In a key step toward opening up airspace to unmanned aircraft, standards developer RTCA has published interim standards for detect-and-avoid systems and command-and-control links. But they are only first steps.
Options ranging from requiring registration of unmanned aircraft through requiring operator testing mandatory jail sentences for reckless flying raised at Congressional hearing on UAV safety.
In a key step toward opening up airspace to unmanned aircraft, standards developer RTCA has published interim standards for detect-and-avoid systems and command-and-control links. But they are only first steps.
General Electric’s T700 is one of the most-produced military engines. Now the U.S. Army has launched a competition to replace the popular turboshaft and reengine its AH-64 Apaches and UH-60 Black Hawks.
Boeing could have sustained the venerable C-17 line profitably for at least few more years, but several factors dictated that closing it is the smarter way to go.
Wide-area imaging for ScanEagle; parafoil sensor extends ship’s horizon; new look at anti-misting kerosene to prevent fuel explosions; new variable-stability helicopter with train test pilots; hybrid cargo airship nears design freeze.
Sikorsky looks forward to working with Lockheed Martin, post-merger, on defining the next steps for the so-far industry-funded S-97 Raider high-speed helicopter program.
The key challenge to integrating the two systems is to avoid scenarios in which evading one threat might inadvertently put the aircraft in danger from another type of collision.
As fans get bigger to reduce fuel consumption, so do nacelles, and new designs are needed to reduce drag and weight. Enter UTC Aerospace Systems’ ecoIPS “shrink-wrap” nacelle for future airliners.
A paradigm shift is underway, whereby historical players from the old military-industrial complex are bound to become marginalized and lose out to the new players of the digital economy.
Norway’s Norsk Titanium to partner with U.S. state to create a factory to enable industrial-scale additive manufacturing of aerospace-grade components.
Spurred by consumer demand, enabled by consumer electronics, cubesats are becoming more capable and commercially viable, says Scotland-based developer Clyde Space.
Team hopes stratospheric mountain waves and polar night jet stream will combine to propel Perlan 2 glider into the stratosphere and a record altitude for sustained level flight of 90,000 ft.
Developers hope to ground test a turbine engine at Mach 3.2 in the coming months, paving the way for long-range supersonic cruise missiles as well as potentially laying the foundation for a viable combined-cycle hypersonic propulsion system.
XTI’s VTOL TriFan appeals to crowdfunders; game-changing demos at AFRL; fast-formable composite parts; how UAS can help in a crisis; more unmanned news.
JT8D engines powering MD-88s suffer the worst fan-blade erosion of any engine in Delta’s fleet. FAA research program will support tests of an anti-erosion coating.
Simulation of complete aircraft and engines takes a giant step as software developer Ansys shows computational fluid dynamics code can run efficiently on a massively parallel supercomputer.
