AFR Enterprises Blog - page 11

Airbus delivers its first of many A350-900 aircraft to Cathay Pacific. Delivered from one of Airbus’ location in Toulouse in southern France on a Sunday morning May 29th. The A350 aircraft will be fueled with 10% diesel and 90 % regular fuel. Even though Cathay just received it they plan on having it departure on June 15th going from Honk Kong to the Manila, Philippines. Cathay becomes the 3rd operator of Airbus A350 XWB in China and the 6th operator worldwide. As Airbus industries continues to promote its luxurious style it ensures that the passenger is fully equipped with entertainment and comfort. Read more >>

On May 20th 2016, Brandon Farris wrote an article that was published in Airways News that talks about how Boeing is opening a new composite wing center for their 777x. The new composite wing center for the 777x is located in Everett, Washington. This location is actually a bit north of the Everett Boeing plant. To be more specific about its whereabouts, the facility is a little bit behind the 777 final assembly line. Read more >>

American Airlines has announced that they have plans to accelerate the retirements of all of their Airbus A330-300s, Embraer E190s and part of their Boeing 767-300ERs. The announcement came via letter from the American Vice President of Flight Service Hector Adler as reported first by Brian Sumers. AA currently operates nine Airbus A330-300s and forty 767-300ERs out of a possible wide body fleet of 146 aircrafts and twenty E190s out of a possible 796 aircrafts from the mainline narrow body fleet. The retirement of the oldest fifteen 767-300ERs has already been scheduled to take place anytime between now and the end of 2017. Additionally AA plans to retire eight more in 2018 leaving the carrier with just seventeen of the newest 767-300ERs left in its fleet. Read more >>

On March 29th 2016, Electronics Sourcing released an article by Thomas G E Smart talking about Toshiba Electronics. The website says how there will be a new type of range for the MOSEFETs switching voltage regulators designs. These are considered more efficient, more high speed, and higher voltage than previously. Read more >>

The Lighting Industry Association is the largest trade association in Europe, setting the standards for quality, safety, and performance in the United Kingdom Lighting Industry. They are largely involved with regulation and came to existence in January of 2012. President of the Lighting Industry Association, Alasdair McRury, officially open the doors to the laboratory on March 08, 2016. This will be the largest independent test laboratory dedicated solely on the European lighting industry. The new laboratory will serve as an ISO 17025 test Lab and will include ISO 17065 National Certification Body. The ISO 17025 consists of 5 main target elements which include Scope, Normative References, Terms and Definitions, Management Requirements, and Technical Requirements. These elements will help implement a quality system for the ability to produce valid results consistently. Read more >>

Kingston Digital, the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, has recently shifted the focus on their most recent Secure Digital (SD) card onto drones, which require the use of memory as well. The Kingston Technology Corporation currently owns 59% of the third-party DRAM module market share worldwide, as the company is the largest independent producer of DRAM memory modules. They are also arguably the second largest provider of flash memory. Kingston Digital’s latest microSD Action Camera UHS-I U3 (Speed Class 3) card was unveiled at the end of March. This microSD card was designed for use in action cameras, such as the GoPro, as well as in drones. Kingston Digital’s UHS-I U3 card is capable of supporting 4K video at 30 frames per second or high definition video at 240 frames per second. These cards will initially be available in 16 GB as well as 32 GB, with the release for 64 GB soon to follow. Kingston’s flash card business manager, Jean Wong, has suggested that the market for regular-sized SD cards has been on a gradual decline, although there has been an increase in demand for the smaller footprint of microSD cards. Read more >>

Today Airbus has announced that they have entered into a flight hour service (FHS) components support agreement with Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways for their new fleet of A350 XWBs currently on order. The agreement includes 22 A350-900s and 26 A350-1000s which totals 48 A350 XWBs. Under the expressed long-term agreement Airbus industries will provide Cathay Pacific’s main base with spare parts, maintenance, logistics services and flight simulator support. Furthermore planning of the airline’s A350 XWB expendables inventories are being outsourced to Satair Group who is Airbus’s materials management subsidiary along with all the purchasing and planning of the integrated material services (IMS). Engineering Director of Cathay Pacific Airways Christopher Gibbs believes that a smooth entry-into-service for the A350 XWB widebody fleet will be paramount to Catha Pacifics’s success in a fast growing and highly competitive market, especially with the first aircraft just now undergoing assembly in Toulouse. Read more >>

Newcastle University has partnered up with Raytheon UK to develop silicon carbide (SiC) based amplifier circuitry with the characteristics of operational amplifiers. Up until now silicon carbide semiconductors have been power electronics and exploited the material’s ability to dissipate internally-generated heat but for this project the focus has been on creating circuitry that can operate in high temperatures and other equally harsh environments opines Dr. Alton Horsfall who is the Reader in Semiconductor Technology at Newcastle University. The research utilized the thermal characteristics of silicon carbide in small-signal circuitry that operates in high temperatures as opposed to high power devices. According to researchers, the improvement in hostile environments is due to the amplifier circuit which is based on lateral small-signal junction field effect transistors (JFET). This will lead to greater stability in the threshold voltage and will reduce the intrinsic noise which makes the structures suitable for the realization of high temperatures, low noise amplifier circuitry. Read more >>

The United States Navy has recently awarded the Raytheon Aircraft Manufacturing Company, a major American defense contractor and manufacturer of weapons as well as military and commercial electronics, a $1 billion contract that will require the company to build 15 engineering development models of its future electronic warfare pod, the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ). This billion dollar contract is scheduled to have completed work by December of 2020, as the Navy will be initiating operations with the electronic warfare pod on the Boeing EA-18G Growler. Read more >>

On April 1, 2016, Bombardier announced that there was an order placed for 20 Bombardier Challenger 350 Aircrafts, valued at $534 million US.   Bombardier is the world’s leader of both plane and train manufacturing. They continue to evolve with the ever changing transportation industry focusing on efficiency, sustainability, and customer service. Read more >>