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The University of Maine unveiled an innovative, rapidly deployable bridge system July 12 at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center. Engineers, Maine Department of Transportation officials, business leaders, investors, researchers, members from Advanced Infrastructure Technologies (UMaine's licensee for the original “Bridge-in-a-Backpack”) and staff attended the event, at which a bridge span was strength-tested in the laboratory using computer-controlled hydraulic equipment that simulates the heaviest highway truck loads. The strength-test was conducted for the first time to prove the design modeling predictions, and demonstrate the bridge system can withstand the truck loading specified in the American Association of State Highway and...

3D printing technology has been used multiple times to help create drug delivery and release systems, from programmable release capsules and cancer drug-emitting implants to micro-rockets that deliver drugs inside the body and even a biomaterial sleeve that can reduce the risk of infection after a body piercing. Some researchers are working to develop 3D printed pills and vaccines that will combine multiple medications into one, and an Israeli drug delivery company will soon seek FDA approval for its 3D printed medical marijuana inhaler, which can control the doses a person inhales. But I would bet you $20 that none...

Additive manufacturing startup MarkForged aims to make it happen and is already marketing systems. Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the hottest areas in parts fabrication. Interest is high, research dollars are being spent and company stocks are attracting investor attention. Why? First, because AM has moved beyond its initial role as a prototyping tool to a process that can build finished parts. AM technologies — stereolithography, fused deposition modeling (FDM), laser sintering (LS), material extrusion, direct metal deposition and more (see "The rise of rapid manufacturing," under “Editor's Picks,” at top right) — were able from their beginnings to...

The U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing has unveiled its latest airliner model with great fanfare, and great focus on technological advances in its construction. At a ceremony at a company hangar in the state of Washington Sunday afternoon, some 15,000 guests saw Boeing's 787 Dreamliner for the first time. Boeing says the new airliner will use 20 percent less fuel than other similarly sized planes because of the carbon composite material used in its airframe. An airplane made of composites weighs less than a metal plane, and requires less fuel to do the same job. The 787 has not yet left...

Flightglobal.com has obtained pictures of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner headed for the paint shop earlier this week at Boeing's assembly plant in Everett, Washington. The aircraft is scheduled to be formally rolled out on 8 July (7/8/7 using the US date convention) and fly for the first time in August or September. Entry into service with launch customer, All Nippon Airways, is slated for next May.

When Boeing first considered extensive use of structural composites on the 787 Dreamliner, its engineers knew intuitively the epoxy/carbon fiber matrices would reduce weight significantly, allowing fuel savings and extended flying range. But after an intensive early look at composites, they realized fundamental design changes were possible that would allow functional systems integration, as well as changes in lamellar flow that would improve aerodynamics From a materials’ point of view, the 787 Dreamliner is one of the most revolutionary leaps in the history of manufacturing. But in order to meet an ambitious delivery schedule – the first delivery is scheduled...

Airbus is set to make yet another design change to its A350 XWB, this time dumping composite panels on an aluminum frame for an all-composite barrel. Pressure from major customers such as Emirates and ILFC is believed to be the catalyst for the pending revamp. News of the move, first flagged by this website in January (ATWOnline, Jan. 26), comes the same week that Boeing started final assembly on the 787. While Emirates President Tim Clark told media the Dreamliner's finish resembled "a polished silver coffeepot," Airbus has been getting mixed reaction to its composite panel concept. Trade studies have...

NTSB Maintains New Rudder Worry Not Related To 2001 Flight ANN REALTIME UPDATE: 04.17.06 1800EST: In response to the urging by members of the Allied Pilots Association to reopen its investigation into the November 12, 2001 downing of American Airlines Flight 587, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday its recent warnings of a specific kind of problem with Airbus A300 and A310 aircraft does not affect the board's determination that the 2001 accident was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively. "The scenarios are different. What we noted in our recommendation letter in March did not...

In keeping with its 7-Series tradition, Boeing has given its mid-sized 7E7 jetliner the official model designation number of 787, and the name Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Able to seat 200 to 300 passengers, the twin-aisle aircraft reportedly will use 20 percent less fuel compared to a plane of comparable size. Boeing also announced that it has completed the 787's first full-scale, one-piece fuselage section, demonstrating concepts for production scheduled to begin next year. The first major 787 structure to reach this stage of development, the 7m/22-ft long, 6m/19-ft wide fuselage barrel section was completed in December 2004. The section was...

Publicly thanking Paul G. Allen, who admitted to investing more than $20 million in the project, Rutan appeared to physically choke up when he said, "We were able to develop a complete space program from scratch for the price of one of those government paper studies." ...Mojave Airport Manager Stu Witt... said. "Nobody's ever done anything like this before," Pearson said. "That's part of what's unique about America--nowhere else in the world. It's a great day for the country." Non-military government involvement was limited. In fact, according to Rutan, the first contact between NASA and the program participants came...

LANCASTER -Antelope Valley College played host to educators and a few NASA Dryden Flight Research Center employees as part of a two-day workshop to demonstrate to the educators how to teach composites technology to their students. Composites are known to many in the "Aerospace Valley" as those materials that make the stealth bomber stealthy and SpaceShipOne a contender for getting a featherweight rocket ship into space. Participants created B-2 bomber models out of shaped foam core and a carbon fiber outer skin. The resultant models measured about 16 inches tall and weighed less than a large apple. The workshop was...

April 01, 2004 Rotor blade separation caused crash of medical helicopterBy Ed Koch <koch@lasvegassun.com>LAS VEGAS SUN A 16-monthlong investigation of the crash of a Mercy Air Services helicopter that killed three found that the main rotor blades separated in flight. But why that happened, the National Transportation Safety Board says will never be known. The federal agency's final report of the Sept. 7, 2002, accident near Nipton, Calif., was released Thursday. Investigators determined the official cause of the crash of the Bell 222U helicopter was "main rotor blade separation while maneuvering for unknown reasons. A factor was the dark night...

Burt Builds Your Ride to Space Burt Rutan wants to fly into space every Tuesday for five months, to test a concept and prove a point. And he wants to do it soon: He may make the first flight before the December 17 Wright brothers centenary. Chances are, he'll succeed. That was the buzz in Mojave, California, when Rutan, one of the world's most innovative aircraft designers, recently unveiled what could become the first successful privately funded manned space program, a system composed of two startlingly original vehicles: the insect-like White Knight mother ship, and SpaceShipOne, a winged, rocket-propelled pod...