Order will support narrowbody market demand as air travel continues to recover.
Aircraft lessor Air Lease Corp. (ALC) is expanding its airplane portfolio with an order for 32 additional Boeing 737-8 and 737-9 jets. As the travel market recovers, ALC is increasing its 737 MAX family offering to meet airline demand for modern, fuel-efficient and sustainable operations.
"Following our memorandum of understanding with Boeing in February for these 32 737 MAX aircraft, we are pleased to announce the signing of this definitive purchase agreement. We believe that the economic and operating advantages of the 737 MAX will serve our airline customers well as they favor modern, fuel-efficient aircraft," said John L. Plueger, ALC CEO and president.
In February the lessor added 18 737 MAXs to its portfolio. With the new order, ALC has 130 737 MAXs in its backlog.
With commonality and improved fuel efficiency, the 737 MAX family enables airlines to optimize their fleets across a broad range of missions while reducing fuel use and carbon emissions by at least 20% compared to the airplanes they replace. With the 737 MAX, ALC customers can choose airplanes that are optimized to suit multiple markets based on range and size while offering commonality for pilots and crew. The versatility of the 737 MAX family allows airlines to offer new and more direct routes for passengers and makes these airplanes highly popular among leasing and airline customers around the world.
"The 737 MAX family has already proved its value within ALC's narrowbody portfolio, providing operators with excellent fuel efficiency and flexibility across different networks," said Ihssane Mounir, Boeing senior vice president of Commercial Sales & Marketing. "The addition of more 737 MAXs, including 737-8s and 737-9s, will enable ALC to respond to accelerating market demand as air travel continues to recover."
ALC, based in Los Angeles, California, has airline customers throughout the world. ALC and its team are principally engaged in purchasing commercial aircraft and leasing them to its airline customers worldwide through customized aircraft leasing and financing solutions.
European customers have signed letters of intent to purchase the first 22 aircraft.
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. (De Havilland Canada) has launched the De Havilland DHC-515 firefighter (formerly known as the CL-515) program.
"After an extensive business and technical review, we are pleased to announce that we have launched the De Havilland DHC-515 Firefighter program, which will involve negotiating contracts with our European customers and ramping up for production," said Brian Chafe, CEO of De Havilland Canada.
The DHC-515 Firefighter will build on the history of the iconic Canadair CL-215 and CL-415 aircraft which have been a critical part of European and North American aerial firefighting fleets for over 50 years. Important upgrades are being made that will increase the functionality and effectiveness of this legendarily rugged firefighting aircraft.
European customers have signed letters of intent to purchase the first 22 aircraft pending the positive outcome of government-to-government negotiations through the Government of Canada's contracting agency, the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC). De Havilland Canada expects first deliveries of the DHC-515 by the middle of the decade, with deliveries of aircraft 23 and beyond to begin at the end of the decade, providing other customers the opportunity to renew existing fleets or proceed with new acquisition opportunities at that time.
De Havilland Canada acquired the Canadair CL program in 2016 and has been contemplating a return to production since 2019. The new DHC-515 Firefighter matches the other aircraft in the De Havilland fleet in terms of lifespan, ruggedness, and Canadian aerospace engineering quality. The final assembly of the aircraft will take place in Calgary, Alberta, where work on the CL-215 and CL-415 aircraft currently takes place. It is anticipated that more than 500 people will need to be recruited through the coming years to successfully deliver this program.
"To bring the DHC-515 into production is important for not only our company, but countries around the world who rely on our aircraft to protect their people and forests," said Chafe. "We understand the important role the previous aircraft have played in protecting people and property and as our climate continues to change and summers increase in both temperature and length, the DHC-515 will be an important tool for countries around the globe to use in putting out fires."
The DHC-515 delivers multiple drops, in rapid succession, meaning faster fire suppression and allowing the aircraft and flight crew to better follow the behavior of today's wildfires.
It delivers the highest quantity of water into the fire-zone per day (nearly 700,000L), more than twice as much as its nearest competitor, and it refills its tanks in 12 seconds, from nearby fresh or saltwater sources including rivers, small lakes, and oceans, while land-based aircraft must return to airport after each drop.
A high-lift wing and turboprop engines with instant thrust, each allow for safer operation in mountainous terrain and the ability to drop close to fire with superior precision. It performs in high winds typical with megafires, capable of refilling in rough waters with waves up to 2m caused by those winds.
Its turboprop engines produce up to 50% lower CO2 emissions, burning 25% to 40% less fuel than jet engines.
In February 2022, De Havilland Canada became the operating brand for the companies that previously operated as Longview Aviation, Viking Air Ltd., Pacific Sky Training, and De Havilland Canada.
National competition for K-12 students features the agency’s Artemis missions.
NASA has chosen two students as winners of the Lunabotics Junior Contest, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the agency’s Artemis missions. Contestants were charged with designing a robot that can dig and move lunar soil, or regolith, from one area of the lunar South Pole to a holding container near a future Artemis moon base.
