Tag: September 2024

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)

Space Station Cracking Presents “Highest” Risk and Consequence Problem, NASA Confirms

Ars Technica reports, “US space officials do not like to talk about the perils of flying astronauts on the aging International Space Station, elements of which are now more than a quarter of a century old. However, a new report confirms that NASA managers responsible for operating the space station are seriously concerned about a small Russian part of the station, essentially a tunnel that connects a larger module to a docking port, which is leaking. … A new report, published Thursday by NASA’s inspector general, provides details not previously released by the space agency that underline the severity of the problem.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

Boeing Pauses 737 Production

Flying Magazine reports, “Boeing 737 production ground to a halt on Wednesday as the company continues to be riddled with costly strikes in the Pacific Northwest. A Fortune report stated that two separate representatives from Boeing confirmed the production stoppage after a Tuesday Bank of America analyst note suggested production of the company’s best-selling jets had come to a ‘complete halt.’”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

SpaceX Crew 9 Mission That Will Bring Back Starliner Astronauts Prepares for Launch

USA Today reports, “The SpaceX Dragon that next year will ferry the Starliner astronauts back to Earth is preparing to finally depart for the International Space Station as early as this weekend. Aboard the company’s Dragon capsule will be two Crew-9 astronauts embarking to the orbital outpost for a six-month rotation to perform a slew of research and experiments. Originally scheduled for an August launch, the mission had been delayed while NASA and Boeing officials worked to figure out what to do about the troubled Starliner spacecraft taking up the Dragon’s docking port.”
Full Story (USA Today)

Innovators Invited to Compete to Build Best Autonomous Emergency Response Aircraft

Flying Magazine reports, “Calling all students, engineers, businesses, and other innovators. Time is running out to join a competition that will award $2 million in prizes to whoever can build the best autonomous emergency response aircraft. December 11 is the submission deadline for Stage 1 of GoAERO—a three-year contest backed by NASA, Boeing, RTX, and other key aviation stakeholders seeking to aid the estimated 4.5 million Americans living in ‘ambulance deserts,’ who may need to wait longer than 25 minutes for emergency services to arrive. The aircraft created by competitors could rescue people in danger and respond to disasters, medical emergencies, or humanitarian crises.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 Makes 4th Successful Test Flight

Simple Flying reports, “Boom Supersonic conducted a fourth and successful Boom XB-1test flight, this time reaching an altitude of 16,150 feet and a speed of Mach 0.617 (about 313 knots equivalent airspeed) during tests for flutter, g-forces, handling, and landing gear. The proof-of-concept XB-1 is helping educate Boom Supersonic on how to build and test supersonic aircraft in the lead-up to building Boom Overture.”
Full Story (Simple Flying)

Honeywell Unveils Its SAMURAI AI-Enabled Counter-Drone Swarm System

National Defense Magazine reports, “Honeywell has launched its Stationary and Mobile UAS Reveal and Intercept system, or SAMURAI, which is designed to counter swarm drones and protect critical assets in an increasingly contested airspace, the company announced Sept. 16. The system, which can be used on vehicles and fixed-based platforms, combines ‘beyond-visual-line-of-sight communication with command-and-control capabilities’ to ‘detect, track and then counter drone swarms.’”
Full Story (National Defense Magazine)

SpaceX Preps for Upcoming Test Flight by Firing Up Engines on 6th Starship

SPACE reports, “SpaceX fired up the engines of its sixth Starship vehicle on Wednesday (Sept. 18) to gear up for a test flight that’s probably still several months away. The company performed a “static fire” on Wednesday (Sept. 18) at its Starbase site in South Texas, briefly igniting the six Raptor engines of Ship 31, the upper stage of the vehicle that will conduct the sixth Starship test flight.”
Full Story (SPACE)

 

Launch Companies Increasing Flight Rates of New Vehicles to Meet Demand

Space News reports, “Companies that are fielding new launch vehicles are now facing the challenge of scaling up operations to meet the continued high demand for them. During a panel discussion at World Space Business Week here Sept. 16, executives with several launch companies that have or are about to introduce new launch vehicles say they are turning their attention to increasing their launch cadence. Among the most aggressive is Blue Origin, whose New Glenn rocket is scheduled to make its inaugural launch as soon as November.”
Full Story (Space News)

