Industry News

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company Airpower Teaming System Program Director Shane Arnott said that the firm “sees mass production of its unmanned, fighter-like jet developed in Australia likely happening by the middle of the decade.” Arnott “said up to 16 of the Loyal Wingman drones could be teamed with a manned aircraft for missions and

ExecutiveGov reports that the US Air Force “has commenced a program to foster industrial collaboration for further promotion of the vertical flight aircraft market. USAF said Friday that it virtually launched the Agility Prime program to promote the emerging market that the military is interested in adopting.” Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology

SPACE reported that on May 1, the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft, called VSS Unity, “conducted its first unpowered glide flight [from] Spaceport America…notching a milestone on the path to commercial operations, Virgin Galactic representatives announced.” Unity’s “test campaign had been based in Mojave until February of this year, when the vehicle arrived at Spaceport America

Aviation International News reported that on Thursday, The Boeing Company “conducted what it called a productive and successful first flight of the second 777X airplane.” Crews “have flown the first airplane nearly 100 hours at a variety of flaps settings, speeds, altitudes, and systems settings as part of the initial evaluation of the flight envelope.

The Hill reports that the US Navy’s Blue Angels and the US Air Force’s Thunderbirds will honor first responders on Saturday, May 2, by performing formation flights over Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia. The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds, the US military’s flight demonstration squadrons, made their first joint flight over New York, New Jersey

Aerospace America reports that “in its desire to return Americans to the moon, NASA has selected three distinct lander designs for further work, indicating the agency is embracing flexibility as it works toward the first landing, scheduled for 2024, and others to follow.” NASA “awarded a combined $967 million to Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to

SPACE reports that NASA officials announced Wednesday that the Mars helicopter – which will launch with NASA’s Perseverance rover in the summer – will be named Ingenuity. Alabama 11th grader Vaneeza Rupani submitted the name “as part of NASA’s ‘Name the Rover’ contest for Mars 2020. ‘Perseverance’ won that competition, of course, but agency officials

FlightGlobal reports that the US Air Force (USAF) “is conducting market research in search of companies capable of helping to build an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile.” The USAF said that the goal of the Future Hypersonics Program is to develop a “solid-rocket boosted, air-breathing, hypersonic conventional cruise missile, air-launched from existing fighter [or] bomber aircraft.” The

Aviation Today reports that at the Agility Prime virtual kickoff event, “speakers from across NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration underlined the military and economic importance of U.S. leadership in the development of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs.” USAF Secretary Barbara Barrett, Assistant Secretary of

Spaceflight Now reports that the US Space Force (USSF) “expects to complete design validation on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket by July, ahead of the launch of the military’s first high-priority national security mission on the heavy-lifter late this year.” The mission, called USSF-44, involves the launch of “two payloads into a circular geosynchronous orbit more than

SPACE reports that SpaceX’s Starship SN4 prototype “just passed a crucial pressure test, likely setting the stage for a test flight in the near future.” Starship SN4 “survived a ‘cryo pressure test’ late Sunday night (April 26) at SpaceX’s South Texas site…company founder and CEO Elon Musk announced.” Full Story (SPACE)

BBC News Online (UK) reports that DJI has released a consumer UAV that warns users of “nearby planes and helicopters via its controller.” However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on DJI’s supply chain, the DJI Mavic-2 UAV will only be equipped with this feature in North America to begin with, and the

Air Cargo Week reports that on Sunday, Boeing “completed another COVID-19 transport mission, using a Boeing Dreamlifter to bring personal protective equipment (PPE) from Hong Kong to the United States.” Collaborating with Prisma Health, Atlas Air Worldwide and Discommon Founder Neil Ferrier, Boeing delivered 1.5 million medical-grade face masks “for healthcare professionals at Prisma Health in

FlightGlobal reports that The Boeing Company “has delivered the final Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the US Navy (USN), handing over the last aircraft on 17 April, says the service.” The USN has “received 322 one-seat F/A-18Es and 286 two-seat F/A-18Fs as part of the Block II Super Hornet program, which started in 2005. The

SPACE reported that the Progress 75 cargo spacecraft “launched atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today (April 24) at 9:51 p.m. EDT (0151 GMT and 6:51 a.m. local Baikonur time on April 25).” The “arrival will mark the start of a long-term stay for the Progress; it’s expected to depart the

CBS News reports that Friday will be the 30th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble’s “exquisite vision has allowed astronomers to study the chemical” makeup “of exoplanet atmospheres, to capture flyby-class views of planets in Earth’s solar system and to collect mind-bending ‘deep field’ images showing the first galaxies coalescing in the

