Quality Engineering Career News by UQSI

The Arizona Republic

With a multibillion-dollar economic impact, the aerospace industry is the southeast Valley’s payroll leader, one of the region’s largest employers and a workplace for some of Arizona’s top research talent.

Collectively, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe are home to more than 200 private firms, a state university, community college and an Air Force lab, all of which are engaged in a range of aerospace manufacturing and research, from helicopter assembly to space technology.

In March, a group of influential business, government and academic leaders warned that Arizona’s $3.8 billion annual aerospace payroll could dwindle unless determined efforts are made to expand the industry by supplying the science and engineering talent it demands.

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“Greener Aviation” Technologies and Alternative Fuels Head the List

RESTON, Va., June 1 — The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has released its first annual list of top emerging aerospace technologies.

Developed by AIAA’s Emerging Technologies Committee (ETC), the list comprises the following:

1. “Greener Aviation” Technologies – including emission reduction and noise reduction technologies as used in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Continuous Low Emissions, Energy and Noise (CLEEN) program, and the European Environmentally Friendly Engine (EFE) program and “Clean Sky” Joint Technology Initiative.
2. Alternative Fuels – including biofuels, as promoted by the FAA’s Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), and the recent FAA grant to the X Prize Foundation to spur development of renewable aviation fuels and technologies.
3. High Speed Flight Technologies – such as supersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics, sonic boom reduction technology, and thermal management aids.
4. Efficient Propulsion Technologies – including open rotors and geared turbofans, such as those used in the European DREAM (valiDation Radical Engine Architecture systeMs) program.
5. Active Flow Technologies – such as plasma actuators.
6. Advanced Materials – such as nanotechnology and composites.
7. Active Structures – such as shape memory alloys, morphing, and flapping.
8. Health Management – such as monitoring, prognostics, and self-healing.
9. Remote Sensing Technologies – including unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites such as those used in NASA’s Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) program.
10. Advanced Space Propulsion Technologies – including plasma-based propulsion such as the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, and solar sail technologies.

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