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Advanced ceramics and ceramic matrix composites are being considered for extended service in high temperature environments. Designers and users therefore need to be able to characterize accurately the creep performance of such materials under realistic, long‐term, multi‐axial tensile loading. However, direct measurement of the required long‐term properties is difficult, expensive and time consuming. ERA Technology therefore plans to launch a multi‐client research programme aimed at the development and validation of generic long‐term performance prediction methodologies.

In recent years there has been a substantial increase in the number of mergers and takeovers in the UK referred by the Office of Fair Trading to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for investigation and report. This reflects an ongoing concern of the UK competition authorities with the maintenance and promotion of competitive markets. Surveys UK merger policy alongside a concurrent development – the introduction in 1990 of a new supranational Merger Regulation by the European Community. Outlines the regulatory frameworks operating in the UK and EC and highlights particular points of interest in the application of policy control by reference to selected merger cases.

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to a polar graph measurement by a flight testing technique and to propose a baseline research method for future tests of UAV polar graphs. The method presented can be used to demonstrate a conceptual and preliminary design process using a scaled, unmanned configuration. This shows how results of experimental flight tests using a scaled flying airframe may be described and analysed before manufacturing the full scale aircraft.

During the research, the flight tests were conducted for two aerodynamic configurations of a small UAV. This allowed the investigation of the influence of winglets and classic vertical stabilizers on the platform stability, performance and therefore polar graphs of a small unmanned aircraft.

A methodology of flight tests for the assessment of a small UAV’s polar graph has been proposed, performed and assessed. Two aerodynamic configurations were tested, and it was found that directional stability had a large influence on the UAV’s performance. A correlation between the speed and inclination of the altitude graph was found – i.e. the higher the flight speed, the steeper the altitude graph (higher descent speed, steeper flight path angle). This could be considered as a basic verification that the recorded data have a physical sense.

The polar graph and therefore glide ratio of the aircraft is a major factor for determining its performance and power required for flight. Using the right flight test procedure can speed-up the process of measuring glide ratio, making it easier, faster, robust, more effective and accurate in future research of novel, especially unorthodox configurations. This paper also can be useful for the proper selection of requirements and preliminary design parameters for making the design process more economically effective.

This paper presents a very efficient method of assessing the design parameters of UAVs, especially the polar graph, in an early stage of the design process. Aircraft designers and producers have been widely performing flight testing for years. However, these procedures and practical customs are usually not wide spread and very often are treated as the company’s “know how”. Results presented in this paper are original, relatively easily be repeated and checked. They may be used either by professionals, highly motivated individuals and representatives of small companies or also by ambitious amateurs.

This article surveys the literature dealing with theory and applications of life cycle costing (LCC). It deals with the literature published in the last 25 years and provides 667 references.

This paper aims to describe an effort to provide for a robust and secure software development paradigm intended to support DevSecOps in a naval aviation enterprise (NAE) software support activity (SSA), with said paradigm supporting strong traceability and provability concerning the SSA’s output product, known as an operational flight program (OFP). Through a secure development environment (SDE), each critical software development function performed on said OFP during its development has a corresponding record represented on a blockchain.

An SDE is implemented as a virtual machine or container incorporating software development tools that are modified to support blockchain transactions. Each critical software development function, e.g. editing, compiling, linking, generates a blockchain transaction message with associated information embedded in the output of a said function that, together, can be used to prove integrity and support traceability. An attestation process is used to provide proof that the toolchain containing SDE is not subject to unauthorized modification at the time said critical function is performed.

Blockchain methods are shown to be a viable approach for supporting exhaustive traceability and strong provability of development system integrity for mission-critical software produced by an NAE SSA for NAE embedded systems software.

A blockchain-based authentication approach that could be implemented at the OFP point-of-load would provide for fine-grain authentication of all OFP software components, with each component or module having its own proof-of-integrity (including the integrity of the used development tools) over its entire development history.

Many SSAs have established control procedures for development such as check-out/check-in. This does not prove the SSA output software is secure. For one thing, a build system does not necessarily enforce procedures in a way that is determinable from the output. Furthermore, the SSA toolchain itself could be attacked. The approach described in this paper enforces security policy and embeds information into the output of every development function that can be cross-referenced to blockchain transaction records for provability and traceability that only trusted tools, free from unauthorized modifications, are used in software development. A key original concept of this approach is that it treats assigned developer time as a transferable digital currency.

1993 avionics conference and exhibition: integrated avionics — how far, how fast? — conference proceedings, London, 1–2 December 1993 ERA Report 93–0890, Leatherhead, January 1994. Non‐members £90.00, members £80.00. Not available with a membership voucher

A REVIEW has been made recently by the Electronic Engineering Association of the effects of the Government's recent policies towards the aircraft industry on the British aviation electronics industry and of the prospects for the future in avionics. The British share of this rapidly expanding world market for both aircraft and equipment has decreased in recent years, but the E.E.A. takes the view that if the Government and the industry adopted positive and progressive policies Britain's share of the total market could be more than doubled over the next ten years.