Tag: 2016 AIAA SciTech Forum

Treggon Owens: UAS Set to Transform Aerospace and the World

Speaker: Treggon Owens, founding partner and CEO, Aerial MOB

by Lawrence Garrett, AIAA Web Editor

Unmanned aerial systems – drones – soon will transform the aerospace industry and the world, and will one day be everywhere, predicted Treggon Owens, founding partner and CEO of Aerial MOB, an unmanned aerial services company.

While Aerial MOB is best known for making movies with drones through its unique ability to connect many elements in 3-D space in one continuous shot, Owens explained, the company has recently been expanding beyond film and tv productions.

In 2015, he said Aerial MOB participated in an unmanned military training exercise at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, that demonstrated the capturing of a forward operating base.

As Owens explained, a drone was used for initial reconnaissance, and that data was used to make a 3-D model of the target area in real-time. Then, another ground-based robot was sent in to look for bombs, and a bomb-diffusion robot was sent in to disarm all explosives so that people could go in and take the base.

Owens said this is the direction his company is headed.

“I think that’s the future of aerospace … a collaboration between ground, air, sea [and] humans,” he said. “We’re all going to be coming together [from different disciplines], and that’s what’s going to create the beauty with drones.”

We’re sure to see other aspects of life affected by UAS, Owens said. Since drones allow for closer data collection, they could do power station inspections and power line surveys. Drones also could perform delivery services and aid in construction planning.

“I don’t think that you’ll see the hub and spoke model that everyone’s conceptualizing out there, of delivery drones, but it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen quickly,” he said. “You’re going to see mail trucks that have drones coming out of them.”

The fastest-growing segment in the drone world and where most of the innovation is happening, according to Owens, is drone racing. In these races, drones can reach speeds up to 90 mph. He said this segment of the industry needs help and that there’s huge market opportunities for aerospace companies.

“There’s continuous need and a beautiful new opportunity for all of you guys to break out of the big aerospace and go and start your companies,” he said. “I highly encourage you guys to go take giant risks and have a lot more fun.”

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Aerospace: Collaboration Makes It Soar

Panelists: Moderator: John Tracy, chief technologist, The Boeing Company; Morteza Gharib, California Institute of Technology; Dana “Keoki” Jackson, chief technology officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Sandy Magnus, AIAA executive director; Darryll Pines, Dean, Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland College Park; Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator, aeronautics research mission directorate, NASA; Steve Walker, deputy director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

By Duane Hyland, AIAA Communications (2008–2017)

Collaboration and cooperation are critical to driving future growth in aerospace science and technology, according to a Jan. 7 panel of experts at the 2016 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition in San Diego.

The panel, “Aerospace Frontiers — Strengthening Collaboration for Continued Progress,” looked at how nexuses are built among professional, government, industry and academic organizations and how these collaborations drive growth in the industry.

Sandy Magnus, AIAA executive director, explained that professional organizations like AIAA provide a platform for the aerospace community to come together to allow the discussions to advance the industry.

“We use conferences such as this to do that,” Magnus said.

The other panelists expressed appreciation for what professional societies do and highlighted what their organizations do to promote communication and collaboration across boundaries.

Darryll Pines, Farvardin professor and dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, also said that now is a great time for engineering.

“Over 500,000 engineers are working in the U.S. today,” he said, stressing that platforms like conferences and professional societies are vitally important to the exchange of ideas.

The representatives of industry on the panel highlighted the importance of the academic community in providing the future workforce as well as opportunities for vital research and development partnerships.

“We need the ideas that come out of university research programs, and those are the people who will continue to generate these ideas,” said Keoki Jackson, chief technology officer at Lockheed Martin.

Each of the panelists identified the same barriers to professional growth for today’s engineers: budgets; burdensome government regulations; resistance from middle-management in industry to allow conference attendance; and a misunderstanding of the nature of science and technology conferences.

Steve Walker, deputy director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said that one of his unique barriers is obtaining capable program managers that can leave their academic careers for two to five years to run DARPA’s programs.

Ongoing communication with lawmakers and others would eventually help erode these barriers, panelists said.

In the end, all of the panelists agreed that what AIAA and other professional societies do is extremely vital to the entire science and technology enterprise.

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3-D Printing Creates Opportunities in Aerospace

Panelists: Greg Arend, development leader, Additive Manufacturing, United Launch Alliance; Robert Yancey, vice president, Aerospace and Composites, Altai Engineering Inc.; Franck Mouriaux, general manager, RUAG Schweiz Structures, AG, RUAG Space; Chauncey Wu, Structural Mechanics and Concepts Branch, NASA’s Langley Research Center; Jason Dunn, chief technology officer and co-founder, Made In Space Inc.

by Hannah Godofsky, AIAA Communications

Additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, offers many opportunities for engineers and product designers, but there are some constraints. Several representatives from the space sector spoke on these pros and cons Jan. 6 at the 2016 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition in San Diego.

Robert Yancey, vice president of Aerospace and Composites with Altair Engineering, said one reason additive manufacturing has caught on is that parts can be made without the tooling, which can be more expensive than the parts. He cited barriers that include surface quality, heat stresses, size, holes, building sizes, support structures, overhangs and cost.

Chauncey Wu, a researcher with NASA’s Langley Research Center, said his agency keeps 3-D printing more efficient by using two print heads so that one can run while the other is cleaned or maintained.

“The industry uses this capability to keep the machine operating as much as possible,” he said.

Franck Mouriaux, a general manager with RUAG Space, spoke about broader changes that may come to space technology as a result of 3-D printing.

“I think thanks to additive manufacturing, we will be able to develop new kinds of products with structures and electronics integrated,” he said, adding there may be a possibility for “more bionic designs and less ‘extrude and rotate.’”

Some of the challenges in introducing additive manufacturing techniques to an existing product line include cost constraints and difficulties in persuading engineers to shift from metal to composite materials, said Greg Arend, a development leader with United Launch Alliance.

The gains in efficiency are worth it, he said, as every ounce of weight costs a lot to send to space, and composite materials are much lighter than metal.

“The challenge I’ve issued to my designers is, give me free parts,” Arend said. “Or better than that, give me less than free parts. Give me money back.”

Jason Dunn, chief technology officer and co-founder of Made in Space, has experience with 3-D printing on the international space station.

“We launched this 3-D printer to the space station, and [Barry “Butch” Wilmore] was the commander when it was received. Butch became the first person ever to manufacture real items off of planet Earth,” he said.

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