Top 5 Aerospace

Trends
of Now and the Future
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Flying cars, hybrid vehicles, massive jets, sleek new fighters, and Mars-bound
rockets. These are the kinds of things we consider when we think of our latest
heights in the endless evolution of human flight: hardware. Indeed, the old clich
about there being a million parts in an airplane is truer now than ever. But those
million parts are only a fraction of the story behind what puts any vehicle in the air
and what keeps it there.

Take a look at the cost of a Boeing 787, says Vigor Yang, chair of the School of
Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Fifty percent
goes to hardware, fifty percent goes to navigation, guidance, and control. And of that,
fifty percent goes to software.
The newest flying machines are only the most visible part of what goes on in the air.
How the systems on a vehicle control that vehicle; how a vehicle talks to ground
control; how a vehicle talks to other vehicles; how vehicles collect data and what

they do with that datathis is the silent face of aerospace engineering. Its not
tactile, its not photogenic, and its largely unsung. But its where the latest advances
are taking place.
1. System Software on the Rise

The code at the heart of any aircraft isnt something that can be slapped together by
the latest Silicon Valley wiz kid. Unlike the programming that makes
our apps and video games, airborne software is system dependent. Whoevers
writing the code has got to know every aspect of the hardware. And the software
must be bug free. Otherwise everyone will be in serious trouble, says Yang.
Software is handling ever-greater percentages of the jobs done on an aircraft. And,
more and more, these systems are developed and put in place by companies such
as Ultra-Electronics, Rockwell Collins, and Ramco Aviation. Increased
communication with ground control will soon allow for more efficient landings.
Currently planes approaching an airport do so in a stair-step process. This allows the
control tower to maintain safety at each stage. But when the exact position of each
plane is known, the approach can be continuous. The smoothness of the descent will
mean every flight will be shorter by two or so minutes and save about 100 gallons of
gas. That time may be minuscule for the passenger, perhaps, but worldwide, the
savings are enormous.

Boeing is working on a drone swarming system that will eventually impact passenger planes.

2. Craft-to-Craft Communication

How a message gets from the cockpit to the landing gear, rudder, or anywhere else,
is a relatively self-contained problem, not too different from the controls found in
land-based vehicles. But how vehicles talk to each other is another issue. In a video
that went viral, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania orchestrated
miniature quadrotors to play the James Bond theme. The bots knew each others
location, and avoided collision, thanks to a central system that plotted their locations
in space. The U.S. Air Force recently released a video showing how tiny drones will
soon be able to similarly swarm together for the purposes of surveillance, targeting,
and assassination. Boeing is at work creating a swarming system for larger drones.
Eventually the technology will work its way into passenger planes.
3. Data Handling

Surveillance vehicles get a lot of attention for political, military, and techie reasons.
But in the field of aerospace engineering their development and employment is a
much smaller challenge than that of what to do with their product. How does the vast
quantity of data collected from each vehicle get integrated with that from other
vehicles and satellites? How does it get sifted in a way that will make it useful? How
will it be streamlined and delivered to allow for effective decision-making? The
answer is likely to be found with the $200 million the government recently marked for
big data handling. Some of that will go into DARPAs XDATA program, which aims
to meet challenges presented by this volume of data, according to the Department
of Defense.

The Martin Jetpack has a gasoline engine with two ducted fans to provide lift. Image: Martin
Jetpack

4. Flying Commuters

Passenger jets and drones are not the only vehicles that will need to talk to each
other in the none-too-far-off future. Though flight-minded laymen still have not seen a
Jetsons-like age arrive, the personal air commute is, at least, closer than it was
before. Jet pack ideas abound, (such as the Martin Jetpack and Marc Newsons
Body Jet) and flying cars are on the make (for example, Terrafugia and Moller
Internationals Skycar). Sure, the morning commute is not likely to crowd the sky the
way it does our streets anytime soon. However, if the air is thick with nine-to-fivers,
there will have to be some traffic system in place. Current air-traffic control is not
designed to handle localized takeoffs and landings. But, just as vehicle-to-vehicle
communication is soon to keep automatic cars from colliding, aircraft-to-aircraft
interaction is soon to make the man in manned aircraft a little less necessary.
Congress has ordered the FAA to pave the waylegally and technicallyfor
unmanned aircraft systems to fly in U.S. airspace by 2015. Flying commuters can
piggyback on those changes.
5. Aerospace Engineering Education

Whos going to put together these systems? The kids, of course. Perhaps the biggest
trend in aerospace is the growing interest among students. There are now 65
programs in the U.S., and 25 are stand alone programs. Of the 38,000 new
aerospace engineering jobs that opened up last year, 4,000 of them were taken by
students. Aerospace is the third most popular field for engineering students. A large
percentage of them go into programming, because they know their software will be
implemented on real hardware, says Yang. The aerospace profession has
expanded form hardware-based science, technology, and engineering, to systems,
and even systems of systems-based engineering. At a very high level that trend has
become even more important, he adds