Back to the Basics: Thrust, Lift, and Drag

Laversab Aviation is among one of the most highly regarded suppliers of pitot static testers and data test sets - sine qua non in the aviation industry. Flight is among one of man's most inimitable discoveries. Other than electricity, most other discoveries pale in comparison. It is a great shame that the majority of men in the 21st century, despite access to a bevy of educational resources thanks to the internet, have little idea how flight works - what makes an airplane, something so big and heavy, get up and stay in the air. The many scientific minds at Laversab have decided to be that educational resource. With the help of this article, it is our goal to educate even the most scientifically illiterate what makes airplanes fly. To do this, basic core concepts must be explicated. These basic concepts include: thrust, lift, and drag, among many others. This first article is going to focus on these three concepts. Following articles will introduce more complex and abstruse concepts - concepts which can only be understood if one has a strong, basic understanding of the primary concepts.

Once one has explicitly understood the axiomatic concepts on which all other knowledge rests - those being: the primacy of existence, of consciousness, and of identity - man can look to the world, to extrospect, and make an effort, through logic and empirical observation, to understand the nature of reality. Man sees that some things, which he calls birds, have the capacity to fly - to travel by way of air. For centuries, man has wanted to perform this act of flight. Only now can he say he has been successful in doing so. But what made him successful? What knowledge has man gleaned to make it happen?

Thrust, life, gravity, and drag - these are the four concepts which man has developed as a result of empirical observation and arduous inductive reasoning. The first two - thrust and lift - assist flight. The other two - gravity and drag - resist flight. All four of these concepts are classified as forces. In physics, a force is any interaction which changes the motion of a physical entity.

When an aircraft is flying in the air, straight and level, all four of the aforementioned forces (thrust, lift, gravity, and drag) are balanced and in equilibrium.

Thrust

Engines create thrust. When a propeller forces air through the engine, the airplane or aircraft moves forward. As the wings cut through the air in front of the aircraft, lift is created. This is the force pushing an aircraft up into the sky.

Lift

When air flows both over and under the surface of an aircraft's wings, you have lift. The wing is designed such that the top surface is longer than the bottom surface. This makes the air move faster along the top of the wing, thus creating a difference in air pressure above and below - a phenomenon known as the Bernoulli effect. The pressure pushing up is far greater than the downward pressure. This creates lift.

Drag

That phenomenon which opposes thrust is known as drag. Even though it generally occurs because of air resistance as air flows around the wing, several different types of drag exist. Drag is created as a result of simple skin friction as air molecules stick to the surface of the wings.

Gravity

Gravity is a force of acceleration on an object. The Earth exerts this natural force on all objects. It is a constant force that always acts downwards.

Laversab Aviation

Thanks to hard work and dedication, Laversab Aviation has emerged as one of the foremost suppliers of Pitot Static Testers and Data Test Sets in the world. The company's accumulative knowledge in the field of Aviation is incredibly expansive and prodigious, making them a primary source for those in search of educational resources on the subject of Aviation.

The Aviation Industry: An Economist's Perspective

Far too many industries have good reason for caution at the moment, given the fears of a "double dip" in the world economy. But the mood in aviation, especially among the aircraftmakers, remains optimistic. This week Airbus produced new long-range forecasts, predicting that a combination of vigorous emerging-market growth and the need to replace ageing and inefficient planes in the rich countries will mean a demand, between now and 2030, for almost 28,000 large aircraft (passenger planes with over 100 seats, plus freighters) worth $3.5 trillion. Airbus's archrival, Boeing, is even more boosterish: it predicted earlier this month that there would be demand for around 31,000 planes, worth $4 trillion, by 2030. Both planemakers are already seeing signs of this in their bulging order books. This bodes well for Laversab Aviation Systems, as their pitot static testers and air data test sets will remain in high demand.

The aircraftmakers' confidence about the emerging world is based on what appears to be an iron law of aviation: rising numbers of urban middle-class people will mean rising demand for air travel, whatever short-term blips the economy suffers. Since the 1970s, through oil shocks, Middle East wars, terrorist attacks and disease outbreaks, the number of passenger-miles flown seems always to have snapped back to its long-term growth trend (see chart 1). At the moment Airbus reckons there are 39 "megacities" worldwide whose airports handle more than 10,000 long-haul passengers a day. In 20 years it expects there to be almost 90 such cities, many of them in Asia. In terms of the numbers of very large aircraft (like the A380) that they handle, the world's busiest hubs by then will be Dubai, Beijing Capital and Hong Kong, with Heathrow and JFK in fourth and fifth place.