Fifteen-year-old Shriya Sawant of Cumming, Georgia, was the winner from grades 6-12 with her RAD: Regolith Accretion Device design. Nine-year-old Lucia Grisanti from Toms River, New Jersey, won for grades K-5 with her design of Olympus. Each robot successfully accomplished the task of collecting and transporting regolith across rugged lunar terrain.
Through its Artemis Student Challenges, NASA is welcoming the next generation of explorers – the Artemis Generation – to learn more about the mission that will pave the way to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon. Together with commercial and international partners, NASA will establish a sustainable presence on the moon to prepare for missions to Mars.
“Looking at the designs these students submitted for Lunabotics Junior, it’s impossible not to be excited about the future of the Artemis Generation,” said Mike Kincaid, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement. “Their creativity and enthusiasm shine through in their ideas for a robot capable of mining lunar regolith.”
One national winner from each grade division was selected from approximately 2,300 submitted designs. The two awardees earned a virtual chat for their classrooms with Janet Petro, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the next astronauts to explore the moon will launch.
As NASA prepares to return to the moon, lunar regolith will be needed for multiple purposes, such as building a moon base using lunar concrete; harvesting water that also can be used for rocket fuel; and extracting possible metals or minerals. The contest asked students to consider factors unique to the lunar environment when imagining their designs.
Sawant designed an autonomous robot that would use a bucket drum to excavate soil in a creative way. Her system addressed the challenges of reduced gravity on the moon, lunar dust contamination, navigating rough terrain, and ensuring the robot stays balanced during excavation and transport.
Grisanti’s solar-powered robot would use spiked wheels to traverse the lunar surface and scoop regolith into a cone-shaped collector to separate large rocks from dust. She named it Olympus, after the home of Greek mythology’s Apollo and Artemis, which also are the names of NASA’s original and current lunar exploration programs.
Nearly 500 educators, professionals, and space enthusiasts served as volunteer judges to review student submissions. On March 15, judges selected 20 semifinalists, each of whom won a Lunabotics Junior Prize Pack. On March 22, eight finalists were announced and will receive a virtual education session with a NASA expert.
The contest semifinalists and finalists are as follows:
The Lunabotics Junior contest was a collaboration between Future Engineers, NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and the Office of STEM Engagement.
OnRobot, Heidenhain, and Schunk are discussing what the latest robotic developments are; and they’ll answer your questions live at the webinar.
Join us on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, at 12PM ET for the Current Robotic Trends, Technology roundtable. Moderated by Associate Editor Jake Kauffman, hear from the panelists, ask questions, and leave the webinar with actionable answers.
Here’s a look at two of companies that will be participating in the webinar:
OnRobot's solutions help small and mid-sized manufacturers optimize their processes and grow their businesses with greater flexibility, higher output and improved quality. Collaborative automation has levelled the playing field for small and mid-sized manufacturers, and as robots become easier to buy and implement, the tooling has become the vital element in adapting for a wide range of applications. Regardless of the robot brand, OnRobot provides compatibility and versatility beyond compare. It's everything manufacturers need from one supplier, providing even more value from the automation investment.
From smart factories and robot builders to mobility companies and interstellar research, Heidenhain's positioning control systems are helping shape the safe and productive future of unmanned operations. The technological bar may be continuing to rise, but with 120-plus years of motion control R&D in Heidenhain's arsenal, the company has always been at the forefront of automation and always will be.
SCHUNK, the family-owned company, is a worldwide leader for equipping modern manufacturing and robot systems. With more than 11,000 standard components SCHUNK offers the world’s largest assortment of gripping systems and clamping technology from one source. Due to the digitalization of the portfolio, user can plan their processes efficiently, transparently, and economically. In addition, they benefit from the comprehensive application knowledge surrounding tomorrow’s innovative manufacturing.
Don’t delay, secure your free seat at the webinar today!
GE Aviation Engine Services Singapore (GE AESS) first MRO approved to use metal AM for commercial jet engine component repair.
As metal additive technology continues to gain momentum in the design and industrial production of new aerospace components, GE Aviation’s Loyang facility is the first maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility worldwide that has been approved to use metal additive manufacturing (AM) for commercial jet engine component repairs.
GE Aviation Engine Services Singapore (GE AESS) currently employs more than 1,700 employees in the city-state and accounts for more than 60 percent of GE Aviation’s global repair volume. GE Aviation continuously innovates in the MRO sector, and GE AESS recently announced that it is the first MRO facility in the world approved to perform metal additive repairs on jet engine components.
3D-printed parts are typically printed using STL files generated from CAD drawings. However, this works only for new-make production where the goal is to produce identical parts conforming to the blueprint. When repairing used parts, however, the repair must be customized for each individual part because each part wears differently during service.
Additive technology in repairs also offers the possibility of embracing complexity, rather than shying away from it. Chen Keng Nam, executive manufacturing leader at GE AESS in Singapore, has also been involved in the metal additive roll-out.
