Industry News

Reuters reports that Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer indicated on Wednesday that the company “sees enough demand for its wide-bodied A330neo passenger jet to keep production stable.” There has “been speculation Airbus would have to trim production of the latest version of its most profitable long-range jet” because some airlines are seen as “unlikely to

Spaceflight Now reports that The Boeing Company’s Starliner crew capsule has returned to the Kennedy Space Center. While “NASA and Boeing engineers investigate the cause of a software error that cut short” the orbital test flight, “preliminary inspections indicate the reusable spacecraft weathered its first trip into orbit better than expected, and Boeing teams are confident

Spaceflight Now reports that SpaceX “plans to launch its next group of Starlink broadband satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket as soon as Monday, Jan. 20.” The launch comes shortly after it is scheduled to test its Crew Dragon’s “emergency escape system.” SpaceX’s “ability to achieve back-to-back launch schedule hinges on several factors, including an

Aviation International News reports that engineers at MIT “have developed a method to use carbon nanotubes to produce aerospace-grade composites without an autoclave,” according to a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces. MIT Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Brian Wardle said, “If you’re making a primary structure like a fuselage or wing, you

Aviation International News reports that Airbus announced Monday that the first BelugaXL air transport has entered service. Furthermore, Airbus “plans to introduce a further five BelugaXLs by 2023, providing the European airframer the much-needed extra transport capacity it needs to support the ongoing production ramp-up of its commercial aircraft programs.” The BelugaXL “will carry complete

Transport Topics reports that aerial UAVs “are emerging as a way to help solve challenges associated with last-mile deliveries in a number of conditions and environments.” FedEx Express SVP of Global Engineering and Transformation Joe Stephens said, “We believe autonomous innovations will provide a number of opportunities for the shipping and logistics industry. It will

Aerospace America reported that during the AIAA SciTech Forum, Earthrise Alliance CEO Lori Garver argued that “climate change should be [NASA’s] top priority.” Garver said that “NASA’s Earth science satellites and scientists do not exist just ‘to show you a pretty picture,’” but instead should be used to “maintain the integrity of the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Aviation Today reported that Bell’s “V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft completed a successful autonomous test flight in December” while the company awaits “an Army downselect decision in March to continue forward in the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program.” Bell V-280 Program Manager Ryan Ehinger “said the technology demonstrator aircraft performed the full range of autonomous flight

The Washington Post reports that following December’s failed Boeing Starliner test, NASA must decide whether it will “require the company to repeat the uncrewed test flight or” whether it will “allow the next flight to proceed, as originally planned, with astronauts aboard.” Requiring The Boeing Company “to redo the test flight without anyone aboard would be costly,

The AP reports that Airbus announced Thursday that it will “expand production at its plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast in Alabama, where it will spend $40 million to construct new facilities and add 275 jobs.” The plan will involve increasing production at the Mobile, Alabama, factory “to seven airplanes monthly by early next year.” Full

The Verge reports that Chinese UAV maker Ehang displayed its autonomous taxi for the first time in the US in a demonstration south of Raleigh, North Carolina Tuesday afternoon, “with approximately 100 people, including the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, looking on.” The all-electric two-seater Ehang 216 “flew along a pre-planned route at over 80 mph.”

The AP reports that Virgin Galactic announced Wednesday that its Virgin Space Ship Unity spacecraft has accomplished the “Weight On Wheels” achievement. This means that “all major structural elements have been assembled and the rocket plane is standing on its own landing gear.” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said, “We now have two spaceships which are structurally

Reuters reports that NASA announced Tuesday that it “is opening an independent investigation with [The Boeing Company] over a software glitch that prevented its unmanned astronaut capsule from reaching the International Space Station in December.” NASA said that the “investigative team” will “‘provide corrective actions’ needed before Starliner can fly a crew of astronauts for the

SPACE reports that NASA announced Monday that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule’s “crucial in-flight abort test, or IFA, which had been targeted for Jan. 11, will now take place no earlier than Jan. 18.” NASA “officials wrote in an update” that the “new date allows additional time for spacecraft processing.” The IFA “is the last big

CBS News reports on its website that on Monday, “dozens of agencies met and established a task force with the FBI, FAA and the Air Force” in an effort to solve the mystery of UAVs flying over Nebrasak and Colorado. However, “they’re no closer to an answer.” Full Story (CBS News)

FlightGlobal reports that the FAA has “yet to establish the root cause of a fan-blade fracture involved in an engine failure affecting an Air France Airbus A380.” In a directive, the FAA indicates that “after an analysis of these fractures, the manufacturer determined the fan blades experienced cracks that originated on the internal surface of

Space News reported that China’s “main space contractor,” the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), “is aiming to carry out more than 40 launches in 2020, including lunar, interplanetary and space infrastructure missions.” CASC said January 2 that “its major goals include completing the Beidou navigation satellite system, launching missions to Mars and a lunar

