104 Show report | Xponential 2024 chamber ignition system of some sort, but JetFire specifically is optimised for mitigating the poor fuel efficiency of small, lightweight two-strokes.” Though pre-chambers have been associated with poor efficiency due to the added surface area they bring into combustion chambers (among other factors), JetFire’s performance is controlled, via modern hardware and software means, in a way that brings about 50% indicated thermal efficiency in Cobra’s tests thus far. “That’s hydrogen fuel cell-levels of efficiency, but without the degradation of a fuel cell, or the inefficiency of passing a fuel cell’s electricity through DC/DCs and a battery before getting it into a motor shaft,” Hilbert said. The original concept for Cobra Aero’s JetFire arose roughly two years ago, from discussions between Hilbert and Dr. Harold Schock at Michigan State University. Dr Schock had had an idea he was researching that potentially held interest for Hilbert at the time (Hilbert having queried Dr. Schock about efficient means of running engines on hydrogen, as a means of discovering new roles or places for ICEs in a sustainability-focused world). “It’s still in the research phases, running on a single-cylinder test engine at the moment and in a lot of simulation software, but we think it’s going to bring a lot of efficiency in a few years when it’s ready for production, and it’ll be able to run with a wide variety of fuels, including hydrogen,” Hilbert concluded. MicroLink Devices is embarking on space qualification of its multi-junction solar cells. With expected completion in 2025, the US government is funding the company to fulfil a need for solar arrays in space applications such as LEO satellites. “We have locked in our solar cell structure, and we have performed radiation testing to verify robustness,” said Ray Chan. “We will begin testing out the cell interconnects through extended thermal cycling tests, to simulate the conditions that LEO satellites experience as they orbit the planet every 90 minutes. The satellite and solar arrays go through extreme hot and cold temperatures many times each day, such that a seven or eight year mission can mean up to 50,000 thermal cycles for the solar array.” Each of the tests above and more will be broken down into multiple batches to validate that the cells perform consistently. They will continue to be the AlInGaP-GaAs-InGaAs triple-junction cell MicroLink is known for, but with an encapsulation scheme suited for the vacuum, thermal, and radiation conditions of space. A unique coverglass-free approach is used in assembling the space solar power modules. LEO satellite applications include new generation GNSS, communications, and observation constellations, and other satellite formats such as cubesats are possible. PIDSO was walking the aisles of the show to discuss the SDI.01500A, a new dual-band blade antenna it has launched, which is capable of transmitting and receiving in the S- and C-bands. “As well as designing it for high gain, we’ve also focused on its weight and power efficiency to suit it to UAV and RPA requirements, bringing it down to a weight of approximately 26 g,” said Manuel Marbach. “It’s ideal for broadband applications, functioning in the S-band at 2.2-2.5 GHz and in the C-band at 4.4-4.94 GHz; we’ve picked those frequency bands to especially optimise it for working with Silvus’ Streamcaster radios, which we’ve been told by customers - and validated in our own tests - work really well.” Also launched recently by PIDSO is a new L-band antenna, SDI.013-00A, configured for 1-1.5 GHz, which the company optimised to be as small as possible (a key challenge as lower frequencies typically entail a bigger antenna). It is also working on LTE antennas, starting at 700 MHz as well as a dual-band blade antenna for L-Band and S-Band. Embention is continuing to update its Veronte Autopilot line, recently adding the Veronte DRX alongside the 1x and 4x autopilots in this series. The DRX brings a distributed redundancy architecture June/July 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology MicroLink’s 2x5 space solar power module, composed of 10 Quartex epitaxial lift-off triple-junction solar cells, with integrated bypass diodes, and Ag-Kovar interconnects with in-place strain relief PIDSO’s SDI.015-00A is a dual-band blade antenna capable of transmitting and receiving in the S- and C-bands
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