It’s hard to image what it would feel like to land an airplane on a runway with crazy crosswind. Take a look at this video from Germany, shot during the powerful storm to hit the country in over a decade. Winds reached 86 miles per hour.
That’s extreme crosswind, and the pilots certainly were not enjoying themselves much more than their passengers. As for your garden-variety crosswind, however, pilots actually don’t mind it much at all. Turns out they downright enjoy it. There’s no way around crosswind, really. In the air pilots can avoid turbulence by rerouting. The runway can’t be rerouted. It is where it is.
When there’s a lot of crosswind on the runway, pilots either have to land, wait for conditions to improve, or divert to a nearby airport. Landing is the most common solution, and that’s thanks to two skills called crabbing and slipping that make even landings that seem dangerous a piece of cake for a seasoned pilot.
To ‘crab’ is to point the nose of the plane into the wind, either to the right or the left. The plane flies sideways, similar to how a crab walks. When the pilot is around 100 feet from the ground but before they lift the nose , they ‘slip’ using the rudder pedals to swing the fuselage back parallel with the runway. Then they use the ailerons on the wings to bank the aircraft to the left or right. Different planes are cleared to land at different maximum crosswind speeds.
Pilots practice crabbing and slipping so much right from their earliest days in a cockpit that dealing with crosswind during landing is second nature. They hardly have to think about it. Some crosswinds are simply too extreme for any planes to land in, of course, which explains why storms sometimes cancel thousands of flights at a time.
More from the Aerospace Manufacturing Blog
Why are hundreds of WWII fighters sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan? How would the American crown jewel, the F-35, stack up against China’s state-of-the-art J-20 stealth fighter? What fasteners are we creating for Boeing’s anticipated KC-46 Pegasus Tanker? All that and more can be found in the Aerospace Manufacturing blog.
As an aerospace fastener manufacturer that is trusted by industry-leading OEMs like Boeing, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, we know the importance of quality. That’s why we are happy to announce that we will be receiving our Certificate of Registration for ISO 9001:2015, the most recent standard for a quality management system issued by the International Standards Organization (ISO), this July.
The purpose of the program is to help companies develop management systems that align quality with their larger business plan. The primary focus of ISO 9001:2015 is to ensure accountability and risk-based thinking in all parts of the organization with the end result being more efficiency, better implementation of existing protocols, improved communications and continuous improvement.
We will also be certified to AS9100:2016 this July. Currently, Aerospace Manufacturing is licensed to manufacture Phillips aerospace fasteners and QSLM approved fasteners. Thanks to our excellent track record and our continued dedication to quality, we not only serve leading aerospace and defense OEMs. We are also frequently sought out as a partner in innovation for customer specials and small runs.
Procure from Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing is a AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited aerospace fastener manufacturer that creates high strength, close tolerance fasteners from numerous exotic materials. Our diversified product line includes everything from titanium metric fasteners to Inconel bolts and Waspaloy™ bolts.
The year is 1941. The U.S. has just entered World War II after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Aircraft carriers are the primary means to project power, but the Pacific Fleet is devastated. There is an acute need for pilots, but both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico are crawling with danger. German U-Boats prowl the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Japanese submarines do the same off the West Coast.
Where to train the class of U.S. pilots that would take the fight to Germany and Japan in Europe and the Pacific? How about that great inland sea, Lake Michigan. Geographic concerns overcome, there still remained a lack of aircraft carriers. All seven aircraft carriers remaining after the attacks on Pearl Harbor were needed to protect the homeland and none could be spared for training.
The solution? Two sidewheeled passenger ships, the SS Seaandbee and the SS Greater Buffalo, were hastily turned into carriers and renamed USS Wolverine and the USS Sable. Both ships were far smaller than actual aircraft carriers. The thought was that if pilots could master taking off and landing on these ships, they were more than ready for the real thing.
