Airplane Manufacturers Research Articles

Technology development phases, as exemplified by the evolution of aircraft power plants

Several hypotheses concerning technology development patterns were tested on the dataset, prepared by the author. This dataset includes the data regarding dynamics of changes in airplane power plants used both in airplane production in the 20ʰᵗ century and in the development of new airplane models, the design features of 20,250 20th-century airplane models, and 39,000 records describing the production of these models. Five classes of airplanes were selected for analysis: two civil (passenger and general-purpose aircrafts) and three military (fighters, bombers, and attack aircrafts) classes. According to the first hypothesis, the development of civil technologies goes through two different phases. During the first phase, a succession of technical solutions (in our case, the types of most widely used airplane engines) occurs, indicating a displacing competition. At a certain moment, however, this competition gives way to coexistence, in which each solution that has “survived” up to this moment retains its share in production for a long time. In the military sector, the technological arms race never stops and the stage of coexistence does not occur, which comprises the second hypothesis. According to the third hypothesis, the development of designs using outdated methodology continues even after the new generation practically displaces the previous one from production. This behavior is typical for the engineering community and repeats time after time in both the civil and military sectors. Finally, the fourth hypothesis states that, as technology develops, a product usually undergoes two periods: complication, which is accompanied by a rapid increase in quantitative characteristics and followed by simplification of operation and maintenance. This trend manifests, among other things, as a reduction in the number of main units in the product. In our case, this means a reduction in the number of engines installed on heavy airplanes. It is shown that the collected data confirm the previously stated hypotheses.

The Airplane and the Imperial City: A Brief History of Seattle and American Empire

This essay explores airplane manufacturing in twentieth-century Seattle to trace the correspondence between major developmental moments in the city’s history and broader transitional moments in American empire. In doing so, it argues that Seattle is best understood as an imperial city characterized by four ongoing features: extensive connections beyond the city’s nominal borders; sustained alliance between private commercial interests and the state that made such connections possible; a built environment of technological infrastructure made to serve that alliance; and labor forces, segmented by race, subject to the evolving needs of empire.

Machine Learning and IoT Trends for Intelligent Prediction of Aircraft Wing Anti-Icing System Temperature

Airplane manufacturers are frequently faced with formidable challenges to improving both aircraft performance and customer safety. Ice accumulation on the wings of aircraft is one of the challenges, which could result in major accidents and a reduction in aerodynamic performance. Anti-icing systems, which use the hot bleed airflow from the engine compressor, are considered one of the most significant solutions utilized in aircraft applications to prevent ice accumulation. In the current study, a novel approach based on machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is proposed to predict the thermal performance characteristics of a partial span wing anti-icing system constructed using the NACA 23014 airfoil section. To verify the proposed strategy, the obtained results are compared with those obtained using computational ANSYS 2019 software. An artificial neural network (ANN) is used to build a forecasting model of wing temperature based on experimental data and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data. In addition, the ThingSpeak platform is applied in this article to realize the concept of the IoT, collect the measured data, and publish the data in a private channel. Different performance metrics, namely, mean square error (MSE), maximum relative error (MAE), and absolute variance (R2), are used to evaluate the prediction model. Based on the performance indices, the results prove the efficiency of the proposed approach based on ANN and the IoT in designing a forecasting model to predict the wing temperature compared to the numerical CFD method, which consumes a lot of time and requires high-speed simulation devices. Therefore, it is suggested that the ANN-IoT approach be applied in aviation.

Natural convection with variable fluid properties of couple stress fluid with Cattaneo-Christov model and enthalpy process

