This Week in Engineering explores the latest in Engineering from academia, government and industry.
Episode Summary:
Volkswagen has taken the unusual step of going after the firm’s former board members involved in the diesel emissions scandal. Several key figures, led by former chief executive Martin Winterkorn, will pay millions of euros to Volkswagen to settle claims around their involvement in the emissions cheating scheme. Volkswagen’s insurer will take the biggest hit, over €270 million.
In an aviation first, a Boeing MQ – 25 Stingray drone has operated in an air-to-air refuelling role, offloading fuel to a manned F/A-18 Hornet. The buddy tanking procedure used standard Navy equipment and the transfer was made at what Boeing calls “operationally relevant altitudes and speeds”.
The on-again, off-again Keystone XL pipeline project, intended to carry Canadian oil sands derived crude to American refineries, has been officially cancelled by the Canadian firm spearheading the project. The formal cancellation comes after the January revocation of Pres. Biden’s presidential permit, reversing Pres. Trump’s prior reversal of Pres. Obama’s 2016 cancellation. Is Keystone dead? It would appear so, but the project has been through this before.
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Transcript of this week’s show:
Segment 1: The Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal moved a step closer to final resolution this week with VW’s supervisory board announcing an agreement with former Chairman Prof. Martin Winterkorn. Winterkorn has agreed to pay VW compensation of €11.2 million in connection with his responsibility for the falsification of diesel emissions test results. The Board also approved an agreement with former Audi chairman Rupert Stadler, who will pay VW €4.1 million, former Audi board member Dr. Stefan Knirsch, who will pay €1 million, and former Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz, who will remit €1.5 million. The Volkswagen supervisory board began its investigation into what the firm calls the “diesel crisis” and in March decided to make claims for damages against the former executives because of breach of their duties of care as directors under German corporate law. The supervisory board did not identify any breaches of duty by other members of the Group Board of Management. Like most firms, VW carries director’s and officer’s liability insurance, and D&O Insurance will pay VW €270 million to clear the matter. The legal review of VW’s liability claims are stated by the company to be the most complex and comprehensive investigation carried out in German economic history. The former Volkswagen executives accepted the terms without acknowledging a legal obligation to do so. One holdout is former Audi board member Prof. Ulrich Hackenberg, and the Supervisory Board of AUDI has indicated that legal action against Prof. Hackenberg can be expected. While formal responsibility by the former VW group executives has not been admitted, the very unusual step of rendering large payments to the company may have the dual effect of isolating current VW management from key players in the diesel scandal and effectively wrapping up the matter, while setting a precedent for tough action against malfeasance in the boardroom.
Segment 2: Aerial refuelling has been an essential part of military aviation since the 1950s. The US military uses two systems: flying boom, favoured by the U.S. Air Force, and probe and drogue, the choice of the Navy. Probe and drogue has several advantages for naval aviation, a major one being its suitability for smaller, carrier capable aircraft. Using the probe and drogue system, Boeing has announced a world first: a drone aerial tanker has refuelled a manned combat aircraft, an F/A-18. The drone, an MQ – 25 Stingray test vehicle, used a standard Navy issued pod mounted refuelling system, something the Navy calls an aerial refuelling store. Aerial refuelling is hazardous, requiring close coordination between two aircraft that must be flown in very close formation. In this case, the F/A-18 test pilot maneuvered as close as 20 feet from the Stingray, successfully coupled the Hornet’s refuelling probe with the drone’s trailing drogue and received fuel. Speeds and altitudes were not released but were described as “operationally relevant”. The test article has been used for 25 prior test flights, backed up by extensive simulation of air-to-air refuelling using digital models of the Stingray system. When the current refuelling tests are completed, the aircraft will be shipped to Norfolk, Virginia for deck handling trials aboard a Navy carrier later in the year. The test asset will be followed by seven test aircraft Boeing is building under a 2018 contract. The MQ – 25 is intended to eventually take over the tanking role currently performed by F/A-18’s, freeing Hornets, and pilots for attack roles. With reconnaissance drones now common, and now tankers going autonomous, will pilots become obsolete on Navy carriers? No one is predicting that yet, but just as F/A-18’s use buddy tanking systems to extend range, it’s not hard to imagine drones performing extended range strike missions.
Segment 3: The Biden administration promised it. Many were skeptical, but it has actually happened. The massive Keystone XL pipeline project, slated to bring Canadian petroleum from the province of Alberta southward to American refineries, is dead. Calgary-based TC Energy Corporation made the announcement this week in consultation with project partner the Government of Alberta. Construction activities were suspended on January 20, with the revocation of the project’s Presidential Permit, as promised by Biden during the presidential campaign. TC Energy’s official withdrawal from the project comes after a legal challenge by a 21-state group led by Texas and Montana, who sued Pres. Biden, alleging that he lacked the authority to cancel the large project without state approval. The suit, led by Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, and Montana Atty. Gen. Austin Knudsen also argued that Biden lacked the power to act unilaterally without congressional approval. The project would have moved 800,000 barrels a day of oil sands derived petroleum from Alberta to the Steele City, Nebraska hub where the oil could be distributed to refineries nationwide, particularly the major facilities on the Gulf Coast. The project has been on again, off again for a decade. In 2011, Congress mandated Pres. Obama to render a final decision on the project, which he cancelled in 2015. Trump reinstated approval for the project shortly after his election in 2016. Does this mean that the Keystone XL project is finally dead? With the withdrawal of the major project developers on the Canadian side of the border, and Paris climate change commitments hanging in the balance, it seems unlikely that Canadian crude will be flowing to US refiners. How that oil will get to market, and to whom is an open question.
