The six-nation UCAV demonstrator completed an initial phase in November 2015, but will continue flight trials in 2016 and potentially beyond. In a parallel effort, Britain has just completed a third round of flight tests of its Taranis UCAV demonstrator. And a four-nation effort, led by Germany, is to begin designing an unmanned ISR platform in the spring of 2016.

Spacecraft propulsion systems for communications satellites serve a unique purpose—to produce carefully measured pulses that help spacecraft achieve their final trajectory and orbital positions, and to maintain those positions once reached.

Robotic spacecraft traveled throughout the Solar System in 2015 and gave planetary scientists different perspectives on objects ranging from microscopic dust particles at its outer reaches, to the gas giant Jupiter, to the hot clouds of Venus.

With a rapid ramp-up of new aircraft using new materials, MRO providers need to increase R&D to develop repairs.

The commercial market was dominant in 2015, with few new military programs. The FAA closed out the year with a rushed task force to set recommendations for registering the inundation of commercial “drones.”

UP Aerospace takes its experience building and operating low-cost suborbital sounding rockets and applies it to a dedicated launch vehicle for tiny cubesats.

Jails fear UAV smuggling; France leads UAV smallsat launcher; Darpa aims for ubiquitous lidar; Roke takes cellular to high altitude; Airbus Perlan glider moves to new test phase.

Maturing hybrid laminar flow control, active flow control, noise reduction and vibration prediction and mitigation technologies are the focuses of Europe’s AFloNext research program.