The geometry under consideration for this flow problem, namely paraboloid surface is similar to aircraft and car bonnet, bullet shape, front shape of submarine, rockets and these types of are useful in manufacturing of formula F1 cars and airplanes. The flow of fluid over paraboloid surface has several applications in space science, industries, mechanical works and architecture. The aim of this study is to explore the Cattaneo-Christov heat and mass flux model in steady 2D couple stress fluid flow with variable thermo-physical characteristics near the parabolic surface. The effects of enthalpy and activation energy are also taken into consideration. The stretching in the layers of fluid is assumed at the surface of body. The problem is amended by using the law of conservation of momentum, energy and mass transfer. The non-linear governing partial differential equations are converted into ordinary differential equations by using self-similar form with similarity transformation. The resulting ODE's are numerically solved by bvp4c method. The conclusion indicates that the fluid moves quickly due to higher inputs of couples stress parameter and buoyancy parameter while the viscosity coefficient creates restriction in the fluid motion. The transference analysis of temperature and concentration enhances for higher impacts of thermal conduction and mass diffusivity coefficient. The thermal concentration relaxation parameters are the source of decline in the concentration and temperature of fluid. The heat transmission rate is maximum and mass transfer is minimum due to raising values of Dramkholer number. The impression of all parameters on different fields is listed in discussion section.

Passenger airplane manufacturing in the 20th century. Quantitative analysis

The statistics on the production and development of passenger airplanes in the world is presented in this article for the first time. The methods for obtaining the results are described, uncertainties of the results are estimated. It is specified what exactly is considered to be a passenger airplane. It is shown that only 60,000 passenger airplanes were built during the entire 20th century. This is less than 3% of the total production of airplanes of all classes. Their total capacity amounts less than 5 million people, or less than a thousandth of the world’s population by the end of the last century. These 60,000 airplanes provided unprecedented mobility of the population. It was revealed that the leading role in the passenger airplane manufacturing belonged to the USA, the USSR took a steady second place. The ups-and-downs in airplane production are described, including the recessions during the Great Depression, World War II and the global economic decline (in the USSR, the USA and other countries) in the early 1960s, which was replaced by a rapid increase in output. It is indicated that the number of airplanes produced in the last third of the 20th century remained approximately constant, but their average capacity was growing rapidly, which largely ensured the explosive growth of air transportation during this period. The dynamics of the dead weight per one passenger is given. The dynamics of the number of the new passenger airplane models is presented. It is shown that for the last 30 years of the century their number was approximately constant, and almost all the models that reached the test stage were put into serial production. In the period between the world wars, however, about half of all models tested in flight remained prototypes. The change in the ratio of the number of airplanes by the number of engines is given. The renaissance of three-engine airplanes in the 1960s, the almost complete disappearance of singleengine passenger airplanes by the end of the century and the stable amount of a small proportion of four-engine airplanes for the last 30 years of the past century are noted.

Associations between hair cortisol and subjective stress measures in a large occupational sample

BackgroundHair cortisol concentrations (HCC) are commonly used to capture long-term cumulative cortisol secretion in stress research. However, data on associations between HCC and subjective stress measures have been inconsistent. This may partly be due to bias introduced by smaller-sized academic samples. Here, we investigate associations between HCC and (work-) stress-related measures in a large occupational, predominantly male, sample. MethodsDemographic, anthropometric, and self-reported data were collected as part of an occupational health assessment for employees of an airplane manufacturing company (N = 1258). Hair samples (3 cm) were obtained and glucocorticoid concentrations (HCC and hair cortisone, HairE) were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. ResultsHCC and HairE were unrelated to self-report measures of perceived stress, work-related stress (effort-reward imbalance, overcommitment), and other stress-related constructs. Group-based analyses concerning associations with job strain revealed a small effect of individuals with high job strain (n = 281) exhibiting higher HCC than the remaining sample (n = 811). ConclusionsOur data replicate previous findings of no consistent associations between hair glucocorticoids and subjective stress-related questionnaire data, besides evidence for elevated HCC in a high job strain group. Further research addressing open methodological questions regarding HCC by means of advanced stress assessment methods is needed.

Analysis of Existing Physical Theories Explaining Aerodynamic Lift Production by an Airplane

Since the first successful airplane, invented by The Wright brothers in the early 1900s, air travel has become one of the most common modes of transportation. While airplane production and use rapidly increase, explanations regarding the physics of flight remain elusive due to major shortcomings. With all the research available, this paper aims to explore how accurately current theories have explained lift production by an airplane's wing. The contents of this paper will touch on the subject of physics, more specifically fluid dynamics and aerodynamics, and even more specifically, the aerodynamic force known as lift. Theories analyzed in this paper include the "Equal Transit", "Skipping Stone", "Venturi", Momentum-Based, Bernoulli-Based, and Circulation theory. Overall, limitations leading to the inaccuracy of these explanations include not providing physical explanations for specific assumptions, misusing and misinterpreting principles and theorems, simplifying explanations thus not accounting for all necessary factors, proposing one-way causation relationships, confusing mathematical theories for qualitative physical theories, and conflicting experimental data. Because of this, an additional purpose of this paper is to provide a more accurate and comprehensive explanation for lift.

