Industry News

Air Force Times reports that the F-35 joint strike fighter’s mission capable rate figures are well below the military’s target, according to DoD’s former acquisition chief Ellen Lord. The F-35’s mission capable rate is currently 69%, short of the “military’s longstanding 80 percent goal, said Ellen Lord.” She added that, when looking at fully mission capable

SPACE reports that the NASA Parker Solar Probe spacecraft made another close approach to the sun on Sunday. The spacecraft will “conduct a total of four close approaches to the sun, plus two Venus flybys” this year. On Sunday, the Parker Solar Probe “made its closest approach to the sun at 12:39 p.m. EST,” at which

Aviation International News reports that The Boeing Company has received a firm order for six 737-800 converted freighters from BBAM Limited Partnership. The order also comes with the option for six additionalaircraft. The order “brings BBAM’s 737-800BCF orders and commitment total to 15 and reflects the relative strength of the e-commerce and express cargo market during

Reuters reports that Transport Canada announced that it would end the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX on January 20. The regulator “also said in a release that it had issued an airworthiness directive to aircraft owners, aircraft maintenance engineers and foreign civil aviation authorities, along with an interim order that outlines requirements for airlines on

Spaceflight Now reports that The Boeing Company said Monday that it re-qualified the software for its Starliner crew capsule. Kennedy Space Center technicians “connected the crew and service modules for the next unpiloted Starliner test flight to the International Space Station in March.” This comes “after programming errors cut short the spacecraft’s first orbital test flight

CNN reports that Qatar Airways “has confirmed it will be retiring half of its fleet of 10 Airbus A380s, which have already been grounded since March last year.” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Bakar said Wednesday, “The A380, I think, is one of the worst aircraft when it comes to emissions that is flying around

CNET News reports that on Wednesday, SpaceX conducted a series of static test fires on its Starship SN9 prototype. The tests “are part of a series of checks leading up to a launch that could come as soon as Friday[,] but appears more likely to take place next week,” based on airspace restrictions and road

Space News reports that Blue Origin is preparing for the next test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle, which could be launched as soon as Thursday. The FAA published temporary flight restrictions Tuesday, which will “close airspace above Blue Origin’s West Texas test site from Jan. 14 through Jan. 17, from 9:45 a.m. to 4

IHS Jane’s 360 reports that the US Air Force has awarded The Boeing Company $1.7 billion “for Lot 6 production of the KC-46A Pegasus tanker-transport aircraft.” According to DOD, “the contract covers 12 aircraft and will be complete by 30 April 2023.” Boeing is “now under contract for 79 of the 179 tankers included in the

SPACE reports that at 9:05 a.m EST Tuesday, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule conducted “its first-ever autonomous undocking from” the ISS. It “will take about 36 hours for the SpaceX Dragon to return to Earth. The spacecraft is expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday (Jan. 13), though NASA and SpaceX will

Air Force Times reports that Northrop Grumman “announced an Air Force award to complete a project for the electronic warfare suite for the F-16 fighter jet.” The “goal of the prototyping is to protect pilots from increasing radio frequency-guided weapons by detecting, identifying and defeating them, a Jan. 11 announcement from Northrop said.” The company’s “system

Aviation Today reports that the final rules for uncrewed aircraft system Remote Identification have been released, but “include a major change from the proposed rules: the exclusion of network Remote ID.” The FAA “cited security issues, privacy concerns, connectivity issues, and regulatory challenges as reasons for not adopting network Remote ID[,] while companies and organizations who

Space News reports that NOAA’s National Satellite, Data and Information Service “is recommending flying three satellites over the United States in the satellite constellation that will follow the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R Series (GOES-R).” NOAA recommends operating two of the satellites “in orbits similar to those of the current GOES East and GOES West satellites.”

CNET News reported that NASA said Friday that it has extended the missions of the Juno spacecraft and the Mars InSight lander. Juno, “which launched in 2011, was scheduled to end its mission by deorbiting into Jupiter in July 2021.” The spacecraft will “now continue its work studying the gas giant until September 2025 or the

Reuters reported that Airbus posted deliveries of 566 jets in 2020, making it the world’s largest planemaker. Deliveries “fell by 34% from a record posted a year earlier, when travel demand was riding high on the increasing mobility of consumers in fast-growing markets across Asia.” However, the total exceeds “estimates earlier in the year when the coronavirus

The AP reports that Virgin Galactic “said Thursday it has completed analysis of why its spacecraft’s rocket failed to ignite during a test flight over New Mexico last month and work to fix the problem has begun.” The company said in a statement, “Once the corrective work has been implemented and verified, we will confirm our pre-flight