There is still plenty of room for growth in the rich world too, but a second important driver of demand for new planes in these countries will be airlines' desire to save on fuel and maintenance costs, especially as new taxes on emissions come into force, by swapping their old crates for shiny new planes. Airbus points out that the industry has already been doing pretty well on this score: in the past ten years, passenger-miles flown have risen by 45% but the airlines' use of jet fuel has gone up by just 3%. In large part that is because of more efficient aircraft, and there are more such gains to come. Airbus says the re-engined "neo" version of its single-aisle A320 plane, due to fly in late 2015, will burn 15% less fuel than the current version. New engine designs and greater use of lighter composite materials in aircraft frames will mean even greater gains in efficiency.

Another reason for the airlines' greater fuel efficiency in recent years has been that they have been steadily getting better at filling their planes. Of all the many charts that flashed by during Airbus's presentation on Monday, the one that most caught my eye was this one (chart 2), showing how planes were typically only half-full in the 1960s but now fly with more than three-quarters of the seats occupied. Surely there is scope for further improvement in the coming years, as long as the airlines do not let their capacity get too far ahead of demand. As passengers clamour for seats, airlines will switch to ever bigger planes, which are more fuel-efficient than smaller ones. Singapore Airlines, the launch customer for the giant A380, is said to be filling over 80% of the available seats on it.

So the long-term future for aviation looks bright. As for the short term, IATA, the body that represents almost all of the world's scheduled airlines, said on September 20th that air travel was holding up unexpectedly well despite the worsening economic worries and continuing high fuel prices. It expects the number of passenger-miles flown to increase by almost 6% this year, whereas back in June it was expecting only 4.4% growth. As a result, IATA expects airlines to make combined net profits this year of just under $7 billion, compared with the $4 billion forecast in June.

Whether this is cause for celebration or a shrugging of the shoulders depends on how you look at it. IATA points out that this year's expected profits represent a slender 1.2% margin on the airlines' combined revenues of almost $600 billion. This year's $7 billion is a sizeable fall from last year's record profits of almost $16 billion, and IATA expects a further reduction in 2012, to around $5 billion. On the other hand, airlines have been such chronically poor financial performers—they lost money in seven of the last ten years—that to clock up any sort of profit in current conditions seems an achievement by comparison.

Environmental Issues for Aviation

Like any other form of public mass transport that relies on finite planetary resources, aviation cannot (in its present form) be considered sustainable in the very long term. Because of the finite nature of the resources upon which aviation relies, it is more realistic in the medium term to think how best to improve the sustainability of air transport rather than it achieving sustainable development. Laversab Aviation Systems is incredibly concerned with the nature of environmental issues for aviation. That is why they put so much focus in developing pitot-static systems that not only function efficiently and effectively, but which are manufactured in an environmentally-friendly fashion.

Demand for air transport is continually growing and, if this demand is to be met with all the attendant benefits, society must also accept the costs (noise, pollution, climate change, risk, resource use etc). Whilst it is not possible to make aviation sustainable (in its present form) in the very long term, much can be and is being done to improve aviation’s sustainability including:

• ensuring safety and security;
• efficiently optimising available capacity;
• collaborating to achieve a shared vision for more sustainable aviation;
• making decisions based on optimising the balance between social, economic and environmental imperatives;
• serving the need for mobility in a manner where the greatest overall benefit will arise, meeting the needs of stakeholders;
• taking every opportunity to minimise adverse impacts and resource use by creating and operating more efficient ATM systems, equipment and technology;
• targeting efforts where they will produce the greatest improvement in our citizen’s quality of life;
• investing in adequate research, training, education and awareness;
• being transparent and honest about both the good and bad aspects of air transport;
• avoid conflicting policy and regulations.

Aviation Systems: A Look Into the Future

NASA asked the world's top aircraft engineers to solve the hardest problem in commercial aviation: how to fly cleaner, quieter and using less fuel. The prototypes they imagined may set a new standard for the next two decades of flight.

BOX WING JET, LOCKHEED MARTIN

Target Date: 2025

Passenger jets consume a lot of fuel. A Boeing 747 burns five gallons of it every nautical mile, and as the price of that fuel rises, so do fares. Lockheed Martin engineers developed their Box Wing concept to find new ways to reduce fuel burn without abandoning the basic shape of current aircraft. Adapting the lightweight materials found in the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, they designed a looped-wing configuration that would increase the lift-to-drag ratio by 16 percent, making it possible to fly farther using less fuel while still fitting into airport gates. These future jets are incredibly sophisticated - much like the pitot static testers and air data test sets that Laversab produces.

