Aviation - Aviation Blogs and Articles

Engine Mount are probably one of the most important parts in a vehicle or industrial machinery and can be found in airplanes, cars, trains, boats, buses, and any other equipment that necessitates a motor or engine. They are tasked with keeping engines in place, allowing any moving machine to optimally function. For example, when putting fragile components into a box and shaking the box around, the items inside will inevitably become damaged. However, if the components inside are secured with a mount, they will remain intact.

Easier to start when compared to its propeller engine counterparts, jet engines only require compressed air and fuel to start. Jet engines are typically recognized for being a type of reaction engine that generates thrusts by jet propulsion.

A glider, also known as a sailplane, is a type of aircraft that is primarily used for leisure activities and the sport of gliding. Unlike airliners and other similar fixed-wing aircraft, gliders are unpowered, taking advantage of naturally rising air to gain altitude and remain in the atmosphere. With their design, gliders are equipped to traverse a significant distance with small losses in altitude. To better understand how gliders work, and how they compare to other aircraft, we will discuss their design.

Bearings are components that are paramount to the operations of countless assemblies, serving to constrain motion while also minimizing friction between moving parts. Bearings can come in numerous shapes and forms, thrust bearings being a common type that are implemented in assemblies to absorb axial loads. As bearings that are typically found within automobile gearboxes, radio antenna masts, and other various automotive, marine, and aerospace applications, having a general understanding of thrust bearings and their use can be beneficial.

In order for aircraft to maintain heavier-than-air flight over significant distances, they require some form of power generation for the means of producing thrust and propulsion. For many early aircraft and those that are lightweight or general aviation types, the piston engine serves as the most common solution for maintaining flight. Piston engines can come in a variety of forms, some common types being the inline engine, radial engine, horizontally opposed engine, and V-type engine. While each of these types may differ in their construction and operation to some degree, all function through a common working principle.

A gas turbine engine exhaust system is paramount for heat dissipation and performance, ensuring that spent gases are optimally expelled from the engine after combustion. While varying engines may contain different components and complex assemblies, the common function of all exhaust parts is to direct spent gases out of the engine in such a way that an efficient exit velocity is reached without causing turbulence. 

A pressure sensor is a device capable of converting pressure into an electrical signal. They have a wide range of uses in many different applications, so the type of pressure sensors you are using for a given task matters. For example, a pressure sensor that does a good job of measuring oil and gas may not be ideal for measuring hydraulic fluids. Prior to purchasing a pressure sensor, it is important to consider all types to determine which one will best suit your needs.

A valve is a device used to regulate, control, or direct the flow of fluid within a system or process by opening, closing, or partially obstructing it. In piping, many different types of valves are used in varying applications. Valves have an important role within piping systems and often account for up to 30% of the overall piping system costs. However, choosing the wrong type of valve for your system can increase costs markedly, making valve selection as essential to the economics of your system as it is to the operation. 

While computer hardware was often expensive and fairly unobtainable for the standard consumer during the technology’s infancy, prices have since seen a steady drop leading into the present. Now, consumers have much easier access and ability to create more complex and powerful systems with common components available on the market. With a number of consumer motherboards now offering more than one slot for CPU attachment, shared-memory processors can be used to achieve higher system performance for a number of applications.

Ice can quickly accumulate, as you can usually tell just by looking or using your car on a very cold day. In cold climates, the ice can stick to your windows, blocking your windows. Not only that, but they can also make certain mechanisms stuck (such as a door or a gear) and result in your car not functioning at all, leaving you stranded where you are. These same issues can also affect an aircraft. As an aircraft needs to be functioning at full capacity in order to safely transport its passengers across the skies, the need to apply an anti-icing solution is even more detrimental. The process of using an anti-icing system is somewhat akin to someone applying a deicing solution to the windows of a vehicle before driving. In principle or idea, they are the same, but as you go through the process, you start to notice the differences. In this article, we will break down the process of using an anti-icing system, and also discuss why using these tools is so important.

