Search Results

Article

Automated systems, artificial intelligence take center stage at Aerospace Standards Summit next month

2018-09-27

Aerospace professionals will gather at the SAE 2018 Aerospace Standards Summit to focus on “Humans on the Loop — The Role of Humans in Automated Systems” Oct. 2-3, 2018 in Tysons Corner, Va. This year’s event will focus on how automated systems and artificial intelligence will impact the role of humans in aerospace systems.

Article

Northrop Grumman awarded $792 Million to deliver intermediate and heavy versions of OmegaA space launch vehicle

2018-10-12

Northrop Grumman Corporation of Falls Church, Va. received a Launch Services Agreement (LSA) worth approximately $792 million of government investment from the United States Air Force (USAF) Space and Missile Systems Center to continue development of its OmegA rocket for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The agreement runs through 2024 and includes certification flights of OmegA’s intermediate variant in 2021 and its heavy variant in 2024.

Article

Lockheed Martin and Drone Racing League pits AI-enabled UASs against human pilots

2018-09-07

Lockheed Martin and the Drone Racing League (DRL) is challenging the engineering community with a new twist on drone enthusiast racing competition: develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will enable an autonomous UAS to race a pilot-operated drone and win against human first-person view (FPV) operators. The call for advanced autonomy, dubbed the AlphaPilot Innovation Challenge, came during the TechCrunch Disrupt technology startup conference in San Francisco.

Article

Iridium, Aireon, SpaceX celebrate satellite launch, system deployment

2018-07-26

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 04:39:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on July 25, 2018 and placed 10 new Iridium NEXT satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), bringing the total number of Aireon space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) payloads in orbit to 65 as global air traffic surveillance service nears debut and satellite constellation nears completion.

Article

GoFly Prize invites innovators to shape future of flight, compete for $1.8M in prizes

2018-09-26

Shape the future of flight while competing for a share of $1.8 million in prizes. SAE International, an organizational partner of the Boeing-sponsored GoFly Prize international competition, invites innovators to build a personal flying device with the potential to change the future of mobility.

Article

NASA selects Frontier Aerospace to continue development of new deep space thruster

2018-08-24

NASA’s Space Technology and Mission Directorate awarded Frontier Aerospace with “Tipping Point” funding to qualify Frontier’s Deep Space Engine (DSE) for flight. The compact and lightweight design of the 100-pound force DSE thruster will enable future development of smaller and less expensive spacecraft propulsion systems due to the lower temperature freezing characteristics of its particular propellant.

Article

Five-satellite MUOS constellation to deliver secure, next-gen SATCOM on battlefield

2018-08-06

U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., has approved the U.S. Navy’s next-generation narrowband satellite communication (SATCOM) system for expanded operational use, paving the way for Navy and Marine Corps early-adopter commands to use the system on deployment as early as this fall, primarily in the Pacific theater.

Article

NASA invests in aerospace start-up, university projects on CubeSat platform

2018-08-01

NASA Science Mission Directorate officials in Washington are funding three new projects selected from a pool of 25 received in response to the NASA Earth Science Technology Office’s (ESTO’s) solicitation for the In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) program element A.49 of ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences) 2017, supporting the Earth Science Division (Solicitation NNH17ZDA001N).

Article

Parker Aerospace and GKN Aerospace to develop passive cooling solutions for next-generation aircraft engines

2018-08-07

Parker Aerospace and GKN Aerospace sign development agreement for integrated thermal management technologies in next-generation aircraft engines.

Article

First operational use of Aurora’s AACUS system

2018-05-24

Last week, Aurora Flight Sciences’s Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) achieved a major operational milestone when it successfully delivered cargo to US Marines in the Integrated Training Exercise at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms in California.

Article

GE Aviation delivers improved turbine engine during U.S. Army preliminary design review

2018-05-10

An updated version of GE Aviation’s T901-GE-900 turboprop engine used in the AH-64 Apache attack and UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters successfully completed the preliminary design review for the U.S. Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program.

Article

Bye Aerospace’s solar-electric prototype completes first flight

2018-08-29

Bye Aerospace completed the first flight of its solar electric technology demonstrator prototype. The first flight – on August 20 – and subsequent flight tests occurred at Northern Colorado Regional Airport and will provide crucial flight data required for the development of Bye Aerospace’s “StratoAirNet” and “Solesa” families of medium-altitude aircraft systems.

Article

Aerospace & defense systems engineering undergoes digital transformation with MBSE

2018-10-16

A growing number of organizations, including leading aerospace and defense (A&D) companies, are implementing model-based systems engineering (MBSE), a practice developing and exploiting a set of related system models that help define, design, and document a system under development – and reaping the benefits of not only increased productivity, agility, and efficiency, but also time and cost savings.

Article

First Airbus Helicopters H160 takes flight

2018-12-20

The first serial Airbus Helicopters H160 medium utility helicopter to roll off the brand-new assembly line in Marignane, France and performed its first flight in a unique “signature” livery.

Article

FADA-CATEC uses 3D printing to slim down the CHEOPS satellite

2018-12-06

The Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (FADA-CATEC) has collaborated with the Spanish engineering company CiTD in the design, development, and manufacture of new aerospace components through 3D printing for the European Space Agency CHEOPS satellite.

Article

SES to outfit Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters with Unitech Composites weapons pylons

2018-10-19

Unitech Composites, a Unitech Aerospace company in Hayden, Idaho, is providing its Lightweight Armament Support Structure (LASS) composite weapons pylons to maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) company Science and Engineering Services (SES) in Columbia, Md., for use on Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters the U.S. Army is supplying to the government of Afghanistan through the U.S. Department of Defense’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

Article

GE Aviation, Jetoptera join forces on fluidic propulsion system

2018-11-01

Engineers at Jetoptera in Edmonds, Washington, and GE Aviation in Evandale, Ohio, are collaborating on a 500 pound-force (lbf) class fluidic propulsion system leveraging a gas generator based on GE Aviation’s H-Series turboprop engine. Jetoptera’s Fluidic Propulsion System is, officials say, both revolutionary and a remarkably simple approach to producing thrust for powerful, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL)-capable aircraft.

Article

Final Orion capsule parachute system test successful

2018-09-28

A team of engineers from NASA and Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. successfully completed the eighth and final test of the Orion spacecraft Capsule Parachute Assembly System at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz.

Article

Demand up for composite-grade, high-performance plastics across aerospace, automotive

2018-08-23

Demand for high-performance plastics (HPPs) is up across the aerospace industry, driven by such key trends as growing performance requirements, increased use of additive manufacturing or 3D printing, supply chain globalization, and tightening environmental regulations. Growing passenger traffic coupled with the need to reduce emissions – being accomplished through lightweighting, engine downsizing, and vehicle electrification – present opportunities for HPPs, research analysts at Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio, Texas, explain.

Article

Barker approaches aircraft as system of systems in latest SAE International book

2018-10-17

Today’s airframe manufacturers have taken on more of the role of systems integrators, putting the focus on the aircraft as a system-of-many-systems. Sean Barker, FBCS CEng and a former research scientist at BAE Systems in the UK, approaches aircraft as a system of systems (SoS) from a business process perspective in his new book from SAE International in Warrendale, Pa.