Avionica: a Reliable Partner in Russian-Indian technical Cooperation
For over 58 years now, the Avionica Moscow Research and Production Complex JSC has been involved in the development and production of equipment for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft of all classes and purposes. Currently, the enterprise specializes in the following profiles:
– fly-by-wire systems;
– automatic flight, engine and thrust-vectoring control systems;
– integrated flight control and navigation systems;
– cockpit pressure regulation systems;
– mass and CG position measuring systems;
– flight simulators and training aids;
– unified elements of automatic instrument systems for various applications.
Avionica products have been known to Indian aviation specialists since the 1950s. The Mikoyan MIG-21/-23/-27/-29 fighters, Ilyushin IL – 76 and Antonov AN -12/-24/-26/-28/-30/-32/-38/-72/-74 transports, and Mil MI -4/-6/-8 helicopters equipped with various versions of Avionica flight control and avionics systems have been widely used in India.
Avionica is an integrated complex capable of carrying out the entire cycle of operations involving the development, manufacture, and certification of its products. The high quality of Avionica’s products is ensured by extensive use of R&D advances, know-how, unique application software, CAD technologies and advanced manufacturing and testing methods.
The Avionica Research and Production Complex has developed the SDU-10MK fly-by-wire system and the SAU-10M-03 automatic flight control system intended to improve aircraft stability and maneuverability, provide for automatic flight, engine thrust and thrust-vectoring control and avoid critical flight conditions.
A principally new stage in technical cooperation between Avionica and Indian aviation companies began five years ago. This period can be called a prelude to long-term mutually beneficial business as this cooperation helps each side fully implement its own capabilities and intellectual potential, as well as pursue commercial interests. Specifically, Avionica established close business contacts with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Corp.
The two partners are currently negotiating a number of long-term contracts and agreements involving technical and organizational issues related to the license production of Avionica equipment for the SU-30МКI fighter and the supplies of the APU-70 longitudinal stability automatic control units for the MIG-21-93 aircraft. Talks are also underway on cooperation in a number of other technical fields, specifically, equipping the MIG-29K and MIG-29KUB fighters and the MIG-AT combat trainer with digital flight control systems.
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Questions to be answered in writing:
1. What is Avionica?
2. What profiles does Avionica specialize?
3. When did Avionica begin to collaborate with Indian companies?
4. What are most famous Avionica’s products (models)?
Transportation
Because of its many mountains, rivers, and islands and its long and harsh winter, Alaska has relatively few roads. In some areas, such as the southeastern part of the state, road construction is impossible due to the large number of glaciers. In other places year-round snow cover requires residents to rely more on air travel than automobiles to reach distant areas of the state.
In fact, Alaska has more pilots, airplanes, and airports per capita than the rest of the United States. Those “airports” include lakes where seaplanes land and take off. There are even air taxis that take residents and tourists to isolated wilderness areas and pick them up later. The state capital and third largest city, Juneau, is accessible only by water or air.
Because of its northern location, Alaska has become an international hub for air cargo. Anchorage International Airport handles more cargo planes – most of them fully loaded 747s – than any other airport in the country.
Ferries are also an indispensable means of transportation within the state. The Alaska Marine Highway was established in 1963 to carry passengers and vehicles on water routes. Two ferry systems operate year-round on the southern coast of Alaska, linking cities and towns on the mainland as well as numerous islands.
Questions to be answered in writing:
1. What region is described in the text?
2. Why is the road construction impossible in some of its areas?
3. What do Alaska’s “airports” include?
4. How do the ferry systems operate in Alaska?
Solar energy
Ultimately, almost all energy comes from the sun. The energy stored in coal, oil, and natural gas is the result of photosynthesis carried out by plants that lived hundreds of millions years ago. Wind energy is actually the movement of the atmosphere driven by the heat from the sun. Currently solar energy is used two ways: for heat (thermal) and to generate electricity (photovoltaic). Solar rays can be directly thermal in two ways: actively as can be seen in the thousands of rooftop water heaters throughout Italy and Greece, and passively with proper design of homes and buildings. Improvements in photovoltaic (or solar electric) panels continue to make this technology more applicable, especially for developing countries without widely established power grids that transport electricity generated at large public utilities. Increased efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity, using thin film silicon panels or copper indium thin film, has been an ongoing goal of several manufacturers of solar energy technology.
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As technology has improved, the cost of using solar energy has dropped. In 1996, the average price of solar panels was one-tenth what it was in 1975. However, one concern about widespread use of solar panels to generate the large amounts of electricity needed for industries and cities is the environmental impact – they take up a lot of space and are highly visible. But this is an acceptable trade-off because solar energy is totally clean and panels have a long lifespan. Panels are also easy to maintain for there are no moving parts, only moving electrons!
A more serious concern for widespread use is that solar energy is an intermittent energy source, as are wind and tides. Therefore, storage of excess energy or backup sources of energy are needed for times when there is not adequate sunshine for the panels to function efficiently. Improved battery technology has made use of photovoltaic panels easier for users in remote areas who live “of the grid” of the public utility company and need to store excess power. In some areas, users of solar panels who are connected to the grid may sell back any surplus power to the public utility company.
Development of thin film technology has made solar power viable for use in some forms of transportation. For all its advantages, however solar power remains the least used of the main alternative energy sources.
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Questions to be answered in writing:
1. Why is the solar energy considered the source of any other energy?
2. What are the two ways (when) the solar energy is used?
3. How did the solar energy consumption drop?
4. Where is the solar power used?
Modern Biomass
Biomass simply means fuel produced from organic sources. Traditional biomass such as wood, charcoal, and other plant matter has been the fuel of choice for thousands of years, and it remains so in many parts of the world. Modern biomass, however, includes other types of fuel derived from plants, such as the residues of existing agricultural, livestock, and lumber industries, from forests planted and harvested renewably, and from farms dedicated to this purpose.
Biomass needs to be produced on a sustainable basis, whether on deforested lands or on excess agricultural land, and never from virgin forests. Some of the most suitable locations are areas where widespread deforestation has already occurred, but there are still other possible sources of biomass. For example, residues from the processing of pulpwood, cereals, and logging operations can be processed into gas or burned in power plants to generate electricity. Methane from urban landfills and from animal and human wastes is another potential type of fuel derived from biomass, although the derivation of fuels from landfills requires the labor-intensive separation of various materials.
As an alternative to non-renewable energy sources, modern biomass may have the greatest potential for growth, especially in transportation and powering vehicles. For example, Brazil has been a leading nation in the use of ethanol (alcohol-based fuel) for automobiles. It is derived from sugar cane and grains grown specifically to produce ethanol. Biomass also looks promising as a fuel source for electricity if it is burned in small, local power stations.
Questions to be answered in writing:
1. What is biomass?
2. What are the most suitable locations for producing biomass?
3. How can biomass be used as an alternative to energy and fuel sources?
4. What is it derived from?
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