Aircraft parabolic flights repetitively provide up to 23s of reduced gravity during ballistic flight manoeuvres. Parabolic flights are used to conduct short microgravity investigations in Physical ...and Life Sciences and in Technology, to test instrumentation prior to space flights and to train astronauts before a space mission. The use of parabolic flights is complementary to other microgravity carriers (drop towers, sounding rockets), and preparatory to manned space missions on board the International Space Station and other manned spacecraft, such as Shenzhou and the Chinese Space Station CSS.
The European Space Agency (ESA), the ‘Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES, French Space Agency) and the ‘Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.’ (DLR, the German Aerospace Centre) have used the Airbus A300 ZERO-G for research experiments in microgravity, and at Moon and Mars gravity levels, from 1997 until October 2014. The French company Novespace, a subsidiary of CNES, based in Bordeaux, France, is in charge of the organisation of Airbus A300 ZERO-G flights. A total of 104 parabolic flight campaigns have been organised by ESA, CNES and DLR since 1997, including 38 ESA, 34 CNES and 23 DLR microgravity campaigns, two Joint European ESA-CNES-DLR Partial-g Parabolic Flight Campaigns, and seven ESA Student campaigns.
After 17years of good and loyal services, this European workhorse for microgravity research in parabolic flights has been retired. The successor aircraft, the Airbus A310 ZERO-G, is being prepared for a first ESA-CNES-DLR cooperative campaign in Spring 2015.
This paper looks back over 17years of microgravity research in parabolic flights with the A300 ZERO-G, and introduces the new A310 ZERO-G that will be used from 2015 onwards.
We investigate the welfare and trade impacts of U.S. retaliatory tariffs from the Airbus WTO dispute on EU olive oil, using a calibrated multi‐market partial‐equilibrium displacement model. The model ...accounts for four differentiated types of retail olive oil in the U.S. market. U.S. retailer‐blenders source olive oil in eight foreign markets and domestically and for two qualities of oil (virgin, other), and in two shipping container types (non‐bulk, bulk). We consider two main scenarios: A 100% tariff on all EU olive oils as initially announced by the USTR, and the actual and final 25% tariff on non‐bulk Spanish olive oil. The first scenario leads to significant loss of welfare for U.S. consumers of $924 million, much reduced EU olive oil exports to the United States ($360 million), and increased imports from non‐EU sources ($90 million). The second scenario has much more muted effects, with mitigated welfare losses for U.S. consumers ($55 million), strong decreases of Spanish olive oil exports shipped in smaller containers, much larger exports of bulk Spanish olive oil and other olive oils. Aggregate EU exports to the United States are slightly lower given the substantial trade diversion induced by the targeted tariff. We discuss the political economy of the contrasting initial announcement and limited implemented retaliation.
Fuel burn during the actual route flown is an important indicator of aircraft operational efficiency. This study aims to assess and systematically evaluate the method for fuel consumed during flights ...using data from the automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B), European reanalysis (ERA5) meteorological dataset, and BADA 3 performance. A literature background and comprehensive methodology are provided for fuel estimation using track data. The airborne part of the trajectory was used to estimate the total trip fuel consumed during several flights of a commercial airliner. The calculated fuel burn is compared with measured fuel consumption from the flight data recorder (FDR). The results show that fuel consumption for the entire airborne part of the trajectory can be estimated with an average error of 1.2% and with a standard deviation of 1.3%. Detailed results of fuel burn for individual flight phases, from the initial climb to the approach, are also presented. In addition, this paper also discusses the sources of errors and the potential applications of the method for network operations and environmental monitoring.
For the evaluation of future aircraft architectures or novel technologies, a well-understood and sound reference to compare to is essential to prove the impact of intended changes. A reference ...aircraft serves as a basis for calibration of the aircraft and is used as a starting point for subsequent investigations, sensitivity studies or optimizations. The prime need for such a reference arose from the European Clean-Sky-2 project HLFC-Win (Hybrid Laminar Flow Control—Wing), where no industrial reference data for a conventional aircraft were available. The project investigates a HLFC system integrated into the wing aiming to reduce the wing drag and consequently reducing the fuel consumption. Therefore, this paper presents the D300-XRF1 designed by DLR, which is based on the AIRBUS research aircraft XRF1 (eXternal Research Forum). It is intended to be used as a reference aircraft database representing aircraft for medium- and long-range missions. A variable fidelity multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO) aircraft design environment is set up to provide a consistent estimate of the geometry, mass breakdown, propulsion system, aerodynamics and aircraft performance. A conceptual aircraft design tool is utilized in the aircraft design environment to initialize the process, and higher-fidelity modules are used to enhance the results. The presented results describe the overall aircraft characteristics of the D300-XRF1 based on 2010 entry into service technology level and is offered to be used as a reference within the aviation research community, hopefully reducing similar design efforts in other research projects.The aircraft operates at a design cruise Mach number of 0.83, has a design range of 5500 NM and transports a payload of 31.5 t (300 PAX at 105 kg/PAX). The D300-XRF1 serves as a consistent reference aircraft database and provides a holistic overview of the aircraft’s performance that has been presented to and approved by AIRBUS. Therefore, this reference aircraft design can be used for future studies and to assess new technologies on a sophisticated level.
ABSTRACT The purpose of the paper is to study the effect of temperature change on the theory of inner product vector (IPV). The IPV method can be used to detect structural damage. This study ...evaluates the IPV method ability to detect damage of an Airbus A320 slat-track, which is in the form of a longitudinal crack. The results show that the IPV method is able to detect defects in the structure as well as its location, with close approximation. Then, the Airbus A320 slat-track was investigated for the effect of changes in temperature on the IPV method, evaluated over a temperature between –73 and 260 °C. The effect of temperature on the performance of IPV damage detection method has not been investigated so far. The results of the IPV method show a spurious defect in the structure as the temperature changes; therefore, the IPV method is temperature-sensitive. Also, this study highlighted the importance of applying simulation methods to develop vibration-based damage detection (VBDD) techniques, especially for evaluating the effect of changes in environmental temperature when the structure is complex.
In this paper, topology optimization is used to design aircraft pylons. Original results for two Airbus pylons are first presented. An innovative bi-level optimization scheme is then proposed, which ...combines topology and geometric optimizations. At the first level, the dimension of the design domain, that is the envelope of the structure, and the location of the fixations are variables. At the second level, topology optimization is used to determine the optimal lay-out for given geometric parameters. This bi-level scheme is used to solve the aero-structural optimization of a pylon.
This paper analyzes the concomitant link between the evolution of purchasing policy and the evolution of supply chain management. The duality of the mode of coordination of the suppliers depends on ...the relationship between the architect and the first-tier suppliers, according to the strategic degree of their competence. The contribution of this paper is to illuminate the plasticity, the adaptation of the purchasing strategy. The purchasing strategy therefore adapts to the nature of the equipment or systems outsourced, the stakes and expectations are not at all the same. The more complex the product manufactured by the subcontractor, the more the purchasing strategy will seek the mastery of a particular skill. The more standard the product, the more the purchasing strategy aims at reducing costs. The purpose of this paper is twofold. We will show, on the one hand, that there is within the same productive organization a duality of modes of coordination, On the other hand that there is an interaction between the purchasing strategy and these different modes of coordination.
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