Lockheed Martin says F-35 pilots are getting the education they need thanks to improved simulation technology incorporated into the program’s full-mission simulators that employ the actual F-35 software used by flying aircraft.
By the end of this decade the U.K.'s Panavia Tornado GR4 will have exited service, the Eurofighter Typhoon will have become the Royal Air Force’s primary ground-attack platform, and the Lockheeed Martin F-35B Lightning II will be just starting its deployment and preparing for land-based and shipborne operations.
Short-term older aircraft disposals take priority as Qantas completes Boeing 737 fleet expansion and ponders long-haul replacement plans, pending a return t0 profitability.
Aiming to reduce flight times and fuel burn on domestic routes in Australia, Qantas is working with air traffic authorities to use more flexible flight paths across the continent.
Humans will be noticeably absent from the NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion capsule as it embarks on its first spaceflight, a two-orbit test mission that will include a searing descent through the Earth's atmosphere.
The printer serves as a prototype for a space additive-manufacturing capability that may one day become an essential part of NASA’s toolkit for human deep-space exploration.
Within a day of the announcement of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s resignation, two promising candidates for replacing him quickly opted out. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who is likely to lead Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee next year, said, “No.” And then the former head of Pentagon policy, Michele Flournoy, who is the CEO of the Center for New American Security, told the think tank’s board she would not leave her current job.
Members of the 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA) plan to meet Dec. 2 at the ministerial level to approve billions of euros in financing for major programs over the next few years, including a new generation of rockets and participation in the International Space Station (ISS) through 2020.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat have signed a contract valued at €15 million ($19 million) to provide satellite-based air-traffic monitoring as part of the European Union’s Single European Sky ATM Research (Sesar) initiative. Dubbed Iris Precursor, the Nov. 26 agreement is intended to upgrade Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband service to meet standards set for ground-based VHF data links that will allow flight plans to be updated continually to maintain optimal trajectories. The U.K.
The scheduled Nov. 28 launch of the SES Astra-2G satellite atop a Russian Proton rocket was postponed Nov. 26, owing to a problem with a gyro unit in the rocket’s Briz M upper stage. Russian space agency Roscosmos said prelaunch tests were halted on the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and both the rocket and spacecraft have been returned to their assembly building.
The International Space Station (ISS) returned to full six-person staffing late Nov. 23 with the arrival of three U.S., European and Russian crewmembers. They are prepared to kick off external changes in advance of the dockings of U.S. commercial crew transports and host a pair of veteran astronauts trained for a yearlong stay. Meeting the ISS program objectives is intended to support activities beyond the current 2020 deadline for station operations and provide medical researchers with new insights into the physical and mental challenges of long-duration human deep-space exploration.
Despite threats of contractual retaliation from Moscow, French President Francois Hollande has indefinitely postponed delivery of the first of two Mistral-class helicopter assault ships to Russia, citing ongoing conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. Since suspending the 2011 contract in September, Hollande has been loath to cancel the €1.12 billion ($1.4 billion) Mistral deal. The first ship is dubbed Vladivostok and located at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard in France.
Japan has chosen the Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye over the Boeing 737 AEW&C to fill a requirement for four surveillance aircraft, while also confirming it will proceed with orders for the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk and Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey. Three RQ-4s will be ordered in the fiscal year beginning April 2015, says NHK television. The timing of orders for the other types is unknown. The mid-term plan also set out the requirement for three surface-surveillance drones. RQ-4 beat the propeller-driven General Atomics Guardian ER, which is based on the U.S.
Rene Groot (see photo) has been appointed chief operating officer of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Pieter Elbers, who has become president/CEO of KLM. De Groot has been senior vice president-operations at Air France-KLM Engineering and Maintenance and was an Airbus A330 and Boeing 737 captain.
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NASA already is learning about distributed electric propulsion from a unique low-cost testbed, as it completes high-power static tests ahead of low-speed taxi trials leading to high-speed runs on the dry lakebed at Edwards AFB, California, in January.
