Boeings fixes to 737 MAX software delayed by government shutdown report claims

13 Mrz., 2019 | Webfundsachen

Boeings fixes to 737 MAX software delayed by government shutdown report claims

Boeing’s fixes to 737 MAX software delayed by government shutdown, report claims

http://bit.ly/2TShZwx

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A Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in October 2018; a software fix based on the investigation was delayed by the US government shutdown. It’s possible that the fix could have prevented the crash of a similar aircraft in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019.

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Despite two crashes within six months, a growing number of grounding orders worldwide for the Boeing 737 MAX, and a number of recent complaints from US pilots over problems with the aircraft’s automatic trim controls, the Federal Aviation Administration continues to allow the 737 MAX to fly. „The United States Federal Aviation Administration is not mandating any further action at this time, and based on the information currently available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators,“ a Boeing spokesperson said in a March 12 statement.

But government inaction may have been at least partially to blame for the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX on March 10—the US government shutdown reportedly pushed back a fix to the aircraft’s software for more than a month.

On March 11, Boeing announced that the company „has been developing a flight control software enhancement for the 737 MAX, designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer.“ The shutdown of non-essential operations at the FAA caused work on the fix to be suspended for five weeks, according to unnamed US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. The fix is expected to be mandated for installation by the FAA by the end of April.

The update seeks to correct what may have been the root cause of the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia last October—the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System’s (MCAS‘) reliance on a single sensor to determine whether the aircraft is entering a stall. But according to a WSJ report, that fix was delayed because the FAA shutdown interrupted the approval process.

„We don’t have any comment on claims in the WSJ’s story,“ a Boeing spokesperson told Ars.

A stall occurs when an aircraft’s angle of attack (AOA)—the relative angle of the aircraft’s wing surfaces to the flow of air across them—reaches the point where the wing can no longer generate enough lift to sustain flight. Usually, this happens in a climb with insufficient air speed. Automatic control systems such as MCAS try to solve this problem by pushing the nose of the aircraft down—putting the aircraft into a descent and increasing airspeed and relative airflow across the wings. MCAS relies on an AOA sensor to determine whether this is required. If the AOA sensor is faulty, it could create a false signal of a stall—which is what happened in the case of Lion Air Flight 610 and may have been the issue with the Ethiopian Airlines flight.

The MCAS software update includes a new „enhanced flight control law,“ a Boeing spokesperson said, which „incorporates [AOA] inputs, limits stabilizer trim commands in response to an erroneous angle of attack reading, and provides a limit to the stabilizer command in order to retain elevator authority.“

In other words, it uses multiple sensor inputs to determine whether adjustments to the flight controls are necessary, giving the pilot direct control over the tail control surfaces to override any automatic adjustments. Currently, the pilot would have to entirely disable automatic stabilizer trim to counteract „stabilizer trim runaway“ in the event of a sensor error.

Go home, 737 MAX…

On March 13, the European Union’s civil aviation authorities joined China, Australia, Singapore, Ethiopia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and a number of Latin American air carriers in grounding Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines flight just after take-off on March 10. As the EU imposed its grounding, a number of 737 MAX aircraft were forced to turn around in flight because they were no longer considered airworthy at their destinations.

This poor guy got turned around. pic.twitter.com/M7MZ5bK32n

— Outdated Ineffective Wall (@darthbender) March 12, 2019

Today, Canada’s transportation minister announced a grounding of all 737 MAX aircraft in Canada and a ban on the incursion of 737 MAX aircraft from other countries into Canadian airspace. The decision, Minister Marc Garneau said, was based on new satellite tracking data reviewed by Canadian aviation authorities.

Meanwhile, Boeing continues to stand behind the safety of the aircraft. „We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions that they believe are most appropriate for their home markets,“ a Boeing spokesperson said. „We’ll continue to engage with them to ensure they have the information needed to have confidence in operating their fleets.“

Those concerns may not be addressed until the software patch for MCAS is pushed out.

Technologie

via Ars Technica http://bit.ly/2TqRI92

March 13, 2019 at 05:42PM

SpaceX completes a historic mission crew flight possible later in 2019

8 Mrz., 2019 | Webfundsachen

SpaceX completes a historic mission crew flight possible later in 2019

SpaceX completes a historic mission, crew flight possible later in 2019

http://bit.ly/2EEqXDC

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All four parachutes opened as intended, bringing Dragon to a soft landing in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday.

