America’s ballistic missile defenses will struggle to keep pace with new Iranian and North Korean rockets, while Russia and China continue to modernize and upgrade their nuclear delivery vehicles.
Leonardo Helicopters has unveiled the active rotor blade it will flight test later this year under the UK’s £4.2 million Rotorcraft Technology Validation Project to reduce vibration and noise.
After years of criticizing the FAA for dragging its feet on regulating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), industry has welcomed the first rule enabling routine commercial operations as more flexible than expected and ahead of regulations in other countries.
UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE has award to launch NASA’s Mars 2020 rover aboard Atlas V in summer 2020 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. NORTHROP GRUMMAN has contract from OHB SYSTEM AG to supply Scalable Space Inertial Reference Unit-L (Scalable SIRU-L) for sensor pointing/stabilization and attitude control on Germany’s SARah radar reconnaissance satellite. LOCKHEED MARTIN delivered 50th KC-130J aerial refueler to U.S. Marine Corps at Lockheed facility in Marietta, GA, Aug. 18. Aircraft assigned to MCAS Miramar, CA.
Drone delivery service Flirtey and Domino’s are to begin commercial pizza deliveries to customer homes this year from a selected store in New Zealand once they receive final approval from the Civil Aviation Authority. A demonstration flight was conducted in Auckland on Aug. 24. Flirtey’s multicopter drone flies autonomously and hovers to lower its cargo to the ground by tether. Built-in safety features include return to a safe location if the battery runs low and automatic return to base if GPS signals are degraded or communications are lost.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. For a complete list of Aviation Week Network’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.aviationweek.com/events (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 3-5—2016 Cleveland National Air Show, Burke Lakefront Airport, Cleveland. For more information go to clevelandairshow.com Sept. 5—42nd European Rotorcraft Forum (ERF), Lille, France. For more information go to http://www.vtol.org/events/42nd-european-rotorcraft-forum-erf
Canada has become the first export customer for Insitu’s RQ-21A Blackjack small tactical unmanned aircraft system, which is in production for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
The U.S. and Japan will conduct an intercept test in October that “will send a message around the world” about the capabilities of the Aegis ballistic missile defense system.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft swooped close to the cloud tops of giant Jupiter for its first orbital flyby on Aug. 27, with all instrumentation and communications channels operating in expected fashion, mission managers said.
With its first regulation allowing routine use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in national airspace now in place, the FAA is moving ahead with its next rulemaking actions to expand beyond the initial strict limitations placed on UAS use.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a way of reinforcing composites using tiny carbon nanotubes (CNT) that testing has shown can increase strength by 30%.
Under Darpa’s Icarus program to develop vanishing drones that can clandestinely deliver critical supplies and then disappear without leaving a trace, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are working on a parachute that will disintegrate on demand.
India has successfully tested its indigenously developed supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine, which engineers hope could one day allow a tenfold reduction in the cost of space launch.
America’s ballistic missile defenses will struggle to keep pace with new Iranian and North Korean rockets, while Russia and China continue to modernize and upgrade their nuclear delivery vehicles.
AIRBUS DEFENSE AND SPACE demonstrated A400M airlifter landing on sand runway with development aircraft MSN2 over three-week period in August at Woodbridge, UK. ROCKWELL COLLINS and U.S. Air Force completed data transfer from airborne C-17 to ground station over Wideband High Frequency (WBHF) channel during two-day flight between Dover AFB, DE, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA. GENERAL ATOMICS AERONAUTICAL SYSTEMS, INC.’s new Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Training Academy graduated first cadre of company aircrews Aug. 12.
U.S. House space subcommittee chairman Brian Babin (R-Texas) earlier this month announced the formation of the Texas Space Congressional Caucus. The new group will try to “help advocate and protect the interests of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the space industry across Texas.” Fellow Texas Republican Rep. John Culberson will co-chair the group, whose members also include Houston-area Democratic congressmen Gene Green and Al Green.
The F-35's debut in the Netherlands excited the Dutch people and lifted public opinion in a crucial year for the program, according to the new chief of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft splashed down Friday with a 3,300-lb. return cargo just over 5 1/2 hours after departing the six-person International Space Station.
The U.S. is working to expand the scope of a major Scandinavian air exercise that could see it turn into a regional equivalent to Red Flag training events in Nevada and Alaska.
The U.S. Air Force is pressing forward with a competition to begin designing the first new U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile since the end of the Cold War, despite not having a unified estimate of what it will likely cost taxpayers.
The final four of 27 MD-530F Cayuse Warrior helicopter gunships ordered for the Afghan air force have been delivered, with a shipment of one upgraded and three new aircraft to Hamid Karzai Kabul International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 25.
