The Defence Aeronautics Programme at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), in South Africa has been a key technology solution provider to the South African Air Force (SAAF) for the past five decades. Considerable resources have been dedicated to Helicopter Technology in particular. The programme’s CFD modeling and simulation, aeroelasticity, advanced structures and wind tunnel facilities, are being used to advance aeronautical technology relevant to helicopters in support of helicopter acquisition, operations, aerodynamic analysis and optimization, flight simulator development, hardware development and improvement.

The latest version of EnLiten offers smaller file sizes, greater control over model attributes, and new features such as demo mode, alpha transparency and fast display mode. EnLiten Gold 1.6 supports the same new VR features added to the recently released EnSight Gold 7.6 visualization software.

One of the major issues addressed by EnLiten 1.6 is the size of scenario files from EnSight and EnSight Gold. New polygon reduction functions in EnSight and EnSight Gold allow users to quickly and easily reduce polygon counts for scenario files to be used in EnLiten. Polygon counts can be reduced to 10 percent of the original size without significant image degradation. This makes it easier to import, run and interactively manipulate files within EnLiten.

Operating primarily in the utilisation, conversion and transport of energy, the partnership will pool the expertise of both companies to provide leading edge solutions for industry, OEM’s, engineering consultants and transmission and distribution companies.

Gasunie Research has developed wide-ranging expertise in research and physical experimentation through 40 years of work on energy-related problems. It has made an essential contribution to the development of the Gas Market in the Netherlands. Innovation forms the basis for the consultancy practice of this company by offering integrated solutions to complex problems related to energy processes, gas quality and diversity, combustion and flow phenomena.

Fluent is the world’s largest provider of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and services, and is established in 22 industries in total. Its FLUENT CFD software package allows the virtual modelling and visualization of gas and liquid flows, heat and mass transfer and chemical reactions, providing the ability to rapidly trouble-shoot and optimise energy-related processes.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a retired expert in the tidal currents of Puget Sound, has studied the Tacoma Narrows. "The Narrows is a spectacular place," Ebbesmeyer said. "If you had eyes to see through water, it would be probably the most spectacular thing you could imagine in the Pacific Northwest."

At maximum tidal exchange, the amount of water that flows through the mile-wide passage is the equivalent of several Amazon Rivers.

Harsh conditions in the Narrows have required the development of innovative equipment and construction techniques, and have inspired an almost fanatical commitment to safety at Tacoma Narrows Constructors, the company building the bridge.

This is the second year that the Ford flag has been flown in the race by its graduate recruits, so this year's team of 15 engineers has both recently qualified graduates and five of last year's team members to act as supervisors and pass on their experience.

This year's vehicle uses advanced materials like carbon fibre and a composite bonded frame, so there is virtually no metal in the body at all. The body shape has been developed using computational fluid dynamics and it is no surprise that the final shape is reminiscent of smaller historical race cars.

The team is based at Ford's technical centre in Dunton, Essex. The team members, all volunteers working out of hours, gain valuable experience and access to a wide range of facilities and resources as they learn about the site's activities and broaden their own engineering and design skills.