Aviation Week reports “editors James Pozzi and Lindsay Bjerregaard are joined by Dejan Borota, CEO and co-founder of drone-based inspection specialist Mainblades, to discuss technology’s development in MRO, the role of artificial intelligence in inspections and the direction future adoption is heading.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: aircraft
Stratolaunch Reusable Hypersonic Vehicle Exceeds Mach 5 in Two Test Flights
Space News reports, “The U.S. is re-entering the era of reusable hypersonic flight testing for the first time in more than half a century, using an autonomous drone developed by Stratolaunch. The hypersonic vehicle named Talon A2 exceeded Mach 5—the threshold for hypersonic speed—in two Pentagon-backed test flights conducted in December 2024 and March 2025, the Defense Department confirmed May 5.”
Full Story (Space News)
Amazon Prime Air Plans First Drone Delivery Service in a Major U.S. City
Flying Magazine reports, “Less than one month after resuming drone delivery following a voluntary two-month operational hiatus, Amazon’s Prime Air is eyeing its first service in a major U.S. city. Amazon spokesperson Andy DiOrio told the Kansas City Star that Prime Air is considering moving into the Missouri metroplex. Kansas City would represent the company’s third and largest operation. Its population of half a million people dwarfs the number of customers it could reach with its other services in College Station, Texas, and Tolleson, Arizona.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
Gecko Robotics and L3Harris to Partner on Inspector Drones to Reduce Aircraft Maintenance Times
Defense One reports, “A robotics company and a defense contractor have teamed up for a high-tech fix to the military’s aircraft maintenance problem. Gecko Robotics and L3Harris announced Wednesday they will use drones to take thousands of images of aircraft and build digital twins, leading to much faster turnaround times for maintenance.“
Full Story (Defense One)
First Piloted Hydrogen-Electric Helicopter Flight Takes Place
Aviation Week reports, “The first flight of a hydrogen-powered helicopter has been accomplished in Canada by Unither Bioelectronics. A subsidiary of bioetechnology company United Therapeutics (UT), Unither modified the piston-powered Robinson R44 to hydrogen-electric propulsion using a fuel cell power system.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Navy Partners with Shift5 to Prevent Future Gearbox Disasters on V-22 Osprey
Defense News reports, “The Navy has awarded defense and aviation technology company Shift5 a contract to test predictive maintenance technology on the V-22 Osprey, which the company hopes might prevent gearbox catastrophes that have proven fatal in recent years.”
Full Story (Defense News)
Marines Corps Aviation Plan Highlights Importance of New Osprey Gearbox Sensors
Defense Daily reports, “The Marine Corps’ newest Aviation Plan underscored the importance of new sensors to be installed on the V-22 Osprey to better predict when parts need to be replaced to avoid previous incidents. The document said this new Osprey Drive System Safety and…”
Full Story (Defense Daily – Subscription Publication)
Pipistrel Flight-Tests NUUVA V300 Hybrid-Electric VTOL
Aerotime reports, “Pipistrel, a division of Textron eAviation, announced that its new NUUVA V300 hybrid-electric unmanned VTOL aircraft successfully completed its first flight on January 31, 2025, in Gorizia, northeastern Italy, next to the Slovenian border. The NUUVA is an unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed to carry 300 kg of cargo (the equivalent of three euro-pallets) over distances of up to 300 km.”
Full Story (Aerotime)
Video
Nuuva V300 makes first successful flight-test
(Pipistrel Aircraft; YouTube)
Supply Chain and Labor Challenges Continue in High-Demand Commercial Market Forecast
Aviation Week reports, “Demand is surging across commercial aviation even as an imbalance persists between supply and demand, according to the Aviation Week Network 2025 Commercial Fleet & MRO Forecast presented at the Aero Engines Americas conference on Jan. 28. Hamstrung by supply chain and labor challenges, deliveries by major aircraft OEMs in the fourth quarter of 2024 were down 17% over 2023 and 20% over 2019. Overall, in 2024, deliveries in 2024 fell 10% on an annual basis.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
FAA Introduces Downwash Caution Area for Vertiports
Aviation Week reports “When the FAA released draft updated engineering guidelines for vertiports in September 2024, it introduced the requirement for a caution area to provide protection from the high wind velocities produced by the propellers of electric air taxis during vertical takeoffs and landings. The introduction of the downwash caution area (DCA) was the result of flight surveys of multiple prototype electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft for the FAA.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)