NASA TV
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After a six-day mission in orbit, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule returned to Earth on Friday morning and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing, at 8:45am ET, came right on schedule as did pretty much every milestone during the Crew Dragon’s first mission, a test before humans fly aboard the vehicle.

Shortly after the landing, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell could be seen on NASA’s webcast, walking around her company’s mission control at its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Shotwell spent a few minutes shaking the hands of each controller and offering a few hugs. Certainly, this triumphant moment capped an emotional week for a company that has worked for the better part of a decade to develop a crewed spacecraft.

At first blush, the performance of Dragon appears to have met or exceeded NASA’s hopes for this flight to the International Space Station, including during the critical descent back to Earth Friday morning. „The vehicle really did better than we expected,“ Steve Stich, deputy Commercial Crew program manager for NASA, said shortly after the landing.

Over the last six days, among other milestones, SpaceX had to demonstrate the safe fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket, its launch, Dragon’s separation and power performance in orbit, autonomous docking to the space station, undocking, a de-orbit burn, a controlled descent through Earth’s atmosphere, and finally the deployment of four main parachutes on the way to a soft touchdown.

Diving into data

NASA will now spend the next few weeks reviewing data to ensure that its initial impression is correct, first by poring over data from the launch and then sensor data from the on-board mannequin, Ripley, as well as data from the vehicle itself during its orbital phase and re-entry.

After the toasty-looking Dragon was taken on board the Go Searcher recovery vessel about an hour after landing Friday morning, it will take another 30 hours for Dragon to return to port. Once there, the capsule will undergo processing at Kennedy Space Center for another important test, an in-flight abort mission to ensure that the spacecraft can quickly push itself away from the rocket in case of an emergency. Stich said that flight should take place in the June time-frame using the same capsule that just splashed down.

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The Go Searcher recovery vessel brings Dragon on board.

NASA TV

Much work, of course, remains to be done to get astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on board Dragon for their mission to the station. The parachute system that flew on this test flight was not entirely the same as the one that will be used for the crew flight, and neither were avionics and life support entirely finalized. But this test flight’s success, along with its data, should allow SpaceX and NASA to close out those systems in the coming months.

„I don’t think we saw anything in the mission so far that would preclude us from having a crewed mission later this year,“ Stich said Friday. „This flight really sets us up well for the rest of the year.“

Technologie

via Ars Technica http://bit.ly/2TqRI92

March 8, 2019 at 04:26PM

Boeing lässt erstes autonomes Flugtaxi abheben

1 Feb., 2019 | Webfundsachen

Boeing lässt erstes autonomes Flugtaxi abheben

Boeing lässt erstes autonomes Flugtaxi abheben

http://bit.ly/2HLxwct

Als nächstes wollen die Boeing-Ingenieure den Übergang des autonomen Flugtaxis vom Senkrechtstart in den Vorwärtsflug testen. Aus Sicht der Ingenieure ist das die größte Herausforderung bei der Entwicklung eines praxistauglichen Flugtaxis vom Typ Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL), also eines Fluggerätes, das senkrecht startet und landet. Vom Konzeptdesign bis zum ersten Flug habe die Entwicklung ein Jahr gedauert, sagte Greg Hyslop, technischer Direktor bei Boeing.

Boeing-Flugtaxi: 8 Propeller und 4 Tragflächen

Das Boeing-Flugtaxi hat 8 Propeller und 4 Tragflächen. Es ist insgesamt 9,14 Meter lang und 8,53 Meter breit. Das PAV ist komplett elektrisch betrieben und hat nach Unternehmensangaben eine Reichweite von 80 Kilometern. Parallel zum Flugtaxi für Personen entwickelt Boeing derzeit ein Fluggerät für den Warentransport. Auch dieses sogenannte Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV) wird von Elektromotoren beflügelt und kann bis zu 227 Kilogramm tragen. Das CAV hat schon im Jahr 2018 den ersten Testflug in einer Halle absolviert. Dieses Jahr soll es zum ersten Mal im Freien fliegen.