FlightGlobal reports that AeroVironment “has launched its Quantix Recon unmanned air vehicle (UAV), a military variant of its farm surveying drone, on the market.” The “tail-sitting, vertical-take-off-and-landing UAV requires little to no training to operate, the company says on 22 April.” The UAV “is able to do aerial reconnaissance using automated flight paths and two 18-megapixel

Air Force Times reports that on Wednesday DoD Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization Mark Lewis said, “the supply chain the Pentagon is relying on to develop hypersonic weapons for the future is feeling heat from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. We’re concerned about our first-tier industrial providers, but also worried right down the

DroneDJ reports that the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has counted up the number of Part 107 waivers that have been issued by the FAA since the implementation of the Part 107 rules on commercial UAS in 2016, “finding just over 4,000 cases, and some interesting trends.” Under Part 107, commercial UAVs under 55

Air Force Times reports that the COVID-19 pandemic “has rattled Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics business, with the F-35 joint strike fighter program facing the prospect of a slowdown in deliveries, company executives said Tuesday.” Production “of the F-35 has been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic so far, said Ken Possenriede, the company’s chief financial

Spaceflight Now reports that NASA “has settled on a solid-fueled design for a miniature rocket with a first-of-its-kind purpose: Launching a payload from Mars for a trip back to Earth.” The “small launcher is called a Mars Ascent Vehicle, or MAV,” and will be used for the Mars Sample Return mission in 2026. With “two launches

The AP reports that The Boeing Company “and a small number of other manufacturers around the U.S. geared up Monday to resume production this week amid pressure from President Donald Trump to reopen the economy and resistance from governors who warn there is not enough testing yet to keep the coronavirus in check.” Boeing “said it will

Reuters reported that The Boeing Company announced Friday that it plans to restart production at its facilities in the Philadelphia area next week following two weeks of suspended work due to the coronavirus pandemic. Boeing “said operations at its Philadelphia plants, which manufacture military rotorcraft including the H-47 Chinook, V-22 Osprey and MH-139A Grey Wolf,

CNBC reported that “Intelsat’s IS-901 satellite is nearly 20 years old, and well beyond its expected lifespan, but a small spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman succeeded in docking with the satellite and giving it another five years of service, the companies announced on Friday.” The “feat is a space industry first, as extending the life

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company “said it will resume commercial airplane production next week in” Washington state “after suspending operations last month in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Approximately “27,000 people in the Puget Sound area will return to production of the 747, 767, 777 and 787 programs.” Full Story (Reuters)

Aviation Today reports that “almost all players in the emerging urban air mobility industry have converged on the idea of using fully-electric aircraft, powered by lithium-ion batteries, to create affordable aerial transit options for relatively short distances. But a few companies continue to develop and advocate for the use of hydrogen fuel cells in VTOL [vertical

Aviation Week reports that Aurora Flight Sciences founder and former CEO John Langford “is launching a new venture to develop hybrid-electric regional transport aircraft.” The “new company, called Electra, is planned to launch this summer and is looking at a family of short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft with from 4-6 to 35-40 seats.” Langford said that Electra is

Florida Today reports that SpaceX “teams are now targeting next week for the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center with a batch of the company’s internet-beaming broadband satellites.” If “schedules hold, the 230-foot-tall rocket will vault off pad 39A at 3:16 p.m. next Thursday.” A Space Force-issued “weather forecast for the attempt

Aviation Today reports that “business aviation OEMs and avionics makers are adjusting to the COVID-19 landscape through various measures, including decreasing production and moving to deliver critical medical supplies and produce ventilators and other equipment to combat the virus.” A representative of Honda Aircraft Company said in an email, “Honda Aircraft Company has temporarily adjusted the

ExecutiveGov reports that NASA “has docked the Mars helicopter to the Perseverance rover in preparation for the upcoming mission scheduled 10 months from now.” NASA “performed the installation at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility within Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s James Cawley wrote in a blog posted Friday.” NASA “expects the Perseverance rover to arrive on

FedScoop reports that DOD “plans to keep many parts of its recently enhanced teleworking capabilities in place for the long-term, hoping to use the response to the coronavirus pandemic as a springboard for a more digitally connected and telework-ready military.” In recent weeks, the Army “has experienced a 400 percent increase in network access for

Airforce Technology reports that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA‑ASI) “has flown a new MQ-9 reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) to a customer location for the first time at Holloman Air Force Base (AFB) in New Mexico.” The “flight took off from GA-ASI’s Flight Operations Center in Palmdale, California and flew through the National Airspace System (NAS).”

