This Week in Engineering

The mysterious cyber-attack on the Colonial gasoline pipeline this week created something unseen in America since the late 1970s: gas lines at filling stations. Panic buying appears to have made the problem much worse, and critical infrastructure that’s cloud connected is now under the microscope.

With the Biden Administration and other world governments examining the possibility of removing intellectual property protection from Covid vaccine makers, a WTO agreement that has existed for 25 years has been widely ignored. It may offer a way to increased production.

Cruise is now joined Waymo in a formal request from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to operate paid Robotaxi services in the Bay Area. If approved, this could be the beginning of the end for the taxi driver.

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NASCAR is America’s favorite motorsport, but it has been historically resistant to change. With the launch of their Next Gen car, the sanctioning body has moved in a single leap from steel bodied, solid axle 1980s technology to full modern race car technology.

Baidu’s Apollo AI business has launched a robotaxi system in Beijing, using factory equipped luxury cars in one of the future venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Combined with a larger, integrated traffic control system, Baidu hopes to take the lead in self driving technology.

With millions of lines of code in most systems, making websites and databases secure is a major headache for the Pentagon. A new initiative from the Department of Defense aims to use a different approach: pay hackers to attack systems to find weaknesses.

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Engineers can find inspiration anywhere. Past designs, nature and scientific breakthroughs are great fodder for these new ideas. However, one of the oldest sources for the dreams we have of tomorrow is the art of science fiction.

On today’s special May the 4th episode, we see how engineers can dream up future technologies to expand the quality of life for the differently abled. Obvious examples are prosthetics, like Luke Skywalker’s hand. But Vader’s suit reminds us that not all disabilities are visible. These conditions can also benefit from new technologies.

Then, we learn about Jared Hansen, manager of Electronics Engineering Solutions at Rand Simulation. He was inspired to discover if the Rebel Alliance could use ground radar to track Tie Fighter attacks. In doing so, he stumbled upon something that correlates to the technology behind a famous stealth bomber! See what he found in this video.

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With the combination of Covid 19 related supply chain disruptions and a major fire at a critical supplier, Ford Motor Company is reporting that the shortage of semiconductors will result in 50% production setback in the second quarter. To compensate, the company is moving to an online sales model with lower dealer inventory levels.

The heavy equipment industry is an important leading indicator for overall economic health, and a new survey of senior management in the off-the-road sector shows high levels of optimism for 2021, especially if the Biden Administration follows through on infrastructure spending plans.

And industry heavyweight ABB has commissioned a report on electric vehicle battery supply chains that suggests a global arms race is developing between Asia, Europe and America. The winner may determine the future of global automobile production.

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Robotic drone delivery for small parcels and last mile applications are in development everywhere these days, and major air framers like Boeing have been working on cockpit automation for decades, but what about the space in between? California startup Xwing has demonstrated fully autonomous gate to gate operation of a Cessna 208 cargo aircraft, a type commonly used for short intercity light cargo operations. The technology may fill the gap between heavy lift between major hubs and local door-to-door delivery.

General Motors has pressed the gas pedal on electric vehicle development with the announcement of second large battery factory in conjunction with LG. The big new plant, located next to the Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly operation will create packs for automobiles and light trucks, and will support Spring Hill as GM’s third electric vehicle assembly complex.

And, over a year into the Covid 19 global crisis, supply chains everywhere are strained. American manufacturing however is enjoying steady growth, and this week the Institute for Supply Management reports that April is the 10th consecutive month of steady growth, despite serious issues in commodity pricing and logistics.

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Communication satellites orbit 22,000 miles above the earth to provide wide area coverage as the earth rotates. That’s a long way up, and once solid propellants are depleted, orienting the spacecraft becomes impossible and the satellite is retired. Northrop Grumman has demonstrated a new robotic service satellite that attaches to communication satellites to provide orientation and extend their service life. The result could be lower broadband costs for millions of users.

