EDITORIAL A disappearing act


With the summer holidays just a distant memory, everyone is now back to work feeling refreshed, reinvigorated and ready to roll. A break from work can help recharge our batteries and make


us feel temporarily empowered with more energy, which got me thinking – if you could choose a superpower, what would it be? Some of us would like the ability to fly, but the laws of science


governing this superpower means our vision would be blurred if we flew too fast and we’d freeze to death if we flew too high. Others would choose invisibility to render them unseen to the


naked eye. I reckon I had this superpower when I was young as I seemed to be completely invisible to girls. Whilst invisibility cloaks have been used for many years as fictional film plot devices, the latest developments in the scientific research of advanced stealth technologies reveal that they can cause objects to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Science fiction became science fact recently with the news


that BAE Systems has been using infrared frequencies to test an ‘invisibility cloak’ which allows military vehicles to blend into their surroundings. The technology is based on sheets of pixels that can change temperature rapidly. Onboard cameras pick up the background scenery and display it as an infrared image on the vehicle, enabling it to match its surroundings. Unlike our disappearing holiday suntans, there’s


clearly much to see in the appearance of stealth technology. Whether the research into developing cloaked military aircraft will gain more visibility in the future remains to be seen.


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News Event previews


12 Sun shines on JEC Asia – JEC Composites Asia 17 The rendezvous point – Composites Europe


Aircraft programmes


18 Chinese whispers? – COMAC C919 Technology feature


22 Blue sky seating – Interiors Design


24 It’s what’s inside that counts – Test & measurement Composites


29 That certain something –Tooling 30 Diamonds are forever – Tooling


Special Report


32 Wheel of fortune – Material coatings Supply Chain


35 Invisible allies in the skies – Partnerships Electronics


38 The living daylight – Displays & lighting 39 Product roundup Final Approach


42 Take control of your tools – Paul Elliott, managing director, Stahlwille Tools


MIKE RICHARDSON | EDITOR newsdesk@aero-mag.com


EDITORIAL Editor | Mike Richardson | newsdesk@aero-mag.com Associate Editor | Simon Lott | slott@mitpublishing.co.uk Technical Editor | Dr Neil Calder | neil@engineeredcapabilities.co.uk Editorial | newsdesk@aero-mag.com


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Volume 6 Issue 51


Next issue: Aero Engineering & Airtec show previews, Bombardier CSeries, Wings, Design for environment, Additive processes, Composites testing, Interconnect, Supply chain management, Rapid prototyping, UK aerospace cluster report


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AEROSPACEMANUFACTURING | SEPTEMBER 2011 3


CONTENTS I


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44