Technological learning: Lessons learned on energy technologies

AbstractThe concept of technological learning is a method to anticipate the future development of the costs of technologies. It has been discussed since the 1930s as a tool for determining manufacturing cost reductions, starting in an airplane manufacturing plant, by means of learning curves and has been widely used since the 2000s in energy models to endogenize technological change. In this paper, the theoretical concept of technological learning based on energy technologies is analyzed based on examples from the literature. The main low‐carbon power generation technologies, photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, wind and nuclear energy were analyzed, showing different cost trends. Additionally, the impact of policy support on technological learning was discussed in concrete examples of bioethanol and heat pumps. We find that the homogeneity and the modularity of a technology are essential for high learning rates. A good proof is the manufacturing cost development of photovoltaics in recent decades, where a rather stable learning rate of 20% has been identified. On the contrary, nuclear power did not evolve into a homogeneous technology due to required environmental adaptations caused by accidents and the lack of standardization and application of new engineering approaches. In that case, the overall price further increased. Finally, another important condition is stable legal and regulatory conditions regarding the implementation.This article is categorized under: Policy and Economics > Green Economics and Financing

Challenges of Machine Learning for eVTOL Reliability and Safety

The increasing number of requests for type certification received by the European Union Safety Agency on Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft attests to the expansion of frontiers in Urban Air Mobility (UAM). In addition, it has revealed the interest of traditional airplane and helicopter manufacturers in this new technology, all the while highlighting the emergence of new players developing their respective versions of electric-powered VTOLs (eVTOL). The perspective of eVTOLs going into service in the coming years for the transport of passengers raises new safety concerns. Indeed, it is necessary to ensure the reliability and safety aspects of those aircraft systems that will be flying under new operational missions, differing from current fixed wing (airplanes) and rotorcraft (helicopters) aircraft. At the same time, the evolution of aircraft systems monitoring technology is making it possible to acquire increasing amounts of data. The high complexity of new systems, combined with the huge amount of data provided, can make the decision-making process more difficult for pilots. Machine learning makes it possible to evaluate this data and improve reliability and safety.
 Even as the number of aeronautical accidents has decreased over the last years, 60–80% of those accidents are the result of human failure. In the initial implementation and operation stages of eVTOLs, machine learning (ML) can support pilots by using aircraft data to predict system failures and contribute to improve reliability and safety. Then, at an advanced stage of eVTOL operation, ML may help reduce human interaction with the aircraft, paving the way toward fully autonomous aircraft. The association of ML with technologies such as Digital Twins and 6G networks has the potential to enable safe and reliable autonomous flight. However, the introduction of eVTOLs will also increase air traffic in highly populated areas and thus needs to be studied to support the incorporation of the future autonomous aircraft. This paper addresses the main challenges for the incorporation of ML in the upcoming eVTOL fleet and its potential contribution to aircraft systems reliability and safety. It also explores the need for the use of ML techniques in a more autonomous air traffic management systems the face of increased air traffic.

The world aircraft industry of the XX century: quantitative analysis

Based on the collection of data on more than 20,000 airplane models created in the world in the XX century, and more than 40,000 records on their manufacturing, world airplane production dynamics was reconstructed year by year in pieces and tons. An analysis year by year by aircraft purpose and by leading countries is prepared. The output was calculated not only in pieces, but also by the total mass of structures. The second approach corresponds more precisely to the power of the aviation industry, allowing to differentiate labor and material costs in the production of light and heavy airplanes. These graphs are constructed and published for the first time. The role of leading countries in world production is revealed. It is shown that the decline in production after the First World War more pronounced not in Russia, but in the UK. It is shown that the USSR firmly held the second place in aircraft production in the world from the mid-1930s to 1990, and in the mid-1930s briefly came out on top in the world. The influence of the repressions of the 1930s on the aviation industry of the USSR, expressed in a noticeable decrease in the rate of new aircraft models development, is shown. It was revealed that in the second half of the XX century, the share of combat airplane in production was constantly decreasing, and by 2000 over 80% of the world's airplane industry capacity was occupied by the production of commercial aircraft.

