Defense News reports, “The V-22 program office is studying the future of the tiltrotor aircraft, weighing both a technology refresh as well as whether it could rip off the wings and nacelles to add decades of additional life to the airframes.”
Full Story (Defense News)
Tag: Cleared
Blue Origin Permitted to Bid on National-Security Launches
Defense One reports, “The Pentagon has picked three companies—Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance—for its new satellite launch competition that was built to usher new entrants into the market … This marks a big win for Blue Origin, which has yet to fly a national security mission.”
Full Story (Defense One)
Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Cleared for June 1 Launch
SPACE reports, “The first-ever astronaut launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule, known as Crew Flight Test, is ‘go’ for its planned June 1 launch, NASA announced today (May 29). CFT will send NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) for a roughly week-long stay. The mission is set to launch atop a ULA Atlas V rocket on Saturday at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Florida’s Space Coast.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Pratt & Whitney Cleared to Resume F-135 Engine Deliveries
Reuters reported that Raytheon Technologies Corp. said Friday that the US government has “cleared its Pratt and Whitney unit to resume deliveries of its F-135 engine for the F-35 fighter jet, after a halt was put in place in December following the discovery of a safety concern.” In a statement, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said that its “engineers worked alongside Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin to develop ‘mitigations for a rare system phenomenon involving harmonic resonance to develop a path forward for safe operation of the F135 in flight.’” The JPO added that the “actions the government and industry team are taking will ensure incorporation of mitigation measures that will fully address/resolve this rare phenomenon in impacted F135 engines.” The JPO also said that the “government was working on drawing up instructions for safely resuming flight operations for impacted and new production aircraft.”
Full Story (Reuters)
USAF’s CV-22 Ospreys Cleared to Resume Flying Amid Unresolved Gearbox Issue
Aviation Week reported that on September 2, US Air Force Special Operations Command “returned its CV-22 fleet to flight after more than two weeks of grounding because of an issue with the tiltrotor’s gearbox for which the service still does not have a root cause.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Japan Clears V-22 Osprey Fleet to Resume Flights
Flying Magazine reports, “The Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) has cleared its V-22 Osprey fleet to return to flight after determining pilot error was the cause of an October accident on Yonaguni Island. The incident occurred during a joint exercise with U.S. military where the V-22 Osprey tilted and hit the ground as it was taking off, though no injuries were reported among the 16 on board.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha Rocket Cleared to Fly Again
SPACE reports, “The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared Firefly Aerospace to resume launches of its Alpha rocket. The approval follows a months-long review of the mission in April, during which the rocket’s first stage broke apart moments after separation and compromised the vehicle’s second stage.”
Full Story (SPACE)
DoD Validates Kraus Hamdani Aerospace’s K1000ULE UAS for Defense and Commercial Use
Unmanned Systems Technology reports, “Kraus Hamdani Aerospace’s fully electric, long-endurance K1000ULE UAS has been added to the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit Blue UAS Cleared and Select Lists, confirming it as a trusted, secure, NDAA-compliant drone ready for immediate procurement.”
Full Story (Unmanned Systems Technology)
Videos
K1000ULE VTOL Landing
(Stefan Kraus; YouTube)
V-BAT UAS Cleared for Coast Guard Deployment After Successful Testing
Defense Daily reports, “The V-BAT unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has successfully complete{d} operational test and evaluation with the Coast Guard, clearing the way for the service to begin employing the drones aboard its National Security Cutters (NSCs) for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance uses, the service and drone supplier said on Thursday.
Full Story (Defense Daily)