Remember Big Frog, the French Challenge at the Reno National Air Races?

The Reno National Air Races are the fastest races in the world. Aircrafts compete in breathtaking races 50 ft above the ground, driven by the famous motto: “Go fast, fly low, turn left!”

An american specialty, the only foreign victory ever was French: Michel Detroyat way back in 1936 on a Caudron with a Renault engine.

Big Frog wanted to follow Detroyat’s track, with an extra-challenge: use a diesel-cycle engine!

A candidate of choice for the Passion for Innovation Program, which welcomed the Team, providing them with CATIA, SIMULIA and Dassault Systèmes experts’ support. Read the full story here.

For their first participation in Reno this year, the Team established on wednesday a whole set of World Premières :

- first diesel-powered racer designed and simulated on computer (with our CATIA and SIMULIA solutions)

- first diesel-powered aircraft to succed in qualifying at the Reno National Air Races

- and above all, first diesel-powered aircraft victory and in his first race!

This first victory rewards the skills, involvement and passion of the whole Team and the excellence of French technologies, including our 3D design and simulation solutions, the SMA innovative diesel-cycle aero-engine and the perfect intergration of all those elements in the NXT airframe thanks to the Passion for Innovation Program.

Last but not least, congratulations to the pilot, French Air Force Captain Christophe Delbos. Usually a Mirage 2000 fighter pilot, “Bobos” (his official pilot nickname) made a perfect race. Diving on the first pylon like an eagle, he grabbed the race first position right from the start and kept it during the race six laps! According to him, the aircraft went quite well, allowing him to fully concentrate on clean trajectories until he heard the “Race finished” announcement in his helmet.

Once a curiosity after his qualification, Big Frog is now one of the stars of those 2011 Reno Air Races. No doubt Michel Detroyat would be proud of his successors.

Gentlemen, you have a victory! May it be the first one of a long collection!

Keep 3D-ing,
Rich

Do you know the difference between Lifelike Experience and Sustainable Development? Well, the first one is in 3D, while the latter is about 3Ps! If you’re reading this blog I assume you know what 3D is about As for 3Ps, it stands for “People, Planet, Profit”. And when you combine the two, you get what’s needed for sustainable innovation.

Now the trick with sustainability is that it can quickly become very complex. Let’s just take as an example a simple bottle of shampoo… PLM software to the rescue!

Sooo? Is it clearer now?

Best,

Aurélien

Aurélien Blaha is a Marketing Analyst at Dassault Systèmes.

So in the previous article we discovered how eddies in certain conditions can be used with great benefit by the iceberg convoy.

Today, we’ll keep on looking at the technical issue of towing an iceberg, but from a general perspective, that is at the scale of the global trip across the Atlantic Ocean:

• How many tugs are needed?
• How powerful do they need to be?
• How much fuel will they consume?

Will the biggest bollard-pull prove to be the most efficient in economical and ecological terms? Naturally, you might expect that the bigger bollard-pull, the quicker you reach the destination point.

In the case of transporting an iceberg, things are not that simple.

The critical success factor is actually to be able to find the perfect ratio in-between the convoy speed and the relative melt of the iceberg and fuel consumption. Only as such will you be able to minimize the energy spent and reduce the carbon footprint.

The power of simulation allows you to repeat the experience as much as you like, by changing whatever relevant parameter: this is what we did regarding the bollard-pull.

I won’t hold you longer. The simulation results are quite surprising: one tug with 130 ton traction would be sufficient to tow a 7 million ton tabular iceberg – the equivalent of a nutshell next to the ice mountain.

How is that possible?

Well, above all, the idea is to harness the power of the prevailing currents to transport the iceberg “with no actual [towing] effort”. Please refer to the previous article for an explanation of the principle of assisted drifting.

The only cases where you need to use several tugs (two or three, it varies) are the ones where you need to be able to maneuver with great accuracy and where prevailing currents are not necessary here for you, in other words, the departure and arrival phases of the transportation operation.

Fascinating right? Please feel free to leave a message if you have any questions!

Best,

Cédric

Cédric Simard is Project Director at Dassault Systèmes.