As we continue to move through these unprecedented times during the COVID-19 pandemic, more United States manufacturers are stepping up to aid in the supply shortage of ventilators and masks that are desperately needed by medical professionals and other affected sectors. Leading into June, car manufacturer Ford has joined companies such as 3M and General Electric to aid the medical community in this initiative.

Within the realm of aviation, landing gear proves to be one of the most important systems of the entire aircraft. Through the many aircraft landing gear components working together, an aircraft is able to touch ground and come to a stop safely and efficiently, avoiding damages. This is due to their specifically engineered designs that are in place to meet various requirements of weight, size, performance, and beyond as per FAA regulations. In this blog, we will discuss the aircraft landing gear system and how it helps bring an aircraft safely to a stop after flight.

PMA stands for Parts Manufacturer Approval. This approval is what allows for manufacturers to produce and sell articles for installation on type certification products. The approval can only be given by the United States Federal Aviation Administration. Simply put, the FAA is required to utilize the PMA process to greenlight the design and manufacturing of certain aviation and aerospace parts. Designing, manufacturing, distributing and operating with such a part that has not gone through the approval process is illegal and subject to severe punishments. For more information on how the PMA process works, you can read more about it in the article below.

Aircraft wings are airfoils that attach to the body of an aircraft at different angles and shapes to create lift and sustain flight. Different wing configurations provide variant flight characteristics like the amount of lift generated, the level of control at different operating speeds, aircraft stability and flight balance. Aircraft Wings may be attached at the bottom, mid or top of the fuselage. The wing tip can be pointed, rounded or square and the wing can extend out from the fuselage perpendicularly , angled down or slightly up. The angle at which a wing extends out from the fuselage’s horizontal state is called the dihedral angle and this affects an aircraft’s lateral stability.

A helicopter is a type of rotary aircraft in which thrust and lift are achieved through the use of spinning rotors. This allows the aircraft to take off and land vertically and hover at a fixed altitude. Despite helicopters being far smaller than most airplanes, the rapidly-spinning rotors make it very hard to control. Each helicopter is made of five main parts: the cockpit, main rotor, tail rotor, landing gear, and engine. This blog will explain each of the five main parts in further detail.

A rough look at history will show you that it took humanity more than 10,000 years to invent flying machinery. Yet it was only 66 years later in 1969 that humanity accomplished aeronautical aviation and landed a human on the moon. This goes to show that the more we discover and create, the faster it enables our world to grow. You need only look at these recent years to see that technology is advancing at a rapid pace and the next years are sure to unveil amazing advancements in flight. Read on below for some new concepts emerging in the aviation industry.

The NSN system can be dated back to the WWII era when the military would use a specific component that had several different names depending on who supplied or manufactured the component. This made it difficult for the military to locate suppliers, or share items between the different organizational branches. An item could be in short supply in one location, but in surplus in another. To overcome this sourcing issue, the Department of Defense created the NSN system. National Stock Numbers or NSNs, are 13-digit serial numbers assigned to all standardized items within the federal supply chain. All components that are used by the U.S Department of Defense are required to have an NSN, the purpose of which is to provide a standardized naming of components.

After a plane has been decommissioned it ends up in a dusty parking lot known as a “boneyard.” A boneyard is a massive field that houses aircraft that can no longer fly, where the parts that are still functioning are recycled, or often times, resold. A plane that has been deemed too old to fly can still have a large amount of value. These boneyards may not be spectacular, but they are a heavy contributor into the industry that comprises an “after life” ecosystem. One that spans from hedge funds to specialized recycling firms.  

“Aircraft engine failure” is one of the most unsettling phrases in the aviation community. Failures of aircraft engine can be caused by a multitude of different parts malfunctions, and/or pilot error. The statistics on the frequency of aircraft engine failures are sparse and convoluted. However, for commercial air travel, most modern twin engine passenger jets are designed to function safely even if one engine fails. Engine failure as a result of part malfunction seems to differ between the type of engine. So, let’s take a look at an industry standard—turbine engine failure.

The Rolls Royce Trent 500 engine is a complex piece of machinery that is the operating force behind Airbus’ A340, -500, and -600.  Its design was based off the RB211 line of three-shaft engines, which has consistently proven to be a reliable engine model.