The Mil & Aero Blog

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

Bombardier Aerospace of Belfast in Northern Ireland has released its annual forecasts for the business and commercial aircraft markets. The new forecasts offer predictions of a 10-year period in the business aircraft market, and a 20-year run in the commercial aircraft market.

The global aircraft market is robust, yet concern exists over waning U.S. consumption. These concerns are founded on the weakened U.S. dollar, economic downturn, and continued plight of airline companies (as evidenced by posted losses, bankruptcies, consolidation through mergers and acquisitions, and operations closing their doors). In contrast, the European jet market is described as having continued vigor, and causing Bombardier to revise its deliveries forecast upward from 2007 levels (from 9,950 in 2007 to 13,200 in 2008).

"As we transition to a more international customer base that features less emphasis on the U.S., as well as a structural shift towards larger and more cost-effective aircraft, Bombardier's key product families -- business jets and regional aircraft -- are expected to continue to generate strong interest across all markets," says Mairead Lavery, vice president, strategy and business development, Bombardier Aerospace. "With its comprehensive portfolio of business and commercial aircraft that encompass state-of-the-art technologies and innovative design solutions, and its focus on customer services, Bombardier is well positioned for the future."

In the 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, Bombardier's Business Aircraft Market Forecast predicts that business aircraft manufacturers will deliver a total of 1,320 business jets annually -- a substantial increase from the industry average of more than 620 business jet deliveries annually during the 1998 to 2007 period. The total forecasted 13,200 deliveries over the 10-year period represent revenues of approximately $300 billion for the industry, say company representatives.

Despite strong concerns over a possible downturn in the U.S. and world economies that could create a decrease in overall orders over the next two years, Bombardier officials believe industry deliveries should continue to increase until 2017. Demand for business jets is growing within the company's international base of customers. In fact, international business represented 67 percent of Bombardier orders for 2007.

According to Bombardier's Commercial Aircraft Market Forecast, demand for 20- to 149-seat commercial aircraft is expected to reach approximately 12,900 new aircraft in the 20-year period from 2008 to 2027, totaling approximately $528 billion.

The forecast reflects the shift in demand to larger commercial aircraft. In the 20- to 59-seat aircraft segment: the forecast expects a demand of approximately 500 aircraft. In the 60- to 99-seat aircraft segment: demand is expected to reach approximately 6,100 aircraft. In the 100- to 149-seat aircraft segment: the forecast predicts a demand for approximately 6,300 aircraft.

The trend towards larger aircraft, coupled with sustained higher fuel prices, will reinforce operators' requirement for modern aircraft with low operating costs, says the Bombardier forecast.

Posted by John McHale

The impact of Apple's purchase of chip provider, P.A. Semi last week was the hot topic among attendees and sponsors at the Critical Embedded Systems Media Fest held in Scottsdale this week.

P.A. Semi makes a high-performance processor - the PWRFficient - which has the low power attributes needed for rugged military embedded applications, and seen as the low-power alternative to the PowerPC and Intel chips.

Many companies have designed product lines around the P.A. Semi device, and are concerned that Apple might not see the need to continue producing it because of the low volume market it represents.

One of those companies, Extreme Engineering is taking a positive look. Extreme's vice president of sales and marketing, Brett Farnum, says he believes that Apple will do the right thing and off load the technology to a third party manufacturer and that it will continue to be supplied.

During his opening remarks, Ray Alderman, executive director of VITA – the standards organization that runs the event – said that the federal government is looking to get involved to ensure continued supply of the P.A. Semi technology because it supports mission critical military applications.

However, some of the other attendees are not as optimistic about the continuation of the part. Peter Cavill, managing director of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, said during his keynote address that he hopes the chip will still be available but is doubtful. Cavill also said that without the low power chip, the industry will be forced to design systems with less thermally efficient processors such as the Intel devices and that this may inspire new unique cooling solutions to solve the thermal management challenges that accompany the high-performance commercial processors.

Right now it's a wait and see and embedded vendors are coming with alternative plans for their customers in case the P.A. Semi technology does disappear.

The Critical Embedded Systems conference itself was smaller than it had been in the past when it was called the Bus and Board conference. There seemed to be a third of the attendance than when it was in its heyday.

Notable absences were the RTC Group publications – COTS Journal and RTC Magazine – and past sponsor Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing.