Reuters reports that Ryanair “plans to begin deploying its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the United Kingdom following its first deliveries in the coming months, CEO Eddie Wilson said on Thursday.” The airline “has said it expects to receive around 30 of the MAX aircraft, which were ungrounded in the United States late last year after

SPACE reports that SpaceX Starship SN9 prototype’s “three engines lit up for about one second today (Jan. 6) at 5:07 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) during a static-fire test at SpaceX’s South Texas facilities.” SpaceX “is prepping the vehicle for a test flight that’s expected to be similar” to that of its predecessor – the SN8. On

Bloomberg reports that on Wednesday, the FAA announced that it will ease the requirements for companies to receive permission to conduct supersonic test flights, which are currently prohibited over land. Several companies, such as Aerion Corp. and Boom Technologies, plan to develop jets capable of supersonic flight, “but concerns remain over sonic booms and other environmental

Space News reports that Virgin Orbit is planning the second flight of its LauncherOne rocket on January 10 between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. EST. The rocket “will be carried aloft by a modified Boeing 747 aircraft taking off from Mojave Air and Space Port, which will release [the rocket] off the coast of Southern California.”

The Seattle Times reports that Boeing managers told employees “that in the next four to six months the facility, known as the Advanced Developmental Composites (ADC) center, will be shuttered.” Even though “relatively few people work at the facility right at this point, its symbolism will add to worry about the future of the jetmaker in this

NASA Space Flight reports that SpaceX’s Starship SN9 prototype “is set to complete an accelerated pad flow with a Static Fire test and launch this coming week. A triple Raptor Static Fire test is tracking early this week.” Additionally, the Starship SN10 “is now an integrated stack inside the High Bay, ready to roll to the

Aviation International News reports that NASA now expects the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) demonstrator to make its first flight in 2022, and the agency said that construction of the demonstrator was halfway complete as of the end of 2020. NASA “said assembly of the Mach 1.4 aircraft ‘made great strides’ in 2020 as work progressed

BBC News reported that the Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency, made its closest approach to Venus on December 27, coming within 4,700 miles of Venus’ atmosphere. The Solar Orbiter “will use some of its tools to record the magnetic and particle environment around the planet.” The “next close approach

Bloomberg reported that Airbus “was close to delivering 560 planes to customers as of Dec. 31, approaching the top end of its internal target in a year marred by the pandemic-induced collapse of air travel, according to people familiar with the matter.” The total is “short of the record 863 aircraft that Airbus handed over

Space News reports that The Boeing Company announced Monday that the Exploration Upper Stage of the Space Launch System completed a critical design review with NASA that “confirmed the design of the EUS, allowing Boeing to proceed with development of the stage, including hardware fabrication.” The EUS, which has larger tanks and uses four Aerojet

Reuters reports that Airbus “is set to beat The Boeing Company to be the world’s largest jetmaker for the second year in a row, ending 2020 by resuming deliveries of its A380 superjumbo to Emirates, though its final deliveries are likely to have dropped 35% from 2019 due to the pandemic.” Barring “widespread new travel upheaval,

Space News reports that at 11:37 p.m. EST Monday, China carried out the first launch of its Long March 8 rocket. The “50.3-meter-long, 356-ton Long March 8 lifted off at 11:37 p.m. Eastern Dec. 21 from the coastal Wenchang launch site carrying five satellites into Sun-synchronous orbits.” The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), “a

ExecutiveGov reports that Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Will Roper “said the service branch’s future sixth-generation aircraft will feature an artificial intelligence co-pilot, Breaking Defense reported Friday.” The Next-Generation Air Dominance program “will apply AI as a support platform for human pilots aboard the future aircraft.” Roper “said the service

SPACE reported that on Saturday, SpaceX launched a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The satellite, dubbed NROL-108, launched from the Kennedy Space Center at 9 a.m EST. The Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the ground near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station approximately nine minutes after liftoff. The landing

Live and Let’s Fly reported that United Airlines will make its first passenger flight with a Boeing 737 MAX since the global grounding in February of 2021. After “months of preparation,” United “will base its restarted 737 MAX service out of two hubs, Denver (DEN) and Houston (IAH).” In a message to employees, the airline

Spaceflight Now reports that on Thursday, SpaceX scrubbed the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket “to evaluate a ‘slightly high’ pressure reading in the rocket’s upper stage liquid oxygen tank.” A “sensor reading on the Falcon 9’s upper stage triggered an ‘auto-abort’ at T-minus 1 minute, 53 seconds, as SpaceX counted down to a planned liftoff

Aviation International News reports that the Kansas DOT and the FAA signed an agreement to establish the Kansas Supersonic Transportation Corridor (SSTC), which will allow for testing of aircraft at Mach 3 speeds. The agreement “comes as the FAA has taken a multi-faceted approach to facilitate the emergence of supersonic transport while still meeting environmental

