Tag: Aeronautics

Airbus A350F Completes Maiden Flight in Toulouse

AeroTime reports that five years after Airbus first announced the A350F concept, its new-generation freighter completed its maiden flight September 29 from Toulouse Blagnac Airport in France. The A350F, MSN700, departed with a five-person flight-test crew for a roughly four-hour mission, operating as a “flying laboratory” while tracking thousands of real-time parameters, including aerodynamics, structural loads, and sensor data. The milestone begins a flight-test campaign expected to total about 400 hours.
Full Story (Aerotime)

AIAA Second Public Review for Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) and On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) – Spacecraft Fiducial Markers (SFM)

FROM THE INSTITUTE
AIAA S-155, Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) and On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) – Spacecraft Fiducial Markers (SFM), has been issued for a second public review due to the significant changes resulting from its original public review in 2025. This document provides the current industry’s best practices for development of the type of prepared interfaces known as Spacecraft Fiducial Markers. It is intended to provide standard requirements and guidance to developers and operators of both the Servicer Spacecraft and the Client Space Object. The public review deadline is 1 November 2026.

Vertical Aerospace Opens Valo Assembly Centre, Eyes 1,000 Aircraft a Year

Aerospace Global News reports that Vertical Aerospace has opened its new Aircraft Assembly Centre at Cotswold Airport, where it will begin manufacturing its Valo production eVTOL. Visitors to the opening saw a full-scale Valo mock-up and “a full flight demonstration of the prototype VX4 in the bright Cotswold skies.” The facility is designed to support production of up to 1,000 aircraft annually.
Full Story (Aerospace Global News)



Video

Vertical Aerospace’s Aircraft Assembly Centre
Vertical Aerospace; YouTube

Northrop Grumman Adds Utah Manufacturing Capacity for B-21 Raider

Defense Daily reports that Northrop Grumman has expanded its B-21 Raider manufacturing capacity with the opening of a new 845,000-square-foot facility in Layton, Utah, as the U.S. Air Force increases investment in production of the next-generation bomber. The East Gate 3 facility brings the company’s combined Layton-Clearfield manufacturing footprint to “more than 2 million square feet.” The expansion is “expected to support up to 1,500 employees by 2032” as Northrop grows its Utah operations supporting the B-21 program.
Full Story (Defense Daily)

Joby Completes Autonomous Coast-to-Coast Flight with Cessna Caravan

FLYING reports that a converted Cessna 208 Grand Caravan equipped with Joby Aviation’s autonomy technology completed what the company says was the first fully autonomous coast-to-coast flight across the United States. The aircraft traveled nearly 3,200 miles from California to North Carolina during the multi-leg journey, with its onboard human safety pilot making “zero control inputs.” The aircraft autonomously handled all phases of flight, including taxi, takeoff, cruise, navigation, and landing, and rerouted around severe weather along the way.
Full Story (FLYING)

Honeywell Aerospace-Led Project Advances Hydrogen-Electric Propulsion

A Honeywell Aerospace-led consortium of 18 European companies has advanced development of a megawatt-class hydrogen-electric propulsion system for future aircraft. AeroTime reports that the group has made a “significant breakthrough developing a megawatt-class hydrogen-electric propulsion system,” with Project NEWBORN successfully integrating previously separate subsystems into a functional hydrogen power source capable of generating and supplying electrical energy for an aircraft.
Full Story (Aerotime)

Joby eVTOL Begins Week of eIPP Flights across North Texas

Aviation International News reports Joby Aviation has launched a week of electric air taxi demonstration flights across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, marking the first Texas operations under the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). The flights are part of Project Nexus, a regional initiative spanning Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana designed to encompass what officials describe as a “deliberate mix of dense urban airspace, a coastal energy corridor, and rural sovereign land.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

Scaling Autonomy: Build Faster, Learn Together

FROM THE INSTITUTE
We can now generate software faster than we can believe it.

Generative AI is not autonomy. It does not give a system authority to decide or act. But its arrival in the safety-critical build chain is the most consequential recent change in how we build and scale aerospace autonomy. It has changed the rate at which we can produce code, tests, documentation, and designs that enter the safety-critical build chain. Production can now move faster than the processes we use to justify confidence in what we build.