They also ditched conventional turbofan engines in favor of two ultrahigh-bypass turbofan engines. Like all turbofans, they generate thrust by pulling air through a fan on the front of the engine and by burning a fuel-air mixture in the engine's core. With fans 40 percent wider than those used now, the Box Wing's engines bypass the core at several times the rate of current engines. At subsonic speeds, this arrangement improves efficiency by 22 percent. Add to that the fuel-saving boost of the box-wing configuration, and the plane is 50 percent more efficient than the average airliner. The additional wing lift also lets pilots make steeper descents over populated areas while running the engines at lower power. Those changes could reduce noise by 35 decibels and shorten approaches by up to 50 percent.

SUPERSONIC GREEN MACHINE, LOCKHEED MARTIN

Target Date: 2030

The first era of commercial supersonic transportation ended on November 26, 2003, with the final flight of the Concorde, a noisy, inefficient and highly polluting aircraft. But the dream of a sub-three-hour cross-country flight lingered, and in 2010, designers at Lockheed Martin presented the Mach 1.6 Supersonic Green Machine. The plane's variable-cycle engines would improve efficiency by switching to conventional turbofan mode during takeoff and landing. Combustors built into the engine would reduce nitrogen oxide pollution by 75 percent. And the plane's inverted-V tail and underwing engine placement would nearly eliminate the sonic booms that led to a ban on overland Concorde flights.

The configuration mitigates the waves of air pressure (caused by the collision with air of a plane traveling faster than Mach 1) that combine into the enormous shock waves that produce sonic booms. "The whole idea of low-boom design is to control the strength, position and interaction of shock waves," says Peter Coen, the principal investigator for supersonic projects at NASA. Instead of generating a continuous loop of loud booms, the plane would issue a dull roar that, from the ground, would be about as loud as a vacuum cleaner.

The future is looking bright.

Aviation Safety Management System

Many industry and regulatory "experts" suggest that implementing a Safety Management System (SMS) is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.

A rational, empirical mind will disagree - and Laversab Aviation Systems is of the same sentiment.

Ask yourself this question: Are your safety management activities complex and expensive? If the answer is "yes," you’re doing something wrong.

Managing safety is ultimately about managing risk – a simple concept that is often lost in academic models and 300-page safety manuals. Managing safety is not about making things complicated and "user unfriendly." An effective SMS that actually adds value while elevating the level of safety within an organization, is easily understood and "user-friendly."

I’ve had the opportunity to review the SMSs of several types of operators – large, small, international, domestic, private non-revenue (part 91), non-scheduled commercial (part 135), scheduled commercial (part 121) – and the most effective SMSs are not complex; instead, they are streamlined and easy to understand. An example of reducing unnecessary complexity is an operator who utilizes a single report form, rather than three different forms, for 1) the reporting of hazards/threats, for 2) any recommended changes employees want to suggest, and for 3) any unintentional errors employees have committed. This is sort of a "one-stop shopping" concept. The operators with an ineffective SMS seem to focus more on managing the complexities of their SMS rather than managing safety itself. An example of complexities is the method an employee uses to access safety information. The safety information should be readily available and easily accessed for the front-line employees. Employees should not be forced to perform several steps just to get the safety information in front of them to read. Also, the safety information itself should be as brief and to-the-point as possible. The above is as important to safety as the pitot static tester or the air data test set is to Laversab.

It is a myth that SMSs are better suited for large organizations. Smaller organizations actually have an advantage when it comes to incorporating an SMS because the smaller the operation, the easier it is to communicate and implement the steps needed to run an effective SMS. Regardless of the size of the operation, all successful SMSs will include four basic elements:

• Top-level management is committed to safety.
• Systems are in place to ensure hazards are reported in a timely manner.
• Action is taken to manage risks.
• The effects of safety actions are evaluated.

Experience has shown that effective SMSs make good economic sense. An effective SMS not only allows an organization to become more proactive in identifying and avoiding major threats/hazards but also reduces the number of minor incidents an operator will experience over time. An effective SMS will lead to improved communication, higher workplace morale, and increased productivity.

If your SMS is just sitting there and not really doing anything to make your operation safer and more efficient, then you need to take a hard look at how your organization is really managing safety. Chances are, your safety management activities are too complex and more reactive than proactive.

Effective safety management depends on the involvement of everyone within an organization. In order to get everyone within an organization involved in the activities of an SMS, the SMS must be easily understood and transparent.

An effective SMS has credibility which leads to everyone’s involvement. Employee participation is inversely proportional to the complexity of an SMS. As complexity increases, participation decreases.

Without participation, an SMS can never be effective.

