Monday, July 8, 2019

Airframe Structures

Airframe Structures



Have you ever stopped and really thought about the structure of an airframe? I mean, we all know how beautiful airplanes are to look at, either on the ground or, especially, in flight. But, did you ever wonder what sort of engineering is required to manufacture an aircraft that will hold up to all of the stresses of flight? If you have, this article will provide you with some insight into the engineering wonders that we so often take for granted.



The History of Airframe Design
What we see today in modern airframes began back in 1903, when a wooden biplane built by Orville and Wilbur Wright showed America the potential of fixed-wing aircraft design. During World War I, military needs spurred on further airframe developments, and a hybrid between wood and metal structures became very popular, especially with the effectiveness of Dutch designer Anthony Fokker’s combat aircraft for the German Empire’s Luftstreitkräfte and the U.S. Curtiss flying boats.

During the latter part of 1915, Hugo Junkers pioneered the use of an all-metal airframe with the Junkers J 1 and then used lighter weight duralumin in the airframe of the Junkers D.I. of 1918. All-metal designs continued through the 20s and 30s with some diversions into wooden composite airframes during World War II. For commercial aircraft design, though, the focus remained on all-metal designs, for the most part.

After World War II, newly developed aluminum alloys were critical to the designs of turboprops and jets, since these aircraft flew at higher speeds and under greater stresses than previous wooden or metal designs could allow for. The lighter weight but stronger strength of the aluminum alloys paved the way for further advances in airframe design.

These aluminum alloys were the primary material used for airframe structures until the 1980s, when composite material construction began to be explored. Today, exploration in composite materials for airframe designs continues, with Boeing claiming the lead in designing its new 787 aircraft with a one-piece carbon-fiber fuselage, replacing “1,200 sheets of aluminum and 40,000 rivets.”

The Parts of an Airframe
The structure known as the airframe is made up of a number of different components, each with its own distinct purpose. The fuselage provides a space for the crew, passengers, cargo, fuel, and environmental control systems. Next is the empennage, which is made up of the vertical and horizontal stabilizers. These are used for turning and pitching the aircraft in flight. The wing, which passes through the air, provides life to the aircraft. Finally, the ailerons increase life on one side of the wing while reducing it on the other side, in order to roll the airplane on its fore-and-aft axis.

Airframe Structure Designs


Modern Airframe Design
The design and implementation of all of these components has become a very exacting science. Airframes are exposed to a number of internal and external loads and stresses, such as propulsion thrust, drag, lift, and turbulence, as well as the weight of the cargo and passengers and crew of the aircraft and helicopter, and airframes must be rigorously tested to ensure the aircraft will perform predictably under all sorts of stresses.

The strength capability of an airframe must be constructed in such a way that it can withstand all of the applied loads it is exposed to with a predictable margin of safety throughout the life of the airframe. It must resist deformation, so the airframe requires a structural stiffness that allows it to maintain its shape even under extreme vibrations and oscillations experienced during flight.

At the same time, performance requirements of the aircraft such as range, payload, speed, altitude, and landing and takeoff distances, require that the airframe be designed and constructed to minimize its weight. This attempt to minimize the weight of the airframe has driven much of the exploration of building materials, and is a leading factor for the pioneering efforts into using carbon fiber fuselages and other composite materials instead of aluminum alloys.



Risks of Airframe Design Exploration
With every advance in airframe design technology comes certain risks. Rigorous testing is conducted on airframe designs before they ever leave the ground, but sometimes not all factors can be tested. This has resulted in several serious catastrophes that demonstrated the risks involved with man’s efforts to take to the skies.

In 1959, a Lockheed L-188 Electra disintegrated in mid-flight, and the cause of the accident eluded investigators for quite some time. The investigators concluded that the breakup was caused by the loss of a wing to “flutter,” or cycles of reverse bending caused by the self-oscillation or vibration of the wing, but could not ascertain what had caused the flutter. Eventually, after another L-188 Electra suffered the same tragic end, investigators discovered this new phenomenon in which the natural oscillation of a material matches or comes close to matching the oscillation of the external forces on the material, a force called “harmonic coupling.” This force causes structural weakness and, in the case of the L-188, caused the airframe to disintegrate.

