This Week in Engineering

The use of drones for military purposes has a long history. The concept dates to World War I, and pilotless explosive-laden aircraft were used extensively by Germany in World War II. Remotely controlled precision attack drones were developed by the United States near the end of World War II, but despite predictions in the many decades after that war, crewed combat aircraft continued to rule the combat zone. The experience in Ukraine this year, however, suggests that there may be a radical change in that military doctrine. Swarms of accurate, low-cost combat and reconnaissance drones may now make it possible for a warring nation to overwhelm even sophisticated air defence systems, including piloted fighter aircraft. This shift in the definition of air superiority would be the first change in the doctrine of aerial warfare in a century. And cost engineering is key.

Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

The combustion of fossil fuels is widely thought of as the cause of global CO2 emissions. While it is the major contributor, many process industries are large emitters as well, and many of those have few alternative technologies to reduce CO2 production. CF Industries, a large manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil to capture and store CO2 generated by the company’s large Louisiana manufacturing complex. The development of this large-scale blue ammonia system may make ammonia a viable alternative as a motor fuel as well as an important chemical feedstock. 

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In the aerospace industry, big military contracts can come in two ways: low-volume, high value platforms, and the opposite, multirole aircraft with enough development potential to sustain production over decades. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is an example of the latter, in production since 1979 and still on the line today, with about 4000 produced so far. The replacement rotorcraft for such a successful program has to deliver outstanding performance, and it represents a massive production commitment for the winning airframer. Bell and Sikorsky – Boeing have produced radically different aircraft in the competition for this lucrative contract. The winner may establish the standard for VTOL military aircraft for decades to come. 

Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

Spaceflight is hard, and dangerous. From the beginnings of crewed spaceflight in the early 1960s, ejection seats and launch escape rockets were designed to carry astronauts and cosmonauts away from the fireball of an exploding booster. Launch escape rockets can be carried on top of the spacecraft and lift it off tractor-style or be mounted under the capsule and push it free of the upper stages. Ejection seats have fallen out of favour after the second Space Shuttle flight, but both tractor and pusher type launch escape rockets are human rated today. Blue Origin and SpaceX use the pusher type, while NASA prefers the traditional tractor type. Which is better? 

Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

Each generation of wireless communications technology has triggered significant and important social and economic changes. The telegraph, the telephone, microwave relays and satellite medications all made distances effectively smaller and local operations national in scale. Wireless is done the same, with each generation of service offering more bandwidth and faster download speeds, enabling new services to develop by the thousands. But each new technology generates a demand for yet more bandwidth, and faster speeds, with less latency. Six G, the next wave of terahertz frequency data transfer, is the next wave. 60 is widely expected to be the critical enabling technology for widespread adoption of VR/AR, the Internet of Things and global scale cloud computing. LG has announced a milestone test of six G transmission over 320 metres outdoors. The test used hardware developed by LG in association with the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin. 

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It’s no secret that the state-of-the-art in manufacturing technology varies widely by industry sector and by enterprise scale. Large, R&D-heavy OEMs in the automotive, aerospace, energy and defence sectors have access to and implement the latest technologies, such as advanced additive manufacturing. The supply chain that supports those companies, however, have varying abilities—from capability that matches that of their customers’, to reliance on third-party and frequently offshore expertise.  

The AM Forward initiative, backed by the Bipartisan Innovation Act, aims to commit large U.S. companies to purchase 3D printing parts from smaller U.S.-based suppliers, as well as train those suppliers on new technologies and provide technical assistance. If successful, the program could change the traditional relationship between large manufacturers and the entire supply chain.  

Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

Commercial aviation is growing rapidly in China. The emergence of a relatively affluent middle-class, plus new more maintainable and fuel-efficient airliners are making China the must win market for air-framers worldwide. To date, this has been good news for Boeing and Airbus, but Chinese maker COMAC has started production of an efficient small jet that is aimed squarely at the sweet spot in the market, currently dominated by the Airbus A320 series. Although it makes extensive use of Western engines and avionics, the emergence of a credible locally made competitor in the huge Chinese market is a shot across the bow for Boeing and Airbus. Will the global market support three major airline manufacturers? 

Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

Hypersonic missiles were used for the first time in combat last month in Ukraine, as Russian jets launched Kinzhal missiles from jet fighters. Hypersonic missiles are fast, flying at speeds of Mach 5 or faster, and when combined with a flat trajectory compared to ballistic missiles and maneuverability, they present a difficult problem for defense.

Hypersonic missiles are under development as long-range strategic weapons, but the most intense research is in air-launched standoff systems launched from conventional military aircraft. The Kinzhal system uses conventional rocket engines, but more advanced propulsion under development in China and the U.S. uses air breathing supersonic combustion ramjets to use air as the oxidizer, adding longer range compared to rocket systems. Heat is the primary technical challenge to “scramjet” development, but test systems with run times that could allow a 300-mile range have been demonstrated.

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Housing affordability all over the world has been closely tied to traditional supply and demand equilibria. Nations with growing economies and growing populations need more housing, yet the combination of cost, land availability, regulatory and environmental considerations has resulted in a significant lag between the time that housing is needed in the time that it is built. In America, Freddie Mac has reported that the housing deficit in America increased 52% between 2018 and 2020. One solution to the problem may be 3D printing, with a new generation of very large footprint machines which in the future may collapse the cost of new housing while simultaneously increasing build speed.

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Navigation aircraft used to be a simple business. Early pilots often used roadmaps and flew low enough to read the names of towns from water towers and grain silos. Longer-range aircraft brought with them the need for a dedicated navigator, who used the sun and stars just as shipboard navigators did for centuries.

The development of satellite-based global positioning systems, however, automated the process and effectively removed the navigator from the cockpit of modern commercial aircraft. Unfortunately, GPS is vulnerable to system attack and jamming, especially since GPS signals are used for military purposes—their original purpose.

Can robust, low cost and accurate aircraft navigation systems be built without reliance on GPS? Honeywell has tested a prototype system that promises to do just that.

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