However, despite those factors I still felt it was an effective event. It's not a news making conference, but one of the best networking events for embedded media and vendors. I enjoy meeting with embedded defense suppliers and the market outlook presentations.

In fact I thought this year's keynotes were the best I've seen in the decade I've attend the event. Doug Patterson, vice president of sales and marketing at Aitech and Peter Cavill gave informative presentations on COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) procurement and defense market analysis without turning their presentations into blatant commercials.

I enjoy coming to this event and networking with familiar and new faces in the industry. I find much more value in face-to-face meetings than conference calls or email threads. Maybe I'm just a bit old-fashioned.

I hope the Critical Embedded Systems Conference continues in some form.

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

A week ago today, we, the editors with Military & Aerospace Electronics, began complementing our up-to-the-minute industry news stories with informative videos. Peruse the Web site, and you will find embedded in news items more than 18 videos total -- and that number will continue to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming weeks and months.

We invite you to share professional videos that would be of interest to the military and aerospace community with us. Show us your latest technology demonstration or installation, for example.

Among the videos you will currently find on www.milaero.com are: a demonstration of the iRobot PackBot's capabilities, the innovative Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle at work, U.S. Marine Corps personnel setting up a remote satellite terminal, the U.S. Coast Guard HC-130H aircraft deployed for a search and rescue mission, and even comprehensive information about the Military & Aerospace Electronics franchise, which includes a monthly trade publication, digital media such as weekly and monthly eNewsletters, conferences and expos, and more.

We will soon launch the Mil & Aero Command Post, an online community environment in which to share your experiences, opinions, technologies and trends, and more. Would you like to share your amateur videos -- such as videos of your recent deployment, technology you trust and rely on in the field, and more -- with the rest of the community via the Command Post? We hope so.

If you have any questions or if you are interested in authoring videos for potential use on www.milaero.com, please feel free to contact me (Courtney@pennwell.com) or Military & Aerospace Electronics' resident video guru, chief editor John Keller (jkeller@pennwell.com).

Posted by John McHale

At the GovSec show in Washington last week many of the exhibitors felt the market to be strong and growing but not a boom like it was perceived to be when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

We thought it might be stronger market as well when we launched Homeland Security Solutions magazine and a show of the same name. It turned out that while there was a lot of buzz instead of targeting technology development, most funding was spent on overtime and other "boots and bullets" costs, which were a much more immediate concern.

Over the last few years we and from what I saw last week the industry has learned that homeland security is different than defense. Whereas primes, subcontractors, and the media originally foresaw the DHS as a Department of Defense (DOD) like entity it was in fact quite different.

Jerry Buckwalter, Northrop Grumman's vice president of homeland security told me about a year ago that When DHS first came on the scene it was a top-down approach with the federal government expected to provide all the money.

"Well it's changing and the local communities and states are realizing that if they are sitting around waiting for federal grants they will probably never see them," he said. "They need to aggressively pursue the programs themselves. They're realizing homeland security begins close to home" - and they are gaining the political will to do what they need to do for their communities.

Bruce Walker, also a vice president of homeland security at Northrop Grumman echoed similar things this year. He said they are working a great deal with local first responders on information sharing, perimeter security through the Land Ports of Entry program, and setting up wireless applications with the first being New York City last year and London this year.

There is a wealth of electronics content being developed for homeland security applications. Some of it is leveraged from the military like unmanned systems and infrared technology and some of it is being developed initially for public safety applications.

Buckwalter explained to me last year that "public safety is a different concept than managing warfare." There are many constraints and limitations, and public will is involved - "that's why technology transfer doesn't always work from DOD to DHS." The technology is fine, it is the policies and procedures, congress, etc., that get in the way. There is pretty much a COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) mindset all the way now; it is just a matter of how to manage costs, he said.

While our homeland security coverage is limited at Military & Aerospace Electronics we do focus on it through stories on the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, the DHS counter-man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) program, and coming in July a Special Report on sensors for perimeter security in military and homeland security applications.

Be sure to check it out.

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

Video, while not a new medium, is new to many first responder and military personnel. Video, especially via the Internet, is increasingly being used in military and homeland security environments. We too, the editors of Military & Aerospace Electronics, are using video more and more.