The role of the USA aviation industry in the development of general aviation

The history of a relatively little-studied sub-sector of aircraft manufacturing is described: the development and production of general purpose airplanes. Data on 2690 aircraft models and their production are collected by the author. It is shown that the USA share in the production in the 20th century exceeds 80 %, although in 1930–1945 European countries were the leaders. Assumptions are made about the reasons for the change of leaders. The definition of “general purpose airplane” is given with references to the regulatory documents of the USA, European Union and Russia. It is shown that the most popular subclass of such airplanes is four-seaters, its share in the total production of aircraft with the number of seats from 3 to 11 exceeds 50 %. For the first time, the year-by-year dynamics of the development and production of general purpose airplanes in the 20th century in the world is published. Strong declines in production are mentioned during the Great Depression and in the first half of the 1980s. It is shown that the demand for general purpose airplanes decreased significantly during the aggravation of the political situation, which correlates with the confidence of potential buyers in their future. Probably, such dependence should be observed for other long-time used consumer goods. The development of new models of general-purpose aircraft was also studied. It is shown that the peak of its intensity falls on 1929, and the post-war decline in the number of developments began even during the period of growth in production – in the mid-1960s. A very strong geographic concentration has been found: almost half of all general purpose airplanes in the world are built in one town (Wichita, Kansas), where more than a dozen airplane manufacturers have located their enterprises.

Digital twin-driven complexity management in intelligent manufacturing

Complexity management is one of the most crucial and challenging issues in manufacturing. As an emerging technology, digital twin provides an innovative approach to manage complexity in a more autonomous, analytical and comprehensive manner. This paper proposes an innovative framework of digital twin-driven complexity management in intelligent manufacturing. The framework will cover three sources of manufacturing complexity, including product design, production lines and supply chains. Digital twin provides three services to manage complexity: (1) real-time monitors and data collections; (2) identifications, diagnoses and predictions of manufacturing complexity; (3) fortification of human-machine interaction. A case study of airplane manufacturing is presented to illustrate the proposed framework.

Mission Critical: Caremark, Blue Bell, and Director Responsibility for Cybersecurity Governance

If the potential for Caremark liability hangs like the sword of Damocles over corporate directors of Delaware corporations, then that sword has been considerably more secure than that of the original myth. For decades, Chancellor Allen’s description of a Caremark claim as “possibly the most difficult theory in corporation law upon which a plaintiff might hope to win a judgment” held true. Caremark claims that survived a motion to dismiss were for decades few and far between. That changed in 2019. In the space of little over a year, Delaware courts have allowed five Caremark claims to survive in the corporation context and one claim to survive in the limited partnership context. The thread holding that sword is beginning to look more like the single horse hair of myth. The scope and likelihood of Caremark liability are matters of considerable interest and concern for directors. Under most circumstances, a board simply doing its job poorly is relevant only to the directors’ duty of care and protected by the business judgment rule, exculpatory provisions under Section 102(b)(7), and advancement and indemnification. Failure to monitor under Caremark, however, is a breach of the duty of loyalty. A breach of the duty of loyalty is not protected by the business judgment rule. It cannot be exculpated. And it cannot be covered by indemnification. 2019 marked an abrupt shift in Caremark in application, if not in theory. In June of that year the Supreme Court of Delaware (“Delaware Supreme Court”) reversed a decision by the Delaware Court of Chancery (“Chancery Court”) dismissing a claim against the directors of Blue Bell Creameries, Inc. (“Blue Bell”) under Caremark. Within a little over a year, the Chancery Court would sustain Caremark claims in four cases. In Clovis, the Chancery Court sustained a Caremark claim against directors of a pharmaceutical company who allowed the company to misrepresent the clinical trial success of one of its three drugs. In Hughes, the Chancery Court sustained a Caremark claim against directors of a Chinese company incorporated in Delaware that suffered from severe and pervasive accounting issues. In Teamsters Local, the Chancery Court sustained a Caremark claim against directors of a large pharmaceutical company who allowed an indirect subsidiary to essentially operate a criminal enterprise. And in Boeing, the Chancery Court sustained a Caremark claim against directors of an airplane manufacturer who did not pay attention to safety issues. Cybersecurity has become just such a mission critical risk for large corporations. This Article makes four key arguments. Black letter Caremark doctrine has not changed, but it is newly reinvigorated and the risks of Caremark liability for directors is greater than just a few years ago. Future Caremark liability will be centered on failure to provide board-level oversight of mission critical risks. Cybersecurity is mission critical to effectively all large companies today. The risk of Caremark liability can be mitigated by taking a few simple steps to ensure that the board is addressing cybersecurity. This Article is the first to make these arguments together and the first to make the final argument.

