In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Mar 29, 2022

March 29, 2022

Wing-in-Ground Startup Flying Ship Looks To Crowdsource Funding

Credit: Flying Ship Technologies


U.S. startup Flying Ship Technologies, which is building and marketing wing-in-ground-effect maritime cargo vessels, announced a so-called crowdsource-based funding effort March 28. According to a related website, the Virginia startup had raised $12,705 in new equity-based funds at $11.11 per share as of March 29.

General Atomics Demonstrates UAV Detect-And-Avoid Capability To FAA

Credit: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.


General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. demonstrated its detect-and-avoid technology aboard an MQ-9B SkyGuardian over Jan. 24-25 for the FAA. The “mature” detect-and-avoid technology could enable beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations for UAVs within the U.S. National Airspace System, the company said March 28. General Atomics believes there could be many commercial uses for its made-for-the-military UAVs should the type receive safety upgrades and FAA approval.

NASA’s Artemis I Wet Dress Rehearsal Preparation Continues

Credit: NASA


NASA is eager to kick off the next major milestone in preparation for the first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew capsule—its Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR). The launchpad simulation is focused on the propellant loading phase of the countdown for Artemis I, a multiweek test flight of Orion without astronauts aboard that will travel around the Moon and back to Earth for a Pacific Ocean splashdown.

Dave King Hands Off Dynetics To Steve Cook

Credit: Dynetics


Dave King, who took over as chief executive of Dynetics in 2015 to shepherd the company’s breakout and ultimately successful sale to Leidos in 2020, is stepping aside. Steve Cook will become Dynetics Group President effective April 1, while Paul Engola will be deputy.

Counter-Drone Startup D-Fend Solutions Expects Public Debut

Credit: D-Fend Solutions


D-Fend Solutions, a five-year-old Israeli counter-drone company with a growing North American presence, plans to become a publicly traded company, co-founder, Chairman and CEO Zohar Halachmi told Aviation Week in March. Driving the company’s value, as well as the whole counter-drone industry, will be the rising demand for total-package, adaptive, software-based services for the commercial market customers on top of government clients, he said. Both will seek to protect critical assets from UAV threats, of course, but increasingly they will be sensitive to the need to guard against collateral damage in the process.

UK Aerospace Industry Welcomes ATI Funding Boost

Credit: GKN Aerospace


The UK aerospace industry has broadly welcomed a government decision to provide £685 million ($897.2 million) in funding for the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) to accelerate the development of green aviation technologies. Announcing the increase on March 29, the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy said the funding would support research and development projects through 2025. The funding will also be matched by industry, bringing total investments to £1.3 billion.

Singapore Signs Artemis Accords

Singapore has become the 18th country and first in Southeast Asia to join the Artemis Accords, multinational commitments aimed at encouraging a peaceful, sustainable and beneficial use of space and its exploration. The accords were signed by Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong in Washington as part of a state visit to the Biden administration. The event was witnessed by NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and the State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary, Jennifer Littlejohn.

Swiss Space Center To Roll Out Space Sustainability Ratings

Photo: eSpace


The EPFL Space Center (eSpace), an outgrowth of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, has been selected as the lead organization to stand up a Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) index and it intends to issue its first certifications imminently. The voluntary system will evaluate the sustainability of a space mission under a regime developed in the last two years by a consortium of organizations including the European Space Agency (ESA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the World Economic Forum, the University of Texas at Austin, and U.S. space consulting firm BryceTech.

MDA Seeks To Integrate IBCS, Aegis For Guam Defense

Credit: U.S. Army


U.S. defense officials have selected a unique pairing of Navy and Army systems to defend Guam from a theorized barrage of Chinese ballistic and cruise missiles, the head of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says. The “Defense of Guam” architecture revealed in the MDA’s fiscal 2023 budget request released March 28 eschews the stationary Aegis Ashore system adopted in Europe for a highly mobile system distributed across land- and sea-based launchers, Vice Adm. Jon Hill told reporters on March 29.

TRANSCOM Taking New Look At Tactical Airlift Needs

Credit: U.S. Air Force


U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) is again looking at the number of Lockheed Martin C-130s the military now needs and its intratheater airlift requirement in the future, as the U.S. Air Force in its latest budget request is again looking to trim its Hercules fleet. TRANSCOM boss Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 29, said the command is assessing operating scenarios and “emerging warfighting concepts” to evaluate the required mobility capacity and potential risk under the military’s National Defense Strategy.

Lighter Tanks Promise Longer Range Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Aircraft

Credit: Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories


Startup HyPoint has partnered with an aerospace R&D company to combine its aircraft fuel cells with liquid hydrogen tanks and offer manufacturers the ability to carry more hydrogen for greater range. HyPoint is developing high power-density turbo air-cooled hydrogen fuel-cells for zero-emission aircraft propulsion. Now the company has partnered with Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories (GTL), which is developing carbon-composite cryotanks that allow more liquid hydrogen (LH2) to be stored with lower weight.

Impulse Space Propulsion Lands $20M From Thiel Fund

Credit: Impulse Space Propulsion


Impulse Space Propulsion, a new in-orbit transfer services company founded by Tom Mueller, a SpaceX co-founder, on March 29 announced a $20 million investment in a seed round led by Founders Fund, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm established by famous technology investor Peter Thiel. The money will go toward building up the company, which was launched in September 2021.

Lockheed Martin Collaborates With Stratasys For 3D-Printed Space Parts

Credit: NASA


Lockheed Martin is set to begin using advanced filament material from polymer 3D printing specialist Stratasys for additional aerospace parts—including flight structures for space vehicles—after data was released for the venture through a collaboration with Metropolitan State University of Denver. The material, Antero 840CN03, is an electrostatic dissipative variant of the company’s 800NA—a polymer developed specifically for production-grade Stratasys 3D printers.

From a startup crowdsourcing so that it can build a wing-in-ground-effect maritime cargo vessel, to a demonstration of detect-and-avoid technology. Take a look at these and more in our daily roundup of aerospace & defense news. 

These are some of the top stories from AWIN. Subscribe now for unrivalled, intelligent content, trustworthy data, exclusive analytics and meaningful insight. AWIN Premium is the only online resource that spans the commercial, military, business aviation and MRO market sectors.

With a focus on the programs and technologies shaping the market, as well as the most robust databases in the industry, AWIN Premium simplifies locating new business opportunities so you can generate new revenue.

AWIN Premium Membership includes Aviation Daily, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, and The Weekly of Business Aviation, and digital access to Aviation Week & Space Technology, Inside MRO, Air Transport World (ATW), and Business & Commercial Aviation (BCA). 

Aviation Week Intelligence Network
Monitor the market and connect your business to the people, programs and proprietary data driving the Aerospace & Defense market - only available with AWIN.

ASD_AWIN_thumbnail_270

Stay Connected.
Stay Informed
Grow Your Business.

Learn How