Moore’s Law has been around for half a century, in the end of transistor density and computer chips has been predicted for decades. Real physical limits do exist, but a new project from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency promises to give CMOS technology new life in high-performance computing applications. The key is cryogenics, with new forms of MOSFET operating at liquid nitrogen temperatures. The agency is opening the research to commercial participation.

Autonomous driving technology continues to advance, with Intel’s Mobileye inking a deal to create a large fleet of autonomous delivery vehicles with Silicon Valley-based Udelv. The project promises to create a large fleet of self driving delivery vehicles optimized for last mile service, in response to the dramatic increase in online shopping brought about by Covid 19. The project plans on 35,000 vehicles in use by 2028.

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Rolls Royce has started construction of the world’s largest turbofan engine, called UltraFan. The 140-inch diameter fan of the engine is not only a record, but will help the engine achieve a 25 percent lower fuel burn than existing designs of similar thrust. Reduction gearing keeps blade tip velocities manageable and advanced digital twin technology tracks the history of each blade.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Main Engines were state of the art thirty years ago, and today, they’re the basis for the upgraded power plants that will lift the Space Launch System to the moon. Modern technology at Aerojet Rocketdyne has reduced the manufacturing cost of the engines by 30 percent while increasing power.

Additive manufacturing is making bigger and bigger parts today and SAFRAN has built an entire jet nose landing gear rough casting using an SLM process in titanium powder. The big part is 15 percent lighter than conventional forging and promises to change the way this critical part is made in the future.

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Swedish airplane maker Saab has tested a new application for 3D printing: aircraft battle damage repair. Using a Gripen jet fighter as a test subject, the company has flown an external access panel 3D printed from an engineering grade of nylon, with good results. The company worked from a part scan, rather than a CAD file and hopes to make the process portable for field use in austere conditions.

Energy is also in the news this week. The World Economic Forum is a bellwether institution for the impact of future technology, and they are reporting that artificial intelligence is the inevitable technology for electric grid decarbonization, as systems move away from large central power plants and towards energy consumers who also generate power. According to the report, what’s lacking is a well understood regulatory framework that will allow millions of electricity generators to use national grids as a form of virtual storage battery. Grid scale storage won’t disappear, but real time load and capacity control is coming, whether the world is ready, or not.

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Two former SpaceX engineers have formed a startup to develop a composite, piggyback air transportation system that combines vertical takeoff drones with fixed wing aircraft for downtown-to-downtown intercity transportation. It’s all electrically powered, but can it really work?

Also this week, Volkswagen has placed a massive 14 billion-dollar order with Sweden’s Northvolt that will result in a major expansion in EV cell production. The deal will involve a deeper investment from VW in Northvolt and a takeover of battery manufacturing by Volkswagen.

And finally, reducing atmospheric CO2 can be approached in two ways: emit less or reduce what’s already in the atmosphere. A major oil exploration services company and a new energy tech firm have joined forces to convert CO2 into useful ammonia and do it profitably. The results could work hand-in-hand with electrification and keep the fossil fuel industry relevant without worsening climate change.

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Thermal power generation is all about converting heat into rotational motion, and for grid scale generation that means steam turbines. Scaling factors matter in turbine efficiency, and General Electric has delivered a new record in single blade low pressure turbine technology with a 75-inch blade. It will be used in very large steam turbines to be installed in the British Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

Liquid hydrogen is notoriously difficult to store and transport, both due to the extremely cold temperatures required, and the propensity of the tiny hydrogen molecule to diffuse through most barrier materials. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has commissioned the world's first bulk LH2 carrier, which will be used in a new green supply chain initiative to deliver coal derived hydrogen from Australia to Kobe Japan. Could this be the start of a new renaissance for coal, with a green twist?

Battery electric aircraft are hobbled by very poor range performance with current battery technology. Could hybrid power plants bridge the gap between turboprops and pure electrics? Honeywell has developed a lightweight turbogenerator system that may give small regional airliners and vertical takeoff air taxis the range and reserve requirements needed to make electric flight a practical proposition.

Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on Engineering TV along with all of our other series.