Aviation Systems: Core Concepts (Part 2)

In late July, an excursion into the aggregation of the core aviation systems concepts had begun. The intention: to get a better understanding of the discipline. And to get a firm grasp of what pitotic static systems are and what they are for, a basic, rudimentary knowledge of the relevant concepts is necessary. Terms such as air data test systems and RVSM test equipment cannot be understood from the get-go.

Civil aviation

Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying that represents non-military aviation, both private and commercial. The majority of countries around the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), working together to establish a consistent and universal set of standards and recommended practices for civil aviation through that agency. The two major categories encompassing cival aviation are:

• Scheduled air transport. This includes every passenger and every cargo flight operating on regularly scheduled paths and routes.
• General aviation (or GA for short). This includes all other civil flights, either commercial or private.

Even though scheduled air transport is the bigger operation in terms of the number of passengers, General Aviation is greater in terms of the actual number of flights in the United States of America. In the United States of America, General Aviation carries over 166 million passengers every single year - more than any individual airline, though far less than every single airline combined.
A good number of countries also make a regulatory distinction. This is based on whether or not the aircraft are flown for hire like:

• Commercial aviation includes almost all flying that is done for hire, particularly scheduled service on airlines.
• Private aviation includes pilots that fly for their own purposes (recreation, business related reasons, etc.) without receiving pay.

International Civil Aviation Organization

The International Civil Aviation Organization is a United Nations agency that serves to codify and develop the principles and strictures that best ensure safe and orderly growth in the domain of air navigation. These recommended principles and areas of focus include but are not limited to: flight inspection, prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. The International Civil Aviation Organization was founded in 1947. Its headquarters are located in Quebec, Canada.

Aircraft

An aircraft is a machine that has the capacity to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity either by using static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil. In a few cases, though, an aircraft counters the force of gravity with the help of the downard thrust from jet engines.

Lift (force)

A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a force on it. Lift is the component of this force which is perpindicular to the flow coming from the opposite direction. In contrast, draft force is the component of the surface force that is actually parallel to the flow direction. if the fluid is air, the force is known as an aerodynamic force. In water, hydrodynamic force.
Lift is the force that's generated by propellers and wings to get an aircraft in the air and keep it there. Animals such as birds, bats and instects have exploited lift for millions and millions of years. The manmade flying machines are an extraction and application of many of the same laws and principles used by said animals.

Pitot-Static Systems: Core Concepts (Part 1)

It is common knowledge that the field of discipline that Laversab deals with is abstruse to the layman – with such specialized knowledge being too much for an individual to comprehend all at once. For this, it's believed that it would be of great value to take the time to explicate and define some of the main core concepts involved in Laversab's line of work. Below is listed a set of definitions for terms and concepts that must be known by those working in the industry. To develop a certain degree of competence, one must start from the base – to first introduce the main, rudimentary concepts – and then build up to the more technical, complex concepts afterward. Please, do not expect to get through every single term today. These core concept articles are going to broken down into small, bite-sized chunks. That may indeed be a good thing, as listing them all at once may be information overload.

Aeuronautics

What is aeronautics? A nominal definition, based on the Greek root words, would tell us that aeronautics has something to do with the “navigation of the air.” And why? Because in ancient Greek, the term āēr means “air” and the term nautikē means “navigation.” Now, a more formal definition would go something like this: the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets with the atmosphere. Sounds like a mouthful, doesn't it? Well, if you're looking for a simpler definition, “the science or practice of travel through the air,” should suffice.

The term “aeronautics” is often used interchangeably with "aviation", but one must be technical here in making one distinction between the two. “Aeronautics” includes lighter-than-air craft – like airships, as well as ballistic vehicles. “Aviation,” on the other hand, does not. To grok what apitot static tester is, both terms should be firmly understood first.

Aviation

So if you've got the concept of aeronautics well understood, then chances are you would be able to define “aviation” with little effort. But for those who would still like to flesh out the concept – to make sure that they have it down to the tee – one must take the time to define the term.

“Aviation” is the practical aspect or art of aeronautics, being the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft (heavier than-air aircraft). The word actually comes from the Latin word “avis,” meaning “bird.”

Okay, so chances are you already were aware thatLaversab aviation was in the Aviation Systems industry. If you didn't know what aviation meant, now you know. But where to go from here? What other concepts must one familiarize himself with in order to better understand what Laversab is all about? The number of directions that one can go from here are limitless.

Pitot-static System

A pitot-static system is a system of pressure-sensitive instruments that is most often used in aviation for the purposes of determining an aircraft's velocity, Mach number, altitude, and altitude trend. The main parts that make up a pitot-static system are: the pitot tube, the static port and the pitot-static instruments. This equipment measures the forces that act on a vehicle as a function of the temperature, density and pressure. It also measures the viscosity of the fluid in which it is operating – something that is incredibly important and must not be overlooked. Laversab has its own set of pitot-static system equipment – cream of the crop stuff; the highest quality systems out there at the moment.

