In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Apr. 06, 2022

Boeing Starts Inducting CH-47Fs For Block II Conversion

Boeing has started the induction process for the first of four CH-47F Chinook Block II helicopters ordered by the U.S. Army in November. The induction milestone means the Army has delivered a CH-47F Block 1 ordered in 2005 to Boeing.Credit: Boeing

China Tests New Military Helicopter With ‘Innovative Design’

China has commenced flight tests on a new helicopter prototype that features an “innovative design,” state-controlled newspaper Global Times reported. The helicopter is a self-funded project between Changhe Aircraft Industry (Group) Corporation and the China Helicopter Research and Development Institute. Both are part of state-owned AVIC. Credit: Jiangxi Television via Global Times

Boeing Boosts Operations Into Cloud With Amazon, Google, Microsoft

In a major step forward in its digitalization, including overhauling how it designs and builds new aircraft, Boeing announced a series of deals with the highest-profile cloud-computing providers. In separate announcements, Boeing unveiled expansions of existing relationships with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft for their cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) offerings. Credit: Boeing

GA-ASI Unveils Eagle Eye Radar Upgrade For MQ-1C

General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has developed an improved radar for the MQ-1C Gray Eagle-Extended Range unmanned aircraft system (UAS) as the U.S. Army looks to define requirements for a “multi-domain operations” (MDO) upgrade. The Eagle Eye multi-mode radar adds a “video synthetic aperture radar” (SAR) capability to the medium-altitude UAS. Credit: GA-ASI

Doosan Raises Funds For Hydrogen Cargo Drones

South Korea’s Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI) has secured a 27 billion won ($22 million) investment, primarily for the development of cargo drones powered by hydrogen fuel cells. A subsidiary of Korean conglomerate Doosan, DMI has developed a range of hydrogen-powered drones including the DS30, with a 2-hr flight time carrying a payload up to 5 kg (11 lb.). Credit: Doosan Mobility Innovation

Canada’s NRC Flies Cessna As Hybrid-Electric Testbed

Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) has begun flight tests of a Cessna 337G Skymaster modified into a hybrid-electric propulsion testbed. Flights began in February at NRC’s Aerospace Research Center in Ottawa. Credit: NRC Aerospace

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Costs Concern NASA IG

NASA could be too hands-off in its oversight of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), an audit from the agency’s inspector general (IG) says. VIPER is a robotic mission selected under a new commercial lunar science and technology initiative that will robotically explore the Moon’s south pole for water ice deposits. The findings could help to inform where Artemis III, the first mission to return astronauts to the lunar surface, touches down. Credit: NASA

Bell Shows Redesigned V-247 For Future Navy Fleet

Bell has scaled down and redesigned the unmanned V-247 tiltrotor to propose as a member of family of systems that would become the U.S. Navy’s Future Vertical Lift-Maritime Strike (FVL-MS) program. The new, 28,000-lb. version of the V-247 features a folding blade and rotor system to allow the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to operate from the hangars of Aegis-class destroyers, says Carl Forsling, a sales and strategy senior manager at Bell. Credit: Bell

U.S. Navy Sets New Distance Record With Gun-Launched Projectile

A hypersonic projectile fired by an electromagnetic railgun set a new distance record during a March test, flying 109 nm at a speed around Mach 5, a U.S. Navy official said April 6. The flight by the Hypercone projectile gathered data of interest to the community of military researchers working in the hypersonic field, says Adam Jones, division head for the advanced hypersonics and guided munitions division at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Credit: BAE Systems

UK Extends Wildcat Helicopter Support Contract

The UK’s Ministry of Defense has renewed a support contract with Leonardo Helicopters to sustain the Royal Navy and British Army’s fleet of AW159 Wildcat helicopters. The £360 million ($470.7 million) extension to the Wildcat Integrated Support and Training (WIST) contract, announced April 6, will sustain the UK’s Wildcats for the next five years, providing spares, maintenance service, technical support and delivering training to the 62-strong fleet. Credit: Philippine Navy

U.S. Navy Considers Combining T-45 Replacement With TSA Fleet

An order for a fleet of Tactical Surrogate Aircraft (TSA) could be combined with the U.S. Navy’s plans to replace the Boeing T-45 Goshawk with a new Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS), a Navy official says. Credit: U.S. Navy

U.S. Navy Starts Testing SIGINT-Equipped MQ-4C Triton

Flight testing has started on the latest version of the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton equipped with all mission systems and software, a company executive says. The first example of the high-altitude unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in its Integrated Flight Capability-4 (IFC-4) configuration began flying in July 2021, but was limited to flight sciences testing, says Doug Shaffer, Northrop’s vice president of autonomous intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting programs. Credit: US Navy

Universal Hydrogen Plans To Fly Fuel-Cell-Powered Dash 8

California–Universal Hydrogen plans to flight test its 1-megawatt, hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system on a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 regional aircraft starting around September. Experimental flight testing will be conducted at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington. The campaign is separate from the company’s planned supplemental type certification flight tests of its hydrogen fuel-cell system aboard the regional aircraft. Credit: Universal Hydrogen

Europe Needs To Invest In Mass, High Technology, MBDA CEO Warns

European countries will need to make investments in high-technology weapons and larger munitions stocks if they are to be prepared for a high-intensity conflict, the CEO of missile manufacturer MBDA says. Eric Berenger said one of the early lessons emerging from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that it is no longer a question of high technology or mass, but a combination of the two. Credit: MBDA

Serbia Negotiating Rafale Acquisition, Reports Suggest

France is negotiating with Serbia on a potential sale of Dassault Rafales, it has emerged. Belgrade is interested in the acquisition of up to 12 Rafales, French financial newspaper La Tribune reported April 5. Credit: Tim Felce (Airwolfhound)

From Boeing starting to induct CH-47Fs for Block II conversion to China testing a new military helicopter. Take a look at these and more in our daily roundup of aerospace & defense news.

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