Air Force Addresses Major Flaw in its Drone Wingman Strategy

Defense News reports, “Whatever the next chapter of U.S. air power will look like, there will be drones — and lots of them — accompanying manned fighters into battle. But as Air Force leaders translated their vision into an acquisition strategy, a novel meeting of the minds — at least by Defense Department standards — may have saved the service from a major miscalculation: A new cohort of so-called collaborative combat aircraft, as originally envisioned, wouldn’t be able to fly far enough to be effective in combat, which would have been a serious problem in the Pacific theater.”
Full Story (Defense News)

Vertical Aerospace Completes VX4 Phase One Testing

Reuters reports, “UK-based Vertical Aerospace has completed the first phase of piloted testing of a prototype of its air-taxi, VX4, it said on Thursday, sending the company’s shares up 3.9% in U.S. premarket trading. The VX4 has 1,500 pre-orders worth $6 billion from companies including Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and Japan Airlines. The phase one testing included multiple piloted tethered flights and ground runs. It completed 70 individual test points to validate its safety in the real-world flight scenarios.”
Full Story (Reuters)

FAA Says Agency Must Ensure Adequate Safety Measures Before 737 Max Production Can Expand

Reuters reports, “The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday the agency must ensure the planemaker’s safety processes are adequate before it will lift its 737 MAX production cap. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he raised the issue with Boeing’s new chief executive Kelly Ortberg and wants to ensure the planemaker follows through on its quality turnaround plan.”
Full Story (Reuters)

Self-Flying Cessna Begins Testing for FAA Validation

Flying Magazine reports, “Self-flying aircraft may be closer to takeoff than you think. On Thursday, Boston-based Merlin Labs announced it began what it claims is the first test campaign of a certification-ready, takeoff-to-touchdown autonomous flight system. The company’s Merlin Pilot is designed to one day allow small aircraft to fly with no humans on board.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

U.S. Air Force to Boost its MH-139 Fleet by Adding Over a Dozen Helos

Breaking Defense reports, “After moving to halve the fleet in fiscal year 2025, a new Pentagon review says the Air Force now plans to add over a dozen MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters back into the aircraft’s program of record — averting a “critical” cost breach in the process. The planned procurement boost is likely a boon to prime contractor Boeing as well as Italian firm Leonardo, whose commercial AW139 serves as the Grey Wolf’s baseline.”
Full Story (Breaking Defense)

ESA Targeting Wednesday Night for Final Launch of its First-Generation Vega Rocket

Spaceflight Now reports, “Update 7:05 a.m. EDT: Arianespace announced that the mission is scrubbed for a Tuesday night launch attempt due to “electrical issues” and is working towards an opportunity on Wednesday, Sept. 4. The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to complete its transition to its Vega-C rocket with the final launch of its first-generation Vega rocket. The mission, dubbed VV24, will carry an Earth-imaging satellite to a sun-synchronous orbit.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Wilmore Reports Strange Noise Coming from Starliner Spacecraft

Ars Technica reports, “On Saturday NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed some strange noises emanating from a speaker inside the Starliner spacecraft. ‘I’ve got a question about Starliner,’ Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. ‘There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker… I don’t know what’s making it.’ Wilmore said he was not sure if there was some oddity in the connection between the station and the spacecraft causing the noise, or something else. He asked the flight controllers in Houston to see if they could listen to the audio inside the spacecraft. A few minutes later, Mission Control radioed back that they were linked via ‘hardline’ to listen to audio inside Starliner, which has now been docked to the International Space Station for nearly three months.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

Blue Origin Conducts Hot Fire Test on New Glenn’s Upper Stage

Aviation Week reports, “Blue Origin on Sept. 23 conducted a 15-sec. hot fire of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen-fueled upper stage for its first New Glenn rocket, in what the company called a critical milestone on the road to flight. The static test fire at Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral SFS marked Blue Origin’s first fueling of a New Glenn rocket stage with flight propellants, and the first engine burn of an integrated flight stage.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)