Wired Up

Passengers are unlikely to be unaware of the complexity of the aircraft systems that are hidden from view. After all, their onboard interactions are limited to aircraft seats, flight attendants and in-flight entertainment systems. Like a human nervous system, an aircraft’s wiring carries signals and information critical to the safe operation of the airplane. Carlisle IT, W.L. Gore and AeroFlite are a few of the companies that design and manufacture “the nerves.” Connecting everything from the fly-by-wire flight control systems to the coffeemaker in the galley, miles of wires, thousands of connectors, and tens of thousands of support brackets have to be cut, bundled, tested and installed.

2023-02-20T20:01:50-08:00March 20th, 2017|
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The Shape Of Things To Come

Imagine that your ink-jet printer has gone wonky. It’s sitting on your desk, running its print head back and forth for hours, continually printing one word. Once the unruly piece of technology is under control, you manage to pull out the paper. You can see, and feel, that the word “ROTOR” has been built up from the paper’s surface. If you scrape it off, the word will sit on your desk, like a paperweight. That’s the essence of 3D printing.

2023-02-20T20:01:51-08:00February 13th, 2017|
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Battle of the Beams

SmartSky’s patented 4G technology uses ground-based, phased-array antennas that follow each aircraft with a narrow, electronically steerable beam. With two blade antennas mounted on the bottom of the fuselage, receive equipment, and Wi-Fi in the cabin, the on-board Internet experience will rival what passengers have at home.

2023-02-20T20:01:52-08:00December 2nd, 2016|
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Tape’s Rolling! Sony Resumes Production of Hi8 Cassettes

Sony recently resumed production of professional-grade Hi8 tape cassettes, giving support to a format that’s still in use by airlines worldwide in early-generation in-flight entertainment systems. Introduced in 1989, Sony’s Hi8 tape format was one of the final iterations in the evolution of analog videotape formats that began 60 years ago with massive, two-inch wide, reel-to-reel broadcast videotapes.

2023-02-20T20:01:52-08:00November 15th, 2016|
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No Roads? No Problem!

Suzanne was in desperate need of a follow-up MRI. Last time, she’d had to endure multiple flights and an all-day trip from her Nunavut village to Montreal for her scan. But today, she and her neighbours watched in awe as a massive, brilliant white hybrid airship slowly approached her village’s frozen harbour. The airship touched down gently on its air-cushion landing gear, stopping right by the shore. This afternoon, the medical professionals in the airship’s fully-equipped imaging clinic would welcome Suzanne for her MRI appointment, steps from her home. And no, this isn’t science fiction.

2023-02-20T20:01:52-08:00November 9th, 2016|
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Remotely Powered

As the helicopter industry continues to adapt to the challenges faced in the oil-and-gas sector, two long-established operators have added unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) services to their portfolios. And rather than starting from the ground up, the Bristow Group and Era Helicopters have partnered with experienced unmanned aircraft system (UAS) companies.

2023-02-20T20:01:53-08:00November 7th, 2016|
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SmartSky Networks and Gogo Make Strides in Air-to-Ground Connectivity Landscape

Competition in the long-established air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity landscape in the United States has heated up over the past two days with announcements from startup SmartSky Networks and Gogo. On Wednesday, SmartSky’s patented 4G spectrum reuse radio system received approval from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), enabling the company to use an unlicensed portion of the 2.4 GHz spectrum band for in-flight connectivity.

2023-02-20T20:01:53-08:00September 29th, 2016|
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How Design Works

It doesn’t take a crystal ball to look into the future. It takes foam. Huge blocks of solid foam that are sculpted to millimeter precision by a massive five-axis milling machine that gets its instructions from sophisticated modeling software – software that gives the multidisciplinary, cross-cultural and creative team at Designworks, a subsidiary of the BMW Group, the ability to be makers, not only designers.

2023-02-20T20:01:54-08:00September 6th, 2016|
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In-Flight Wi-Fi Brought To You By…

Up in the air, sponsored promotions have been finding their way into the aircraft cabin. And although it’s still early days, increased onboard connectivity bandwidth is becoming a reality, opening up opportunities to develop creative partnerships that enhance the passenger experience. “The foundation of all this is the deployment of more bandwidth,” says Ash ElDifrawi, chief commercial officer for in-flight connectivity provider Gogo. “What you’re going to continue to see is more and more sponsorships as we move from a constrained to a more abundant environment of megabytes.”

2023-02-20T20:01:54-08:00September 5th, 2016|
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Connecting in China

The Chinese airline market continues to see double-digit growth in domestic and international passenger traffic, with thousands of aircraft needed to meet the demand over the next twenty years. According to Boeing, the Chinese domestic airline market is expected to become the world’s largest. With this onslaught of new travelers comes the need for Chinese airlines to provide inflight connectivity on par with the rest of the world. Although the regulatory process has so far moved at a deliberate rate, recent announcements suggest that more passengers on Chinese airlines will soon be online.

2023-02-20T20:02:16-08:00June 27th, 2016|
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