From the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ SciTech 2015 conference in Orlando: NASA’s new research priorities; unmanned aircraft: unmanned airspace.
Aviation Week editors Graham Warwick and Guy Norris discuss with Joe Anselmo what the future looks like from the annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference.
General Electric’s Passport engine is entering the final phases of certification for Bombardier’s Global 7000/8000 long-range business aircraft, the first versions of which are set to enter service next year.
The new Aviation Week app, now available for download in the Apple App Store, will allow subscribers to follow our award-winning journalists in a much more timely fashion.
A commercial aviation weather radar that can map the physical environment around a runway is showing great promise, according to its developer, Rockwell Collins.
With the cost of a fleet of new nuclear submarines threatening to crowd out other Navy shipbuilding projects, Congress has taken a “first step” toward maintaining funding for other projects, according to the Navy’s top acquisition official. Last year, lawmakers established the National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund, a place outside the traditional shipbuilding accounts to set aside up to $3.5 billion for the SSBN(X) Ohio-class submarine replacement program. Unobligated balances from other programs can be transferred into the fund.
China regularly cites rising personnel and training costs as the reason for its growing defense budget; the buildup of a professional noncommissioned officer corps is a visible sign of such cost pressures. However, the country is investing in a broad program of advanced weapons development as it ratchets up military activities, in its “near abroad” and globally.
To address new and emerging threats, the Defense Department is finalizing its long-range research and development plan, focusing on technologies that are flexible and will not pose procurement and cost issues.
Asteroid expert Donald K. Yeomans, retiring as supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses the threat to Earth of asteroids and comets.
India plans to carry out a test flight of its reusable rocket launcher in March in what could be a first step toward affordable access to space technology. The Winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), fitted with solid strap-on thrusters, will fly at five times the speed of sound (Mach 3) to reach an altitude of more than 100 km (61 mi.) within barely 5 min.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has slipped the launch of its fifth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station to Jan. 9 at the earliest, following an issue with a thrust vector control actuator that stopped the countdown seconds before liftoff on Jan. 6 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral AFS.
An unprecedented difference of opinion when it comes to building Notre-Dame-des-Landes regional airport could lead to a major and disproportionate crisis of political confidence and prove to be a financial fiasco.
After spearheading a multimillion-euro funding package for Alitalia, Etihad Airways must now prove it can restore its new equity alliance member to profitability and revitalize its brand.
