California startup Archer Aviation says it is on track to certify a four-passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle for aerial ridesharing services in late 2024, and will finalize design of a production version using lessons learned from development of the Maker, a two-seat prototype unveiled in Los Angeles on June 10.
With investments from American Airlines, Avolon, Honeywell and Rolls-Royce, plus commitments for up to 1,000 aircraft, electric air-taxi developer Vertical Aerospace has reached agreement with blank-check company Broadstone Acquisition to go public in a deal that values the UK startup at $2.2 billion.
Despite being responsible for two very different areas of the world, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Northern Command are both seeking additional funding in fiscal 2022 for satellite communications, according to documents obtained by Aerospace DAILY.
U.S. Special Operations Command is seeking $286 million in unfunded priorities in fiscal 2022, with $245 million of that total covering two CV-22 attrition reserve aircraft modifications, while U.S. Southern Command is seeking funds to purchase six Bell helicopters for Guatemala, according to documents obtained by Aerospace DAILY.
U.S. Northern Command and the Missile Defense Agency have included a $27 million addendum to their fiscal 2022 budget requests for a cruise missile defense sensor.
Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office have entered talks on a revised delivery schedule that seeks to set a long-term, stable production rate by stretching out the recovery plan for assembly delays imposed by COVID-19 disruptions, company officials said on June 10.
The European Space Agency has chosen its next medium-class space science mission—a Venus orbiter that will join a pair of NASA probes, selected last week to help resolve questions about why Earth’s sister planet evolved so differently.
NASA’s recently extended Juno mission to Jupiter this week transmitted its first close-up images of the giant planet’s icy moon Ganymede, the Solar System’s largest lunar companion.
The FAA will assemble an aviation rulemaking committee to provide the agency with recommendations for allowing routine flights of drones beyond an operator’s visual line of sight, Administrator Steve Dickson said June 9.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter completed a seventh excursion through the skies of Mars on June 8, traveling south 348 ft. in 62.8 sec. as part of a series of flight tests to prepare for future aerial planetary exploration campaigns.
NASA’s Lunar IceCube has completed prelaunch environmental testing at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, in preparation for its flight as a secondary payload aboard the Artemis I mission later this year.
NATO defense ministers have signed an agreement to create a network of flight training centers across Europe that could reduce reliance on U.S.-based training facilities.
Kitty Hawk has completed its first operational exercise with the U.S. Air Force’s AFWerx innovation unit assessing the ability of the company’s Heaviside electric vertical-takeoff aircraft to perform medical evacuation, personnel recovery and logistics.
An upcoming Pentagon report concludes that classified U.S. technology is not behind the hundreds of UAP sightings by military pilots and other credible witnesses.
The U.S. Air Force has a preferred bomber fleet strategy that leaves room for up to 149 Northrop Grumman B-21s, a nominal 50% increase over the previously stated procurement objective of more than 100.
