Boeing in Everett, Wash., won a $2.9 billion U.S. Air Force contract to deliver 18 additional KC-46A tanker aircraft, spares, support equipment, spare engines, and wing air refueling pod kits. Boeing is now on contract for 52 KC-46 Pegasus military aerial refueling and strategic military transport aircraft, based on the company’s 767 jet airliner, with the addition of this fourth production lot.
On September 28, a day after the first Lockheed Martin F-35B combat strike, an F-35B stationed at USMC Air Station Beaufort crashed a short distance from the base. The aircraft was part of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing belonging to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501.
PTN has now evolved into an open call to individuals with backgrounds in aerospace, education, and technology to submit goal training solutions ranging from new ideas to highly-mature solutions that could help the USAF facilitate pilot training.
As the third strongest storm in the U.S. was striking the East Coast, Airbus Aerial technology was providing around-the-clock support analyzing the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Michael. Airbus Aerial uses a unique combination of satellites, manned aircraft and rotorcraft, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) together with data analytics technology and an artificial intelligence (AI), or machine learning, platform to help organizations supporting recovery efforts better understand and react to the storm as it rolled across the southeastern U.S. into the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA officials and engineers are prepping to fly the agency’s F/A-18 research aircraft over Galveston, Texas, using a “quiet thump” technique designed to reduce loud sonic booms typically associated with supersonic flight. This week’s test flight sets off a series of quiet supersonic research flights off the coast of Texas to test ways to measure supersonic aircraft sound levels and the community’s response to the supersonic acoustic experience.
The Terma 3D-audio system will enhance pilot situational awareness by supplementing the A-10C cockpit control panel visual warning system with audible directional signals from within the pilot’s helmet. The natural or spatially separately audio signals will be similar to what a human would hear when not wearing a conventional headset.
The search for ever-lower emission technology for future generations of aircraft engines is actively progressing on both sides of the Atlantic. Tucked away on a modest-size stand at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow was a highly varied collection of unconventional engine technology displays – a clear indication of radical innovation already being investigated as a part of Ultimate, the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation project.
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.
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.
More than 300 aerospace professionals are expected at SAE International’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) Users Forum, hosted by Inmarsat at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel in London November 13 through 15, 2018. Registration is now open for the world's largest conference dedicated to EFBs which boasts a supplier exhibition area and will focus on the latest regulatory developments, aircraft interface devices (AIDs), security and connectivity progress, advances in mobile applications, and airline operator experiences.
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.
Having successfully completed the development-testing phase, Parker Aerospace’s BACS modulates high-pressure bleed air from the engine, which is used to draw cool ambient air from outside the aircraft as it takes off. Once the outside air pressure is too low to draw in and the bleed air temperatures are cooler, the BACS will transition to use only low-pressure bleed air to pressurize the cabin.
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) in Waltham, Mass., has upped its investment in advanced manufacturing innovations, including automated and autonomous technologies, to support complex radar testing and integration. The company’s new $72 million, 30,000 square-foot facility on its Andover, Mass., campus, is now home to some of the industry's leading innovations, and a historic first, in manufacturing, officials say.
According to the contract, Boeing will initially receive $79 million to begin work on four operational MQ-25 refueling “drones” with integration into the carrier air wing for initial operational capability by 2024. Boeing will receive another $9.5 billion at a later date to produce 72 more aircraft.
The oldest Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in the United States Air Force – tail number 91-4006 – just came out of retirement and took to the skies. It will now be used as a flight sciences aircraft, which will be an integral part of F-22 fleet modernization.
Boeing officials plan to open the new Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center in Cambridge, Mass., in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) new mixed-use district in Kendall Square, bringing together engineering teams from Boeing and subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to accelerate development of future mobility solutions.
Aireon LLC, a global aircraft tracking and surveillance company in McLean, Va., is inviting aircraft operators, regulators, search-and-rescue organizations, and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to pre-register for Aireon Aircraft Locating and Emergency Response Tracking (ALERT). Aireon ALERT, operated by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), is being touted as the aviation industry’s first and only free, global, real-time emergency aircraft location service, which is slated to begin service in Q1 2019.
Officials at SAE International in Warrendale, Pa., and Airlines for America (A4A) in Washington are recognizing Karsten Kaiser of Lufthansa Technik and Michael Ernst of subsidiary 3D.aero for furthering the science and efficacy of nondestructive testing (NDT), having presented them with the 16th annual Nondestructive Testing (NDT) Innovation Award at A4A’s annual NDT Forum last week in Seattle.
Astro Aerospace Ltd. of Dallas, Texas has been been granted a Special Flight Operations Certificate for the operation of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) system for its passenger drone project, “Elroy.”