Tag: Aviation

Boeing Flies Upgraded AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter for First Time

Defense News reports Boeing announced at the AUSA conference that it has “flown a new version of the AH-64E Apache attack helicopter with upgraded capabilities.” Boeing said in a statement that the “Version 6.5 attack helicopter, which Boeing went under contract to produce with the U.S. Army in December 2021, includes software updates and improvements to the pilot interface.” According to Boeing, “some upgrades are an optimized route and attack planning capability, enhanced Link 16 features, and an open-systems architecture that will allow for easy technology insertion later on.” 
Full Story (Defense News)

Amazon Launches Aviation Maintenance Career Training Program

Aviation Week reported that Amazon has “joined widespread efforts to grow the aviation maintenance workforce pipeline.” It has “partnered with a recently launched Part 147 school in Lakeland, Florida to offer a career training program for workers interested in pursuing a new career path in MRO.” The partnership is “part of Amazon’s Career Choice program, which enables its employees to learn new skills to launch career paths internally or in other industries.” The program “includes a vertical called Pathways, in which Amazon covers tuition costs to help employees earn certifications in areas such as technology, health care, transportation, mechanical and industrial systems, and business and administration systems.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Aircraft Manufacturers Prepare for Uncrewed Future

Politico reports that every commercial flight “has two pilots at the controls – but some planemakers are now designing cockpits that need fewer pilots, or someday even none.” So far, their airline customers “have been quiet on the issue, but pilots’ unions across the globe are getting louder, saying any fewer than two pilots is dangerous.” The idea “is most active in Europe, where French manufacturers Airbus and Dassault are pushing for regulators to allow passenger planes to operate with only one pilot in the cockpit for the majority of a long-haul flight.” European Cockpit Association President and KLM Captain Otjan de Bruijn said, “It’s a commercially-driven initiative with enormous risks for passengers, for pilots, and for cabin crew.” At present, this is theoretical, but manufacturers “are actively developing and testing a host of autonomous flight projects, including for commercial uses.” And EASA, the European Union’s aviation regulator, “is considering a concept that would have two pilots in the cockpit only for take-off and landing.” For the rest of the flight, the second pilot “would rest outside the cockpit, swapping shifts mid-way through a long-haul flight.” EASA is “expected to sign off on this by 2027.” A FAA official “said the agency is not considering any of the proposals that EASA is weighing.”
Full Story (Politico)

United Airlines Partners with Archer Aviation for Chicago Air Taxis

CBS News Chicago reports that United Airlines “is teaming up with Archer Aviation to provide air taxi service between O’Hare International Airport and the West Loop starting in 2025, at the same time construction on the Kennedy Expressway will be causing major delays for outbound traffic. United and Archer plan to launch the city’s first air taxi route between O’Hare and Vertiport Chicago on the Near West Side close to Pilsen and the Illinois Medical District, offering 10-minute rides between the airport and the downtown area.”
Full Story (CBS News Chicago)

USN to Purchase Two Kratos Valkyries

Aviation Week reports that the U.S. Navy “is buying two Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) with sensor and weapon payloads as the service is developing its plans for future uncrewed autonomous aircraft.” The Pentagon “announced the $15.5 million cost-plus fixed-fee contract on Dec. 30.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Pratt & Whitney’s Engine Powers New B-21

Connecticut Post reports that the B-21 “is the Air Force’s first new bomber since the 1989 debut of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, with both using a ‘flying wing’ design to reduce the odds of showing up on radar, which uses four engines from GE Aviation.” The Air Force “has yet to specify how many engines will power the B-21.” Military trade publications “have cited analyst speculation that the B-21 engine may be a variant of the F135 engine Pratt & Whitney makes for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet.” Pratt & Whitney recently “completed its 1,000th engine under the F135 program.” Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said, “The F135 … is the safest, most capable and best-value, military jet engine in operation. We’re working on the F135 engine core upgrade. … This will allow the F135 to provide even more thrust, range and electrification to the aircraft.”
Full Story (Connecticut Post)

Communication Problems Cause Major US Carriers to Ground Flights

Reuters reports that top U.S. airlines including Delta, United, and American, issued ground stops on Friday citing communication issues, as a global outage roiled operations across a wide swathe of industries around the world. American Airlines, however, later said in a statement it had re-established operations. Frontier and Spirit too cancelled directives to ground planes. It was not clear if the groundings reported by the major U.S. airlines were related to outages at Microsoft, and cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike that affected “banking, healthcare and a number of other sectors globally on Friday.”
Full Story (Reuters)

Army Revamping Air Crew Training With Focus on Aircraft and Simulators

Defense News reports, “After several fatal Army aircraft crashes and the arrival of a more complicated airspace in the future, the service is reviewing and updating how it trains its pilots and its warrant officers in particular. Those changes will likely include a look at the types of helicopters soldiers are training with, simulator time and effectiveness, new rotor blades and tail rotor drive systems for the Apache and warrant officers sticking to their technical tasks for longer in the careers.”
Full Story (Defense News)