Supplier of Airframe Parts


In another example of the complexities of airframe design, the 2001 crash on takeoff of an Airbus A300 demonstrated the ability of an airframe to be overstressed and destabilize when certain forces are exerted. In this case, the over usage of the rudder resulted in the vertical stabilizer detaching from the aircraft, an event that is still contended by both Airbus and American Airlines to be the fault of the other part. American Airlines claims that Airbus neglected to advise them of the inability of the airframe to handle abrupt changes in rudder force during maneuvering speed, and Airbus claims that American Airlines failed to adequately train its pilots in the maneuvering capabilities of the aircraft. Whatever the root cause may be, inadequate training or a design flaw, the accident proves that airframes can be exposed to stresses that cannot be properly predicted by the airframe manufacturer, leaving some risk in the advances in airframe technologies.

Summary
An airframe is a very complex structure, made up of millions of components. They require hours upon hours of engineering and testing, and still some risk remains. Even so, the rigorous testing and regulation of airframe design makes for a much safer method of transportation than any other, since no other vehicle undergoes the amount of testing and design engineering that aircraft undergo. 


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What is a Cage Code?

What is a Cage Code?



Hang around parts suppliers for federal contracts long enough, and you’ll eventually hear about CAGE codes. You might hear someone ask where to find the CAGE code for a particular wiring harness, or you might overhear someone new to government procurement talk about needing to get their own CAGE code. What is a CAGE code, though, and how does someone find it if they need to get in touch with a particular supplier?

What’s a CAGE Code, Anyways?
CAGE stands for Commercial And Government Entity, and the CAGE code is a unique five-digit identifier given to suppliers for various government or defense agencies, as well as the government agencies themselves and various other organizations. These codes are used worldwide to provide a standardized procedure to identify a particular facility in a specific location.

Before CAGE codes were implemented, the United States used an FSCM, or Federal Supply Code for Manufacturers. This was also the NSCM, or National Supply Code for Manufacturers. Prior to the 1980s, this identifier was usually labeled simply as the Code Ident No, or Code Identification Number.



The United States government uses CAGE codes for its suppliers, as does NATO under the NATO Codification System (NCS). NATO sometimes calls these NCAGE Codes. In the US, any organization that wants to be a supplier to the Department of Defense is issued a CAGE code by the Defense Logistics Information Service, or DLIS, the agency that oversees procurement for government contracts and services within the United States.

The name, address, phone numbers, and other important contact information for each entity is cataloged in handbooks for easy reference, so a government procurer can look up the contact information for a parts manufacturer when needed. This is a standardized procedure overseen by a National Codification Bureau, or NCB, of every NATO or NATO-sponsored nation. National Stock Numbers are issued under manufacture cage codes. 

Why Are CAGE Codes Important?
Within one particular aircraft, there are hundreds of thousands, if not more, parts that occasionally need to be replaced. These parts are manufactured by various organizations and corporations, and a standardized method of identifying a particular manufacturer is necessary. Additionally, sometimes a manufacturer has various locations, and a means of identifying which specific location of a particular manufacturer a part is manufactured at is helpful.

With CAGE codes, every specific location of a manufacturer or other supply chain vendor can be easily identified. These codes help identify the country (because every country has a different sequence number, or the beginning and terminating digits in the CAGE Code), as well as the particular manufacturer of a part. If the manufacturer has multiple facilities in different locations, the CAGE Codes differentiate between those locations, allowing for quick and easy access to purchasing information for important parts and supplies.

What is a Cage Code?


How Can I Get a CAGE Code?
Within the United States, CAGE Codes are administered by the Defense Logistics Information Service, or DLIS, the NCB for the United States. If you register for the System for Award Management (SAM) system and do not already have a CAGE Code, the DLIS will assign one to you. There is no subscription charge for this code or for the maintenance of the CAGE Codes.