FreightWaves reported that a new report from Frost & Sullivan “forecasts that the number of deployed drones will increase from 2.44 million in 2019 to 2.91 million in 2023,” with most of these being used to perform dangerous or undesirable functions, such as building and oil tanker inspection. Since Amazon “first began developing drones in 2013

Space News reports that Virgin Orbit “completed a captive carry test flight of its LauncherOne system April 12, the final major milestone before the company performs its first orbital launch attempt.” The company’s “modified Boeing 747 aircraft, with a LauncherOne rocket attached to its left wing, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in

FlightGlobal reports that Airbus Helicopters “insists that its Racer high-speed technology demonstrator is still on track to meet a revised first flight deadline of late 2021, despite some development items lagging behind schedule.” Part “of the EU’s Clean Sky 2 program, the Racer is a compound helicopter design featuring twin pusher propellers mounted on V-shaped box-wings.”

Spaceflight Now reports that the Soyuz spacecraft launch “went smoothly,” and “eight minutes and 46 seconds after liftoff, the booster’s third stage engine shut down and the Soyuz spacecraft was released to fly on its own. A few seconds later, its two solar arrays snapped open and antennas deployed as planned.” The International Space Station (ISS)

Transport Topics reports that Alphabet’s Wing unit “is seeing a dramatic increase in the number of customers using its drone delivery service in rural Virginia during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Wing “has added new vendors and expanded the items customers can order to better serve people during the epidemic, the company said in a statement April 8.”

Spaceflight Now reports that although US “military officials said Tuesday the launch of the next satellite for the GPS navigation network – planned for April 29 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket – has been delayed to no earlier than June 30 to avoid exposing launch crews to the COVID-19 viral disease,” Space Force officials

Transportation Today reports that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “will give nearly $2.6 million in grants to universities for research into drones.” The FAA “said the universities will comprise the agency’s Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems(AUS), also known as the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE).” Transportation

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company announced Tuesday that it is making two new upgrades to the 737 MAX’s flight control computer as the company seeks to return the 737 MAX to the skies. Boeing “said one issue involves hypothetical faults in the flight control computer microprocessor, which could potentially lead to a runaway stabilizer, while

The Bristol (VA) Herald Courier  reports that the US Air Force “announced Monday it is ready to test its first high-energy lasers for use against enemy drones overseas.” The new lasers, “with models under consideration from the Air Force lab and defense contractor Raytheon, would take aim at drones that have already proven worrisome in the

CNBC reports that SpaceX “has had six employees test positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, according to an internal company memo seen by CNBC.” SpaceX “operations have continued after it was deemed ‘mission essential’ by the Department of Defense.” NASA, “like the Pentagon, has also determined that its upcoming SpaceX Demo-2 launch is mission essential. NASA

Spaceflight Now reported that SpaceX’s SN3 prototype Starship space vehicle “collapsed during pressure testing early Friday at the company’s facility in South Texas – the program’s third failure during such testing since November – but assembly of a new version is already underway.” The “stainless steel cylinder appeared to rupture near its top after filling

Reuters reported that Lockheed Martin “said on Friday it hired about 1,000 employees in the last two weeks and increased payments to suppliers to counter the impact from the coronavirus pandemic.” The “company, which last week pledged to advance more than $50 million to defense suppliers, said it was increasing its payment by $53 million to

ExecutiveGov reports that SpaceX’s Dragon “resupply spacecraft will leave the International Space Station (ISS), carrying over 4,000 pounds of scientific experiments and other cargo, on Monday, April 6. NASA Television and the agency’s website will broadcast its departure live beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT, the company announced on Thursday.” Full Story (UPI)

UPI reports that the Navy “will award some contracts earlier than planned in an effort to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the defense industry.” Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research James Geurts “told reporters the Navy is planning on awarding contracts for a variety of initiatives that have already been authorized and

The AP reports that NASA “said Wednesday that Americans from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories applied to be part of the space agency’s next astronaut class. The monthlong application period ended Tuesday.” More than 12,000 people applied, from which a class will be selected. Recent “astronaut classes have ranged from eight

Bloomberg reports that The Boeing Company “is sticking to its estimate of a mid-year return to service” of its 737 MAX, “but to do so, the Chicago-based manufacturer will have to pull off the ultimate work-from-home challenge: certifying an airplane with regulators who are self-isolating on different continents.” One analyst, “Carter Copeland of Melius Research, predicted

SPACE reports that SpaceX “just released a users’ guide for Starship, the reusable spaceship-rocket combo the company is developing to help colonize Mars. As the guide makes clear, Starship is designed to be a flexible transportation system, one capable of delivering both people and payloads to a variety of off-Earth destinations.” The “guide lays out

Aerospace America reports that on March 30, DoD “added a new tactic to its prototyping repertoire when it released a document officially called the ‘Global Needs Statement’ or unofficially the Global RFI.” The “interest areas are an eclectic mix designed to resolve a concern held by Tim Dare, who is in charge of developmental test, evaluation