Early eVTOL Aircraft Deliveries Increase EHang’s Revenues

Aviation International News reports, “Early deliveries of its autonomous two-seat EH216-S eVTOL aircraft boosted EHang’s revenues in the fourth quarter of 2023. Having secured type certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on October 13, the Guangzhou-based company is still awaiting clearance for the production certificate needed to advance to higher-volume series production but managed to deliver 23 aircraft in the last three months of last year.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

T-7A Red Hawk Trainer Wraps Up Extreme Temperature Testing

Flying Magazine reports that the U.S. Air Force’s new Boeing T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer has finished extreme temperature testing to evaluate “its endurance from hot deserts to deep-freeze conditions.” The monthlong trial, conducted at the McKinley Climatic Lab at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, included testing the aircraft’s electronics and instrumentation “in temperatures ranging from 110 degrees to minus-25 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

Airbus Delivers 323 Aircraft in First Half

Reuters reports, “Airbus confirmed on Monday it had delivered 323 airplanes in the first half of the year, up 2% from 316 in the same period of 2023. The world’s largest planemaker also said in a monthly bulletin that it had won 327 gross orders in the first six months of 2024, or a net total of 310 after cancellations.”
Full Story (Reuters)

Weekend Competition Will Test University Students’ Aircraft Designs to Deliver Vaccine Components

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More Than 700 Students Gather for Annual Design/Build/Fly Competition

April 18, 2022 – – Reston, Va. – – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is returning to Wichita with its annual Design/Build/Fly (DBF) contest, April 22-24. The weekend event is hosted by Textron Aviation. More than 700 talented engineering students from universities in 13 countries, including the University of Kansas, will gather to test the radio-controlled aircraft they designed and built to deliver and drop vaccine components. Credentialed members of the media are invited to witness the flyoffs and awards presentation.

WHEN:
Friday, April 22
9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. Flight line open for university teams

Saturday, April 23
9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. Flight line open for university teams

Sunday, April 24
8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Flight line open for university teams
5:30 p.m. Awards presentation

WHERE:
Textron Aviation Employees’ Flying Club
10335 E. Central Avenue
Wichita, KS, 67206

Visitors will be allowed at the competition site, but not elsewhere on campus without prior coordination and an employee accompanying them.

WHAT:

  • Daily flights of radio-controlled aircraft by university teams
  • Missions will include deployment of the aircraft, staging of vaccination syringes, and delivery of environmentally sensitive vaccine vial packages.
  • The objective is to design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an uncrewed, electric-powered, radio-controlled aircraft that can best meet the specified mission profile.
  • The goal is a balanced design possessing good flight handling qualities and practical and affordable manufacturing requirements while providing a high vehicle performance.

HEALTH and SAFETY:
COVID protocols will apply for entering the facility and all indoor spaces, including wearing masks. AIAA will be implementing its major event health and safety protocols for DBF. Journalists must follow all instructions for uploading proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test results. Refer to https://aiaa.org/dbf/health-and-safety for more information.

CONTACT:
To attend in person, contact:

Amanda Jennings
AIAA Social Media Specialist
470-214-7464
[email protected]

Kate Flavin
Textron Aviation Communications Specialist
316-252-7780
[email protected]

SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow the competition on AIAA Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag: #AIAADBF

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About DBF
The Design/Build/Fly (DBF) competition (aiaa.org/dbf) is celebrating its 26th year. Started in 1996 by the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design and Flight Test Technical Committees, DBF is an opportunity for university students to apply real-world aircraft design experience by giving them the opportunity to validate their analytic studies.

Student teams design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an uncrewed, electric-powered, radio-controlled aircraft that can best meet the specified mission profile. The goal is a balanced design possessing good demonstrated flight handling qualities and practical and affordable manufacturing requirements while providing a high vehicle performance.

To encourage innovation and maintain a fresh design challenge for each new year’s participants, the design requirements and performance objective are updated for each new contest year. The changes provide new design requirements and opportunities, while allowing for application of technology developed by the teams from prior years.

2022 DBF Sponsors: Textron Aviation, Raytheon Technologies, AIAA Foundation, AeroVironment, General Atomics Aeronautical, MathWorks, Spirit Aerosystems.

Boeing’s Largest Union Approves New Contract, Ending Lengthy and Costly Strike

The New York Times reports, “Members of Boeing’s largest union approved a new contract on Monday, ending a weekslong strike that was one of the country’s most financially damaging work stoppages in decades. The contract was endorsed by 59 percent of those voting, according to the union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.”
Full Story (New York Times – Subscription Publication)

A400M Operators Set to Receive New Upgrades, Support Package

Aviation Week reports, “Airbus’ A400M airlifter is set to receive a series of upgrades as part of a new agreement between the launch customer nations. The upgrades package, called Block Upgrade 0, will update the turboprop-engine transport aircraft’s flight management systems, ensure the wider fleets are compliant with NATO requirements, and improve the aircraft’s communications capabilities.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)