BiotechMashup

How can air transport be made more environmentally compatible, economical and sustainable? A flight test facility in Germany is soon to be expanded with the installation of a thermal test bench for aircraft systems, with the aim of achieving efficient energy management onboard.

(Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) How can air transport be made more environmentally compatible, economical and sustainable? The Fraunhofer flight test facility in Holzkirchen is soon to be expanded with the installation of a thermal test bench for aircraft systems, with the aim of achieving efficient energy management onboard.

To avoid some of the design challenges involved in creating micro-scale air vehicles that mimic the flapping of winged insects or birds, researchers propose using flexible wings that are driven by a simple sinusoidal flapping motion.

(Georgia Institute of Technology Research News) To avoid some of the design challenges involved in creating micro-scale air vehicles that mimic the flapping of winged insects or birds, Georgia Tech researchers propose using flexible wings that are driven by a simple sinusoidal flapping motion.

Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Up to now, aircraft have been put together in huge assembly cells, but to build the necessary facilities is expensive and time-consuming. That is why researchers have come up with a flexible assembly-line concept that features robots working in the same way they do in automotive production. One of this future assembly line's elements is a versatile component gripper made of lightweight CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic).

(American Institute of Physics) Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Myriad sensors and systems provide modern aircraft with data for flight control. But a bird's eye perspective is also of great benefit when measuring pollutants, searching for missing persons and even in archaeological research. Postgraduate students have now developed an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be deployed for many such tasks. It has just successfully completed its maiden flight.

Automobile air conditioning systems do not run “free of charge”. In fact in the hot parts of the world they can account for up to thirty per cent of fuel consumption. Even in Switzerland, with its temperate climate, the use of air conditioning systems is responsible for about five per cent of total fuel usage, rising to around ten per cent in urban traffic, as shown by a new study. Furthermore, two thirds of the additional fuel usage could be saved if air conditioning systems were simply turned off when the air temperature falls below 18 degrees Celsius.