Sikorsky flew its S-97 Raider rigid coaxial rotor high-speed helicopter for the first time on May 22, completing a hover and low-speed flight at the company’s development flight center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
FAA-designated unmanned aircraft system (UAS) test sites have been given blanket authorization to fly small UASs up to 200 ft. altitude in a move to speed research into integrating UASs into national airspace.
Thales has been chosen to provide an upgraded version of its Searchwater 2000 radar to meet the U.K.’s Crowsnest requirement for a carrier organic helicopter-based airborne early warning capability.
With an augmented reality training system from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the U.S. Marines Corps is looking at simulated exercises through a whole new lens set.
Releasing an outline of its plan for Poland May 19, the helicopter manufacturer said the program would allow the country to acquire the capabilities to develop and produce several key components, equipment and systems for helicopters.
Lockheed Martin has no intention—for now—of sharing its data rights with Aerojet Rocketdyne on the Atlas V launcher. But Lockheed, which developed the rocket before it was transferred to United Launch Alliance, is likely keeping its options open.
At the end of April, a request for information (RFI) was issued by the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) to find a new Military Flight-Training System that could go into operation as early 2018/19 and be operational for 30 years.
In speech at a Wales in London event on May 20, Paul Kahn, who took over from Robin Southwell last October, said that if Britain were to exit the EU and economic conditions “were less favorable for business than in other parts of Europe,” then Airbus would reconsider future investment in the U.K.
“If liberated from much of the supply chain, both the Navy and Marine Corps could operate more efficiently as well as more securely,” notes Vice Adm. Philip Cullom, deputy chief of naval operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics.
The spacecraft was fully assembled last week and “switched on,” a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says. “Everything is functioning well.”
The team will monitor Airbus plans to bring the project back on track, according to a German defense ministry letter sent to members of parliament and obtained by Aviation Week.
ASTRONICS AEROSPACE earned $23.4m on $142.4m revenues in 1Q15 vs. $17.5m on $122.4m in 1Q14. CHOMARAT CHINA, Taicang (near Shanghai), received EN 9100:2009 certification for its advanced composite reinforcements. FLORIDA TURBINE TECHNOLOGIES has Aerojet Rocketdyne contract to provide aerospace propulsion engineering services.
The U.S. Air Force is unlikely to be able to afford an all-new replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile “in the foreseeable future,” Boeing Network & Space Systems President Craig Cooning says. Although the service’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program envisages an all-new substitute for the much-upgraded missile, in service since 1970, the funds are not there to do it, Cooning says. “There is money in the budget, but it is very minimal,” he says.
“The Navy did not consider any formal alternatives to the original Phased Modernization Plan and revised the plan primarily to respond to congressional concerns that removing cruisers from the fleet would exacerbate existing capacity shortfalls,” GAO says.
Engineers at NASA Marshall have used a selective laser-melting machine to craft a copper liner with more than 200 channels in the walls for regenerative cooling with cryogenic propellant.
Boeing stresses that any such project depends on the U.S. Air Force retiring the aircraft, in the face of Congressional opposition, and releasing its inventory.
The U.S. Air Force is unlikely to be able to afford an all-new replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile “in the foreseeable future,” Boeing Network & Space Systems President Craig Cooning says.
The U.S. Navy says it achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the Block 2 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) earlier this month aboard the amphibious-transport dock ship LPD 24 USS Arlington.
The mission appeared nominal through first-stage separation and ignition of the Centaur upper stage’s RL-10 engine, but live coverage of the launch terminated at that point as the mission withdrew behind the veil of secrecy that has cloaked X-37B operations in the past.
SpaceX and Blue Origin appear increasingly confident they will be able to achieve their target of recovering booster stages for post-flight inspection and reuse, after analyzing the respective failures that occurred within 15 days of one another in April.
Boeing is in discussions with several big data companies about developing hybrid communications systems combining satellites with high-altitude, long-endurance UAVs derived from Boeing’s Phantom Eye technology demonstrator.