Airspeed Indicator

This instrument is connected to both the static and the pitot pressure sources. There is a difference between the pitot pressure and the static pressure. That difference is called dynamic pressure. When there is more dynamic pressure, the airspeed reported will be higher. A traditional mechanical airspeed indicator has something known as the pressure diaphragm. The pressure diaphragm is connected to the pitot tube. The case that surrounds the diaphragm is actually airtight. This is crucial; it has to be airtight for everything to function properly. As the speed increases, the ram pressure also increases. This causes for more pressure to be exerted on the diaphragm - which will require larger needle movement through the mechanical linkage.

Pitot-Static Systems: A Briefing

The pitot-static system supplies power to three basic aircraft instruments: The airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator.

Components

Pitot Tube and Line: The pitot tube is an L-shaped device located on the exterior of the aircraft that is used to measure airspeed. It has a small opening in the front of the tube where ram air pressure (dynamic pressure) enters the tube and a drain hole on the back of the tube. Some types or pitot tubes have an electronic heating element inside of the tube that prevents ice from blocking the air inlet or drain hole.

Static Port(s) and Lines: The static port is a small air inlet, usually located on the side of the aircraft, flush against the fuselage. The static port measures static (non-moving) air pressure, which is also known as ambient pressure or barometric pressure. Some aircraft have more than one static port and some aircraft have an alternate static port in case one or more of the ports becomes blocked.

Instruments: The pitot-static system involves three instruments: The airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator. Static lines connect to all three instruments and ram air pressure form the pitot tube connects to only the airspeed indicator.

Alternate Static Port (if installed): A lever in the cockpit of some aircraft operates alternate static port in the event that the main static port experiences a blockage. Using the alternate static system can cause slightly inaccurate readings on the instruments, since pressure in cabin can is usually higher than the main static ports measure at altitude.

Normal Operation

The pitot static system works by measuring and comparing static pressures and in the case of the airspeed indicator, dynamic pressure.

The airspeed indicator is a sealed case with an aneroid diaphragm inside of it. The case surrounding the diaphragm is fed static pressure and the diaphragm is supplied with both static and dynamic pressure to it. When airspeed increases, the dynamic pressure inside of the diaphragm increases as well, causing the diaphragm to expand. Through mechanical linkage and gears, the airspeed is depicted by a needle pointer on the instrument face.

The altimeter acts as a barometer and also supplied with static pressure from the static ports. The altimer is a sealed instrument case with a stack of sealed aneroid wafers inside. The wafers are sealed with an internal pressure calibrated to 29.92" Hg, or standard atmospheric pressure. They expand and contract as the pressure rises and falls in the surrounding instrument case. A Kollsman window inside of the cockpit allows the pilot to calibrate the instrument to the local altimeter setting to account for nonstandard atmospheric pressure.

The vertical speed indicator has a thin sealed diaphragm connected to the static port. The surrounding instrument case is also sealed and supplied static air pressure with a metered leak at the back of the case. This metered leak measures pressure change more gradually, which means that if the airplane continues to climb, the pressure will never quite catch up to each other, allowing for rate information to be measured on the instrument face. Once the aircraft levels off, the pressures from both the metered leak and the static pressure from inside the diaphragm equalize, and the VSI dial returns to zero to show level flight.

Errors and Abnormal Operation

The most common problem with the pitot-static system is a blockage of the pitot tube, static ports, or both.

If the pitot tube becomes blocked, and its drain hole remains clear, the airspeed will read zero.

If the pitot tube and its drain hole is blocked, the airspeed indicator will act like an altimeter, reading higher airspeeds with an increase in altitude. This situation can be dangerous if not recognized immediately.

If the static port(s) become blocked and the pitot tube remains operable, the airspeed indicator will barely work and indications will be inaccurate. The altimeter will freeze in place where the blockage occurred and the VSI will indicate zero.

Another problem with the pitot static tester system includes metal fatigue, which can deteriorate the elasticity of the diaphragms. Additionally, turbulence or abrupt maneuvers can cause erroneous static pressure measurements.

The Future of Aviation

Last month, the Airbus invited the press to get an insight into the new ideas the manufacturer is developing for future aircraft types. All of them are brilliant, but the most surprising aspect was that none of them seemed to deal with increasing the cruise speed of aircraft.

Manufacturers are focusing their efforts on saving fuel, and they all proudly claim a fuel save improvement against their competitors. There has been a huge improvement in this in the past 50 years. The fuel consumption of aircraft has decreased dramatically, but the cruise speed of a Comet 4 (one of the first production jet airliners, in the 1950s) was mach 0.78, the same as the current generation of aircraft.