The Wall Street Journal reports that NASA said Wednesday that the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will be eligible to launch uncrewed scientific missions for the agency later this decade. There was no contract award given to Blue Origin, but the announcement marks the first time the company has become eligible to launch science missions for

The Washington Post reports that the US Air Force allowed an AI algorithm “to control sensor and navigation systems on a U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane in a training flight Tuesday, officials said.” The event marks “what is believed to be the first known use of AI onboard a U.S. military aircraft.” Defense officials “touted the test

Reuters reports that Russia “flew a new passenger airliner with domestically-built engines for the first time since the Soviet era on Tuesday.” The “medium-range MC-21 plane took off from a Siberian airfield powered by Russian-built PD-14 turbo-fan engines. The plane first flew in May, 2017, but with U.S.-made engines.” The MC-21 “is built by Irkut

The Military Embedded Systems reports that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency “announced that in recent tests, a number of X-61A Gremlins unmanned aerial systems (UASs) failed to link up in flight with a recovery system installed on a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, but that they were actually close to success on multiple occasions.” The project will

The AP/CBS News reports that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) “said Monday it has confirmed the presence of black soil samples inside a capsule that the spacecraft Hayabusa2 brought back from” asteroid Ryugu last week. JAXA “said its scientists opened the capsule and found an unspecified amount of sandy black particles.” Scientists “are hoping

Aviation International News reports that in separate appeals, Helicopter Association International President James Viola and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson “called on helicopter operators to retrofit their legacy aircraft with crash-resistant fuel systems, seats, and structures.” Viola called on operators to voluntarily upgrade helicopters because “retrofitting aircraft to include these features will increase the likelihood of

Aviation Today reported that Airbus will install “line-fit emergency locator technology (ELT)” into all of its in-production commercial aircraft by 2023. The “technology will be installed on Airbus aircraft as part of a single source, multi-year program contract awarded to Orolia,” which manufactures the Ultima-DT ELT. Airbus’ announcement comes in response to a European Union

Reuters reported that Virgin Galactic “cut short a test flight of its suborbital SpaceShipTwo Unity plane on Saturday, safely returning its pilot to Spaceport American in New Mexico after the rocket motor’s ignition sequence failed to complete.” The test aimed to launch the Unity spacecraft “to an altitude as high as 50 miles to test its

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Air Force has given a safety endorsement to Joby Aviation’s electric-powered vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle – the first safety endorsement the service has given to an eVTOL. The endorsement allows Joby Aviation to use its vehicle to transport military equipment. Industry and military officials said that the endorsement could

SPACE reports that The Boeing Company and NASA announced Wednesday that the first ISS mission for the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule is scheduled for March 29, 2021. This is the second time Boeing and NASA are attempting to send the Starliner to the ISS after the first attempt, in December 2019, “suffered a glitch with its

Space News reports that on Wednesday, SpaceX conducted a test flight of its Starship SN8 prototype, which lifted off at 5:45 p.m. EST from Boca Chica, Texas, with the intention of achieving an altitude of 12.5 km. SpaceX “did not immediately provide information on the actual altitude that the vehicle reached.” One “of the three

Aviation International News reports that Volocopter announced Wednesday that it will work with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and Economic Development Board of Singapore as it prepares to begin air taxi services with its Volocity eVTOL in the country by the end of 2023. The company said that it is speaking with other cities to

Florida Today reports that the Space Force said Tuesday that weather conditions for ULA’s launch of a Delta IV Heavy rocket, and SpaceX’s launch of a Falcon 9 rocket – both scheduled for this week – look highly favorable. The weather conditions for the launch of the Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying a National Reconnaissance

Airforce Technology reported that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems completed full-scale static testing on the MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft wing, which “includes the GA-ASI produced SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian RPA.” Testing featured load cases to 150% of expected maximum flight loads and “the wing was loaded to apply a distributed load across the wingspan even under simulating gust

Reuters reports that Brazil’s Gol will start passenger flights on the Boeing 737 MAX on Wednesday. Bloomberg reports that the airline has “trained 140 of its pilots in the U.S., using simulator sessions and a new curriculum approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and ANAC, Brazil’s regulator, in the wake of two fatal Max crashes.” American Airlines

The Washington Post reports that “Charles E. ‘Chuck’ Yeager, a military test pilot who was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound and live to tell about it, died” December 7 at the age of 97. Yeager, a “self-described West Virginia hillbilly with a high school education,” became “one of the greatest aviators

SPACE reports that on Sunday at 11:17 a.m. EST, SpaceX launched a Dragon supply capsule to the ISS. The Dragon cargo craft launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, marking the “100th successful launch of a Falcon 9 over 101 missions for SpaceX.” Nine minutes after liftoff, “the booster’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on