Tag: Test Flight

Virgin Galactic’s Four-Member Test Flight Will Take Place This Month

Reuters reports that Virgin Galactic Holdings announced May 8 that its “four-member test flight will take place in May and that it aims to launch its first commercial flight in late June.” Last May, Virgin Galactic “delayed its commercial service to the first quarter of 2023 due to supply-chain crisis and labor shortage. After completing a lengthy upgrade for its centerpiece tourist spacecraft in February, Virgin Galactic re-opened ticket sales for spacecraft flights, setting the price at $450,000 per person with an initial deposit of $150,000.” Mike Moses, president of spaceline missions and safety, said, “Returning to space is what we have all worked towards.” According to Reuters, the “mission crew will consist of Jamila Gilbert, Christopher Hue, Luke Mays and Beth Moses.”
Full Story (Reuters)

SpaceX Awaits FAA Approval for Starship Orbital Test Flight

The Miami Herald reports that after “running through a successful test fire this month, SpaceX is set to fly its massive Starship and Super Heavy rocket, and is just waiting on the Federal Aviation Administration for the green light, according to one company official.” The company said the static fire test in which 31 of the rocket’s 33 engines performed as expected was the first and only necessary step towards an orbital test flight.
Full Story (Miami Herald)

Beta Technologies Partners with Blade Air Mobility on eVOTL Test Flight

Aviation International News reports that on Tuesday, Beta Technologies “made a test flight of its six-seat, all-electric Alia-250 EVA eVTOL at the Westchester County Airport (KHPN) in White Plains, New York.” The flight, which was performed in cooperation with Blade Air Mobility, “was the first of an eVTOL aircraft in the New York metropolitan area.” The Alia-250 flew “alongside a conventional helicopter before pulling away for a second pass above the airport to highlight the eVTOL’s comparative quietness.” Beta claims that “its noise profile is one-tenth that of a conventional helicopter.” In April 2021, Blade “agreed to facilitate the purchase of up to 20 passenger-configured Alia-250s by its network of operators.” Blade intends to “deploy these aircraft on routes between its network of dedicated terminals in the U.S. Beta has also agreed to provide and install charging infrastructure at certain key locations.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

World’s Largest Aircraft Flies Record Test Flight Carrying Hypersonic Talon-A

The Daily Mail (UK) reports that the world’s largest aircraft “with a 383-foot wingspan recently took to the skies over the Mojave Desert in California to complete a six-hour test flight for a new record.” The Stratolaunch Roc carrier plane “conducted its second test flight Friday morning while carrying the Talon-A separation test vehicle.” The flight is “a significant step for the company’s progress toward the separation test and its first hypersonic flight of TA-1 within the first half of 2023.” The primary objectives “for Friday’s flight, which is the craft’s ninth take off, included flight outside of the local Mojave area for the first time and evaluation of the separation environment.” Zachary Krevor, chief executive officer and president of Stratolaunch, said in a statement: “Our amazing team is continuing to make progress on our test timeline, and it is through their hard work that we grow closer than ever to safe separation and our first hypersonic flight tests.”
Full Story (Daily Mail)

SpaceX Prepares Starship for Test Flight

The Hill reports that the first launch “of SpaceX’s massive rocket, called Starship, could be coming soon.” The company shared “a series of photos highlighting the vehicle’s progress ahead of its highly anticipated test flight.” Starship consists “of two major components: a massive first-stage booster called the ‘Super Heavy’ and an upper stage known as ‘Starship.’” In typical SpaceX fashion, “both aspects of the craft are designed to be fully reusable.” The company has been “working its way towards the program’s first orbital test flight, which CEO Elon Musk says is coming soon, and could take place as soon as the end of February.”
Full Story (The Hill)

XQ-58A Valkyrie Test Flight Successful

Unmanned Systems Technology reports Kratos Defense & Security Solutions “recently completed a successful flight of its production XQ-58A Valkyrie aircraft for the Block 2 Valkyrie Maturation Program.” During a test flight performed at Yuma Proving Ground, the XQ-58A flew “longer, higher, at a heavier mission weight, and at a longer range than the platform has previously been approved for” and demonstrated. The flight also “demonstrated encrypted communications with redundant radios/communications” and “key autonomous capability for the end of mission phase of flight and recovery of the aircraft without RF comms.”
Full Story (Unmanned Systems Technology)

Boeing Planning Starliner Test Flight Atop ULA Atlas V on May 19

The Houston Chronicle reports that The Boeing Company has announced that it plans to launch its CST-100 Starliner test flight – originally scheduled for August 3 of last year – on May 19. “Next month, Boeing will launch its Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. They will lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.”
Full Story (Houston Chronicle)

Volocopter Flies eVTOL Prototype

Aviation International News reported that Volocopter made the first FAA-approved flight of an eVTOL aircraft Tuesday at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The crewed Volocopter 2X prototype flew a four-minute sortie at around 164 feet. Volocopter confirmed that it is working on the four-seat VoloConnect aircraft, expected to have a 60-mile range and top speed of 155 mph.
Full Story (Aviation International News)