Paved Roads and Public Money: Connecticut Transportation in the Age of Internal Combustion

Paved Roads and Public Money: Connecticut Transportation in the Age of Internal Combustion

China and the Soviet Union’s Cooperation and Conflict during the Sino-Japanese War: Focusing on the Discussion of Joint establishment of an Airplane Manufacturing Plant

중일전쟁시기 중국의 신장성(新疆省)에 농기구제조공장이라는 이름으로 비행기제조공장이 설립되어 조업한 적이 있다. 중일전쟁이 발발하고 소련과 중국은 불가침조약을 체결하였고 소련은 중국에 필요한 전쟁물자 원조를 약속하였다. 또한, 소련은 중국이 공장을 설립할 능력이 없다는 것을 알면서도 중국이 전혀 기대하지도 않았던 비행기제조공장의 합작설립을 먼저 제의하였다. 그러나 처음에는 공장의 위치로, 이후에는 비행기 기종문제로 갈등을 보이면서 설립의 논의와 중단을 반복하였다. 중국은 구미국가와의 접촉이 용이한 중국 서남부에 공장을 설립하려고 하면서 소련과 갈등을 빚었다. 게다가 중국이 통일된 지 10년이 지났음에도 독자적인 행보를 지속하며 ‘친소(親蘇)’와 ‘반소(反蘇)’사이를 오간 신장 지방세력 성스차이의 성향도 양국의 갈등을 불러온 요인이었다. 중소양국의 갈등 속에 공장설립논의는 결국 무산되었고 소련은 디화에 독자적으로 공장을 설립하였다. 중국은 제조과정에도 참여하지 못했을 뿐만 아니라 생산된 비행기를 보지도 못했다. 결론적으로 중일전쟁 시기 중소양국은 서로의 필요와 이익에서 협력관계를 맺었다. 그러나 양국은 서로에게 최선이 아닌 차선의 파트너라는 입장을 고수하고 있었기 때문에, 협력자였지만 끊임없는 갈등을 보였다고 할 수 있다.

Empowering Flight Exercise: Teaching Students the Design, Underlying Processes, and Organizational Outcomes of Empowering Work Systems

Employee empowerment yields positive outcomes for employees, managers, and organizations. Yet, too many employees feel disempowered at work, and managers, while wanting to empower employees, often do not know how. Contributing to this state of affairs is the lack of published, high-fidelity exercises explicitly designed to instruct students on how empowerment “feels,” how empowerment “works,” and how to practically empower others. In this article, we outline a 90-minute face-to-face classroom exercise that integrates the structural and psychological empowerment perspectives enabling students to “feel” empowerment or disempowerment and see the productivity and quality benefits of an empowered workforce, and teaches students how to empower others at work. While participating in the exercise, students simulate working in an airplane manufacturing organization, working either in an empowered work environment or a traditional hierarchical work environment. The exercise provides instructors with an important classroom tool to instruct students about the importance of empowerment, trust, and performance in organizational life.

