2nd flight for Boeing's Hydrogen powered jet Phantome Eye

We saw Boeing's Phantom Eye take its first flight last June, and this week, with upgraded software and hardware to challenge the heights, it will take its 2nd flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California. It fared decently well in the first flight, reaching a height of 4,080 feet at a speed of 62 knots (71mph/115 kmph) , though had a shaky landing, breaking its landing gear in the process, making the manufacturers to think of ways to improve the landing system , along with the autonomous flight systems and engine oil pumps.

A Taxi testing was also done, with the demonstrator carrying the 150 feet winged aircraft at 40 knots without much problem, taking things closer to the 2nd flight. The aircraft is designed to fly at a height of 65,000 feet and carry payloads upto 450 pounds, for  4 days non stop with its liquid hydrogen fuel, whose combustion will only yield water, apart from the monstrous energy of course

Source: Boeing

HondaJet enters production

The Honda Aircraft Company has announced that its HA-420 HondaJet business jet is entering production. At a press conference at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) annual meeting and convention in Orlando, Florida, Honda announced that the “world’s most advanced light jet” had passed key testing milestones and is on its way to certification and delivery.
“An assembly line for HondaJet production is in place, major aircraft components including the fuselage and wing have been produced, and we have started assembly of the first customer aircraft,” said Honda Aircraft President and CEO Michimasa Fujino. “Commencing production is the most important milestone in the HondaJet program to date, with only the future Federal Aviation Administration Type Certification and first customer delivery ranking greater in significance.”

HondaJet is Honda’s first commercial aircraft. With a lightweight composite fuselage and reinforced aluminum wings, its distinctive profile comes from its over-the-wing engine-mount configuration for its two GE Honda HF120 turbofan jet engines. This is designed to improve performance and fuel efficiency by reducing aerodynamic drag.
Carrying up to six passengers, the HondaJet has a 12.15-meter (39-ft, 10-in) wingspan and overall length of 12.71 meters (41 ft, 8 in). Its cruising speed is 778 km/h (483 mph, 420 kn) and it has a range of 2,593 km (1,611 mi, 1,400 nmi). Its airframe design reduces cabin noise and ground-detected noise as well as providing more cabin space and greater cargo capacity. In the cockpit, there is a Honda-customized Garmin G3000 next-generation all-glass avionics system with three 14-inch landscape-format displays and dual touch-screen controllers.

The HondaJet has completed crew-seat crash tests, speedbrake testing, ultimate load tests, EASA windshield bird-strike testing, wind tunnel icing tests, night lighting testing, as well as extreme weather tests. Next year, Honda will provide the United States FAA with the latest two in a series of six HondaJets for flight testing.
The HondaJet also sees the introduction of new manufacturing processes for Honda that include making assembly floor instructions available on tablets, an on-site paint mixing system for thinner paint and the ability to paint several planes, and an Automatic Guided Cart (AGC) – a robot cart to pick up and deliver parts. In addition, Honda has begun construction of a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility capable of simultaneously servicing 12 HondaJets, and the installation of HondaJet flight simulators at the Honda Aircraft world headquarters campus in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Source Honda Aircraft Company , Gizmag

X-51a test results released

The United States Air Force (USAF) has released the results of last August’s third test of the X-51a Waverider, which resulted in the crash of the unmanned scramjet demonstrator. At a press teleconference featuring the Program Manager for Air Force Research Laboratory, Charles Brink, it was confirmed that a malfunctioning fin was the cause of the crash. However, engineers are confident of correcting the fault in time for the fourth test flight scheduled for (Northern Hemisphere) late spring or early summer of next year.
The X-51a is designed to test the technology needed to build a hypersonic missile or aircraft. The 25-foot (7.62 m) long vehicle is a combination of of a wingless cruise vehicle powered by a SJY61 supersonic combustion ramjet or scramjet engine built by Pratt & Whitney and a modified Army Tactical Missile used to boost it to near-hypersonic speeds 26 seconds after being dropped from a B-52 bomber. It’s called Waverider because it rides its own shockwave at hypersonic speeds in excess of Mach 5 (3,800 mph, 3,300 knots, 6,125 km/hr).

X-51a Waverider on wing of a B-52 (Inage: U.S. Air Force)

According to Brink, the third test went as planned with the X-51a “stack” dropping from the B-52 and the booster igniting on schedule. However, about 15.5 seconds into the flight the upper right-hand fin unlocked and deployed while the booster was still firing. The stack began to slowly corkscrew, but the booster’s guidance system managed to maintain the proper angle.
After the other three fins on the cruiser deployed and powered up, the booster fell away, but the cruiser’s onboard computer couldn't maintain control because the electrically-driven actuator of the fourth fin was damaged or locked in place. Before the scramjet engine could be ignited, the cruiser went out of control, resulting in the loss of the vehicle.

Brink said that investigations are still ongoing and aren’t expected to be completed until near the end of the year, but that at this stage software and electronics failures have been eliminated as a cause. Indications are that the fin deployed because a random vibration issue caused the assembly to vibrate harmonically while in boost phase, so that the actuator responded and sprang open.
Until the exact cause of the fault is determined it won’t be possible to correct it with certainty, but Brink says that the simplest fix will be to deploy the fins on the cruiser about one or two seconds after being dropped from the B-52 instead of later when the vibration problem occurred so that the fins are powered up and protected from damage.

Test firing of the SJY61 scramjet (Image: NASA)

Brink went on to say that the US$300 million project will continue and that follow-on plans are in place, though details are not available. As to the third test, he said that even though the cruiser was lost before it could start its engine, valuable data was recovered that will help in modifying the Waverider’s air intakes prior to the fourth test flight.
Source: Wright Patterson AFB, Gizmag