Unmanned Systems Technology reports, “AeroVironment (AV) has successfully demonstrated its JUMP® 20 uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) with a heavy fuel engine. The higher horsepower and lower fuel burn rate provided by the heavy fuel engine expands the capabilities of AV’s proven JUMP 20 platform.”
Full Story (Unmanned Systems Techology)
Tag: flight tests
NASA Delays Test Flights of X-59 to 2024
Aviation Week in paywalled coverage reports NASA “has pushed back the first flight of the X-59 low-boom supersonic demonstrator to 2024 after a series of subsystem issues encountered during check-out tests at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, late this summer proved harder to solve than expected.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Reliable Robotics Flight Tests Cessna Caravan to Demonstrate Technology
FlightGlobal reports that Reliable Robotics has “completed flight tests intended to demonstrate that its autonomous systems can allow pilotless aircraft to operate safely in air-traffic-control-managed airspace.” On Monday, the company “said it performed the tests, which included three flights of its Cessna 208 Caravan, in Northern California in recent weeks.” The work “demonstrated that aircraft equipped with Reliable’s
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
USAF Ramps Up Drone Wingmen Plans
Defense News reports that the US Air Force “is ramping up plans for incorporating drone wingmen into its fleet, and envisions 1,000 of the so-called collaborative combat aircraft in service as it sketches out ideas.” USAF Secretary Frank Kendall said the service will request congressional funding in 2024 for the CCA program so it can map out operations, organization, and support for the new systems, including the Next Generation Air Dominance program of futuristic fighter aircraft.
Full Story (Defense News)
Second Loyal Wingman UAV Performs Flight Tests
Aviation Week reports that a second Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS), “better known as the Loyal Wingman, has commenced flight tests at Australia’s Woomera Range Complex, including the raising and lower of the undercarriage.” Both UAVs “are performing separate flight tests.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
FAA Administrator to Test Fly Boeing 737 MAX This Week
Airways reported that on Friday, the FAA “confirmed that the Boeing 737 MAX will undergo flight tests next week, including one piloted by FAA Administrator and former Delta Air Lines (DL) Pilot Steve Dickson.” In a statement, the FAA said that Dickson and FAA Deputy Administrator Dan Elwell “will be in Seattle” this week “to take the recommended training that the JOEB (Joint Operations Evaluation Board) evaluated. Following the simulator training, Administrator Dickson is tentatively scheduled to pilot a Boeing 737 MAX on September 30, 2020, fulfilling his promise to fly the aircraft before the FAA approves its return to service.”
Full Story (Airways)
Vertical Aerospace Begins Untethered Flight Tests
Aerotime reports, “British eVTOL developer Vertical Aerospace has conducted the first untethered flight of its VX4 prototype, kicking off Phase Two of its development program. Until now Vertical Aerospace had conducted piloted flight tests, but with the aircraft always tethered to the ground by a cable.”
Full Story (Aerotime)
US Air Force to Field Loyal Wingman UAVs
FlightGlobal reports that the US Air Force “is ready to move beyond experimentation with unmanned combat aircraft and toward acquiring and fielding the next-generation unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, “We are going to take a period of time to sort all that out and then we are going to get onto something that we are going to field. It’s a commitment to going forward in a direction that we have been thinking about and experimenting with but haven’t committed to before. So, that’s a major change actually.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
Flight Tests Prove Capability of Sikorsky’s ‘Rotor Blown Wing’ Drone
Defense News reports, “Through extensive flight tests earlier this year, Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky has proven the capability of a ‘rotor blown wing’ unmanned aircraft system that can fly like a helicopter or an airplane, the company announced Monday. The drone is a 115-pound, battery-powered twin prop-rotor aircraft that the company said can be scaled larger, ‘requiring hybrid-electric propulsion.’”
Full Story (Defense News)
Video
Sikorsky Flies Rotor Blown Wing UAS in Helicopter and Airplane Modes
(Lockheed Martin; YouTube)