Electrification of the propulsion system has opened the door to a new paradigm of propulsion system configurations and novel aircraft designs, which was never envisioned before. Despite lofty promises, the concept must overcome the design and sizing...
In the last ten years, different concepts of electric vertical take-off and landing aircrafts (eVTOLs) have been tested. This article addresses the problem of the choice of the best configuration. VTOLs built since the fifties are presented and their...
Regular, low-cost Decadal-class science missions to planetary destinations will be enabled by high-ΔV small spacecraft, such as the high-energy Photon, and small launch vehicles, such as Electron, to support expanding opportunities for scientis...
In this paper, an ornithopter prototype that mimics the flapping motion of bird flight is developed, and the lift and thrust generation characteristics of different wing designs are evaluated. This project focused on the spar arrangement and material...
The proliferation of CubeSats in Earth orbit has accelerated dramatically in recent years, with projections indicating continued growth in the coming decades. This review examines the evolution of CubeSat applications, from basic technology demonstra...
In April 2023, the superBIT telescope was lifted to the Earth’s stratosphere by a helium-filled super-pressure balloon to acquire astronomical imaging from above (99.5% of) the Earth’s atmosphere. It was launched from New Zealand and then...
CubeSats provide a cost effective means to perform scientific and technological studies in space. Due to their affordability, CubeSat technologies have been diversely studied and developed by educational institutions, companies and space organization...
Over 2500 active satellites are in orbit as of October 2020, with an increase of ~1000 smallsats in the past two years. Since 2012, over 1700 smallsats have been launched into orbit. It is projected that by 2025, there will be 1000 smallsats launched...
The aerospike nozzle has emerged as a revolutionary technology in rocket propulsion, overcoming the limitations of conventional nozzles by dynamically adjusting the expansion of exhaust gases according to ambient pressure. This results in greater eff...
Kestrel simulation tools are used to investigate the mutual interference between the propeller and wing of C130J aircraft. Only the wing, nacelles, and propeller geometries are considered. The propulsion system modelled is a Dowty six-bladed R391 pro...
The manta is the largest marine organism to swim by dorsoventral oscillation (flapping) of the pectoral fins. The manta has been considered to swim with a high efficiency stroke, but this assertion has not been previously examined. The oscillatory sw...
This paper extensively reviews hybrid rocket propulsion-related activities from combustion engine designs to launch tests. Starting with a brief review of rocket propulsion development history, a comparison among the three bi-propellant rocket propul...
Context—The maintenance of aero engines is intricate, time-consuming, costly and has significant functional and safety implications. Engine blades and vanes are the most rejected parts during engine maintenance. Consequently, there is an ongoin...
Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have gained widespread interest in civilian and military applications, which has led to the development of novel UAVs that can perform various operations. UAVs are aircraft that can fly...
The present study aimed at assessing a novel annular-ducted fan lift system for VTOL aircraft through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The power and lift efficiency of the lift fan system in hover mode, the lift and drag in transition...
The development of hybrid rockets offers excellent opportunities for the practical education of students at universities due to the high safety and relatively low complexity of the rocket propulsion system. During the German educational program Stude...
Current research trends have advanced the use of “green propellants” on a wide scale for spacecraft in various space missions; mainly for environmental sustainability and safety concerns. Small satellites, particularly micro and nanosatel...
This paper explores the wide-ranging topography of micro-propulsion systems that have been flown in different small satellite missions. CubeSats, known for their compact size and affordability, have gained popularity in the realm of space exploration...
A recent alleged “drone” collision with a British Airways Airbus A320 at Heathrow Airport highlighted the need to understand civil Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) accidents and incidents (events). This understanding will facilitate improveme...
Gas-path diagnostics is an essential part of gas turbine (GT) condition-based maintenance (CBM). There exists extensive literature on GT gas-path diagnostics and a variety of methods have been introduced. The fundamental limitations of the convention...
Collisions between birds and aircraft pose a severe threat to aviation and avian safety. To understand and prevent these bird strikes, knowledge about the factors leading to these bird strikes is vital. However, even though it is a global issue, data...
The paper presents the development of the power, propulsion, and thermal systems for a 3U CubeSat orbiting Earth at a radius of 600 km measuring the radiation imbalance using the RAVAN (Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned NanoTubes) payloa...
We introduce algorithmic advancements designed to expedite simulations in OpenFOAM using GPUs. These developments include the following. (a) The amgx4Foam library, which connects the open-source AmgX library from NVIDIA to OpenFOAM. Matrix generation...
The growing population of space debris poses a critical risk to space operations, requiring urgent removal strategies. Numerous scientific investigations have focused on debris capture mechanisms in Earth’s orbits, including contact and contact...
