Latest Stories

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

3D Meta-Optics for High-Energy Lasers

The scope of this research radically changed the way novel components are designed and fabricated for high-energy applications. This 3D Meta-Optics platform was, and is, essentially engineering the...

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Articles
Aerospace

Understanding Fiber Optic Transceiver Design and Test Rules

The design of avionics systems must balance several factors. First, engineers want to increase the performance of the systems installed in aircraft or spacecraft. Second, they want to...

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News
Electronics & Computers

Collins Aerospace Provides Avionics for C-130H Modernization Program

The Lockheed C-130H Hercules fleet operated by the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve is getting new Collins Aerospace Systems avionics that will help extend...

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News
Automotive

ULA’s Vulcan Centaur Will Launch Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser Spaceplane

United Launch Alliance (ULA) will supply launch vehicles for the Dream Chaser Cargo System. Starting in 2021, Dream Chaser – Sierra Nevada...

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INSIDER
Aerospace

Controlling Airflow Helps Next Generation of High-Speed Helicopters

Researchers are testing methods of making helicopters fly faster and more efficiently by controlling the flow and separation of air over the blades including a blade shaped in...

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INSIDER
Aerospace

Space Weather’s Critical Effects on Satellite Materials

The Air Force Research Laboratory has investigated the effects of space weather damage to polyimides – materials used extensively in spacecraft construction due to their high heat...

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News
Defense

Space Launch Providers Submit Proposals for National Security Space Launch Program

Four companies – Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) – recently submitted proposals for the U.S. Air...

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INSIDER
Defense

What Dragonflies Teach Us About Missile Defense

Be grateful you’re not on a dragonfly’s diet. You might be a fruit fly or maybe a mosquito, but it really wouldn’t matter the moment you look back and see four powerful wings pounding...

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INSIDER
Aerospace

FAA Adopts NASA’s Distress Beacon Recommendations

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has adopted NASA’s Search and Rescue (SAR) office’s recommendations regarding the installation and maintenance of Emergency Locator...

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INSIDER
Aerospace

Air Force Refines 3D Printing of Composite Inks

In January 2016, researchers from AFRL started focusing on the ability to 3D-print parts for the Air Force – specifically, polymer architectures that can replace heavier and complex metal...

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News
Propulsion

Raytheon, DARPA Push Forward with Hypersonic Weapon Design

Raytheon Company and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have made progress in hypersonic flight with the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) hypersonic weapons program....

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Products
Test & Measurement

New Products

Temperature Elements for Flight-Critical Equipment FCI Aerospace’s (San Marcos, CA) AS-TE Temperature Element Series sensors utilize precision resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) to provide superior accuracy, repeatability...

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Briefs
Aerospace

Feasibility Study of Portable Water Desalination Systems for Water Contingencies at Remote Navy Installations

The Navy is exploring ways to ensure an uninterrupted supply of potable water at remote installations.

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Articles
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Microturbine Propulsion for UAVs

The continued use of reciprocating engines has limited the UAV market’s ability to reach its true growth potential.

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Briefs
Aerospace

Hands-on Cybersecurity Studies: Multi-Perspective Analysis of the WannaCry Ransomware

This research involves a multi-perspective analysis of the WannaCry ransomware in the form of a cybersecurity exercise.

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Articles
Data Acquisition

How Miniaturized Distributed Modular Architecture Advances Avionics Design

A centralized IMA approach offers several advantages.

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Articles
Imaging

Pathfinder Radar ISR and SAR Systems: Tactical Eyes for the Warfighter

Sandia National Laboratories’ (Albuquerque, NM) Radar Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems enable a new product paradigm in radar capabilities and...

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Briefs
Aerospace

Thermal Conductivities of Some Polymers and Composites

Thermoset polymers are good electrical insulators that are used in applications ranging from electronics to composite armor. They are rather poor thermal conductors, however.

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Articles
Imaging

Preventing Ice Buildup on Electric Aircraft

Afaq Ahmed Abbasi of Northwestern Polytechnical University explains his innovative approach.

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Nominal High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) Waveforms

Predictions of these signals were difficult to make due to the complexity of the physics unleashed by the detonation.

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Articles
Software

Peridynamic Modeling: An Alternative Approach to Analyzing Material Failure

A critical technology challenge for structural material applications is to have a means for the reliable analysis of material damage and failure.

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Briefs
Transportation

Real-Time Heuristics and Metaheuristics for Static and Dynamic Weapon Target Assignments

Projectile weapons have been a consistent threat of hostilities throughout history. Military advantage has always been aided by the capacity to inflict damage from a distance. In the 20th century, missile technology advanced to the point that an adversary had...

Application Briefs
Aerospace

Tiltrotor Aircraft

Bell HelicopterFort Worth, TX817-280-2011www.bellflight.com During the thirty years since the V-22 Osprey first flew, the tiltrotor aircraft, built by Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company, and Boeing, has fundamentally...

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Articles
Communications

Critical Communications Break Out of the Analog Mold

Once firmly rooted in its analog origins, critical communications is now steadily evolving to provide enhanced situational awareness. The latest public safety and military communications...

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Briefs
Defense

Hybrid Ultra-Low VOC and Non-HAP Rain Erosion Coatings

Numerous military aircraft and shipboard surfaces, such as radomes, antennas, gun shields, wing leading edges, and helicopter blade leading edges, are coated with a specialized...

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INSIDER
Aerospace

Collins Aerospace Redefines Mission Capabilities of C-130H Through Modernization Program with French Air Force

Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has completed the first cockpit modernization of fourteen...

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INSIDER
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Lockheed Martin Completes NASA's Orion Spacecraft Capsule For Artemis 1 Mission To The Moon

The goal of humans again walking on the Moon is one giant leap closer. Lockheed Martin has completed building the capsule for NASA's Orion...

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INSIDER
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Northrop Grumman to Demonstrate Robotic Manufacturing in Space

Made In Space (MIS) has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a subcontract to support NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) demonstration of the autonomous...

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Podcasts
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Apollo 11

In this special edition of Here's an Idea, we explore the many tools and materials that began as one small step toward the Moon.

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