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company and the FAA are looking into a “wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the grounded 737 MAX.” Boeing Vice President for Government Operations Communications Gordan Johndroe said that the company “identified this issue as part of [a] rigorous process, and we are working with the FAA

The Washington Post reports that the UAVs flying in groups after dark in Colorado and Nebraska “have dominated headlines in local newspapers” and “fueled intense speculation on social media and unsettled residents” over the past several weeks, but that they “remain a mystery.” Theories about them range from “government surveillance and alien activity” to “less-nefarious explanations”

The Daily Mail (UK) reports that there are four “major missions bound for Mars this year” from the USA, Europe, China and the UAE. NASA “is launching the Mars 2020 Rover and the Mars Helicopter Scout to gather rock samples for an eventual return to Earth.” A joint European Space Agency and Russian Space Agency mission

The AP reported that on Saturday, US Astronaut Christina Koch “set a record…for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission.” Koch is “expected to spend a total of 328 days, or nearly 11 months, on board the space station before returning

Reuters reports that Dutch aviation consulting firm To70 said that 87 accidents involving large commercial planes around the world in 2019 resulted in 257 fatalities, a significant drop from the 160 accidents and 534 deaths in 2018. While the aviation industry focused “on so-called ‘future threats’ such as drones,” the crashes involving the 737 MAX “are

Space News reports that start-up Rhea Space Activity (RSA) and “partner” Lunar Resources have developed “a concept to deploy two spacecraft to manufacture a large mirror in space.” According to RSA founder Shawn Usman, the mirror “would be installed, in orbit, into a telescope that would be used to detect hypersonic vehicles.” At a “Space Pitch

Reuters reports that Rolls-Royce “unveiled” a “one-seater electric aircraft on Thursday it hopes will fly in late Spring next year and become the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft.” The aircraft is being built in conjunction with YASA and Electroflight, and “will target a speed of over 300 miles per hour.” It has “the most power-dense battery

Space News reports that the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center “is preparing to launch nine missions in 2020, more [than] doubling the number of launches conducted in 2019.” The missions will include a “National Reconnaissance mission, NROL-129” aboard “a Northrop Grumman Minotaur 4 launch vehicle” and an “Air Force Research Lab experimental payload”

Reuters reports that based on statements made by Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer, Airbus “is on course to end 2019 with a rise in its order backlog” thanks to “netting more sales than deliveries across its major products.” Airbus “is expected” to beat The Boeing Company in both orders and deliveries this year. This has

CNET News reports that on Monday, NASA “approved final assembly” of the “X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) plane – also known as the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator.” The plane, “built in partnership with Lockheed Martin,” is “designed the break the sound barrier without the thunderous noise.” It is scheduled to make its first flight in 2021.

CBS News reports that The Boeing Company’s Starliner capsule “is on track for launch Friday” to the ISS, according to “mission managers.” Boeing Starliner Program Manager John Mulholland said, “We are actually tracking no spacecraft anomalies right now. The spacecraft is in really good shape.” The Starliner capsule will be atop a United Launch Alliance

Fox Business reports Monday that The Boeing Company will “temporarily halt production of its 737 MAX jetliner in January … escalating the crisis confronting the aerospace giant and raising the prospect of job cuts and furloughs across the global aerospace industry.” The decision by Boeing to suspend production “is likely to reverberate throughout the U.S.

C4ISR & Networks reports that a recently obtained Navy memo “warns of a range of cyber vulnerabilities inherent in the [UAV] system, and offers a range of mitigation strategies.” Obtained by the National Security Archive through a FOIA request, the Navy memo “is housed online as part of the NSArchive’s Cyber Vault project.” Titled “Operation Risks

CBS News reports that on Monday, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket “boost[ing] the Boeing-built JCSAT-18/Kacific 1 satellite into space.” After “boosting the vehicle out of the dense lower atmosphere,” the Falcon 9 rocket achieved “an on-target touchdown aboard a SpaceX droneship” – eight and a half minutes after launch. After having reached “elliptical

Space News reported that “NASA leadership” is working on keeping its plan to return humans to the moon by 2024 “on track even if the agency doesn’t get all the funding it’s requested.” While current House and Senate funding bills would provide NASA with funding similar to the $21 billion it originally requested, neither bill

The Wall Street Journal reports that according to people familiar with the matter, The Boeing Company is considering either suspending or cutting back on the production of its 737 Max. Company management reportedly believes that temporarily halting production is the most viable among a variety of difficult options. A production cut would cause an inflation in

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company announced Thursday that it no longer expects the 737 MAX to be approved by regulators in 2019. The announcement comes on the heels of a meeting between Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg and FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson. Dickson had said Wednesday that the FAA would not lift its grounding of

