SMAC continues to invest in its laboratory to better serve the needs of our customers. SMAC recently added a new climatic room on top of one of our electrodynamic shaker that enables shock & vibration tests to 6000N.
The new climatic room enables tests at different range of temperature, from +3°C to +35°C.
One of its several applications is the complete qualification of our aeronautical shock absorbers whose temperature performances are crucial.
With this new equipment SMAC lab is more productive and effective.
Credits: SMAC
ZOOM
First Dreamliner passengers sing new jet's praises
ABOARD THE BOEING 787 DREAMLINER – Boeing's much-ballyhooed but long-delayed 787 Dreamliner has entered commercial service. Only 100 seats on the 264-seat jet were made available to the general public, and ANA received more than 25,000 applications for those. The other 140 on board were a mix of journalists, airline officials and other industry workers.
From tip to tail, the 787 sports the modern Boeing Sky Interior cabin design which we’re starting to see on domestic 737-800s from Virgin Australia and Qantas. Passengers on board the Dreamliner will enjoy benefits such as larger and easier to use luggage bins with more headroom, and adjustable LED ‘mood lighting’.
Bigger windows. Boeing says the 787's windows are 30% bigger than those on a Boeing 767. The windows also are now positioned closer to eye level for most passengers, meaning fewer strained necks from looking out the window.
Quieter cabin. Boeing has said cabin noise on the Dreamliner will be lower than on other jets that typically fly on long-haul routes. While that was hard to quantify on the inaugural 787 flight to Hong Kong, most passenger conversations seemed to flow easily.
The next-generation Eurocopter EC175 will incorporate significantly increased range and payload capacity when it enters service at the end of this year, and will be the first seven metric ton-category helicopter delivered with such capabilities.
In releasing EC175 enhanced performance specifications today, Eurocopter announced a baseline payload/radius-of-action capacity with 16 passengers at 135 nautical miles when configured for offshore oil and gas missions, out-performing any medium-lift helicopter on the market in terms of competitiveness. This represents a 30 percent performance increase compared with the initial performance baseline. For longer-range missions, EC175 can transport 12 passengers to a radius of action of 190 nautical miles.
The Spheriflex rotor-equipped EC175 also offers unrivalled comfort with a very low vibration level that is similar to the benchmark EC155. Both EC175 have registered more than 270 flying hours.
Industrial activities continue and the two first aircrafts are actually under construction on the Marignane site, France.
Credits: Eurocopter
First Vega visible
Final preparations are in full swing for the inaugural flight of Europe’s new light launcher – the Vega booster – from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch crews are preparing the new rocket for blastoff as early as Feb 9, 2012 from the new Vega launch site at Kourou.
The 30 meter tall Vega will join ESA’s venerable Ariane rocket family and the newly inaugurated Soyuz as the third class of booster rockets to launch from ESA’s rapidly expanding South American Spaceport at the Guiana Space Center.
This gives ESA an enormous commercial leap and wide ranging capability to launch all types of satellites from small to big and heavy. The 4 stage Vega rocket is now fully assembled at the launch pad for the initial qualification flight dubbed VV1. The launch window stretches for a few days beyond Feb. 9.
Vega has been under development for 9 years by ESA and its partners, Italian space agency ASI, French space agency CNES and industry.
The Vega VV1 qualification flight will carry 9 satellites to orbit. The payloads are housed inside the ‘upper composite’ composed of the payload fairing and adapter and were integrated on top of the AVUM fourth stage by pad workers on Jan. 24, who completed and verified all the electrical and mechanical connections and links.
Credits : ESA - M. Pedoussaut 2012
EADS/AIRBUS: Very good year!
Airbus CEOTom Enders is to be the new chief executive of the European airframer’s parent group EADS, succeeding Louis Gallois, who is due to step down—at the end of his mandate—after the company’s annual general meeting on May 31. Of course, there is really no surprise at all in the January 26 announcement of the EADS board.