Between 1942 and the end of the war 17,000 aviators were trained to be fighter pilots in the waters around Chicago. Though a few carrier pilots were trained in the Chesapeake Bay, the vast majority of carrier qualifications during World War II occurred on the decks of the Sable and Wolverine. To qualify, a pilot had to make eight successful “touch and goes,” landing on the deck and taking off again. One famous pilot who earned his wings on the USS Sable? George H. W. Bush, who would go on to become a highly decorated fighter pilot and the 41st President of the United States.
Depending on who you ask, there are between 100 and 350 fighters on the bottom of the lake. Eight pilots and 40 crewmembers were killed — a low number of fatalities given the circumstances and the number of pilots trained there. Though some of the more intact fighters have been recovered (see videos below) the majority still sit on the bottom of the lake.
Notes from Seattle ADSS
It was a pleasure connecting with everyone at the Seattle Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit. With an attendance of over 800 aerospace companies from 32 countries, we feel privileged to have met new faces and caught up with old and new customers alike! It rained and it was cold (a la Seattle) but it was still great to explore the beautiful city.
It was incredibly interesting to listen to the Boeing Supply Chain Manager and the President/CEO of Spirit Aerosystems to learn about backlogs and industry forecasting, as well as what’s happening now and what the future looks like in terms of forecast, technology and innovation. We were awed by the Boeing philosophy and were happy to learn that the industry is growing extremely quickly!
About Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing is a AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited, QSLM approved NJ aerospace manufacturer that is trusted by industry leading OEMs and aerospace organizations like Bombardier, DLA, Lockheed Martin and NAVICP. We create high strength, close tolerance aerospace fasteners from numerous exotic materials, including Waspaloy™, Inconel, Titanium and much more.
Commercial aviation has made the globe a much smaller place. Every day over 100,000 commercial airplanes criss-cross the globe. In the United States alone, some 42,000 flights carrying 2.5 million airline passengers take off and land each and every day.
With all this travel, you might expect traffic jams and conflict over rights of way. That there isn’t is a debt to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a standards organization for the airline industry that keeps air travel safe and conflict-free. The ICAO has 192 member nations — that’s every country in the world except for three, and two of those three aren’t served by international air carriers. At the organization’s founding in Chicago in 1944, the ICAO drafted their Five Freedoms of the Air, which forms the backbone of all international aviation agreements.
Overflight Fees and the Five Freedoms of the Air
It’s the first “freedom of the air,” the right to fly over a foreign country without landing, that we will be discussing today.
A country’s airspace is sovereign, but for international aviation to be possible, ICAO nations grant all approved international air carriers the right to fly through their airspace without landing. To do so, they must pay overflight fees.Overflight fees are nearly universal. The United States, for instance, charges $56.86 per 100 nautical miles.
That may seem like a small charge, but the airspace of the United States is much, much larger than its geographic size. Our airspace is so large, in fact, that airlines flying from Australia to Japan and other east Asian destinations must pass through our airspace and pay our overflight fees.
Canadian overflight fees are notoriously expensive. To get to Europe, almost all air carriers flying from the United States to Europe have to pass through Canadian airspace. So expensive are foreign overflight fees that air carriers invest in extremely advanced software that calculates the cheapest routes depending on the aircraft’s weight, the weather conditions, and the overflight fee options.
To learn the rest of the five freedoms of the air, check out the video below.
The Five Freedoms of the Air
About Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing creates a diversified product line of High Strength, Close Tolerance Aerospace Fasteners. We are AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited and our engineers are trusted by world-class OEM leaders like Bombardier, DLA, NASA, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin to build the most challenging fasteners.
Quality screws are part and parcel of what makes aviation possible. aircraft. Of the 6 million parts in a Boeing 747, half are fasteners. Those joints on an aircraft that require frequent dismantling or replacement generally use threaded fasteners — bolts or screws.
Screw or Bolt?
