Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

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The Ehang 184 is too heavy to fit under the FAA’s 55-lb. weight limit for commercial drones, yet it cannot qualify as an experimental aircraft because it is autonomous. It will have to be certified to carry a passenger

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo “Unity” is closing in on the start of rocket-powered flight tests after completing a gliding sortie.

Rocket Lab says incorrectly configured ground telemetry equipment operated by an independent contractor led to the early termination of the first test launch of its Electron rocket on May 25.

An MV-22 Osprey crashed off the coast of Australia on Aug. 5. All but three of the 26 personnel on board have been rescued, the Marine Corps said.

Speculation builds that Rockwell Collins may be in play to be acquired by United Technologies Corp.

The Air Force has purchased two pre-built Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft that have been in storage since February.

CHROMALLOY COMPONENT SERVICES has $7.7m U.S. Air Force contract for F108 Module 13/15. Work complete July 2020.

Boeing’s HorizonX venture arm is investing in Pittsburgh-based augmented/virtual reality company C360 Technologies.

View the Aviation Week Forecasts: Western Tanker MRO Demand By Region 2017-2026 chart in PDF format.

Darpa has selected three teams for the first phase of a program to demonstrate a system to protect convoys against small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $11.9m U.S. Air Force contract for F-22 sustainment activities. Work complete December 2020.

Several months after President Donald Trump admonished NATO members for not contributing enough to their own defense, Romania is pledging to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on the military.

The U.S. Air Force’s top general says the service may not develop a direct replacement for the A-10 Warthog. The Air Force has for years contemplated building a follow-on, dedicated clo

Lockheed Martin says the milestone flight took place on July 28 at Sikorsky’s aircraft facility in Stratford, Connecticut.

Orbital ATK President and CEO Dave Thompson says his company foresees maybe just 10 orders of geocommunications satellites for all of 2017.

Part of the Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy fleet at Dover AFB in Delaware has resumed flying after being grounded due to nose landing gear failures.

AgustaWestland’s AW189 and Airbus H175 super-medium twin-engine helicopters have found a comfortable niche in North Sea oil and gas operations.

NASA is preparing to mark the 40th anniversaries of the Aug. 20 and Sept. 5, 1977 launches of NASA’s Voyager 2 and 1 spacecraft on missions that continue to this day.

Lockheed Martin’s fly-by-wire Sikorsky S-97 Raider technology demonstrator suffered a hard landing during a morning test flight in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Thailand, the last operator of the F-5E/F Tiger in Southeast Asia, will put four more of the light fighters into an extensive upgrade program.

Iran is in the final stages of developing two new civil helicopters: the twin-engine, eight-seat SABA-248 and single-engine, four-seat Sorna.

RAYTHEON appointed Kurt Amend chief executive of company’s Arabia business unit.

German aerospace center DLR and Airbus Helicopters Germany have achieved a 30% reduction in noise in wind tunnel tests of a modern five-blade helicopter rotor with active rotor control.

A Defense Department report on cracking apart the office of acquisition, technology and logistics supports greater prototyping, experimentation and disruptive innovation to seize on technological opportunities and outpace competitors.