EADS is, by far, the best performer of the CAC 40 index with 37% increase of the stock value in 2011 in a depressed market and it has continued since the beginning of the year.
European plane maker Airbus said Tuesday it had a record-breaking year in 2011, outselling Boeing for the ninth consecutive year. EADS plans to hire 9,000 people in 2012, of which 4,000 would be on temporary contracts, Gallois told reporters. That compares with more than 5,000 last year.
EADS clearly has demonstrated that it is a cash and growth machine. Now and for the years to come it is time for growing profitability. Their key programs like A380 and A400M are now on track, deliveries of airplanes will increase, prices are improving and each Division is engaged in cost savings and transformation programs with ambitious targets for everyone of improved profitability. In line with Vision 2020, we will see a significant better performance as early as in 2012.
Airbus delivered a record 534 planes, beating Boeing for the ninth consecutive year, said the firm's commercial director John Leahy. In 2011, it won a record 1,419 orders while the company's great rival Boeing won 805 new orders, giving Airbus 64 percent of the market. Airbus had a total of 4,437 orders on its books at the end of December -- an industry record -- worth some $588 billion (464 billion euros).
The firm was unlikely to maintain its level of dominance. The company would work through its order book foreseeing 600 to 650 new orders this year, Enders said adding deliveries were expected to increase to 570 in 2012. The firm had enjoyed particular success with the A320 NEO medium-haul plane, which the firm says will burn 15 percent less fuel than the standard A320 -- a crucial factor for airlines at a time of high oil prices.
Credits: Trader Finance
Alenia Aermacchi: the 1000th ATR fuselage completed
Alenia Aermacchi delivered last week the fuselage to the ATR consortium, to be assembled in Toulouse to build the 1000th aircraft. The ceremony was attended by the company’s top management and the employees who have been engaged in the ATR program for many years.
In the next few days the 1000th ATR fuselage will leave Alenia Aermacchi’s Pomigliano d’Arco production line, where it was made and equipped with the landing gear before being shipped to Toulouse, Headquarters of the Italian-French ATR Consortium. In France it will be assembled together with stabilisers, wings, engines and other components followed by delivery to the final customer.
Giuseppe Giordo, Alenia Aermacchi’s Chief Executive Officer and Responsible for Finmeccanica’s Aeronautics sector has declared: “The results just achieved are tangible evidence of how much Alenia Aermacchi believes in the regional aircraft’s market in which we are present (…) not only with ATR (…)but also through the collaboration with Sukhoi for the Superjet 100.
Giordo has underlined – this important achievement proves once more the excellence, in terms of human and technological resources, of Alenia Aermacchi’s civil sector, that is concentrated in our production sites of Southern Italy”.
With 1,000 fuselages and stabilisers built, over 1,190 orders, 970 aircraft delivered, ATR is in the ‘Top Ten’ of the world ranking for the most successful commercial airplanes in civil aviation history. Operated by 186 airlines in 90 countries, every 20 seconds an ATR takes off in the world: over 800 million passengers have been flying with this aircraft since the programme started. In 2011 it won 157 orders and, with a backlog of 224 aircraft continues to lead the segment of regional turboprop air transport up to 90 seats, with a 80%- market share.
Such commercial success proves how airplanes’ performances, operational flexibility,low-cost and very low environment impact still now represent – after over 20 years from the date of the activity’s beginning – a reference point for the industry of air transport, thanks to the excellent characteristics of the project and to the continuous technological updates.
Credits: ATR / Alenia Aermacchi
AGENDA
Business Jet Interiors 2012 in Cannes (France)
SMAC will be present to the first BUSINESS JET INTERIORS WORLD EXPO in Cannes (France) on 22nd and 23rd February 2012.
Business Jet Interiors World Expo is the only international exhibition that is dedicated to showcasing the very latest in executive jet and helicopter interior design and technologies to a global community of executive jet owners, operators and completion centres.
SMAC will be present on stand #J4010.