Aircraft screws are especially common on light airplanes, and commonly outnumber other kinds of fasteners like bolts. Bolts and screws are similar. They both have a screwhead at one end and a head at the other. The threaded end of a bolt always goes into a nut, while the threaded end of a screw may attach directly to the material being fastened, to a nut, or to another female arrangement. The threaded end of a bolt is generally blunt, while the threaded end of a screw can be pointed or blunt. Bolts have much longer grip length (unthreaded section) than screws. Bolts assemblies are often designed to be tightened by turning the nut. Screws almost always are tightened by turning the head.
Quality Screws: Types
Machine Screws
Among the many different types of quality screws, machine screws are the most utilitarian. They are manufactured out of common metals like aluminum, stainless steel, brass, and low carbon steel, and are used for general, non-structural applications throughout an aircraft. Machine screws use fine threads and coarse threads and can be treated to improve tolerances. The most common types of machine screws are truss-head, socket-head, pan-head, flush-head, round-head and fillister-head.
Structural Screws
Structural screws are made of the same high quality material used for bolts. Generally, structural screws are made of steel and are heat treated. Quality screws can be used in place of structural bolts in some applications because they will have the same strength as a bolt of a similar size. Like bolts, structural screws are not threaded over their entire length.
Self-Tapping Screws
Self-tapping screws are those that cut their own internal threads as they are turned into the hole. For that reason, they can only be used with relatively soft metals and materials. Self-tapping screws are always used for non-structural purposes, and can be divided into two general groups: machine self-tapping screws, which are used to attach removable parts, like nameplates; and sheet metal self-tapping screws, which are used for permanent assembly in nonstructural, blind applications.
Procure Quality Screws from Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing creates high strength, close tolerance aerospace fasteners that meet the expectations of clients ranging from the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin to Sikorsky and NASA.
Aerospace Manufacturing (AMI) is excited to be participating in one of the most important trade shows of the year, the Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit in Seattle March 26 – 28.
The Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit brings together industry-leading aerospace and defense organizations with suppliers and contract-manufacturers, like AMI, with the goal of strengthening the supply chain, reducing costs, improving efficiency and spurring innovation.
This will be AMI’s first time participating in the conference, and we are extremely excited to meet one-on-one with procurement and fabrication experts, commodity teams, and engineering teams to learn more about other parts of the supply chain. We are proud to meet the diverse business needs of large OEMs as well as smaller aerospace organizations, and we look forward to sharing what we’ve learned in Seattle!
Described as the venue where “requirements meet technologies,” the Aerospace and Defense Supplier Summit (A&DSS) is free of the distractions that are part and parcel to many conferences. At A&DSS, representatives from every step of the supply chain will have the opportunity to meet with aerospace and defense primes and learn from them in a series of talks throughout the day.
Are you Participating A&DSS? Meet with AMI
If you are participating in A&DSS and would like to meet with Aerospace Manufacturing, please email our representative Ryan Brown to set up a meeting!
About Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing was founded in 1986. We are AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited, Phillips Screw licensee manufacturer that creates high strength, close tolerance aerospace fasteners including standards such as AN, MIL, MS, NA, NAS, as well as custom specials made to print. We are a trusted source for numerous world-class OEM leaders including, but not limited to Sikorsky, NAVICP, NASA and Lockheed Martin.
China’s Chengdu J-20 single-seat, dual-engine stealth fighter jet is the first Chinese fighter jet that qualifies as “state of the art” by Western standards, and it has been officially deployed by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to forward bases.
Technically speaking, the J-20 isn’t a fighter — an aircraft designed to achieve air superiority by winning fighter-to-fighter combat — but an interceptor and strike aircraft. Interceptors are a class of aircraft that are specifically designed to attack enemy aircraft, particularly approaching bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Strike aircraft are designed specifically for air-to-ground attacks rather than air-to-air combat with fighter jets like the F-35.
That said, the J-20 has long range missiles, advanced radars, jammers, and infrared sensors, not to mention a longer range, more internal fuel capacity, and larger internal weapons capability than the F-35. That said, many specifics of the new weapon remain unknown. No other nation but China will field the J-20, and its technology is a closely guarded secret.