Creating a Core Innovation Capability in Airbus

Flight in modern age caused our society more global than that of past age. People can go to school aboard, go to work aboard, and travel aboard with airplanes. Airplane has changed our society. Airplane manufacturing industry requires sophisticated technology and innovative management. This most intelligent industry’s innovation strategy can be one of epitomes for business strategy. Airplane manufacturing can be one long-term oriented business. Airplane industry requires many different fields of study not only natural science, but also social science. To manage both engineering team and management team, significant organization strategy could be one crucial factor to maintain its organization effective. Airplane industries must innovate to offer more reliable service with safety, low price and fast travel. New version of motor, car, aircraft and TV takes usually high system level and incremental innovation. Airbus is one of leading aircraft manufacturer and its market share is second largest globally. This study would bring about understanding of innovation management at highest technology and cutting-edge industry.

On Sequential-Pattern-Based Intelligent Compilation of Aircraft Assembly Process

The aviation industry which aircraft manufacturing dominates is an important sector to measure a nation’s air power. The application of new technologies to optimize the process, increase the speed and upgrade the quality of airplane assembly, a crucial link in its manufacturing, is an effective method to improve the capacity. The combination of traditional processes and emerging technologies greatly improves its efficiency, reduces its labor costs and promotes the innovation and upgrade of traditional technologies. For aircraft manufacturers, the Assembly Outline (AO) refers to an essential document used for the guidance of the assembly process. Low efficiency and under-structuration of compilation, which is also difficult to upgrade, put a limit on the application of information and digitization technologies and has an impact on the overall airplane production cycle, due to present manual work in quantity and imbalance of informationization. Via sequential-pattern-based data mining introduced in this paper, patterns of AO processes are dug up to form a set based on which it is possible to quickly make a recommendation of the optimal process for the compiler, effectively reducing the duration of compilation and modification and improving the efficiency.

Multidisciplinary and Multi-Objective Optimization Considering Aircraft Program Cost and Airline Network

Aerial network routes and their flight frequencies are crucial for the strategic planning of airlines, which must choose optimum airplane types to improve revenue and/or reduce operating costs. In addition, aircraft manufacturers need to identify airplane configurations that better suit airline operations and establish list prices for their products as well as calculate the production and development costs of their products. To address these issues, the present study describes and applies a methodology to determine the optimal aerial transport network simultaneously with the identification of the optimum fleet for that network, namely, an integrated design. In the optimization simulations carried out in the present work, the objectives are the maximization of the airline’s network daily profit and the minimization of the airplane fleet acquisition cost. Each fleet is composed of three types of airliners, selected according to their passenger capacity. Airplanes are designed with high-fidelity methods and realistic performance calculations and must obey a set of requirements, including some related to FAR 25 certification rules. Optimization for a Brazilian network considering 21 cities was carried out with the maximization of the network daily profit and the minimization of the fleet acquisition cost. A comprehensive airplane manufacturer program cost estimation model was implemented, enabling the calculation of net present value of a transport airplane program and financial parameters.

Density-Invariant Registration of Multiple Scans for Aircraft Measurement

In the aviation industry, the demand for high accuracy airplane product is growing, which makes precise production of airplane parts and accurate manufacturing increasingly important. To this end, it is crucial to be able to accurately measure the whole surface of an aircraft. 3-D laser scanner is widely utilized to capture the local shapes, represented as 3-D point clouds, of an object from different viewpoints. Multiview registration of point clouds is therefore a critical step to obtain the whole shape of an object. In this article, we propose a global registration framework to simultaneously align multiple point clouds with target detection and hierarchical optimization for aircraft inspection. By placing some targets (i.e., markers) surrounding an aircraft, we first scan the aircraft by putting a laser scanner around the aircraft at various stations, resulting in a number of laser scans which contain the point clouds of aircraft parts as well as targets. By detecting the centers of targets automatically, all partial point clouds are initially aligned to the global coordinate system. Furthermore, we tackle the influence of nonuniform distribution of point cloud density on registration accuracy, which has not been extensively studied so far, due to the large size of the aircraft. Existing approaches cannot directly apply to large size point clouds’ registration due to the aforementioned challenge. To address this issue, we propose a density-invariant area-based method to measure the overlapped region. On this basis, a hierarchical optimization registration method is used to achieve multiview registration of aircraft point clouds, and thereby the entire geometry shape of the aircraft is accurately obtained. A variety of experiments on real raw data demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed framework.