Antifragility is a concept where an entity actually gains from suffering an adverse event. As an example, consider the mythological beast, the Hydra, who is able to grow back two heads when one gets chopped off. Applying antifragile techniques to aircraft design brings the potential for safer airplanes with the improved ability to react to catastrophic events when they occur.

Let’s take a closer look at these engineering innovations aimed at improving passenger safety.

Supporting an Iterative Design Process

The iterative nature of the aircraft engineering design process reflects antifragility concepts when it comes to terms like “fail-safe” and “damage tolerant.” As engineers work their way through testing aircraft designs, the parts of a design that work are retained, while failures are removed. This iterative process is known as stochastic tinkering.

Testing remains a vital aspect of the stochastic tinkering used in aerospace engineering. The worse case scenarios must be tested and retested, while engineers document the in-stress performance of components that must not fail compared against those other components which can fail due to the redundancies that were part of the aircraft’s initial design.

Visual Inspections still Important in the Aircraft Industry

Even when leveraging design techniques like antifragility and stochastic tinkering, certain airplane components can incur a certain level of structural failure while still maintaining flight safety and security. In these situations, it is important that any critical damage is visible to airplane inspectors performing a pre-flight check up.

Additionally, when performing load testing, it is vital to increase the load factors to account for the potential of catastrophic events — both known and unknown. Still, it is up to the aerospace engineer to analyze the cause of any catastrophe and feed what they learned back into that same design and testing process. Safe flight using antifragile aircraft is the ultimate goal of this engineering discipline.

If you are inspired to improve your aerospace engineering career, talk to The Talley Group. As one of the top engineering staffing agencies in Washington, they are a great source of Seattle aerospace engineering jobs. Make it a point to talk with The Talley Group today!

Aeronautics and the world of aviation innovation remain one of the most intriguing engineering disciplines. Obviously, Seattle — home to Boeing and many other airplane manufacturers — is a great place to be for aviation engineers. The growth of autonomous unmanned aircraft is yet another example of innovative engineers raising the bar for the industry as a whole.

Let’s take a closer look at aviation engineering and its use for unmanned aircraft.

Integrating Drones into Today’s Civil Air Space

Introducing unmanned aircraft into the current modern civil air space is one of the biggest remaining challenges for aviation researchers. In fact, a new report from the National Research Council notes key barriers to drone integration while recommending a plan of action to solve any pressing issues.

John-Paul Clarke, associate professor of aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, co-chaired the NRC committee that wrote the report. “There is little doubt that over the long run the potential benefits of advanced unmanned aircraft and other increasingly autonomous systems to civil aviation will indeed be great, but there should be equally little doubt that getting there while maintaining the safety and efficiency of the nation’s civil aviation system will be no easy matter,” said Clarke.

Unmanned Aircraft Development on the Increase

The work of Clarke’s research team is becoming more important, as more and more drones enter the public airspace. Applications for these unmanned aircraft include crop dusting, traffic monitoring, and even fighting forest fires. One of the major technical barriers involved in air traffic control with drones is predicting their flight paths based on the drone’s autonomous reactions to current conditions.

Other potential issues involve regulatory and certification policies for unmanned aircraft, in addition to social considerations, like privacy and safety concerns. Still, the world of autonomous unmanned aircraft provides another growing arena for interested engineers to leverage their creativity and intellect.

If the exciting world of aviation engineering inspires you to take your career to a higher level, talk to the experts at The Talley Group. As one of the top engineering staffing agencies in the Northwest, they remain a great source of Seattle engineering jobs. Schedule some time with them today!

No matter what specific discipline of engineering your education, background, or work experience resides, it pays to keep abreast of current engineering trends. If you aren’t directly involved in the world of aerospace, it makes no difference — new innovations here have applications across engineering as a whole. Here are a few aerospace engineering trends you need to know.

More Elaborate System Software

The system software used by airplanes is becoming more complex and functional, leading to improved two-way communication between planes and ground control. The result of this better communication is smoother landings and takeoffs that use less fuel, saving money for the airlines.

Improved Craft-to-Craft Communication

Better communication is also behind another aerospace engineering trend — this time between the aircraft themselves. Currently being developed for drones and expected to be ported to passenger aircraft shortly, this technology hopes to lessen the risk of mid-air collisions.

Big Data for Airplanes Too

Aircrafts primarily used for surveillance purposes are seeing increased emphasis placed on the extraction and analysis of the data they acquire. These “Big Data for Spy Planes” innovations are primarily the domain of the Department of Defense and their DARPA wing.

The Age of Flying Commuters

Apparently, that craft-to-craft communication technology will be needed soon, as straight out of “The Jetsons,” flying commuter technology is currently in the pipeline at many aircraft manufacturers. This technology is essentially piggybacking on some of the drone engineering currently in practice.

Aerospace Engineering Programs Growing

Education remains a vital aspect of any engineering discipline, and supporting this relative explosion in aeronautic technology innovation is a similar growth in aerospace engineering programs at the University level. Aerospace now ranks as the third most popular engineering discipline for new students.

If these aerospace engineering innovations have inspired you to take a closer look at the field, or maybe you are interested in further your career in one of the other engineering disciplines, talk to the experts at The Talley Group. One of the top engineering staffing companies in the Seattle area, they can help ensure your new career takes flight or an existing career stays aloft.

If you are looking for aerospace engineering contract jobs, contact The Talley Group today.