Model Airplanes

In the high-elevation, dry-climate environment of Bend, Ore., technicians are busy putting the final touches on parts cured in freshly made tooling and finalizing processes to begin serial production of the Epic Aircraft E1000, a certified version of the Epic LT experimental-amateur-built high-performance single-engine, all-composite turboprop. 

Transitioning an aircraft manufacturing program from making kits and assisting customers through completion to producing new airplanes for retail sale is an ambitious project, but the Russia-based owners of Epic have made the necessary investment to see the E1000 through certification and into production, according to Mike Schrader, head of sales and marketing. In 2012, he said, the owners opted to stop taking orders for kits and re-orient the company toward FAA certification. More than 50 kits were built, and the final two experimental versions are about to fly away from Bend.

Deposits for the E1000 are one percent of the $2.95 million price, and they are fully refundable. By the time inflation indexes are taken into account, the typical price will be about $3 million, he explained. Epic Aircraft currently has orders and deposits for 73 E1000s.

Epic is working with the FAA’s Seattle Aircraft Certification Office, which has gained significant composites experience, having worked with Boeing on the 787 program. The FAA helped Epic by adding resources to help keep the E1000 project on track. “They’ve been really good to work with,” Schrader said. 

The Bend region has also long been a center of aerospace composites expertise and

Article source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2017-05-16/epic-aircraft-e1000-flying-toward-faa-certification

OZY and GE are partnering to bring you an inside look into how additive manufacturing is changing the way things are made across industries and across the world. Learn more.

Call it the little engine that could. Last year, a team of engineers at GE Aviation’s Additive Technology Center built an almost entirely 3D printed miniature jet engine — a backpack-size powerhouse that hits 33,000 rotations per minute. While this little guy — it measures 1 foot, 8 inches — isn’t going to propel a commercial airliner anytime soon, it did demonstrate that a powerful, functioning engine built mainly from 3D printed parts isn’t a flight of fancy so much as the future of flight.

Additive manufacturing is hardly new to aviation. Parts of full-size aircrafts already incorporate 3D printed parts. CFM’s LEAP engine — a best-seller since it entered into service last year — has 3D printed fuel nozzles. In April, Reuters reported that Boeing would start using 3D printed parts for structural components of its 787 Dreamliner. Though petite, GE’s mini engine could have big implications. It represents the promise that one day, you could be sitting on a plane, and the engine keeping you in the sky will have been entirely 3D printed.

Source GE Aviation

Coolness factor aside, 3D printed jet engines are considerably lighter, and reducing the weight of an aircraft has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of fuel needed to keep a plane

Article source: http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/this-tiny-3d-printed-jet-engine-could-have-big-promise/77490

In 2008, the market hype about single- and twin-engine very light jets was at a peak, with what seemed like dozens of projects under way, and talk of VLJs darkening the skies prompting concerns among aviation authorities about how all this new traffic could be accommodated. In the midst of this frenzy, a small Oregon company called Stratos Aircraft unveiled the model 714, a single-engine, $2 million, all-composite jet that promised far better performance than its in-development competitors. 

Fast forward a few years, and while Stratos Aircraft made some headway and even exhibited at the annual NBAA conference, the company quietly refined the design in a wind tunnel and began putting an airplane together. Then, on November 30 last year, test pilot Dave Morss lifted off in the prototype 714 from Roberts Field in Redmond, Ore., the airport closest to the company’s off-airport Redmond headquarters and manufacturing facility.

Since then Morss has flown the 714 thirty times for 40 hours, up to 250 kias (300 ktas) and nearly 15,000 feet. Plans are for him to fly the prototype 714 to this year’s EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis., although he will have to stay below 18,000 feet because the 714 isn’t IFR approved. The prototype also isn’t pressurized, although it has been pressure tested and can be pressurized, but the equipment to do so isn’t installed. The prototype will be fitted with a fresh interior and be painted before flying to Oshkosh.

The moniker 714 has a specific meaning, and

Article source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2017-06-07/stratos-serious-about-single-engine-714

The search for a plane carrying a Manhattan CEO, her two young sons and her pilot boyfriend that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle entered its third day Wednesday, as the Coast Guard tweeted a new picture that appears to show parts of the missing aircraft.

The debris was discovered floating 15 miles east of the island of Eleuthera, and matches the type of plane — a twin-engine turboprop MU-2B — that vanished.

But it hasn’t yet been confirmed that it belongs to the missing plane, Coast Guard officials told The Post on Wednesday.

Missing are Jennifer Blumin, CEO of event planner Skylight Group, her 4- and 3-year-old sons and boyfriend Nathan Ulrich, of New Hampshire. The four had just spent Mother’s Day in Puerto Rico and were flying to Florida when the plane disappeared Monday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard tweeted out a picture showing the debris, which appears to be chunks of the aircraft and a red “Remove Before Flight” tag.

Pieces of the seats have also been recovered, officials said.

The debris was sent to the mechanic who last worked on the plane for possible identification, but officials believe it’s more than likely from the missing aircraft, which Blumin owned.

“We’re putting two and two together and assuming that it is, unless we get more information,” said Coast Guard spokesman Luke Clayton.

He said a search plane and patrol boat have been searching 3,400 square miles since Monday but that that radius has since been expanded.

The plane was supposed to stop to

Article source: http://nypost.com/2017/05/17/debris-found-in-bermuda-triangle-matches-model-of-missing-plane/