The SAM sends vendor data to the CAGE department for the assignment of a new CAGE Code or maintenance of an existing one, and the record is then screened for failures. Once screening is successful, the record is processed automatically and a new CAGE Code is assigned or an existing CAGE Code is renewed. Once this is done, SAM sends a notification to the vendor letting them know that they are now active and eligible for contracts and/or grants.

How Do I Find a CAGE Code?
If you want to locate a particular CAGE code for a particular manufacturer, you have several options. You can try to get your hands on the H4 and H8 handbooks maintained by the DLIS, but this can sometimes be cumbersome and difficult to procure.

I’ve found an even better way, though. I found a web site that maintains a list of all of the CAGE Codes in existence, and allows you to look up a particular CAGE Code to find out the company information for that CAGE Code, or enter a company name and search for its CAGE Code. For example, if I want to find a part that I know is made by Boeing, I can search for “Boeing” on the CAGE Code lookup page and get a listing of all of the CAGE Codes held by Boeing Aerospace. Very handy!

Perhaps I know the part I need, and want to find the CAGE Code for that part’s manufacturer. This website provides that information, too, in their parts catalog. Once I locate the appropriate part number, I just have to search for that part number and the web page will tell me the CAGE Code for the manufacturer of that particular part. Then, I can look up who the manufacturer is using their CAGE Lookup tool.

Summary
CAGE Codes are essential for national government contract procurement, because they help identify manufacturing locations and supply vendors. Having the means to search for CAGE Codes quickly and easily is important for any supply chain manager or technician, so the lookup tools at www.buyaircraftparts.com are extremely useful to the industry. The fact that you can locate virtually every part within the National Stock Number (NSN) catalog is also helpful, and the services provided at this website lend credibility to the services offered by Buy Aircraft Parts Team.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Aircraft Parts Industry

Aircraft Parts Industry

Several aircraft have been retired of life from the beginning of time, till the present day. Many aircraft become obsolete, some destroyed, and some suffers through an irreparable damage. So what happen to these aircraft? Are they just dumped in the scrap yards? Are they just thrown away like that? Millions of dollars are spent on the construction of one aircraft, so does it goes to waste the aircraft is of no use? 
The answer to all these question is NO. These aircraft are not useless. Although these aircraft cannot be used as the means of transport as they were used before but can be used for many other several purposes. Aircraft parts are very useful by products and several important things can be manufactured. A proper industry is set up, which is recycling the parts of aircraft just to manufacture products that has a huge market in the world.

Aircraft Parts

According to a report it has been estimated that about 12,000 aircraft are set to be decommissioned by the year 2020. When the aircraft life comes near to the end of their service lives, then the aircraft owner starts to think and find different ways in order to deal with them. They usually sell these planes to dump yard owners, scrap yard owners or directly to owners of the recycling industries. These recycling industry owners use these planes and disassemble them into their parts. Then different aircraft parts are used to make some awesome and amusing daily use products.
Some of the most interesting products made from the aircraft parts are as follows:
Engine parts get second hand life - Most of the engine part is purchased by the plane making companies from the dump yards and scrapyards and is installed into the new planes where they get new life.

Furniture - aircraft structural parts are used by cutting edge bolts, rich bends, glimmering surfaces and the capacity to withstand extremes. It's anything but difficult to see why furniture architects would be captivated by the capability of decommissioned aircraft parts.
Floor and wall tile - The aircraft aluminum is not like the common aluminum, most of know about. It is used to floor and wall tie.
Boat - Although the plane is of no use but the light weight parts are very useful. Many different parts can be converted to different small boats.
House - The outer body structure is so robust and powerful that it is also being used to manufacture different houses. Especially in the mountainous are where the strength and light weight are necessary factors.

Aerospace Adhesives

Another vital area to the aviation industry is aerospace adhesives and chemicals. 
We used http://aerospace-adhesives.blogspot.com/ to learn more about common US Navy chemicals.

So it is seen that the aircraft parts industry is increasing day by day. There is a large market from different parts of aircraft. When the aircraft becomes of no use for the airline companies then it is being dissembled into different parts. Each part is sold separately. An old, retired plane is giving the birth to several new and unique projects. This is not only saving the money but also creating employment for several people. There is a great demand and need for the aircraft parts. 
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