Product portfolio now includes precision measurement tools for applications including turbine balancing and vibration analysis, non-contact measurements.
Vitrek, a manufacturer of high-voltage test and measurement equipment and board-level data acquisition systems, has acquired MTI Instruments, an Albany, New York-based manufacturer of sophisticated test and measurement equipment.
MTI Instruments’ precision tools, systems, and solutions are used in non-contact metrology, position, displacement, and vibration applications within the design, QA/QC, manufacturing, production, test and research markets. Products include:
• Turbine Engine/Rotating Machine Measurement & Balancing
• Portable Signal/Generators and Calibrators
MTI Instruments’ products benefit a variety of industries and applications. Commercial aviation companies and the U.S. military rely on vibration analysis and engine trim balance test solutions to identify jet engine problems quickly. Their custom capacitor sensors measure displacement and gap with non-contact force in applications including lens focusing, Piezo positioning, sheet metal thickness, gap measurement as well as flatness and alignment.
“The acquisition of MTI Instruments represents a significant expansion of the range of precision instrumentation products Vitrek offers to our vital industries,” said Don Millstein, Vitrek’s president. “We welcome MTI Instrument’s sales, engineering and manufacturing teams to the Vitrek family – as we continue providing both Vitrek and MTI customers with top level sales, technical support, and product innovation.”
Moshe Binyamin, president and CEO of MTI Instruments, said, “Vitrek is a well-respected test and measurement company with products and a market focus that is perfectly in line with ours. We look forward to combining forces so we can further accelerate our collective growth objectives.”
Soluna Holdings Inc., previous owner of MTI Instruments, announced the sale price was $10.75 million.
Mesirow, an independent, employee-owned financial services firm, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to MTI Instruments on its sale to Vitrek LLC, a portfolio company of private equity manager Branford Castle Partners LP.
Digital thread, virtual models lead to faster, more affordable production and assembly.
The Sikorsky Raider X® competitive prototype for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) is more than 85% complete, progressing 50% faster through production and assembly compared to legacy programs.
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, has made significant progress on Raider X, which is now weight-on-wheels at the Sikorsky Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The aircraft, which Sikorsky has begun powering on, has accomplished nearly 50% of required System Acceptance Test procedures.
Sikorsky X2™ technology underpins the Raider X design. The compound coaxial technology of X2 provides unmatched potential and growth margin for increased speed, combat radius, and payload. This enables a broader range of aircraft configurations for specific mission requirements.
Sikorsky President Paul Lemmo says, “With X2 Technology, Raider X has the ability to grow, unlike a single-main rotor configuration.”
In addition, the build of Sikorsky’s second FARA fuselage is now complete. This fuselage is being integrated into Sikorsky’s structural test program and will be used to validate the flight and ground loads capability of the airframe.
“We took an innovative approach with our second prototype fuselage,” said Sikorsky FARA Chief Engineer Pete Germanowski. “The second fuselage has not only increased the efficiency of the build and test of our first aircraft, it gives us the option to build it out as a second aircraft, providing us with more flexibility and greater risk reduction.”
Raider X features Modular Open System Architecture (MOSA)-based avionics and mission systems offering “plug-and-play” options for computing, sensors, survivability and weapons. X2 compound coaxial technology provides unmatched potential and growth margin for increased speed, combat radius and payload. This enables a broader range of aircraft configurations for specific mission requirements.
• Established high-tech manufacturing facilities: Lockheed Martin is leveraging an established, low-risk manufacturing capability augmented by a more than $600 million investment in digital thread and advanced manufacturing. This digital environment is embedded throughout the company’s engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment workforce.
With proven world-wide supply chain partners, Raider X will leverage advanced manufacturing processes currently in use today on the Black Hawk, Combat Rescue Helicopter, and CH-53K.
• Digital thread and virtual models: Raider X fully uses Sikorsky’s digital thread and virtual prototyping tools to maximize capabilities while optimizing affordability and sustainability throughout the aircraft’s life cycle. The virtual models are highly reliable, physics-based simulations of the design that provide early discovery, minimize redesign, and enable future upgrades to be efficient and affordable.
Implementation of such advanced processes reduced lead-time for aircraft components by more than 50%. Lockheed Martin began manufacturing components for Raider X on production tooling while still in conceptual design. Then, less than a year later, completed hardware components were available for customer review, including comprehensive aircraft assembly simulations for all components.
• Sikorsky S-97 Raider: One of the primary risk reduction efforts is flight test data from the S-97 Raider®, which is funded entirely by Sikorsky. The S-97 Raider is an 80% scale prototype of the Raider X design, and the flight test program informs design decisions, correlates to a virtual prototype and enables Sikorsky to experiment with the unique capabilities that X2 technology provides.
Successful full-scale static test concludes abort motor qualification.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin successfully performed the final full-scale ground test of the abort motor for NASA’s Orion spacecraft Launch Abort System (LAS) at Northrop Grumman’s Promontory, Utah, test facility. The 17ft-tall abort motor is one of three motors comprising the LAS that sits atop the Orion spacecraft aboard NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and is designed to increase astronaut safety on the pad and through initial ascent.
Approximately 250 measurement channels assessed the abort motor as the four exhaust nozzles pointing skyward produced nearly 400,000 lb of thrust during its two-second firing time. The test concludes the verification of a new insulation formulation and completes qualification testing for the Orion’s launch abort system (LAS).
“This impressive, high-impulse motor burns 3x faster than a typical motor of this size, and if needed, the reverse-flow nozzles pull the crew capsule away from the launch vehicle and to safety,” said Wendy Williams, vice president, propulsion systems, Northrop Grumman. “Together, the three solid rocket motors of the LAS equip the SLS with the highest human-rated thrust and acceleration safety system possible.”