The new generation promises about 15% of fuel savings compared with current models. So, assuming that carriers spend, on average, 30% on fuel, the potential savings for a carrier are 5.25% (0.35 times 0.15).

However, the impact of the aircraft on the operating costs of a carrier is about 15%, and the extra cost of the new-generation aircraft should be deducted: about 10% more according to list prices; either leased or financed, which means that they are going to see their costs increased by 1.5%.

The new generation of aircraft should give carriers savings of 3.75% of total costs.

Flying next-generation aircraft is profitable. The savings in fuel justify the price increase, so why don't they consider a 180-seat turboprop? They burn less fuel, and for short distances the speed is not a big concern. The answer is obvious: it is a step back in terms of technology. Most passengers associate propellers with a lack of safety, and airlines would struggle to sell tickets.

The economical advantages of super fast aircraft are solid for long routes - a notable increase in available seat kilometres with the same fleet, fewer crew and lower inflight costs. The traditional concern about speed is that it is not fuel efficient, but the latest technology in supersonic airliners is from more than 30 years ago.

The record for a transatlantic flight from New York to London is just under two hours, and it was achieved in 1974. We should not forget that this happened before the massive application of the microchip, so the technology available nowadays is completely different.

A flight from London to New York takes about eight hours on a normal jet, adding about two hours for each cycle (landing, taking off, on-ground operations, etc), meaning that each flight takes about 10 hours on average. Developing an aircraft capable of doing the same trip in half the time means the cycle could be made in about six hours, 40% less. It is clear that the longer the route, the bigger the savings, so it would make sense for routes of more than five or six hours.

Carriers spend, on average, about 15% on aircraft and 10% on crew. Cutting the duration of the flight by two and burning the same fuel per mile, the savings would increase by up to 10%, which is more than 5.25% of fuel savings.

The main advantage is, however, that carriers cannot justify a dramatic increase in fares just because they are flying on a more fuel-efficient aircraft, whereas there is a reason for increasing the speed - people will pay more. It happened in Europe with highspeed train services - not only do passengers pay more, but also in some cases the new rolling stock completely replaces the traditional train service.

Tickets for long distances are often more expensive per mile than for short distances, and customers assume that they have to pay more for them - business travellers would demand this service.

The big question is: would you pay more to travel faster?

At times, it is perplexing, but pleasantly so, that as technology advances and becomes more complex, prices drop. The same can be said, in the aviations industry. Companies such as Laversab Aviation Systems are on churning out cutting-edge technology in the aviations systems industry. Their Pitot Static test equipment is incredibly sophisticated - placing in the top echelon of their respective marketplace as a leading supplier of: air data testers, pitot static testers, and RVSM test sets. Laversab Aviation is continually pushing the boundaries. The innovations are not stopping. Their ingenuity and gumption is helping the aeronautics and aviation world become even more and more sophisticated.

The Basics Of Aircraft Maintenance

Proper aircraft maintenance is essential for keeping aircraft and aircraft parts in optimal condition, and ensuring the safety of pilots, crew, and passengers.

Repair stations and maintenance technicians perform maintenance and inspections on aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for certifying the repair stations and aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs).

Repair stations are certified under FAR Part 145. AMTs are certified under FAR Part 65.

FAR Part 43 details the standards regarding the maintenance, preventative maintenance, and alterations of aircraft and aircraft articles and systems.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is responsible for certifying repair stations in the European Union and member states.

AMTs maintain specific areas of aircraft depending on their certification and rating.

The different aircraft ratings are airframe (the aircraft body, such as the tail, fuselage, wings, and landing gear), power plant (engines and propellers), and avionics (electrical systems and instruments).

Most AMTs hold a dual airframe and powerplant FAA certification, and are referred to as A&P mechanics.

Maintenance Of Aircraft and the Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT)

Maintenance of aircraft is a comprehensive, ongoing process. The entire aircraft needs to be examined, maintained, and have the necessary parts replaced to uphold the safety standards mandated by the FAA.

Aircraft are required to be maintained after a certain period of calender time or flight hours or flight cycles.

Also, some aircraft articles have a specific life (flight cycle) limit, and need to be replaced immediately upon reaching the maximum use requirements.

Besides the aircraft articles that are due for replacement, all other parts need to be checked for faults or faulty performance.

Because of the noise of testing different systems, working long hours, and the expectations of maintaining high safety standards, being an AMT can be a stressful job.

