When someone needs to purchase an aircraft part, they cannot just walk into a building and buy what they need right off of the shelf. Aviation parts procurement is highly regulated and involves many steps and interactions between buyers and sellers. The process involves making a Request for Quote (RFQ), a Purchase Order (PO), order acknowledgment, shipping, invoicing, etc. Read more >>

As technology becomes increasingly prevalent in society, new systems are being created to keep up. One of the systems that have been recently developed is the blockchain, and it is used to increase efficiency within financial transactions. Blockchain makes it easy to send, receive, store, and trade digital currencies; and is resistant to modification, making it more secure. It is a growing list of records, or blocks, that are linked using cryptography; every block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Read more >>

If you were to ask anyone in the aviation industry what can damage a plane, you’d get an entire laundry list ranging from faulty manufacturing to icing on the plane’s exterior to a bird getting sucked up into the engine. If you specifically asked an aircraft maintenance team, you’d probably get one word— vibrations. Jet engine vibrations can be extremely harmful if left unchecked. Parts that are not placed and secured in the jet aircraft engine properly can result in cracking, general metal fatigue, and engine failure. Read more >>

The most important thing about aviation is safety. A plane should not be in the air if the airliner has even the slightest doubts about its airworthiness. But, airliners want their aircraft in the air and making money, not in the hangar being maintained. Unfortunately, inspection and repair of jet engines is inherently difficult and due to small spaces and restricted access to internal aircraft engine components. To answer this problem, Rolls-Royce teamed up with the University of Nottingham to look into robotics as a part of a collaboration funded in part by Innovate UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute. Read more >>

Airplanes are used to fight some of the most dangerous fires, with states spending millions on maintaining and expanding their arsenal of aircraft parts capable for firefighting. These amazing aircraft can drop nearly 12,000 gallons of fire retardant in one takeoff. This fire retardant has been tested to be double the firefighting capability of water and almost 9 million gallons of it was used in 2015 alone. California has the largest fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters, with 22 air tankers, 12 helicopters and 14 tactical planes. This shows the investment that states are willing to spend on what they think of as an extremely valuable firefighting tool. Read more >>