The first active LAS system will be integrated into the Orion spacecraft for Artemis II, the first crewed flight of SLS.
Northrop Grumman also produces the attitude control motor (ACM) to directionally control the LAS. The ACM orients the crew capsule for parachute deployment and is manufactured at Northrop Grumman’s Elkton, Maryland, facility.
The company further supports NASA’s Artemis program producing the twin solid rocket boosters for the SLS rocket and was recently awarded a contract to support Artemis missions with flight sets through 2031. Northrop Grumman is also providing the Habitation and Logistics Outpost module for NASA’s Lunar Gateway and internally developing a Lunar Terrain Vehicle that supports human and robotic exploration of the moon and beyond.
Supplier of highly engineered, complex and advanced components and sub-systems business becomes sixth firm to integrate into Accurus Aerospace.
Liberty Hall Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in businesses serving the global aerospace and defense industry, acquired Ferra Holdings Ltd. through Accurus Aerospace Corp., a global supplier of highly engineered structural parts, complex assemblies, and electromechanical subsystems to the global aerospace industry. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"The acquisition of Ferra is highly strategic and transformational for Accurus," said Rowan Taylor, Liberty Hall's founding and managing partner. "The combination creates a truly global, more diversified and balanced business with expanded capabilities allowing us to better serve all of our customers – whether commercial aerospace, military aerospace or space customers – across the globe."
Robert Kirkpatrick, President and CEO of Accurus, said, "The acquisition of Ferra expands our complex and advanced manufacturing capabilities, extends our geographic presence, and creates greater end market, customer, and platform balance. The new Accurus is a highly differentiated aerospace supplier with a global manufacturing footprint and strategic relevance to our customers and serves as a partner of choice for complex and advanced manufacturing work statements."
Brisbane, Australia-based Ferra is a global provider of highly engineered, complex, and advanced components, sub-systems, and assemblies for the military aerospace, and commercial aerospace markets and serves as a strategic supplier to several key industry original equipment manufacturers as well as the Australian Department of Defence. Founded in 1992, Ferra operates four manufacturing facilities located in Australia, the United States, and India with approximately 200 employees. Ferra's largest customers are The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin, and its largest platforms are the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Ghost Bat (formerly known as the Loyal Wingman).
Ferra's existing management team, led by Managing Director Aaron Thompson, will remain in their roles following the acquisition. "We are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished over our 30-year history, and we are excited to partner with Accurus in order to accelerate growth across our core business areas," Thompson said. "We look forward to leveraging Accurus's resources, relationships and manufacturing excellence to continue to expand sovereign supply chain capability within Australia, better serve our strategic partners, including the Australian Department of Defence, and further penetrate the military aerospace and space end markets," he added.
Liberty Hall Capital Partners formed Accurus in November 2013 and has since completed six acquisitions, including Precise Machining & Manufacturing (2013), McCann Aerospace Machining (2014), LaCroix Industries (2015), J&M Machine (2016), ZTM (2016), and Ferra Holdings.
Free aerospace education K-12 instructional resources and professional learning available to educators nationwide.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Estes Industries, and the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) have joined together to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers through a new, multi-year initiative that will bring research-based aerospace education to thousands of classrooms nationwide.
Exploration Generation (ExGen) will provide K-12 educators with free lesson plans and curriculum storylines to help guide students as they explore various concepts in aerospace, engineering, and rocketry. High-quality professional learning experiences will also be developed to support teachers’ use of the ExGen instructional materials.
“We are excited about our collaboration with Estes and NSTA to inspire a new space age generation. Our shared commitment to strengthening the aerospace profession is driving us to inspire the future workforce,” said Dan Dumbacher, executive director, AIAA. “We all recognize the need for a diverse and robust STEM next generation who use what they learn today to innovate and invent tomorrow. These new resources will help even more educators join us in shaping the future of aerospace.”
Even as the U.S. aerospace and defense industry leads the world in innovation, it faces challenges with the workforce: a skills gap among STEM-literate students entering the industry, a need for greater participation by women and ethnic minorities, and a growing knowledge gap from early retirements. Based on the “2021 AIAA State of the Industry Report,” nearly 50% of respondents believe an increased focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion by aerospace industry employers will help increase the pipeline of skilled, competent aerospace professionals.
To help educators provide a more collaborative, student-centered learning environment where ideas are accessible and engaging for all students, each lesson plan, called NSTA Daily Dos, and the curriculum storylines, called NSTA Units, are grounded in sensemaking. Through this approach, students actively engage in a learning experience to make sense of phenomena in a way that aligns with their natural curiosity.
“Now more than ever, it is important for students to have access to high-quality learning experiences that expand their perspectives about science,” said Erika Shugart, Ph.D., executive director, NSTA. “Aerospace and rocketry provide unique opportunities for educators to engage students in STEM concepts. We are thrilled to collaborate with AIAA and Estes to provide educators with phenomena-driven, research-based instructional materials that spark students’ curiosity and motivate them to figure out for themselves why things happen and how the world works.”
In May, ExGen will unveil its first three Daily Dos developed for the middle school level. The NSTA Unit, designed for grades 6-8, will be available in October. ExGen will expand with additional resources for elementary and high school educators next year. Professional learning for educators will begin this fall with additional programs available in the future.
To ensure this program is widely accessible to as many students as possible, Estes will match the AIAA contribution to the program in the first year of launch through in-kind donations to participating schools and continue in all subsequent years.
“We wish to help all interested participants in the implementation of this curricula and break financial barriers as much as we are able,” said Nicole Bayeur, director of education, Estes Industries. “It is our top priority that education is just and equitable for all.”
In addition, Estes will manage a grant program to provide eligible Title 1 schools with funding to purchase the supplies needed to facilitate these lessons in the classroom. Details on how to apply will be announced later this year.