Landing gear, an essential component of any aircraft, plays a pivotal role in ensuring safe takeoffs and landings. It encompasses a complex system of mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical components, all working harmoniously to support the aircraft during these critical phases of flight. In this blog, we will delve into the fundamentals of landing gear, discussing its various components, functions, and why it holds such paramount importance in aviation.

Aircraft exterior lighting plays a crucial role in aviation, enhancing safety, visibility, and communication between aircraft and ground personnel. Overall, these lighting systems are designed to provide clear signals and improve visibility in various flight phases, from takeoff to landing. In this blog post, we will explore six essential types of aircraft exterior lighting, including beacon lights, strobe lights, navigation lights, landing lights, taxi lights, and the aircraft lighting system overall.

Fluids are a common element of aircraft operations, coming in the form of oil, coolants, refrigerants, air, and even combustion gasses. In order for all of these fluids to be efficiently and effectively handled, aircraft take advantage of tubes and hoses to route such substances to where they need to be. While tubes are generally rigid structures, hoses tend to be much more flexible with elastic materials for their construction. Since the two are regularly used alongside one another, it is essential that they can be connected securely without having any risk of leaking. In order to guarantee such security, components known as tube-to-hose adapter fittings are commonly used.

A shaft coupling is a mechanical element that is designed to join two shafts together to accommodate for the misalignment of torque from one end to the other. In mechanical systems, couplings are considered a type of permanent or temporary connection between two rotating shafts that connect the driving and driven shafts together. In simplistic terms, couplings are utilized to connect input and output shafts in any power transmission system. For example, a gearbox shaft in machine tools is connected to the input engine shaft via couplings, or an engine shaft can be connected to a pump or compressor shaft through couplings.

Aircraft primarily operate through the combustion of fuel-and-air mixtures, ensuring that enough thrust and propulsive force can be generated for the means of powered flight. Due to the ignition of fuel-and-air mixtures and the intense heat present in and around engines, it is highly important that there are measures in place to eliminate the hazard of uncontrolled ignitions of oxygen. As the aviation industry is highly regulated and always seeks to increase the safety of flight, engineers have designed robust oxygen gas sensors and tools that serve to protect aircraft and all on board.

If your first RC aircraft isn’t up to snuff, it can ruin your enjoyment of the hobby as a whole. Therefore, choosing the right one is critical. While there is no perfect beginner RC aircraft, there are several key factors to consider that will help you make the right decision. These five factors are aircraft type, material, power type, kit level, and channels. In this blog, we will discuss each one.

The aircraft autopilot system is a very important technology for safe and efficient flight, allowing for the vehicle to be guided without direct assistance from the pilot. While variations of the device may be found across differing aircraft models, most will include the same basic components, switches, and auxiliary units that enable them to function as intended. Generally speaking, there are four primary elements of the autopilot system, and these include sensing elements, the computing element, output elements, and command elements.

For a majority of aircraft to generate thrust and achieve flight, they rely on robust internal combustion engines that ignite fuel and air mixtures. In order for the combustion process to be efficiently and safely carried out, the aircraft ignition system relies on a specific component known as a spark plug. While small in size, the spark plugs in aircraft are paramount to their operation as ignition would not be possible without them. In this blog, we will discuss spark plugs and their most common types, allowing you to better understand how they are used in standard flight operations.

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) was introduced to reduce the risk of mid-air collisions and near mid-air collisions of aircraft. Separate from other standards, the TCAS serves as a last-resort safety measure. It is an aircraft system based on Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) transponder signals. The system operates by interroganding the Mode C and S transponders of nearby aircraft and then tracks their altitude and range, issuing alerts to the pilots as needed. Unfortunately, TCAS will not detect aircraft without transponders nor issue the warning of nearby traffic. It is also not linked to aircraft navigation, flight management systems, Air Traffic Control systems, or autopilot systems, instead working independently of these. While assessing potential threats, TCAS does not take into account ATC clearance, pilot intentions, or flight management system inputs.