Der Prototyp des Boeing-Flugtaxis ist eine von vielen Entwicklungen im Bereich der E-Flugzeuge, die um den globalen Zukunftsmarkt der Flugtaxis konkurrieren. So arbeiten Hersteller wie Rolls-Royce und Airbus an der Entwicklung von Flugtaxis. Auch hierzulande arbeitet man daran: So will das Münchner Start-up-Unternehmen Lilium schon in wenigen Jahren ein Elektro-Flugtaxi auf den Markt bringen. Menschen sollen das Flugtaxi für den gleichen Preis nutzen können wie herkömmliche Taxis auf der Straße, sagt Firmen-Mitgründer Patrick Nathen. Das Flugtaxi könnte schon in den frühen 2020er Jahren an den Start gehen.

Städte müssen beim Flugtaxibetrieb kooperieren

Der tatsächliche Einsatz von Lilium- oder Boeing-Flugtaxis hängt derzeit noch von mehreren Faktoren ab und ist mit vielen Fragezeichen versehen. So müssen die Hersteller Städte finden, die kooperieren, wenn es darum geht, die Flugtaxis in Pilotprojekten zu testen. Auch sind Genehmigungen und Zertifizierungen nötig, bis es mit einem geregelten Test- und Pilotbetrieb losgehen kann. Das Münchner Start-up arbeitet derzeit an der Marktreife von 2 Flugtaxi-Modellen mit 2 und 5 Sitzen, die beide bereits ihre Jungfernflüge hinter sich haben. Während anfangs ein Pilot das Lufttaxi steuern wird, soll es später – wie das Boeing-PAV auch – autonom fliegen. Ein entsprechendes System gibt es jedoch aktuell noch nicht.

Optisch unterscheidet sich das Lillium-Flugtaxi deutlich vom Boeing-Prototyp: Das Flugtaxi erinnert eher an eine fliegende Untertasse. Es ist jedoch ebenfalls elektrisch betrieben und ein VTOL, also ein Fluggerät, das senkrecht startet und landet. Ausgerüstet ist es mit 36 Propellern, die es auf bis zu 300 Stundenkilometer beschleunigen sollen.

Kommerzieller Betrieb von Flugtaxis schon ab 2023

Experten gehen davon aus, dass der weltweite Probebetrieb von Flugtaxis schon im Jahr 2020 startet, wobei sie mit Testläufen in Städten wie Dubai, Los Angeles, Dallas und Singapur rechnen. Ab 2023 soll der kommerzielle Betrieb beginnen. Die Flugtaxis werden in den ersten Jahren noch durch Piloten gesteuert. Doch schon ab dem Jahr 2025 könnten autonome Flugtaxis über den Dächern der Metropolen schweben, die durch Bodenpersonal gesteuert werden.

Eine Studie der Unternehmensberatung Roland Berger schätzt, dass zu diesem Zeitpunkt rund 3.000 Flugtaxis weltweit im Einsatz sein werden. Die Studie prognostiziert, dass 2030 schon 12.000 durch die Lüfte schweben und Jahr 2050 knapp 100.000 fliegende Taxis. Die Studie „sieht“ Flugtaxis vor allem in den USA und Südostasien, aber auch in deutschen Groß- und Mittelstädten. In Regionen wie dem Ruhrgebiet, im Rhein-Main-Raum oder im Dreieck München, Augsburg, Ingolstadt könnten sie die Reisen auf Kurz- und Mittelstrecken extrem beschleunigen. Die Flugtaxis können nach Berechnungen der Studie schon ab einer Reisedistanz von 10 Kilometern einen deutlichen Zeitgewinn gegenüber heutigen Verkehrsmitteln bringen. Die maximalen Reichweiten der Flugtaxis liegen bei rund 300 Kilometern.

Mehr zu Flugtaxis unter:

Rolls-Royce präsentiert elektrisches Flugtaxi mit 800 km Reichweite

Erstes Flugtaxi steigt in Dubais Himmel auf

Airbus hat sein elektrisches Lufttaxi erfolgreich getestet

Der Beitrag Boeing lässt erstes autonomes Flugtaxi abheben erschien zuerst auf ingenieur.de – Jobbörse und Nachrichtenportal für Ingenieure.

Bauwirtschaft

via ingenieur.de – Jobbörse und Nachrichtenportal für Ingenieure http://bit.ly/2S7carj

January 31, 2019 at 08:38AM