This is in stark contrast to the F-35, which has been scooped up abroad and added to friendly nations’ air fleets. Israel has already ordered 33 for a cool $5.5 billion, and plan to increase the number of planes to 50. Most NATO allies are also looking to purchase the F-35 or one of its variants.
How does the F-35 compare?
The F-35 is a single-seat, single-engine, multi-role fighter stealth fighter jet that has been described as not an airplane, but three airplanes. F-35 pilots have described the difference between an F-35 and an F-15 as being similar to the difference between an iPhone and a corded wall phone. With final software upgrades still forthcoming, even those in the U.S. military aren’t sure about 50 to 80 percent about what the F-35 is capable of. In terms of conventional advancements — weapons payload, range, or dogfighting ability — the F-35 doesn’t have any of note. It’s truly a weapon designed to win the next war, not the previous one.
War Games: How the F-35 Would Defeat the J-20
In Fifth Generation Air Combat: Maintaining the Joint Force Advantage, a report recently written by an U.S. Air Force Major General and Colonel, the authors present how the F-35 would fare against an unnamed enemy (China) in a hypothetical war in 2026. The F-35s would have a distinctive edge over the J-20s in a dogfight, though the J-20’s long range missiles are specifically designed to take out “high value targets,” AKA F-35s, from a safe range. The J-20 would be more suited to harassing airborne early-warning and control systems and refueling aircraft that are supporting the F-35s, denying the F-35s the ability to reach their target. To counteract this, the F-35s would be forward positioned at bases across the Pacific and in Australia, who have their own fleet of F-35s, to eliminate the need for refueling. The F-35s primary job would be to eliminate air defenses and radar stations while fending off enemy fighters to the point where fleets of legacy fighters (F-16s, F-18s, and F-15s) could come in and finish the job.
We would include a video of the J-20, but the program is wrapped in such secrecy that the only video available is poor quality, grainy and not very entertaining. Nonetheless, if you would like to check it out, here it is!
High Strength, Close Tolerance Aerospace Fasteners from AMI
Aerospace Manufacturing creates close-tolerance, high-quality aerospace and military fasteners, including screws, bolts, pins, and studs. We are AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited and proudly manufacture Titanium bolts, Waspaloy™ bolts, H11 tool steel bolts, Inconel bolts, MP35N™ bolts and much more!
You are looking at quality aerospace bolts created by Aerospace Manufacturing. They aren’t just pretty to look at though. They are miracles of micro engineering, manufactured from exotic materials like Inconel and Monel for their amazing lightness, strength, and durability and are heat treated to exceed a tensile strength of 125,000 pounds per square inch (psi). Commercial grade bolts generally have somewhere around 55,000 psi and have very little corrosion protection.
The difference between aerospace bolts and commercial bolts is like night and day.
Quality aerospace bolts are more rigorously tested, more carefully manufactured, and more carefully studied than almost any other component on an aircraft. The reason? For one, they are incredibly important. Fasteners hold together the aircraft. Secondly, they are among the most common component in an aircraft. Of a Boeing 747s 6 million parts, nearly half are fasteners.
The get an idea of the forces that quality aerospace bolts must endure, check out the video below, a compilation of the top 5 aircraft carrier landings. In the last video, you’ll see a fighter pilot who is forced to land on a STOOL on the deck of an aircraft carrier due to a landing gear malfunction. Crazy!
What holds an aircraft together under such punishing conditions are quality aerospace bolts. And because it’s an amazing aircraft, we’re also sharing a highlight of the F-35B as it vertically takes off and lands on an aircraft carrier, performs barrel rolls, refuels in flight, and drops munitions. To learn more about the F-35 and how it stacks up against China’s stealth fighter, check out our blog How China’s J-20 Stealth Fighter Stacks Up Against the USAF’s Best
Procure Quality Aerospace Bolts from AMI
Aerospace Manufacturing is a AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited manufacturer that creates high strength, close tolerance aerospace fasteners that meet the expectations of clients ranging from the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin to Sikorsky and NASA.