A UAV, or unmanned aircraft vehicle, is an aircraft that is capable of carrying out flight operations without a pilot on board. Ranging from small quadcopter drones to advanced military surveillance aircraft, UAV systems can come in many forms and benefit a diverse set of applications and industries with their capabilities. As UAVs are becoming ever more present in consumer, commercial, and defense sectors alike, understanding their functionality and uses can be useful for anyone interested in them. In this blog, we will discuss what UAV systems are, their various types, and how they navigate without a pilot on board. 

Like any machine, aircraft will inevitably encounter problems and require repairs. This can be complicated, as aircraft are highly intricate structures consisting of hundreds of systems. The more systems there are, the more there is that can go wrong. Repairs can take hours, days, or even weeks. Getting an aircraft back in flight quickly is a top priority, but more important is getting the aircraft back in flight safely. As such, aircraft are not only designed to be able to fly with a single defect, but with many. This blog will explain how operators keep track of faults as well as how to know which aircraft are safe and which are not.

The exhaust system of an aircraft performs many crucial functions, ranging from enhancing the performance of the engine to contributing to the smooth and efficient operation of the aircraft as a whole. The aircraft exhaust system is critical to safety, and a failure can result in dangerous consequences. Not only is a failed system a serious fire hazard, it could also lead to a partial or total loss of engine power. In addition to these, it can also cause serious problems such as carbon monoxide poisoning and engine backfire. Fortunately, all of these problems can be avoided through proper maintenance and awareness of the early warning signs of deterioration.

Aircraft fuel efficiency is a measurement describing an aircraft’s ability to travel on one gallon of fuel, and it is a facet that many engineers constantly seek to improve. There are many benefits to realizing more fuel efficient planes, including combating climate change and advancing the cost-efficiency of flight. As aviation sectors continue to see growth, engineers and manufacturers seek ways to improve aircraft fuel consumption, and their efforts have led them to the development of various technologies, materials, and designs to cut down on CO2 production and realize the most fuel efficient aircraft.

The primary capacity of an electrical framework is to create, direct, and disperse power all through the plane. The aircraft electrical power is straightforwardly associated with the dependability of electrical frameworks and subsystems. Generally, airplane electrical frameworks use both AC and DC power. For more information on the aircraft electrical power distribution system, read on below for more details.

When constructing an aircraft and its various technologies, aircraft fasteners are some of the most critical components for assembly. Fasteners are hardware elements that are used to secure two or more components together, affixing them either permanently or non-permanently. Within the realm of aviation, fasteners are used to secure the outer skin, join sections of spars, secure ribs, attach fixings, and much more. In this blog, we will discuss some of the main aviation fasteners, as well as how they are used on a typical aircraft.

As aircraft continue to modernize with advanced glass cockpits and improved avionics, more and more components are reliant on the aircraft electrical system. While early aircraft may have been entirely non-reliant on electrical generation, current aircraft rely on powering for navigation, COM and NAV radios, intercoms, in-flight entertainment, and more. From batteries to circuit breakers, there are many aircraft electrical system components that work together to provide powering of the aircraft.

In the realm of aviation, gas turbine engines and components are what provide many aircraft with the capability of flight. Procuring and maintaining gas turbines can be an expensive endeavor, encompassing fuel costs, inspections, maintenance, and other normal expenditures that come about over the course of operation. With a proper air filtration system, the cost of gas turbine operations can be reduced, making them a very beneficial investment for any owner or airline utilizing a gas turbine aircraft. In this article, we will discuss gas turbine air filtration systems and how they may benefit gas turbine components and costs.

While some may be familiar with flight simulation as those that run on personal computers and are controlled with a joystick, a full motion flight simulator used by the aerospace industry is much more robust and advanced. These simulators are for the training and maintaining of pilot skills, and they are designed to closely represent the aircraft that they are modeled after, even having a motion system and acoustic design to make the experience as genuine as possible. In this article, we will provide an overview of current flight simulator technology, and how it aids pilots in learning how to properly fly.

From small passenger planes to military helicopters, there are many powered flying machines we utilize, all relying on various fuel systems for operation. While different vehicles and manufacturers may differ in their installed engine fuel system components, all have the same goal of powering an engine with fuel for sustained flight. In this blog, we will provide a basic overview of some of the common aviation fueling systems present across vehicles.

