With software making it easier to create digital twins, automakers are moving beyond geometric models to provide parameters such as behavioral and business info.
DARPA will invest more than $2 billion in over 20 new and existing programs collectively called the “AI Next” campaign. Through AI Next, DARPA is exploring ways to advance the state-of-the-art in AI, pushing beyond second-wave machine learning techniques and toward “contextual reasoning and adaptation” capabilities.
A new “AI Innovation Challenge” tasks United Kingdom and Canadian startups and researchers to pitch ideas for how AI could improve aircraft efficiency in extreme weather.
Lockheed Martin and the Drone Racing League (DRL) is challenging the engineering community with a new twist on drone enthusiast racing competition: develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will enable an autonomous UAS to race a pilot-operated drone and win against human first-person view (FPV) operators. The call for advanced autonomy, dubbed the AlphaPilot Innovation Challenge, came during the TechCrunch Disrupt technology startup conference in San Francisco.
Northrop Grumman has successfully completed casting, or filling with solid propellant, the first live motor segment for its new OmegA rocket. The segment, developed as a part of the Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems’ Common Boost Segment (CBS) program, is specifically designed to support the needs of the OmegA intermediate- to heavy-lift rocket, soon to be the largest and most capable in the company’s line-up.
GKN Aerospace in Trollhättan, Sweden, are developing and manufacturing the first additive-manufactured, or 3D-printed, rocket engine turbines in Europe, officials say. The tier 1 aerospace supplier is harnessing cutting-edge additive manufacturing (AM) technology to produce two full-scale turbines for the Prometheus reusable rocket engine demonstrator on liquid oxygen and methane propellants, while reducing the number of parts from more than 100 to 2 and cutting costs by 90 percent.
More than 300 aerospace professionals are expected at SAE International’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) Users Forum, hosted by Inmarsat at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel in London November 13 through 15, 2018. Registration is now open for the world's largest conference dedicated to EFBs which boasts a supplier exhibition area and will focus on the latest regulatory developments, aircraft interface devices (AIDs), security and connectivity progress, advances in mobile applications, and airline operator experiences.
Additive manufacturing is beginning to transform operations from early development through fulfilling requests for obsolete components, though it’s still fairly new in the high reliability world of commercial vehicles.
According to the contract, Boeing will initially receive $79 million to begin work on four operational MQ-25 refueling “drones” with integration into the carrier air wing for initial operational capability by 2024. Boeing will receive another $9.5 billion at a later date to produce 72 more aircraft.
According to officials, the USAF will select a new trainer aircraft by September 30 – before the end of the 2018 fiscal year. The aircraft will be one of the three remaining next-gen trainer candidates from the USAF’s ongoing T-X competition, either the Boeing/Saab T-X, Lockheed Martin/KAI T-50A, or Leonardo DRS T-100.