Model Airplanes

One day soon, before the end of this year, Steve Hinton will climb into the cockpit of one of the most significant fighters of World War II—one of the few World War II fighters he hasn’t flown—and take it up on what is likely the first flight of its type since 1946. Unlike all the other airplanes of that era that Hinton has piloted, this one’s a combat jet, the world’s first operational one, and the very Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) captured at Lechfield, Germany, in 1945 and later test flown at Wright Field, Ohio, by U.S. Army Air Forces Colonel Harold Watson. It will be the only authentic flying Me 262 in the world.

Original Jumo 004 engines have been undergoing restoration with improved metal parts for 14 years; the airframe, complete except for the cowlings, which will be added after the engines are installed, took 12. Warbird owners are known for long, loving, million-dollar restorations, but even in this wealthy community, an owner willing to undertake a project of this magnitude, running to the multi-millions, is as rare as the airplane itself.

Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, began in the late 1990s to assemble the collection now known as the Flying Heritage Combat Armor Museum (FHCAM) at Paine Field near Seattle. A philanthropist who founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science and financed the creation of SpaceShipOne, the Allen Telescope Array for extraterrestrial research, and most recently, the discovery of the wreck of the USS Indianapolis, Allen says he has

Article source: https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/paul-allens-warbirds-180967709/

(Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N) has still to complete flight tests on the newly certified 787-10 Dreamliner with General Electric Co (GE.N) engines, but has finished tests with Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (RR.L) engines, a Boeing executive said on Tuesday.

The U.S. jet manufacturer on Monday said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had certified the biggest model of the fuel-efficient Dreamliner for commercial use.

The first delivery, to Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIAL.SI) with Rolls-Royce engines, is due in the first half of the year and will be used on mid-length routes in the Asia Pacific region. United Airlines (UAL.N) is expected to accept the first 787-10 with GE engines in the second half of the year.

“We are complete with all flight testing required for the first deliveries to Singapore and the Rolls-Royce family,” Boeing 787 programme chief project engineer Bob Whittington told reporters on a conference call, speaking from Seattle.

“There is a little bit more testing to be done for the GE-powered airplanes a little bit later on.”

The 787-10 has 95 percent of its parts in common with the mid-sized Dreamliner, the 787-9. The main differences are in the environmental control system, which is larger due to the longer length of the airplane and higher number of passengers, and in the landing gear, Whittington said.

The smaller 787-8 model, the first Dreamliner, has roughly 80 percent commonality with the 787-10 and has been a slower seller as Boeing considers whether to launch

Article source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-787/boeing-completing-787-10-flight-tests-with-ge-engines-idUSKBN1FD06J

Automakers have only recently started to take advantage of 3D printing. It’s been interesting to see the wide variety 3D-printed parts being put into production. Mini now offers customizable trim and interior pieces. Michelin created an airless 3D-printed tire that looks a bit like an oversized sand dollar. The Koenigsegg Agera One:1 uses 3D-printed turbochargers. This week, Bugatti announced that it’s testing 3D-printed brake calipers on the new Chiron.

These eight-piston fixed calipers look wild, featuring an almost organic shape that ditches any unnecessary material in an effort to shave weight. Traditional calipers are limited in shape by the casting process. Aluminum must fill a mold, meaning there will always be some excess material. Using a 3D printer allows Bugatti to create the part layer by layer. While most calipers today are made from aluminum (including the ones currently on the Chiron), these new ones from Bugatti are crafted with titanium.

The automaker says these calipers are the largest functional component made of 3D-printed titanium. The shape maximizes stiffness and reduces unsprung weight at the car’s corners. Bugatti says this particular titanium alloy is used in the aerospace industry on parts like airplane wings and rocket engines. The new calipers weigh 6.4 pounds each, significantly less than the 10.8 pounds of the outgoing model. Tensile strength is up, too, meaning the parts are both lighter and stronger than before.

The main drawback of the new part is the extremely long

Article source: https://www.autoblog.com/2018/01/23/bugatti-chiron-3d-printed-brake-caliper/

A new airplane shape for hypersonic planes has been proposed by chinese researchers. Typical hypersonic airplane designs have followed the two wing configurations used in all planes.

The lower wing is a common compression surface, while the upper wing is designed according to the idea of HCWs. The upper wing acts like a surfboard riding on the supersonic shock wave to increase the lift.

The parts between the two wings are the airframe and the attachment struts. Because the cross-section of the configuration appears like the letter “I”, the design is named “hypersonic I-shaped aerodynamic configuration (HIAC).

There are at least three objectives in designing an aerodynamic configuration,
* the high lift to drag ratio (L/D),
* the high volumetric efficiency and
* the high lift coefficient

The new design meets those objectives.

In order to validate the advantages of HIACs, a scaled test model was generated as a typical example. The leading edge profiles of the wings were optimized using the computational fluid dynamics, the surrogate models method, and the genetic algorithm in combination. The optimized configuration has one set of wings over top of another set of wings.

There are opportunities for more aerodynamic performance improvement.

Double wing planes (bi-planes) existed during World War I and the early days of flight. It would be interesting if the next generation of hypersonic planes saw a high tech return of the bi-plane.

Article source: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/01/new-hypersonic-plane-design-could-see-a-radically-updated-return-of-the-biplane.html