Here are just some of the routine maintenance tasks performed by an AMT:

• cleaning aircraft and components
• application of corrosion prevention compound
• lubricating parts
• draining and trouble shooting fuel systems
• checking and servicing hydraulics and pneumatic sytems
• replacing components
• inspecting for general wear and tear

A newer field of aircraft maintenance is working in avionics, which deals with electronic systems. These parts are vital for navigation and communications, and include radar, instruments, computer systems, radio communications, and global positions systems (GPS). A strong knowledge of wiring and technical skills is required for working in avionics maintenance.

Laversab Aviation Systems is a global aviation systems corporation. Airplanes are incredibly sophisticated machines. For one to function properly, it relies on hundreds of sophisticated component parts; some of them include: pitot static test equipment, air data test sets, RVSM test equipment.

What Is Airplane Turbulence?

Laversab Aviation Systems is a leading supplier of Air Data Test Sets and Pitot Static Testers to the Aviation Industry. Together, their team has not only a profundity of knowledge in the area of pitot static testers, but a depth of knowledge about the aviation industry as a whole.

Airplane Turbulence

When an airplane flies through irregular and violent waves of air, it bounces around and yaws. It’s like two seas meeting, causing waves and current. A boat passing by those meeting seas would bounce on the water. Airplane turbulence is the invisible incidence of the same.

The irregular and rapid movement of air that causes airplane turbulence can be formed by any number of different conditions including thunderstorms, jet streams, mountain waves, warm or cold fronts, microbursts or atmospheric pressures. In other words, airplane turbulence is caused by the irregular movement of air created by the collision of different pressures or streams of air.

Many of us have who have traveled by an airplane have experienced turbulence. It’s always disconcerting when an airplane starts to toss around, but really there is little to fear.

Different Intensities Of Air Turbulence

Airplane turbulence is of different intensities and each level has a slightly different impact on the airplane. The following are different intensities of airplane turbulence:

Light turbulence: Causes slight, variable changes in an airplane’s altitude. Light chop: Slight and rapid bumpiness without obviousairplane turbulence changes in altitude.

Moderate turbulence: Causes intense and irregular changes in altitude but the airplane remains in control at all times.

Moderate chop: Causes intense and rapid jolts or bumps without noticeable changes in altitude.

Severe turbulence: Causes large and rapid changes in altitude and the airplane may become temporarily out of control. Extreme turbulence: In extreme turbulence, the airplane is aggressively tossed about and goes out of control. The reactions inside an airplane during extreme turbulence vary from unsecured items being displaced and passengers feeling strain against their seat belts through to unsecured items being tossed about and passengers being forced fiercely against seat belts.

Clear Air Turbulence

Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) is a type of turbulence that occurs when the sky is clear of clouds. It is usually encountered at heights where a cruising airplane suddenly enters dangerous turbulent areas.

Airplanes have very sophisticated and advanced radars for weather forecast, but they can not detect Clear Air Turbulence. When it occurs, it is usually mild on the flight desk and more severe in the rear, so pilots can’t physically measure its actual intensity.

Although pilots can’t foreknow or see CAT, scrutiny of the forecasted turbulence factor or the weather charts could warn them of possible turbulent areas on the route.

Injury Prevention

Airplane turbulence is one of the main causes of in-flight injuries. There are numerous reports of passengers who were badly hurt while moving in the cabin when air turbulence is encountered. Recently, the FAA reported that among non-fatal air accidents that happen in the USA each year, about 58 passengers are injured by turbulence while not wearing seat belts.

Passengers often ignore the advice to keep seat belts fastened even when the seat belt signs aren’t illuminated. They can certainly move around the cabin to use toilets or exercise on long-haul flights, but seat belts must be fastened at all times when seated to avoid injury from unexpected airplane turbulence.

Innovation In Aeronautics (Part 2)

In case of aeronautics, it is necessary that the end user must know the basic concepts of mathematics and fundamentals of engineering theory in order to have the ability of conducting the designing, manufacturing, maintenance and repairing aircraft and engine. In specific higher mathematics, engineering mechanics, fluid mechanics, engineering thermodynamics, mechanical principles and design, design of aircraft, aero engine, design of aircraft controlling system, the basic and application of finite mega, aeronautical manufacturing technology are the primary concerns. But, on the other hand, the secondary disciplines are advanced connectivity technology, high efficiency NC machining technology in aeronautical industries, precision forming technology for aeronautical components, reliability test and evaluation technology for welding structure, welding equipment and quality control and preparation technology of metal based composite materials. Progressive works are still being carried out to solve the challenges that still exist in air transportation system such as air traffic congestion, safety and environmental impacts. Solutions to these problems really need innovative technical concepts, and dedicated research and development which include enabling fuel-efficient flight planning, and reduce aircraft fuel consumption, emissions and noise. For instance, aeronautics integrated service routers (ISR) video image processing design exploits high end digital signal processing hardware and algorithms, broad range of real time automatic image processing features, which enables any end user of still and video images to increase its ISR productivity dramatically. Aeronautics ISR video image processing capabilities can be easily integrated to any existing image source for real time and offline processing. Some of the aeronautics image processing features includes motion detection, video footprint using geographical registration on reference image, digital stabilizer, zoom and rotation, mosaicking, ISR video image compression, real time annotation on image (i.e. high resolution and update rate) and real time ISR video enhancements such as spatial filters, contrast, brightness etc.