We're always working diligently to deliver the community the most comprehensive industry and technology information possible. Today, that means accentuating news stories with informative and illustrative videos. Take a look at this week's news stories on iRobot and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, as examples.

Doubtless, we're not the only ones benefitting from the data-delivery power of video. VBrick Systems Inc. of Wallingford, Conn., for example, is delivering live Internet video technologies to first responders.

VBrick Systems, together with CommsFirst Inc., provide "eyes-on-the-scene" video to assist first responders with situational awareness and readiness. VBoss, VBrick's online Video Streaming as a Service (VSasS), is designed to increase viewer participation of an event by streaming content live.

CommsFirst will promote VBoss to offer pre-event readiness training and provide first-responders with video imagery that is critical to decision-making during and after an event. The VBrick Online Streaming Service platform enables CommsFirst to provide eyes-on-scene, training, and enable video capture and Internet TV delivery for improved situational awareness and readiness. The combined solution brings critical video content to first responder personnel anywhere, in real-time.

We hope you'll keep your eyes on the scene, at http://www.milaero.com/, as we expand our Web site to include more and more videos and a community page.

Posted by John McHale

I just finished another Spring Golf Trip, lost another couple dozen lost balls, donated another $100 to a low-handicapper's kid's college fund … and I still want more.

It's a stupid, expensive, frustrating game and as rusty and jerky as my swing can be I'd much rather be flailing away at a Titleist right now than writing this blog.

I and 11 friends played eight rounds in five days last week on a golf trip in Pinehurst, N.C. No, we didn't play the resort courses this year, but some other tough tracks like The Pit and Tobacco Road.

The golf wasn't always pretty and the better players won out despite the avalanche of strokes some of us humble hackers received, but I wanted to keep playing.

The only real stress is carried by the organizer. This year it was my friend Alex. Organizing 12 idiots and getting them to pay on time can be a pain in the neck, so I'm glad he had the highlight shot of the trip, a near hole-in-one at Tobacco Road. As you can see by this photo of where his ball hit near the left of the cup, he came within millimeters of jarring it. A pretty cool shot!

The game is wonderful stress relief from your everyday druthers. After two or three rounds into the trip I thought of nothing except golf.

I've read stories that service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan that have set up driving ranges and makeshift courses as kind of an escape. Their stresses dwarf anything in my life, yet many of them enjoy the release from smacking drive after drive at the range. Many groups have set up methods to send them balls and clubs and other golf equipment. PGA Tour pros have also visited the troops.

A story that has gotten a lot of play is that of F-16 pilot and golf professional Dan Rooney, who created Patriot Day last Sept. 1. That Saturday golfers were asked to pay an extra $1 on their public-course green fee. That dollar went to the Fallen Heroes Foundation. Patriot Day will be renewed this Labor Day Weekend, Aug. 29 - 31.

So on Labor Day when you tee it up, throw in an extra buck for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

At the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose this week, three trends stood out above all others. The first is multi-core. Embedded systems are increasingly taking advantage of multi-core processors, reaping the benefits of increased processing power in a small package. This increase in electronics and power density brings many benefits, but also greater challenges, such as increased heat--requiring an effective thermal-management solution.

The next important trend is hypervisor, a virtualization platform that enables multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. A number of technology companies in the mil-aero market, such as LynuxWorks in San Jose, are concentrating on the up-and-coming hypervisor trend -- and it is a great fit for mil-aero. It makes perfect sense for real-time operating systems (RTOS) offering multiple partitions, which enable the delivery of and access to classified and unclassified information on the same host computer. Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara (as well as technology partner Intel, whose new Atom processor was used in the computing platform) garnered a great deal of attention with a demonstration of hypervisor at work. A single host computer ran multiple operating systems, such as multiple instances of Linux and Windows, and delivered unclassified and classified information to separate users. The unclassified user's mouse cursor was locked in the unclassified OS window and could not click outside of that space (and onto the classified window).

Lastly, the importance of verifying software code was driven home in a number of show presentations. Static-analysis tools are an important component of any software-development workflow, especially given that modernization programs are bringing about a combination of legacy code, such as Ada, with Java, C, and C++ languages.

These are my thoughts on the embedded computing space, but I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts on multi-core, hypervisor, and software debugging and verification tools? What do you consider the hottest trends in embedded computing today for the mil-aero community?