Runway surface friction is expressed as the coefficient of friction; that is the ratio of the friction force (F) between two surfaces that make contact and the normal force (N) which exists between an object resting on the surface -- and the surface itself i.e. F/N. Many factors can affect this ratio such as the physical characteristics of two surfaces, the prevailing temperature at the point of contact, aircraft wheel and brake systems, and the speed of movement of the object (tire) over the surface.

Lubricant plays an important role in preventing unnecessary wear and tear of important aircraft components. In machinery as complex as aircraft engines, friction between moving parts can quickly become detrimental. Lubricant’s role is to form an oil film over metal surfaces so that metallic friction is replaced by fluid friction of the lubricant. Oil is pumped throughout the engine to any area where friction occurs. The process of moving oil around takes energy and creates hear, but the reduction of friction resulting from the process is beneficial to the engine overall.

Reciprocating engines, or aircraft piston engines, are one of the most important parts of aircraft for their general functionality. Often, these engines are mounted to the aircraft using welded steel tubing mount structures and incorporate engine mount rings, v-struts, and fittings for attachment of the mount to the nacelle by means of steel bolts that are heat treated.

Jet pilots are exposed to many stresses when in the cockpit seat from things like hypoxia or cabin pressure when they take flight. With each risk, manufacturers and engineers have constructed solutions to combat these risks and mitigate discomfort caused by them. Thermal stress in the cockpit is one of the most predominant issues. While the aircraft does have an environmental control system, temperatures, especially in tropical areas can still rise inside the cockpit, and have been recorded to exceed 113 F.

There are several working parts to an aircraft, each of which play an important role in making the plane operational. One of the more complex and interesting of these is the rudder parts. Used and found in submarines, ships, hovercrafts and aircrafts, the rudder serves the primary purpose of controlling curving movement through fluid mediums like air or water. 

Internal combustion engines naturally generate heat in the cylinders as part of the combustion process. Most of that heat escapes the cylinders in the form of hot exhaust gas, but some also escapes through conduction across its walls. Most metal conducts this heat to radiate out into the atmosphere, but there is a limit to how much a metal can radiate heat based on its surface area. If the heat radiated outside the cylinder is much less than what is left inside, the engine can overheat. Overheating can result in uneven thermal expansion of parts, corrosion, and thermal stress, all of which can lead to mechanical failure.

There’s always that friend who claims that they have an expert sense of direction. Luckily, not all pilots need to have an intuitive sense of north and south, to fly an aircraft to its destination. There are a series of protocols and navigational instruments that help the pilot pinpoint the aircraft’s exact destination, and their progress along the flight path.

Automotive aftermarket parts refer to the secondary market of the automotive industry. This includes the manufacturing, distribution, retailing, and installation of vehicle parts, chemicals, equipment, and accessories after the sale of the automobile by the original equipment manufacturer (or OEM) to the consumer. These parts and accessories may not be manufactured by the OEM.

When it comes to aviation, a six-pack doesn’t refer to a pack of beer cans, or a ripped set of abs. In an aircraft, the six pack is the six primary flight instruments in the aircraft’s cockpit that relay the most critical pieces of information about flight characteristics. The six pack is broken into two categories: three instruments that rely on pitot static systems, and three gyroscopic systems.

Sitting in the aircraft cockpit of an aircraft can be intimidating to a newbie. There are a ton of instruments and communication equipment and one might wonder where to start. Most pilots start off by learning about the six basic aircraft cockpit instruments that are in every aircraft: the airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, direction indicator, and the vertical speed indicator.

Engines, whether for automobiles or for aircraft, are powerful but delicate pieces of machinery. They have to be properly supported and attached securely to the frame of the vehicle. In the case of both automobiles and aircraft, the engines are supported by engine mounts.

The mechanics of flight are fascinating. To get a several hundred ton metal structure in the air and remain airborne, all you need is to go fast enough to get sufficient airflow over and under the wings to generate lift. To initiate a turn, you bank or roll at an angle one direction or the other. And to climb or descend, you have to change the pitch.