The New York Times reports that on Thursday at the American Geophysical Union Conference, NASA announced that “after a difficult year of mapping” the surface of asteroid Bennu, it had located a target landing site for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Mission principal investigator Dante Lauretta said, “We made our final decision based on which site has the greatest

Spaceflight Now reports that on Wednesday, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) sent “10 spacecraft from five nations into orbit” from “the Satish Dhawan Space Center, a spaceport located on Sriharikota Island on India’s southeastern coast with the Bay of Bengal.” The payload included “a new Indian radar surveillance platform and a batch of small

Aerospace America reports that Wednesday’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing revealed that a “previously unreleased FAA analysis completed after the crash in Indonesia of a Boeing MAX 737…warned of ‘as many as 15 future crashes within the life of the fleet,” according to Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR). FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson, testifying at the

The Washington (DC) Post reports that Mel Johnson, Deputy Director of Policy and Innovation for the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service, sent an internal email to employees in the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service. The email said that the FAA will create an Aircraft Certification Safety Program Management Branch. While the email “does not mention the Max directly,”

Forbes contributor Elizabeth Howell reports that NASA “is optimistic astronaut test flights” could occur early next year as a part of 2014 contracts which SpaceX and The Boeing Company signed to “develop commercial crew spacecraft.” Boeing’s Starliner is expected to conduct an uncrewed test flight on December 20 while SpaceX previously sent “an uncrewed Crew Dragon”

CNN reports that “after nearly a decade of funneling money into a project…that NASA hopes will return astronauts to the moon, the launch vehicle is finally assembled and ready for testing.” However, “the rocket, called SLS or Space Launch System, is still haunted by critiques of long delays and cost overruns.” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

Aviation Today reports that DHS cybersecurity officials “continue to warn US companies about the dangers of using [UAS] designed or manufactured abroad, according to a sensitive document distributed to private industry by the FBI’s Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency on November 20.” The private industry bulletin “warns companies that they risk the exposure of private data

Aviation Week reported that “plans for International Space Station…astronauts to conduct three high-priority spacewalks before year’s end appear to be slipping into 2020.” The planned spacewalks are the final “two excursions” as part of “a series of four spacewalks to upgrade the orbiting science lab’s $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS).” Amid “the busy pace of

SPACE reported that The Boeing Company’s “first uncrewed test flight of its Starliner spacecraft for astronauts is now set for no earlier than Dec. 20, one day later than planned.” In a statement December 6, United Launch Alliance (ULA) representatives said, “We successfully conducted a wet dress rehearsal (WDR), a critical pre-launch milestone, on Friday.” The

The AP reports that on Thursday, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides indicated that “Virgin Galactic is on the verge of making more history in 2020 following an ‘incredible’ year of progress.” Whitesides said that after a busy year, which included the company’s IPO debut on the NYSE, “now hopefully you can start enjoying the benefits of having

Space News reports that the U.S. Air Force projects, at a minimum, a two-fold increase in the number national security launches in 2020 versus in 2019. Air Force Space Command Director of the Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate Col. Robert Bongiovi said Thursday, “It’s really going to be an exciting year.” He added, “We could have

The MRO Network reports that the risks of cybersecurity attacks on the aviation industry are “rising on the threat matrix, says Brian Prentice, a partner at Oliver Wyman.” The MRO industry also faces potential disruptions. Said Prentice, “Cyber is not an IT issue – it is an operational issue and is one of the biggest threats facing

Reuters reports that “researchers on Wednesday described the first published findings from the Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft launched in 2018 to journey closer to the sun than any other human-made object.” NASA Heliophysics Science Division Director Nicola Fox said, “We were certainly hoping we’d see new phenomena and new processes when we got close to

Manufacturers’ Monthly (AUS) reports that “the role of Australian manufacturing in producing the 1,000th Boeing 787 Dreamliner was celebrated on November 29, with Victorian Minister for Economic Development, Tim Pallas, visiting Boeing’s site in Fishermans Bend in Melbourne.” At the plant, “wing components for the premium commercial aircraft are manufactured. The site is also involved

CNET News reports that on Wednesday, “a brand-new Falcon 9 booster is scheduled to launch a Dragon capsule” to the ISS. The mission “will be the 19th resupply voyage for SpaceX and the third time this particular Dragon capsule is headed to space.” The CRS-19 mission “launch window opens no earlier than 12:51 p.m. ET

Aviation Week reports that “Airbus’ Silicon Valley outpost, A3 (A-cubed), has wrapped up testing on the Vahana autonomous electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) demonstrator.” As of November 14, the tilt-wing eVTOL “complet[ed] 138 flights totaling 13.4 hr.” from its site for “flight testing at Pendleton, Oregon.” The aircraft is “one of two demonstrators built,” but the other demonstrator