“This disruptive technology can be used for lots of applications, not only in aviation. When I see beyond the realm of repair into new-make, it’s mind-blowing to see the parts that we can design and print using additive. Now designers are making use of the ability to produce new designs that couldn't be imagined or manufactured before with traditional methods.”
Iain Rodger, managing director at GE AESS, also sees the potential for metal additive technology in MRO.
“In this part of the supply chain our customers truly value faster turn-around time, and that’s what we are achieving. Using our GE Additive Concept Laser M2 machines typically halves the amount of time it takes us to repair these aircraft parts.”
Rodger says his teams are already using additive technology to repair parts in GE Aviation’s CF6 engines used on wide-body aircraft. The next goal is to include parts on the widely used CFM56 commercial aviation engine.
One example is the repair of high-pressure compressor (HPC) blades that run at high speeds and tight clearances within aircraft engines. They face regular erosion and wear that, in time, demand continuous repair and replacement. Repairing these blade tips used to require a long process of cutting, welding and grinding to create the proper shape.
GE Aviation has established an automated AM process to repair the HPC blade tips, saving time and costs associated with labor and machining. The team created image-analysis software that maps the shape of a used blade and creates customized instructions for the Concept Laser M2 machine to build a new tip with precise alignment and profile.
The 3D-printed part is near-net shape and can be finished with minimal additional processing.
“Productivity has increased with our employees able to repair twice as many parts in a day compared to the conventional repair process. Less equipment is also needed for post-processing, so the floor space required is reduced by one-third,” says Rodger.
“We are currently assessing what we are going to do in turbine parts and other components beyond compressors. Day-to-day, working with customers, they will know that there's a difference as they will be seeing their parts return to them more quickly.”
Beyond the much faster turn-around times possible with metal additive technology in aircraft part repairs, Rodger sees another significant win for GE Aviation, for customers, and for the aviation industry more broadly.
“To me one of the significant advantages of additive is its sustainability. This is going to allow us to repair more parts and throw fewer parts into the bin, use less energy, generate less waste, and have a smaller footprint. Repair capability is a big part of the sustainability journey. As the industry expands and new technology is developed, that will only increase.”
As part of its national high-tech strategy, Singapore’s Economic Development Board supported the initial development trials and training for the introduction of metal additive technology for aviation maintenance into the country.
Shih Tung Ngiam, a senior engineering manager at GE AESS, was involved in the project from its inception. He acts as a bridge between the local team and the wider additive community across GE Aviation and GE Additive to industrialize the process.
“While teams at the GE Aviation Additive Technology Center in Cincinnati and GE Additive Lichtenfels in Germany worked on developing printing parameters for the Concept Laser M2 machine, our team here in Singapore focused on the modifications needed to make the process robust and production-friendly in a high-volume repair process,” Ngiam explains.
The Singapore team designed tooling to prepare and print parts efficiently and fine-tuned the repair process, including printing, pre- and post-processing, and inspection. Extensive trials and tests were conducted to ensure the quality and safety of the parts before the repair was substantiated.
In 2020 Ngiam and the team also designed a pilot production line, including an automated powder recycling system, to streamline the repair operation. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the approach for a while; however, by 2021 the team in Loyang was ready to go live on its full-scale production line.
“Additive gives us speed and productivity with less floor space required. We gave a lot of careful consideration to how best to integrate the M2s into the rest of the repair line. We completed an assessment of which parts of the repair we should leave alone, which ones could benefit from additive, and what other changes we needed to make to the repair process for it to make sense,” says Ngiam.
The two big advantages that metal additive provides the site are speed and the near-net-shape product. This allows the team to increase productivity and reduce floor space required. The traditional methods for repairing HPC blades involves a lot of effort to weld the blade and then a lot of additional effort to remove the excess material. By using the Concept Laser M2 metal 3D printers, the repaired blade is very close to the final shape when it comes out of the machine, so it takes much less labor and equipment to achieve the finished profile.
Given the critical nature of aerospace components, extensive analysis and testing are required before any repair can be approved, even more so when new technologies such as AM are involved. GE AESS worked closely with GE Aviation Engineering to produce parts for testing and to establish a robust quality-assurance process before the process could be approved. As the aerospace industry becomes more familiar with additive, the approval process can be streamlined.
Back on the ground, as GE AESS starts to scale metal additive technology for aircraft part repairs, a real consideration is the talent that will be needed to implement ambitions.
“Singapore’s universities and polytechnics are training a healthy number of students in AM, but the pool of experienced graduates is still quite small. As the industry matures and these graduates gain experience, we expect that Singapore’s pool of additive talent will grow accordingly,” says Chen Keng Nam.
And this feeds into a blueprint for the future, where AM is a mainstay of the aircraft repair supply chain.
“The great dream of additive is to print spare parts on demand without even needing to have an inventory. It’s true that it’s a few years away, but it will happen. But we must also recognize that change can take time, especially in our highly regulated industry, and we have to make efforts to prove that our new methods are as good, if not better, than what has gone before,” Ngiam concludes.