SpaceX and its founder/Lead Designer/CEO Elon Musk just launched the world’s most powerful rocket, The Falcon Heavy, into orbit.
It’s the largest rocket launched since the Apollo missions.
When it lifted off the ground from Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 6th, the Falcon Heavy produced 5 million pounds of thrust. That’s the equivalent of eighteen 747 aircraft. It can carry a payload of 89 tonnes into space, more than twice as much as it’s closest competitor, the Delta IV heavy rocket.
Skip to 22:00 to see the actual launch…
The Falcon Heavy isn’t just a triumph because of how powerful it is. It’s the crowning achievement for SpaceX, a company that is changing the perception of who can go to space, how much it should cost, and even how rockets should be designed (SpaceX pioneered the technology of reusable rockets).
NASA is also in the process of developing a rocket of its own, one capable of producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff that will dwarf the Falcon Heavy in power. The Space Launch System, as it is called, is slated to conduct an unmanned flight in 2020 and to return humans to the moon by 2023.
This first launch included a somewhat odd payload
Though it’s intended to one day take people back to the Moon and to lead the colonization of Mars, the Falcon Heavy will just launch satellites and perform space probes in the meantime.
On this first mission, the payload included Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster vehicle, complete with a dummy named “Spaceman” in the driver’s seat. In its glove compartment was a quartz silica disc designed by the Arch Mission Foundation that is reportedly the longest-lasting storage object ever created by humans, one capable of storing up to 360 terabytes of data for around 14 billion years as it orbits the sun.
Procure High Strength, Close Tolerance Aerospace Fasteners
Aerospace Manufacturing is a AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited, QSLM approved NJ aerospace manufacturer that creates a diversified line of high strength, close tolerance aerospace bolts, screws, pins, studs and threaded rods. Our aerospace bolts & screws are trusted by major OEM like Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky Aircraft, Bombardier, DLA, Textron Aviation and NAVICP.
Aerospace Manufacturing is proud to manufacture the NAS9921C4 fasteners for Boeing’s anticipated KC-46 Pegasus tanker, the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) next-generation military aerial refueling aircraft.
The KC-46 is designed to replace the USAF’s aging KC-135 Stratotanker, the first of which first hit the tarmac way back in 1956.
Watch the KC-46 Pegasus Tanker Refuel a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter
It’s been a long journey for the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus
In 2006, the USAF released Request for Proposal for an Aerial Refueling Aircraft, and it was not until 2011 that they accepted Boeing’s proposal.After years of testing and modifications, the KC-46 is finally ready to roll.
Now the plane is ready to roll. It just cleared its first major hurdle by the FAA and is expected to be completely cleared to fly within the next several months. The Pentagon has asked for $3 billion in the 2019 budget to procure 15 of the military aerial refueling and strategic military transport aircraft. The USAF plans on eventually procuring as many as 179 of them.
AMI Participating in USAF Gen III Program
We are also excited to announce our participation in USAF Generation III logistics program, a program designed to:
– Improve aircraft part availability for the USAF
– Drive down costs
– Enhance the USAF’s ability to do what it does best: protect the country and respond rapidly to potential threats
Lockheed Martin was named the Industrial Product-Support Vendor (IPV) for the program, and one of our oldest customers (KLX ASD)was awarded a large portion of Lockheed’s contract. That means that our high strength, close tolerance aerospace fasteners will play a vital role in this important government program!
As always, we look forward to supporting our customers in the aerospace & defense industry with the best possible price and delivery schedules!
About Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace Manufacturing creates a diversified product line of High Strength, Close Tolerance Aerospace Fasteners for large OEM Aerospace and Defense contractors. Our engineers are trusted by world-class OEM leaders like Bombardier, DLA, NASA, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin.
We are AS9100 and ISO:9001 accredited, and QSLM approved to manufacture even the most challenging fasteners.
