Looking forward

That adds up to a lot of engineers being needed to ensure those shiny and expensive pieces of metal (and composites) are able to safely stay in the skies, as well as the need to boost production through more automation and increased efficiencies.

Innovation will be the key to meeting these expectations and many firms at the Avalon Airshow were keen to highlight the work they were doing in this area.

A number of companies were also recognised at the Aerospace Australia Industry Innovation Awards that were presented at the airshow.

One of those gongs went to Australian engineering services company TAE, which received the Civil Industry National Innovation Award for its fountx wearable technology.

TAE recently began trials of fountx, which it describes as wearable assisted technology comprising a headset that includes a camera, microphone and eye-level display screen powered by a computer inside a backpack.

The technology allows a qualified expert to remotely monitor and instruct someone through engineering or maintenance tasks from hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres away via the internet.

TAE chief executive Andrew Sanderson said it allowed engineers to turn a two-day exercise into a one-hour job.

“As people aren’t being trained or they are leaving the aviation industry, you will have less and less certified people,” Sanderson said.

“So what this will allow us to do is bring a lot of our knowledge that is sort of locked up at times inside our own facilities and actually have it readily available for people to use or access out in the operational space.

“This way you have a way of projecting one person’s expertise further, like a multiplier.”

Sanderson said TAE was working with the regulator on certification around signing-off work that was checked by experts via fountx.

“If someone is doing a job and they have recorded it, it is great record of what they have done that an expert 1,000km away can actually be doing the certification of that job,” Sanderson said.

“Certification is authorising the aircraft to return to service. I have seen what that person has done, they have followed the manuals, they have followed my instructions, I am happy that it is certifiable.

“We have to work with the regulator to get through that.”

On the defence side, BAE Systems Australia and the Australian government’s Defence, Science and Technology Group received the Defence Industry National Innovation Award for their Environmental Degradation Monitoring and Prognostics (EDMAP) system to predict corrosion in aircraft structures through self-diagnosis. It was estimated corrosion costs the Australian Defence Force hundreds of millions of dollars annually, while the figure is in the billions in the United States.

The EDMAP system features, among other things, extremely light micro-cameras permanently installed in the most inaccessible parts of the airframe. As a result, maintainers for the first time can check these spaces for structural cracking, foreign objects, loose avionics and wiring, blocked drainage holes and general serviceability, the citation for the award said.

BAE Systems supplies the corrosion management technology for the F-35, with the first corrosion management model delivered in July 2016. The system was estimated to save the F-35 operators US$750 million over the life of the global F-35 fleet.

BAE Systems Australia project engineering manager James Waldie said on the company’s Twitter page: “Innovation is obviously a key part of BAE and working and developing these sorts of technologies, they are going to help with efficient sustainment of F-35 in the future.”

“We’re obviously very proud to have been awarded the national defence industry innovation award because it effects both our F-35 technologies, and also reflects our work over the last six years or so in developing generic corrosion maintenance systems that we will be able to deploy on all sorts of other platforms around Australia.”

Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne said the technology was successfully demonstrated on RAAF Hawk aircraft and was currently being used on the Royal Australian Navy’s Seahawk helicopters.

Elsewhere, the awards recognised Thomas Global Systems for its TFD-8601 liquid crystal display (LCD), awarding the company the Civil SME Innovation Grant. The technology, which developed in Australia, allowed older cathode ray tube (CRT) cockpit displays to be replaced with the newer LCD screens without disturbing the rest of the Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS) and cockpit wiring. LCD screens were also cheaper to operate and more reliable.

Regional Express, which partnered with Thomas Global Systems to develop the technology, is gradually replacing the Rockwell Collins EFD-86 CRT display on its Saab 340 fleet with the TFD-8601 avionics display.

Thomas Global chief executive Angus Hutchinson said: “We are thrilled to be recognised for our contribution towards enhancing Australia’s position as a source of leading aviation electronics for international markets.”

The final award, the Young Innovator Scholarship for Civil Industry, went to Jarrod Hayes-Griss from Advanced Composite Structures Australia for his Ph.D research at RMIT University that examined environmental effects on the mechanics of bonded composite repairs and joints in aerospace structures.

Away from the awards, Avalon also showcased 3D printing initiatives in aerospace.

Melbourne company Titomic brought to Avalon its Titomic Kinetic Fusion (TKF) technology, which it said produced titanium components of virtually any shape and size more rapidly and at a considerably lower cost than conventional manufacturing methods.

Developed in partnership with the CSIRO, Tiptomic said the process did not melt or vaporise metal particles, resulting in lower energy consumption compared with standard metal casting or forging technologies.

Titomic director of technology Jeff Lang said: “High energy consumption, high material wastage and extensive machining times drive up the cost of producing aerospace parts,” he said.

“TKF overcomes a range of challenges that current metal-based 3D printing and additive technologies face, including low-build speed rates, build size restrictions, and heat related distortions.”

Meanwhile, Monash University and its spin-off company Amaero Engineering, was back at Avalon two years after it had the world’s first printed jet engine on display. Since Avalon 2015, the company has purchased a $3.5 million Xline 2000R printer, which is the only one of its type in the Suothern Hemisphere and available for contract manufacturing.

“The new printer allows us to make large complex shapes and unique tools quicker, lighter and with less waste,” Monash University’s Professor Xinhua Wu, who leads the university’s 3D printing initiative, said in a statement.

The company brought an aircraft door hinge, complex air intake component and a cutaway view of a new rocket motor design to Avalon.

In November 2016, Amaero won a contract to produce auxiliary power units and turbojet engines for French aerospace and defence company Safran Power Units at its Toulouse manufacturing facility.

Amaero chief executive Barrie Finnin said the company’s printed production components were now flying in passenger jets and small turbojet engines.

The rise in popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), more commonly known as drones, was also a feature of Avalon 2017, with organisers devoting part of the week to discuss the practical applications of these aircraft.

At the professional end of the drone spectrum, RMIT University and the DST Group’s maritime division featured Black Kite, a waterproof heavy lift quadcopter designed for surveillance and reconnaissance around naval ports.

Trials of the aircraft run in partnership with a number of different stakeholders in Australia and the US showed “incorporating UAV into the security system improved identification, classification and response times, thereby improving the overall effectiveness of the security forces”, RMIT said.“The outcome of the project was a more comprehensive understanding of what is possible when a variety of modern technologies are combined to build a complete security system for protection of warships and critical waterside facilities,” it said.

And the next big idea in aerospace is likely to be just around the corner.

Three teams from RMIT University progressed to the second round of Airbus’s Fly Your Ideas student competition, with their projects covering the use of aerobridges for the rear door for boarding and disembarkation, new designs for overhead baggage lockers and utilising existing aircraft for aerial firefighting with minimal or no change in airframe OEM design battling 47 other teams for the 30,000 euro first prize.