airplanes

Star Trek’s replicator technology is coming to a galaxy near you. Next week, Hawthorne-based SpaceX will carry the first 3-D printer into space, where NASA hopes astronauts will one day be able to print replacement parts on long-distance missions.

“[W]e could go from having a part designed on the ground to printed in orbit within an hour to two from start to finish,” NASA’s 3-D printing project manager Niki Werkheiser said in a statement. “The on-demand capability can revolutionize the constrained supply chain model we are limited to today and will be critical for exploration missions.”

The Royal Canadian Air Force has quietly turned to an unusual source for spare parts to keep its venerable search-and-rescue airplanes flying: a museum.

The Citizen has learned that, in July 2012, air force technicians raided an old Hercules airplane that is on display at the National Air Force Museum of Canada because they needed navigational equipment for a similar aircraft still in use.

The revelation highlights the difficulties military personnel have increasingly faced in keeping Canada’s ancient search-and-rescue planes flying after more than a decade of government promises to buy replacements — with no end in sight.

The air force museum is on Canadian Forces Base Trenton and boasts a large collection of military aircraft that have been retired and subsequently placed on display.

Among them is an E-model C-130 Hercules transport aircraft that entered service in 1965 and was used in a variety of roles before being retired in 2010 and given to the museum the following year.

Museum curator Kevin Windsor said classified equipment is typically taken off the display aircraft, but otherwise the museum tries to keep the aircraft as close to operational as possible to give visitors an authentic experience.

It was during his Windsor’s second week on the job that the search-and-rescue squadron at CFB Trenton contacted the museum’s executive director, retired lieutenant-colonel Chris Colton, to see if they could go through the Hercules.

In particular, Windsor said, they were looking for two inertial navigation units that they could take from the museum’s airplane and install in one of their H-model

Article source: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/royal-canadian-air-force-raided-museum-for-search-and-rescue-airplane-parts

The starting point in any analysis of a potential aircraft modification is to answer the question: Is this a major alteration or a minor alteration?  This is a complex topic unto itself that we will be exploring in an upcoming article. But, if we over simplify, the bottom line is that major alterations require approved data, a 337 Form and the associated FAA review while minor alterations only require acceptable data and a logbook entry by your mechanic.

So, let’s get back to those seats.  As soon as she explained the situation, I asked her to check and see if the new seats were actually from a later model Cessna.  And here’s why:  In most cases, modifying any aircraft with parts or components from a later model aircraft is automatically a minor alteration. Why? Because the very definition of a major alteration is based on making a change that is not part of the type design of the aircraft. 

The type design is essentially the type certificate; how the aircraft was certified.  So, if you are retrofitting something already covered under the type certificate of that aircraft, chances are that it can be done as a minor alteration.  That certainly does not apply in all cases, and I would also point out that it is incumbent on the mechanic to ensure that the work is done in exact accordance to the drawings and details of how the item was installed and supported in the later model.  Upgrading only part of a

Article source: http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/September/11/mystery-upgrades-and-opportunities

At the University of Virginia, engineers are printing airplanes.

Three-dimensional printing is the production, or “printing,” of actual objects, such as toys or parts for devices, by using a machine that traces out layers of melted plastic in specific shapes until it builds a piece to the exact specifications of a computer-aided drawing produced by a designer.

With the increased availability of user-friendly computer programs and 3-D printers, that designer can be anybody. Eventually, almost any object, or parts for objects, may become 3-D printable – even including body implants – in a range of materials, including metals.

U.Va. engineers and engineering students are using sophisticated 3-D printing technology to make an array of objects, including a plastic airplane for a Department of the Army project.

David Sheffler, a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in U.Va.’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and 20-year veteran of the aerospace industry, teaches 3-D printing to engineering students. He recently took some time to discuss the future of 3-D printing in industry and society.

Q: Please explain the 3-D-printed, hand-launchable, fully autonomous, unmanned aerial vehicle named “The Razor,” on which you are working with the Mitre Corporation. It appears to be built with off-the-shelf hardware, using an Android smartphone as the central processor.

Sheffler: We were asked to help investigate the feasibility of producing a UAV with the same capabilities in speed, flight time and payload as other systems currently deployed by the military that could be 3-D-printed and utilize non-proprietary hardware for the

Article source: https://news.virginia.edu/content/fixes-fly-uva-expert-weighs-3-d-printed-airplanes-and-more-0