Composites and its Application in Aerospace Vehicles

All of us may have flown a balloon, its easy, just blow some air into it, it floats. But how can we make a piece of metal fly? Do you know an average passenger plane weighs around 10 tons (1,00,000 kilograms). Then how does an airplane fly? 

Video Credits: Spirit AeroSystems: Where Flight Begins

In aviation there are two categories of aircraft 

1) Lighter than air aircraft and 

2) Heavier than air aircraft.

A lighter than air aircraft undergoes flight similar to balloon or by gliding. What about heavier than air aircraft?

Alloys in Aerospace

Material science has advanced with needs of our industries. A particular material may be the best from one perspective but may not be in other. For example pure aluminium is light in weight but it isn’t highly tensile.

Video Credits: BBC

Few other materials have high tensile strength but aren’t light in weight. How to obtain a material which is advantageous from all perspectives?

Flying Cars - A reality check

Why don’t cars fly?

Do you know a Cessna 150 (light aircraft) take-off’s the runway at 100 km/h. Our cars go faster than that on highways! So what makes an aircraft fly? Why don’t cars fly? 

Video Credits: CNBC

This may seem to be a crazy question, but many have this question in their mind. The main point to be noted is that lift that could raise the mass of the aircraft above ground. 

3D printing in Aerospace

3D printing has gained attention in recent years. Industries are adapting to 3D printing technologies due to their ease of use and ability to manufacture complex designs. How is 3D printing done?

Video Credits: TED

In 3D printing a object to be manufactured is built by adding material layer by layer successively. 3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing as the material is added in layers. Usually a 3D printer takes...

Overflight fees – A major factor in Aviation

Do you know airlines need to pay a foreign nation to use their airspace. i.e If an Air India’s flight goes to America through Europe, it needs to pay Europe for using its airspace. This charges are known as overflight fees.

Video Credits: Business Insider

This also means that flight path cannot be determined by just knowing the shortest available route. While deciding a flight path the overflight fees is also a factor which needs to be taken care of. Using a direct path may...

Black Box isn’t really black

We all are familiar with the term ‘Black Box’, its normally associated with aviation accidents. When a plane crashes, the first thing the investigators look into is its black box. Why do they look for it? What’s in a black box? Is a black box really black? Where is it placed?

Video Credits: Vox

Black box is a recording device which records data which could help air-crash investigators to solve their case. But how? A black box which is officially known as flight recorder consists of...

Aerostat – Lighter than Air Aircraft

We all are familiar with the term “aerodynamics” which is study of gas’s interaction with moving body, but what about the term "aerostatics"? Aerostatics is the study of gases which aren’t moving in respective of their co-ordinate system. Lets get to aerostatics later, for now lets refresh our knowledge about lift!

Video Credits: Mac Byers

How is lift generated?

In airplanes lift is normally generated by wings, and by rotors in helicopters. Airfoil is the key factor of wings/ rotors which generate lift by...

SpaceX nose cone recovery - Another milestone in reusable rocket technology

SpaceX has nailed it again! Their technical expertise in the pioneering field of 'Rocket Science' has undoubtedly proven a new level of remarkable achievement! SpaceX has performed flawlessly an all reusable rocket component recovery on July 20, 2020. This historic milestone was realistically achieved when their crew boats accurately captured both the payload fairings of its reusable rocket nose cone. Watch the magnificent video footage shared by SpaceX

Video Credits: VideoFromSpace

It realistically is a significant achievement. How significant is it? Reusable rockets reduce mission cost, so how does recovering a nose cone turn significant. Do you know? each two-piece fairing (payload nose cone) costs about $6 million, this is...

Air Traffic Control (ATC)

“Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Cactus 1549. We’ve lost both engines.” do you recognise this from somewhere? If you do, you might have heard it in the Hollywood film “SULLY”. So what is this about? This is a situation where a pilot makes a distress signal reporting the critical situation to ATC (Air traffic Control). Why does he do that? can’t he make his own decisions? To know the answer for this we need to know about ATC first.

Video Credits: Bluebird Moving Stories

What is an Air Traffic Control, and why do aircraft need it?

Air Traffic Control is how aircraft are directed and organised while in air, so that the airspace is properly and safely utilised. Air Traffic controllers assist aircraft while take-off and landing. It is similar to how...

Microlattice - LIGHTEST METAL EVER

The micro-lattice is a 3D open-cellular polymer structure and can often be compared to something like a bone structure. In your bone structures, the outside of your bone is very rigid, but on the inside it's actually mostly hollow where you basically have an open-cellular structure, so they aren't easily crushed yet lightweight at the same time.

"Boeing has developed the world's lightest material.The entire structure is basically 99.99% air."

Video Credits: Boeing

Boeing 

The micro-lattice is a 3 Dimensional open-cellular polymer structure and can often be compared to something like a bone structure. In your bone structures, the outside of your bone is very rigid, but on the inside it's...

Flying Wing

Imagine an aircraft. So what’s the first image that appeared in your thought?. A oval shaped fuselage with a tail at its end. This seems to be a common response. Its time to change the way we think. Lets imagine a plane that doesn’t posses both fuselage and tail. Isn’t it hard to imagine such an aircraft? Aircraft can exist without both fuselage and vertical tail, they are known as flying wing.

