Italian business aircraft manufacturer Piaggio Aero has furthered the flight test regime of its medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle derivative of the P.180 Avanti.
FARNBOROUGH — Investment by GE Aviation in next-generation military engines will increase by 50% next year even as military budgets decline in the U.S. and around the world. The goal: to develop a sixth-generation fighter engine for the U.S. Air Force and Navy, and an advanced engine for helicopters. They will all incorporate ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) in the hot section, and 3-D printing (additive manufacturing) for difficult-to-make parts.
Wall Street is playing second fiddle in finding innovative “new space” ventures, as startup space companies draw investors along with technology from California’s Silicon Valley. Representatives of three new companies making money (or at least positioning themselves to do so) told a July 17 Washington, D.C., symposium sponsored by the Future Space Leaders Foundation that once they have something to pitch, the best place to start looking for venture capital is on Menlo Park’s Sand Hill Road, the Silicon Valley version of New York’s financial center.
POINT OF ORIGIN: Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby says signs indicate that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile system that may have been a Russian-made SA-11. The Boeing 777-200ER was shot down July 17 over the disputed eastern border of the Ukraine with Russia, where Russian separatists are fighting the Ukrainian military. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. “It was hit by a surface-to-air missile at an altitude of about 33,000 feet,” Kirby says.
FARNBOROUGH — A ground moving target indication (GMTI) mode is the latest addition to Saab’s EriEye airborne early warning and control system, company officials said here July 16
FARNBOROUGH — In what the UK’s prime minister calls “a remarkable turnaround in our defense budget, the country is planning to invest £1.1 billion in its military.”
FARNBOROUGH — The head of Airbus Military U.K says he wants to “bust the myth” that the Boeing P-8 Poseidon is the only reasonable solution fo Britain’s lack of a maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). Airbus is proposing a version of its C295 MPA, and Airbus Military U.K CEO Richard Thompson says that it will “meet 90% of the requirement,” cost half as much to acquire and fly at 20-25% of the operating cost. “All we’re asking is to have competition. We’re not scared of it,” he says.
TRU Simulation + Training will build the first full-flight simulator for Textron sister company Bell Helicopter’s Model 525 medium twin. The Level D simulator is to be operational in the first quarter of 2016, in Bell’s Fort Worth training center. The simulator will be built by the Tampa-based former Opinicus, acquired by Textron in November along with Montreal-based training device manufacturer Mechtronix and merged to form TRU.
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques that are advancing by leaps and bounds on the ground will need more work before they can be applied in meaningful ways to construction projects in space, a committee of the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) has found.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 21-23 — NDIA 29th Annual National Test & Evaluation Conference, The Westin Washington, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/4910/Pages/default.aspx
HONOLULU, Hawaii — Rather than focusing narrowly on technology, commanders of joint military operations should emphasize stronger relationships and combined mastery of the electromagnetic spectrum, according to the Combined Forces Air Component Commander for the ongoing Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) exercise in Hawaii. “The key in the future will be more about developing a broader electromagnetic base,” says Air Commodore Chris Westwood of the Royal Australian Air Force, commander of the country’s surveillance and response group.
