Boeing has developed an advanced method to test wireless signals in airplane cabins, making it possible for passengers to enjoy more reliable connectivity when using networked personal electronic devices in the air. Boeing engineers created a new process for measuring radio signal quality using proprietary measurement technology and analysis tools.
This enables engineers to more efficiently measure how strong a signal is and how far it spreads, ensuring safe yet powerful signal penetration throughout an airplane cabin.
Once the new method was established, testing that previously took more than two weeks to conduct was reduced to 10 hours.
"Every day we work to ensure that Boeing passengers are travelling on the safest and most advanced airplanes in the world," said Dennis O'Donoghue, vice president of Boeing Test and Evaluation. "This is a perfect example of how our innovations in safety can make the entire flying experience better."
This technology was first developed to more thoroughly and efficiently ensure that signal propagation met the regulatory safety standards that protect against interference with an aircraft's critical electrical systems.
Initially using a de-commissioned airplane, the team from Boeing Test and Evaluation laboratories conducted a series of such tests.
The team determined that potatoes were ideal stand-ins for passengers, given their similar physical interactions with electronic signal properties.
Much of the testing was conducted on the grounded airplane with the seats filled with 20,000 pounds of potato sacks. The test data was then validated on the ground with human stand-ins for passengers.
A wireless signal inside an airplane can deviate randomly when people move around. Boeing's new test process takes advantage of state-of-the-art technology and ground-breaking statistical analysis to identify strong and weak signal areas and balance them by adjusting the connectivity system accordingly.
NASA asked a Boeing-led team to explore the possibilities of a hybrid electric aircraft. Marty Bradley, Boeing Research and Technology, explains how the SUGAR Volt concept is defining the future of flight.
By the virtue of their size and speed, birds are uniquely capable of
efficient flight while flapping their wings and while gliding.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have
duplicated the control functions that allow birds to successfully
perform a soft landing—in this case, perching on a human hand.
“We believe we have the first demonstration of autonomous/robotic
flight of a bird-like micro aerial vehicle (MAV) perching on a human
hand,” stated Soon-Jo Chung, an assistant professor in the Department of
Aerospace Engineering at Illinois.
Because the wings of ornithopters—birds or aircraft with flapping
wings—are inherently capable of being reoriented, this capability can be
used for controlling and maneuvering the aircraft in a gliding phase,
thereby eliminating the need for additional traditional actuators.
Gliding is an effective way to conserve energy while soaring,
descending, and landing.
“The driving philosophy behind the work is that the maneuverability and
control efficiency of avian flight can be replicated by applying their
actuation and control principles to advanced MAVs designed on the size
scale of small birds,” explained Aditya Paranjape, a postdoctoral
scholar working on this project.
The result is based on his PhD thesis
and a series of journal papers with Chung.
“We have developed an articulated-wing-based concept for an agile
robotic aircraft inspired by birds,” Paranjape added. “Of all manoeuvers
executed by flapping wing aircraft in a gliding phase, a perched landing
is arguably the most challenging.”
Perching is routinely used by birds to land on objects such as tree
branches, power wires, or building ledges. According to the researchers,
there are two factors that make perching challenging to engineer: 1)
the maneuver’s duration is very short, on the same order as the aircraft
dynamics, and 2) a high level of position accuracy is required for a
successful perched landing.
“Our aerial robot concept lacks a vertical tail for improved agility,
similar to birds, which renders it dynamically unstable and exacerbates
both of these factors,” Paranjape said. “We choose a perching maneuver
to demonstrate the capabilities of our articulated-winged aircraft
concept, novel guidance algorithms, and control design.
In particular,
the ability to perform perched landings on a human hand endows our robot
with the ability to operate around humans.”
A typical perching maneuver consists of two phases—a gliding phase to
bring the bird to a suitable position with respect to the landing spot,
and a rapid pitch up (usually to a post-stall angle of attack)
accompanied by an instantaneous climb and rapid deceleration.
The
researchers noted that the success of the maneuver can be severely
impeded by the lateral-directional motion (yaw and roll), particularly
when the perched landing has to be accomplished on a small surface such
as an electric pole or a human palm.
In the absence of a vertical tail,
wing articulation is a promising capability which can be used for both
longitudinal and lateral-directional control.
Chung, who joined the Illinois’ faculty in 2009, brought with him a
vision for developing aircraft that mimic the autonomy and agility of
bats.
“There’s a lot to learn from bio systems,” Chung said. “Bats can fly
with damaged wings. They are so agile and highly maneuverable; they can
make rapid 180-degree turns autonomously and they can fly indoors
without colliding with obstacles. These qualities are desirable for
small aircraft that could be used in surveillance, particularly in urban
settings where obstacles hamper movement and satellite control is
blocked.”
The MAV project was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
The technical details of this work can be found in the following papers.
A. Paranjape, J. Kim, and S.-J. Chung, "Closed-Loop Perching of Aerial Robots with Articulated Flapping Wings," IEEE Transactions on Robotics, under review, 2012. https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/sjchung/www/Paranjape12_perching_submitted.pdf
A. A. Paranjape, S.-J. Chung, H. H. Hilton, and A. Chakravarthy, "Dynamics and Performance of a Tailless MAV with Flexible Articulated Wings," AIAA Journal, vol. 50, no. 5, May 2012, pp. 1177-1188. https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/sjchung/www/AIAAJflexnew.pdf
Mong Thongdee, a 12 -year-old stateless who was born in Thailand to Myanmar migrants, competes during the team indoor flight duration competition at the All-Japan Origami Airplane Contest in Makuhari, near Tokyo, on Saturday.
A Mynamar boy who the Thai Government claim is "Stateless" and has no 'official nationality' even though he lives in Thailand, has captured third place in a Japanese paper airplane contest on Sunday. Only after he made extensive tearful pleas to be allowed to attend the contest, did the authorities decide to grant him a rare 'temporary' passport for the event.
Mong Thongdee, 12, won a national paper airplane championship in Thailand in August 2008 after he threw a plane that flew for 12 seconds, and was later chosen to attend the Japanese contest in Chiba, near Tokyo.
Mong, who lives in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, is the son of Myanmar migrants and they have officially been declared 'stateless', by the Thai Government and therefore have no legal right to travel abroad.
His first application to leave Thailand was denied, but after national media coverage of him quietly sobbing after the refusal captured the hearts of many Thais, he was granted a temporary passport.
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