Versarien has announced that it has received an order for the supply of Versarien's graphene nano platelets to a design and manufacturing company for use in fire retardant aircraft interior parts for a major global airline.

The order is for an initial 1 kg of the Company's graphene nano platelets and it is anticipated that further orders will be received to fulfill the end-customers' contract. The specific aircraft interior parts have reportedly gained the necessary certification from a USA-based, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified, fire testing laboratory.

Recently, several reports have popped up regarding an unknown number of China’s Z-10 air-to-ground attack helicopters that have been upgraded with graphene to serve as an extra layer of protection. For example, Asia Times reported that "the People’s Liberation Army’s Z-10 attack helicopter is now equipped with extra armor made with the lightweight, structurally rigid graphene semimetal, the latest addition to protect the chopper’s airframe without eating into its effective payload".

A model of the Z-10 assault helicopter inside Tiananmen Square in Beijing

Several websites mentioned a video that appeared on China Central Television showing one of the helicopters with "an extra armor module near its tandem cockpit" touch down after a flight. The video has not been independently verified for authenticity, and Beijing is known to keep its military secrets well under wraps.

The Graphene-Info team attended this year's Graphene Week, organized by the Graphene Flagship in San Sebastian, Spain, 10-14 September 2018. The event attracted over 600 visitors from all over the world, and was extremely well organized.

While the talks and lectures were clearly scientifically-oriented, the commercial angle was also evident and many institutes and companies were there to show their recent product advancements. The Graphene Flagship's booth held a fascinating array of exhibits: graphene-enhanced retina and neural prosthesis (biomedical devices) by the ICN2 as a part of Braincom, Airbus' graphene composite for the leading edge of the tail of the Airbus A350, Nokia, Ericsson and AMO's graphene-based modulators and photodetectors for optical communications, a prosthetic robotic hand enhanced with graphene nerve sensors by the IIT, University of Cambridge's insole graphene-based pressure sensor and more.

Zenyatta Ventures has announced that it will be commencing a new research collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC)-Okanagan Campus and the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, the German Aerospace Center) to investigate the potential use of Albany Graphite for graphene and graphene oxide in new composite materials.

Dr. Lukas Bichler, who will be leading the composite development project, said: UBC researchers have established a partnership with DLR, which seeks to provide unique educational and research opportunities for future engineers. Also, the partners bring together Canadian and European industry partners and allow effective technology transfer and rapid innovation.

The Centre for Advanced Two-Dimensional Materials (CA2DM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has joined forces with US-based aerospace company Boreal Space to test the properties of graphene after it has been launched into the stratosphere. The results could provide insights into how graphene could be used for space and satellite technologies.

"Graphene's usefulness on Earth has already been established in the last decade. It is now an opportune time to expand its prospects for use in space applications—an area touted as being the most challenging to modern technology—and shift the paradigm of materials science. Space is the final frontier for graphene research, and I believe this is the first time that graphene has entered the stratosphere," said project leader Professor Antonio Castro Neto, Director of NUS CA2DM.

Aselsan, a leading Turkish defense company that produces military radios and defense electronic systems for the Turkish Armed Forces, has reportedly designed graphene-based OLED screen prototypes with what is said by the Company to be the highest pixel resolution yet achieved.

The project produced monochrome miniature screens that can function without backlighting, and the results of the graphene-based OLED screen development effort were presented at the Eurodisplay Conference in Berlin.

Scientists have unveiled Juno: a three-and-a-half-meter wide graphene-skinned aircraft that was given its first public airing on the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) stand as part of the ‘Futures Day’ at Farnborough Air Show. Haydale has supplied the enhanced prepreg material used to make the Juno.

The unmanned vehicle was developed in a partnership between Haydale, an aerospace engineering team from the University of Central Lancashire, the Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center and the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute. The partners have been working on the project to get the super lightweight plane ready for action. Billy Beggs, UCLan’s Engineering Innovation Manager, said: The industry reaction to Juno at Farnborough was superb with many positive comments about the work we’re doing". Having Juno at one the world’s biggest air shows demonstrates the great strides we’re making in leading a program to accelerate the uptake of graphene and other nano-materials into industry". He added: The program supports the objectives of the UK Industrial Strategy and the University’s Engineering Innovation Centre (EIC) to increase industry relevant research and applications linked to key local specialisms. Given that Lancashire represents the fourth largest aerospace cluster in the world, there is perhaps no better place to be developing next generation technologies for the UK aerospace industry.

Promethient, an early stage U.S-based company that developed graphene-enhanced seat warmer technology, has received a large (though undisclosed) equity investment from Faurecia Ventures, the investment arm of Nanterre, France-based Faurecia, the sixth-largest auto supplier in the world, with a big American presence.

The funding will allow Promethient to ramp up product development and marketing and also provides it with a very large early customer. The investment will also allow Promethient to sell to other auto suppliers and makers.

Signet International Holdings has announced a Letter of Intent for the acquisition of HyCarb, a Florida-based company operating in association with the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida to develop graphene-enhanced batteries.

HyCarb has reported that it is currently completing the prototype of its first phase, the "HyCarb Coin Cell Battery". The battery is expected to be ready for manufacturing within the next year. "This new generation Graphene battery has proven to be amazing," says Signet's president Thomas Donaldson. "Within the next twelve months, we will be on the market delivering a coin cell battery far superior than the Lithium Ion battery in use today."

China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the rocket development arm of the Chinese space program, recently announced the design of a graphene composite film suitable for use in light-propelled spacecraft.

The composite was developed as part of CALT’s research on graphene-based spacecraft propulsion, a new technology that converts light into electrical energy. The method utilizes a technology similar to the solar sail, which was already tested by Japan’s space agency JAXA during its IKAROS mission to Venus. Unlike the solar sail, however, the graphene sail will not use thin-film solar cells, but will instead be covered with graphene film.