New Zealand startup Kea Aerospace has conducted a 14 hr. 3 min. test flight of a subscale prototype as it continues development of a large, solar-powered unmanned aircraft capable of remaining aloft in the stratosphere for months.
Flight controllers overseeing the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope breezed through the deployment and positioning of the observatory’s five-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield, completing what was considered the most technically complicated part of the mission ahead of schedule.
AT&T and Verizon have agreed to delay deploying 5G wireless services using C-band spectrum for two weeks beyond the scheduled Jan. 5 start date, giving the FAA more time to prevent airspace system disruptions arising from the potential of interference with aircraft radio altimeters.
Sustainable aviation and advanced air mobility are the focus of the fifth round of research projects selected under NASA’s University Leadership Initiative.
Airbus has unveiled Airbus Atlantic, a wholly owned subsidiary that starts off as the No. 2 aerostructures provider in the Western business world as measured by annual sales.
In the first such move by a leader in the advanced air mobility market, Joby Aviation has acquired Austrian radar designer Inras to prepare for more complex, and eventually autonomous, operations of its electric urban air taxi.
UK rotorcraft startup Hill Helicopters claims to be outselling its competitors and capturing a sizable share of the single-engine light helicopter general aviation market.
The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Boeing a contract for the upgrade of Japan Air Self Defense Force Boeing/Mitsubishi F-15G Eagles to the Japan Super Interceptor standard, ending more than two years of changing definitions and price negotiations.
A new initiative by the Biden administration has thrust the U.S. defense industry to the forefront of a national campaign to emit no more greenhouse gases than are removed from the atmosphere by 2050.
The U.S. and Israeli Ministry of Defense on Dec. 30 formalized a deal for 12 Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters and two additional Boeing KC-46 Pegasus refueling tankers.
Behind the scenes of the aviation and telecommunications industries’ clash over 5G wireless transmissions, aviation standards organization RTCA is developing performance specifications for a new generation of radio altimeters that would be hardened against 5G interference.
Addman Engineering, the additive manufacturing rollup under private equity investor American Industrial Partners, has acquired Castheon, a refractory metals maker that has partnered with spacecraft-providing companies, the companies announced Jan. 3.
Large U.S. defense prime contractor L3Harris Technologies has reorganized to include just three main business divisions, with Aviation Systems and its top unit executive no longer part of the company’s structure.
Telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon have refused a high-level U.S. government appeal to delay activating new 5G wireless networks on Jan. 5 as scheduled, offering instead to draw temporary exclusion zones around certain airports to protect against the possibility of interference with aircraft radio altimeters.
As ZeroAvia prepares to fly its modified Dornier 228 hydrogen-electric propulsion system testbed, details of the mobile refueling system that will support flight testing are emerging.
After successfully unfurling the James Webb Space Telescope’s tennis court-sized sunshield, flight controllers on Jan. 3 completed tensioning three of the shield’s five diamond-shaped membranes.
