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Briefs Aerospace
Testing Multijunction Solar Cell Efficiency
The photovoltaic community is closer than ever to achieving ultra-high multijunction solar cell efficiencies (>50%). Subcells from III–V compound semiconductors are approaching ideal...
Briefs Materials
Thermal Response of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) Materials in a Flash Flame Test
Testing was performed on Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabric and composite material in a flash flame environment when...
Briefs Aerospace
Thermal Conductivity Measurement Setup for Low-Temperature Characterization of Laser Materials
Operating lasers at cryogenic temperatures gained maturity only in the mid-90s due mostly to the progress in transparent, laser-grade ceramics and...
Briefs Aerospace
Non-Destructive Damping Measurement for MEMS Acceleration Switches
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) three-axis acceleration threshold sensors have been developed to measure acceleration threshold levels using voltage switching when the...
INSIDER Sensors/Data Acquisition
NASA System Would Enable Unmanned Aircraft to Fly in US Airspace
NASA, working with government and industry partners, is testing a system that would make it possible for unmanned aircraft to fly routine operations in United States airspace. The...
INSIDER Aerospace
Jet Contrails Affect Ground Temperatures and Climate
High in the sky where the cirrus ice crystal clouds form, jet contrails draw their crisscross patterns. Now researchers have found that these elevated ice cloud trails can influence...
INSIDER Aerospace
Material That Mimics Owl Wings Could Make Planes Quieter
A newly designed material that mimics the wing structure of owls could help make wind turbines, computer fans, and planes much quieter. Early wind tunnel tests of the coating have shown a...
INSIDER Mechanical & Fluid Systems
NASA Tests Aircraft Wing Coatings that Slough Bug Guts
Bug guts create drag, and drag increases fuel consumption. But aircraft of the future could be made more fuel-efficient with non-stick coatings NASA recently tested on Boeing’s...
INSIDER Aerospace
Fuel Cell Carts Deliver Power to Airplane Galleys
Airplane galleys consume a huge amount of power. Additional power units may soon come to the rescue: housed inside trolley carts in the galleys, these units deliver both supplemental power and...
Articles Defense
Maximizing Thermal Cooling Efficiencies in High-Performance Processors
Despite the continuous development of new, higher performing processors, the thirst for increased embedded computing capability remains unquenched. In fact, it seems like...
Articles Aerospace
Stand-Off Scanning and Pointing with Risley Prisms
With the ever increasing threat of improvised explosive devices, both in the military arena and the civilian realm, there is a growing demand for technologies with the ability to detect...
Articles Defense
Getting It Right with Composites
"Composite design and analysis is a highly integrated activity,” said Chris Gear, Chief Technology Officer & Senior Technical Fellow for GKN Aerospace. He noted that how composite material is placed, how...
Articles Aerospace
Regional and Bizjets Refined and Redefined
There is definitely a degree of overlap in the regional and business jet sectors, both in terms of airframes and the engines that power them. At the high end of the market are aircraft such as the...
Articles Aerospace
Solutions for RF Power Amplifier Test
As wireless mobile devices grow in capability and complexity, the associated growth in power demand is driving new approaches to battery utilization and power efficiency. One of the single largest power...
Articles Aerospace
Air-Ground Communications System Aims to Make Flying Safer
Reliance on old-fashioned radio contact by pilots and vulnerable tracking systems is still high, but satellites are set to change sky safety, thanks to international collaboration. The...
Briefs Manufacturing & Prototyping
Fabricating Transparent and Stretchable Supercapacitors Based on Wrinkled Graphene Electrodes
Stretchable electronic devices, including solar cells, light-emitting diodes, batteries, and textile supercapacitors, have been developed to retain...
Briefs Manufacturing & Prototyping
Modular Exhaust Design and Manufacturing Techniques for Build-to-Order Muffler Systems
Managing the acoustic signature of military vehicles can play a critical role in the safety of soldiers. Low-frequency sounds propagate through the...
Briefs Defense
Silicon Microsphere Fabrication
The efficiency and methodology of coupling light into microcavities has improved exponentially in the last decade. One such advancement is coupling light onto silicon microspheres. The material, size, and shape...
Briefs Defense
Designing and Fabricating a Multiple-Decade Battery
There is a great need for energy sources that can power unattended sensors for more than a decade. Unattended sensors can be located in harsh and remote locations that are often dangerous for...
INSIDER Energy
Researchers Create Jet Fuel Compounds From Fungus
Washington State University researchers have found a way to make jet fuel from a common black fungus found in decaying leaves, soil, and rotting fruit. They used Aspergillus carbonarius ITEM...
INSIDER Test & Measurement
NASA Tests Green Aviation Technology
Two NASA experiments designed to help reduce fuel consumption and emissions will fly this spring on a specially outfitted Boeing 757 airplane called the ecoDemonstrator. One includes 31 small devices that...
INSIDER Software
Airflow Model Could Reduce Time on the Tarmac
New research could lead to more efficient takeoffs on airport runways and improve safety. A mathematical tool was developed to calculate the flow of turbulent air produced by a plane’s wing tips...
Briefs Aerospace
Simultaneous Vibration Suppression and Energy Harvesting for a Multifunctional UAV Spar
The goal of this work was to investigate using harvested energy to directly control the vibration response of flexible aerospace systems. Small,...
Briefs Aerospace
Pushbroom Stereo for High-Speed UAV Navigation in Cluttered Environments
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) rely on an external motion-capture apparatus that gives the vehicles almost perfect state information at high rates. Major challenges in...
Articles Software
Deploying Next-Generation UAS Platforms with 3U VPX
More powerful. Lighter. Cooler. These are the key criteria for the design of Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) in next-generation Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) platforms, which continue to grow in...
Articles Unmanned Systems
UGVs — On the Cutting Edge of Thermal Management
Thermal management of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) is more complex than other electronic equipment because they have to operate in harsh environments such as humid tropical rainforests or...
Articles Defense
Controlling the Seas: Introducing a New Concept in Autonomous Surface/Underwater Vehicles
The boundary between the sea and sky is an important place to be. It’s the critical connecting layer for commercial and military information exchange...
Articles Defense
Connectivity in Robotic Systems
While many think of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or space probes and planet rovers when they think of unmanned systems, the field of robotics covers every environment known to man: sea, ground, air, and space....
INSIDER Aerospace
Rocket Science May Improve Kidney Dialysis
Researchers in the United Kingdom have found a way to redesign an artificial connection between an artery and vein, known as an Arterio-Venous Fistulae (AVF), that surgeons form in the arms of...
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A New Approach to Manufacturing Machine Connectivity for the Air Force
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Optimizing Production Processes with the Virtual Twin