Some of the best recent innovations in aerospace engineering include the Pilotless Cargo Chopper, Red Bull Stratos Pressure Suite, NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Lab, Boeing PhanthomEye, Nano Quadroto Robots, Solazyme Solajet, Asteroid Anchors, Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, NASA PhoneSat, Mars Curiosity Sky Crane etc. With the largest direct impacts on the lives, advancements in aeronautics are the key to make flight more affordable and efficient. These advancements decrease pollutants and make flight faster, quieter, and safer for all. Research work on everything from biomedical science and space exploration to software simulation and satellites are carried out to attain its maximum efficiency. In near future, by providing a comprehensive experience and up to date information on technological developments in aeronautical engineering leads to latest innovations in diversified areas such as aeroacoustics, aircraft design, fluid dynamics, advanced materials / composites, aerodynamics, avionics, aircraft systems, aircraft structures, risk & reliability, noise control, aircraft propulsion, reliable energy propulsion, heat transfer flight mechanics, computational aerodynamics and helicopter aerodynamics etc.

This Laversab Aviation article was brought to you by Laversab Aviation Systems. At Laversab, a deep understanding of aeronautics is a must; and the team at Laversab is among the most knowledgeable about the discipline. Aeronautics is indeed an incredibly sophisticated discipline. For one to become well-versed in the discipline, it takes the understanding of hundreds of sophisticated concepts; some of them include: pitot static test equipment, air data test sets, RVSM test equipment.

Innovation In Aeronautics (Part 1)

Innovation in all disciplines is necessary and particularly advancement in aerospace design and engineering is essential to overcome many real time challenges. Basically innovating novel technologies in any fields is to move our society forward. Recently, much more significant interest has been carried out in conducting fundamental, cutting-edge research into new aircraft technologies, as well as systems-level research into the integration of new operations concepts and technologies by employing new techniques and novel algorithms in solving many real world problems especially in the field of aeronautics. It is well known that, aeronautics is the science or art deals with the study / investigation, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmospheric level. It is pertinent to pin point out that aeronautical science is a branch of dynamics called aerodynamics, which deals with the motion of air and the way that it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. Aviation, Aeronautical science and Aeronautical engineering are the three, major branches of aeronautics. Aviation means heavier-than-air flight, but nowadays it includes flying in balloons and airships, Aeronautical science discusses about the practical theory of aeronautics and aviation, including operations, navigation, air safety and human factors.

Aeronautical engineering covers the design and construction of aircraft, including how they are powered, how they are employed effectively and how they are controlled for safe operation. Aeronautical engineering is the study of how things fly in the Earth's atmosphere and the application of that knowledge to design and build aircraft and missiles etc. Aeronautical engineering includes an extremely wide range of fields, including the research and development, testing, assembly, and maintenance of aircraft and missiles and their parts. Moreover it includes the effect that aircraft have on the surrounding environment, the potential dangers of specific aircraft, and their fuel and systems efficiency. Aeronautical engineering emphasize on flight within the Earth's atmosphere, while astronautical engineering focuses on the research of space flight and the design of spacecraft and satellites. This includes research on best launching spacecraft and the effects the surrounding environment has on them, as well as developing suitable systems to control spacecraft and designing materials that can withstand space flight. However, a major part plays in case of aeronautical engineering is aerodynamics, (the science of passage through the air) which deals with the motion of air and the way that it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. The study of aerodynamics falls widely into three fields such as incompressible flow occurs where the air simply moves to avoid objects, typically at subsonic speeds below that of sound, compressible flow occurs where shock waves appear at points where the air becomes compressed, typically at speeds above and transonic flow occurs in the intermediate speed range around, where the airflow over an object may be locally subsonic at one point and locally supersonic at another.

This Laversab Aviation article will be continued. Aeronautics is an incredibly sophisticated discipline. For one to become well-versed in the discipline, it takes the understanding of hundreds of sophisticated concepts; some of them include: pitot static test equipment, air data test sets, RVSM test equipment.