Video Credits: Curious Droid

A tail-less fixed wing aircraft which does not have a definite fuselage is known as flying wing. The main wing structure itself holds crew, fuel and payload. Flying wing may posses small pods and nacelles. Can an aircraft be...

Free Fall

Astronauts float inside space station or do they really float? Actually astronauts do not float but fall around Earth all the time. The way they fall is known as free fall. Free fall is a state in which gravity becomes the only acceleration force acting on the body. In a free fall no other force such as air resistance, pushing, pulling is considered to be acting on the body.

Video Credits: Bryan Rolfe

Do you know? An astronaut on-board ISS still feels 90 percent of Earth’s gravity. A person on moon can still feel 17 percent of Earth’s gravitational force. Falling towards Earth with a parachute deployed cannot be called as free fall, as the aerodynamic drag force equals the gravity.  Can you imagine what else is in free fall?

Airlock – The Door to Space

Have you ever seen astronauts going for a spacewalk all suited up in their space suits?. You might have noticed them opening a door and locking it, then waiting for some time and then opening another door to get out to space. If not on live shows from the International Space Station (ISS) you might have noticed this scene in many space fiction movies. Why do they do so?

Video Credits: European Space Agency, ESA

Astronauts do this to avoid accidents such as blow outs and to keep the space station safe. The pressure inside...

Lapse Rate and Earth's Atmosphere

Atmosphere varies with increase in altitude. Temperature, pressure and density are the important parameters that vary with altitude. A static atmospheric model known as “International Standard Atmosphere” is referred for determining the parameters at a particular altitude. 

Video Credits: GATE Aerospace Engineering

Therefore temperature variation is of special interest as it varies at a constant rate at lower altitudes. Lapse Rate is a rate at which temperature varies with altitude (temperature gradient). Lapse rate is denoted as ‘a’.Earth’s atmosphere is divided into five layers namely troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and...

Ram air turbine (RAT)

Modern day aircraft is highly dependant on electronic systems. Right from flight control to navigation, most of the systems are controlled by electronics. So what happens if there is a power cut on board an aircraft?

Video Credits: Captain Joe

Aircraft generally has primary and auxiliary power sources, if both of them fails a Ram Air Turbine is used to...

STARLINK – Satellite Constellation

In today’s world we use optical fibres and cellular technologies to support our internet and communication requirement. All our cell phones, smart gadgets except satellite phones use cellular networks. But future communication technologies may be astonishing and way beyond our thinking. SpaceX’s is working on a space-based Internet communication system which can provide low cost internet accessibility around globe known as “STARLINK”.

Video Credits: Real Engineering

Real Engineering

A satellite constellation consisting of 12,000 satellites is planned to be launched for the mission. This satellite constellation is designed to cover the whole globe providing a global internet accessibility. It may seem to be a hypothetical project but to our surprise the project has moved from research & development to manufacturing. Initial commercial operations are...

HAL HF-24 MARUT – The first jet aircraft developed by India

Though HAL Tejas is termed as India’s first indigenous aircraft, the first Indian developed aircraft was “HAL HF-24 MARUT”, a fighter bomber aircraft which was developed by Hindustan Aircraft Limited (HAL) in 1960’s. HAL HF-24 Marut made its maiden flight on 17 June 1961. HF-24 Marut fighter jets were inducted into Indian Air force in 1967 which served for 23 years finally de-commissioned in 1990.

Video Credits: Ava Saa

A total of '147' HF-24 Marut‘s were manufactured, it was known as “Spirit of the Tempest”.Though Marut was envisioned to be a supersonic fighter jet, the operational capability was merely above Mach 1. Designed by Kurt Waldemar Tank a German aeronautical engineer, the work officially started in 1956. HF-24 Marut participated in two battles the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and...

Nano Hummingbird - A bird or drone?

Drones are being developed around the world, but few need to shed their characteristic of being a human developed thing and has to blend into the environment as a natural entity. The Nano humming bird is either a Ornithopter design or a twin rotor model which typically appears as a humming bird but really it is a mechanically operating Nano Aerial Vehicle. 

Video Credits: Nature on PBS

It is traditionally utilised for military purposes i.e.spying. But why not it be used to spy the mystically beautiful nature? This is a rotor based design, there are other authentic designs which use the same methodology as birds do, it is called...

Airbus E- Fan X - "When Reality determines Innovation"

Electric airplanes are too far away from becoming a reality in terms of mass air transportation (i.e. airlines). Many companies have realised the concept of electric aviation including Airbus (Airbus E-Fan), even have moved a step further towards solar powered aircraft such as Solar Impulse. But talking about today's reality either electric powered aircraft are too slow or incapable of accommodating descent sized payloads. In technical terms it is a huge trade-off i.e. The designer has to choose between performance and capability. Airbus has an innovative solution to it. Are you excited as I'm, ok here it is? Why don't we opt for both performance and capability? Yes really by choosing a hybrid solution we can do it. This innovative solution is called "Airbus E- Fan X." Let's listen to the Airbus's Professional's about it.

Video Credits: Airbus

Going hybrid helps us make electric aviation a huge success in realisation of the electrifying airways. Airbus's E-Fan X's did take a first step towards this fascinating aim. But recently the project has been...