Hybrid rockets using specific oxidizer–fuel combinations are considered a green alternative to current propulsion systems, as they do not release very toxic or polluting exhausts, but only much less harmful substances such as carbon monoxide/di...
Anomaly detection is an active area of research with numerous methods and applications. This survey reviews the state-of-the-art of data-driven anomaly detection techniques and their application to the aviation domain. After a brief introduction to t...
The current work presents the numerical prediction method to determine small-scale propeller performance. The study is implemented using the commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, FLUENT. Numerical results are compared with...
Electric propulsion technology has attracted much attention in the aviation industry at present. It has the advantages of environmental protection, safety, low noise, and high design freedom. An important research branch of electric propulsion aircra...
Aircraft four dimensional (4D, including longitude, latitude, altitude and time) trajectory prediction is a key technology for existing automation systems and the basis for future trajectory-based operations. This paper firstly summarizes the backgro...
A review of morphing actuation systems in relation to rotary-wing aerial platforms is presented. The research highlights an inadequate maturation of rotary actuation systems, characterised by a scarcity of (1) comprehensive full-scale experimental re...
The paper presents a feasibility study of satellite formation-flying missions for space advertising. To estimate a space advertising mission viability, the global population coverage model is designed and the demonstration schedule with a focus on la...
Background—Bowtie analysis is a broadly used tool in risk management to identify root causes and consequences of hazards and show barriers that can prevent or mitigate the events to happen. Limitations of the method are reliance on judgement an...
In this article, the growth of aerodynamic efficiency and the growth of the wing structural stress is studied for DLR-F4 typical transport aircraft wing-body, after installing classical Whitcomb winglets of different configurations and a delta wingti...
Satellite communication (SatCom) systems operations centers currently require high human intervention, which leads to increased operational expenditure (OPEX) and implicit latency in human action that causes degradation in the quality of service (QoS...
The research challenges for electric propulsion technologies are examined in the context of s-curve development cycles. It is shown that the need for research is driven both by the application as well as relative maturity of the technology. For fligh...
Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) is a policy that uses information about the health condition of systems and structures to identify optimal maintenance interventions over time, increasing the efficiency of maintenance operations. Despite CBM being a...
Air traffic simulations serve as common practice to evaluate different concepts and methods for air transportation studies. The aircraft performance model is a key element that supports these simulation-based studies. It is also an important componen...
One of the most commonly implemented devices for stall control on wings and airfoils is a leading-edge slat. While functioning of slats at high Reynolds number is well documented, this is not the case at the low Reynolds numbers common for small unma...
This paper presents the development of a robust sizing method to efficiently estimate and compare key performance parameters in the conceptual design stage for the two main classes of fully electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the...
hy2Foam is a newly-coded open-source two-temperature computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver that has previously been validated for zero-dimensional test cases. It aims at (1) giving open-source access to a state-of-the-art hypersonic CFD solver to...
Communication and trust are fundamental factors in the operation of complex and highly regulated industries like aviation maintenance. This article reviews two preconditions of human error: communication and trust, as well as the way these are linked...
With the rapid development of the UAV, it is widely used in rescue and disaster relief, where autonomous landing is the key technology. Vision-based autonomous landing has the advantages of strong autonomy, low cost, and strong anti-interference abil...
A two-temperature CFD (computational fluid dynamics) solver is a prerequisite to any spacecraft re-entry numerical study that aims at producing results with a satisfactory level of accuracy within realistic timescales. In this respect, a new two-temp...
The aviation industry is challenged to reduce its climate impact. The introduction of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) is, among other policy instruments such as the European Emissions Trading Scheme, an option favored by policymakers in Europe to ac...
Opening the sky to new classes of airspace user is a political and economic imperative for the European Union. Drone industries have a significant potential for economical growth according to the latest estimations. To enable this growth safely and e...
Solid-propellant rockets are used for many applications, including military technology, scientific research, entertainment, and aerospace education. This study explores a novel method for design modularization of the rocket airframes, utilizing addit...
We present the preliminary design of sailplanes, used for Mars exploration. The sailplanes mitigate the weight and energy storage limitations traditionally associated with powered flight by instead exploiting atmospheric wind gradients for dynamic so...
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly attracting investment and development attention from many countries all over the world due to their great advantages. However, one of the biggest challenges for researchers is the problem of supplying...
The Airbus A380 was initially expected to replace existing aircraft due to its remarkable fuel efficiency on long-haul routes when operating with a full passenger load. However, recent changes in the commercial aviation environment have resulted in a...
This paper presents a two-phase guidance and control algorithm to extend the range and improve the impact point accuracy of a 122-mm rocket using a fixed canards trajectory correction fuze. The guidance algorithm consists of a unique glide and correc...
