In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Mar 31, 2022

South Korea Tests New Solid-Fuel Rocket

South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has successfully tested a solid-fuel rocket demonstrator designed to launch small military reconnaissance satellites. The rocket lifted off from Taean, 150 km (90 mi.) southwest of Seoul, before releasing a dummy satellite into orbit. Credit: South Korean Ministry of National Defense

Roketsan Reveals New Turkish Mini Cruise Missile

Turkey’s Roketsan has revealed the development of an indigenous cruise missile for use against land and sea targets. Roketsan says the network-enabled, 275-kg (606-lb.) Cakir will have a range of 150+ km (90+ mi.) and can be launched from fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, ships and land vehicles. Credit: Roketsan

Hyundai Plans Hydrogen eSTOL For Regional Air Mobility

At the end of 2020, South Korean automaker Hyundai revealed that it planned to field a longer-range regional air mobility vehicle as a follow-on to the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) urban air taxi it is developing for market entry in 2028. The company has now confirmed that its second advanced air mobility (AAM) product, planned for around 2030, will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and revealed that it will be an electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft, not an eVTOL. Credit: Hyundai

Lilium Pushes EVTOL Certification Target Back To 2025

Lilium has slipped certification of its Lilium Jet electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft to 2025 from previous plans to begin regional air mobility service with the seven-seat aircraft by the end of 2024. The delay was revealed in a blog post by cofounder and CEO Daniel Weigand on the eve of the German startup’s first suppliers’ day on March 31, which is being attended by more than 70 potential suppliers. Credit: Lilium

PAL, Thales Partner On MPA Mission System

PAL Aerospace and Thales have signed a strategic agreement to co-develop new maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) mission systems, hoping to entice the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) for its MPA program. The duo is offering a modified De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop MPA, known as the P-4. A model with Malaysian government markings featuring a chin-mounted electro optic turret, maritime radar and magnetic anomaly detector boom was presented at the Defense Services Asia 2022 exhibition in Malaysia. Credit: PAL Aerospace

Triumph To Realign, Rebrand For Post-Aerostructures Era

Triumph Group, which will soon cap a yearslong consolidation and exit of most of its aerostructures work, on March 31 announced it will launch a new corporate identity and it has reshuffled its leadership ranks, including departures. On April 1, Triumph will reorganize its systems and support segment into four product and service operating units: Actuation Products and Services led by Mike Boland, succeeding Scott Ledbetter; Systems, Electronics and Controls; Geared Solutions; and Product Support. Credit: Triumph Group

Blue Origin Flies First Two Industry Insiders

Blue Origin conducted its fourth crewed flight on March 31, sending five paying passengers and employee Gary Lai—the lead architect for the New Shepard transportation system—into suborbital space. The mission, designated NS-20, was celebrity-free and lower profile than Blue Origin’s previous crewed flights, which began on July 20, 2021, with company founder and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos among the passengers. Credit: Blue Origin

HH-60W Begins Operational Testing

The U.S. Air Force says its next-generation combat search-and-rescue helicopter has begun initial operational test and evaluation, just days after the service announced it intends to reduce the overall fleet of the aircraft. The Sikorsky HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter arrived at Nellis AFB, Nevada, on March 22, the service announced March 30. The helicopter wrapped up its initial development test at Duke Field, Florida, before the move. Credit: Sikorsky

NDIA Names Norquist Next President

The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) on March 31 announced it has picked David Norquist, the former deputy defense secretary, to be its next president and CEO. Norquist will replace retired Gen. Hawk Carlisle, who stepped down as leader of the group in a surprise announcement earlier this month. Credit: U.S. Defense Department

Sierra Nevada Delivers Third A-29C To U.S. Special Operators

Sierra Nevada has completed deliveries of three A-29C Super Tucano light attack fighters to U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The third A-29C was delivered in March to the 6th Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Florida, for the Combat Aviation Advisor mission. Credit: Sierra Nevada

Russian Troops’ Morale Low In Ukraine, UK Intel Officials Say

British intelligence officials say they have seen evidence of low morale among Russian forces in Ukraine, with personnel sabotaging their own equipment and accidentally shooting down Russian aircraft. The director of the UK’s signals intelligence agency (GCHQ), Sir Jeremy Fleming, told Australian National University on March 30 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory.

Supplier Crane To Better Focus On Aerospace/Defense After Spinoff

Highly engineered aerospace products provider Crane said March 30 that it will spin off its payment and merchandising technologies businesses into a separate, publicly traded corporation, in part to better focus on core aerospace and electronics end markets. The separation follows the current trend of larger multi-industrial conglomerates breaking up, meeting a demand by today’s investors for businesses to be more focused and comparable within niches rather than microcosms of the manufacturing universe. The focus especially allows investors to allocate their own funds more directly at specific end markets via the focused businesses, versus relying on conglomerate managers to allocate capital for them while also paying for unrelated costs. Credit: Crane

E-6B TACAMO Replacement Still Five Years Away

A replacement for the U.S. Navy's Boeing E-6B Mercury fleet will not enter the procurement phase for five years, a Navy spokeswoman says. The Navy submitted an unfunded priorities list to Congress last year that included the first batch of Lockheed Martin EC-130-30 aircraft to kick-start the procurement in fiscal 2022, but Congress declined to add funding. A long-term “Aviation Procurement Plan” released by the Navy on March 28 shows no funding for EC-130s through fiscal 2027. Credit: U.S. Navy

DeHavilland Canada OKs Turboprop-Powered DHC-515 Production

DeHavilland Canada has approved a three-year-old proposal to start building a new water bomber called the DHC-515 Firefighter, and forecasts making 23 deliveries by the end of the decade. Formerly known as the CL-515 First Responder, the DHC-515 builds on the configuration of the piston-powered CL-215 and integrates more powerful turboprop engines. A DeHavilland Canada (DHC) spokesman said Pratt & Whitney Canada will identify the engine later on March 31, but it was previously expected to be the PW123AF. Credit: DeHavilland Canada

Defiant Demonstrator To Debut At Quad-A Ahead Of FLRAA Downselect

The Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant X team has made the longest flight yet with its SB-1 technology demonstrator, flying the coaxial-rotor compound helicopter from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Nashville, Tennessee, for display at the Army Aviation Association of America (Quad-A) show on April 3-5. The 7-hr. flight on March 21, three years after the SB-1’s first flight, covered 700 nm, Sikorsky President Paul Lemmo said. The flight included two hot refueling stops en route during which the helicopter’s engines were not shut down. Credit: Sikorsky-Boeing

U.S. Army, Navy To Buy Hypersonic Prototypes

U.S. Army and Navy officials plan to buy around 31 prototypes of an upgraded version of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB) and incorporate a data link during the next two to three years, a new solicitation document says. The services ordered 20 prototypes of the original version of the CHGB from Dynetics Technical Solutions to support flight testing and the fielding of the first Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) in fiscal 2023. An upgraded follow-on prototype capable of hitting moving targets is expected to follow in fiscal 2025, as the Navy fields the identical Conventional Prompt Strike missile on destroyers. Credit: Steve Trimble/AW&ST

Five Bidders Shortlisted For Piaggio Aerospace

Five bidders have been downselected as potential buyers for troubled Italian aerospace firm Piaggio Aerospace. The company, which is best known for the development of the distinctive P.180 Avanti executive turboprop, restarted its search for a buyer after talks with a Swedish-led consortium of Italian and Scandinavian companies stalled at the end of last year. Credit: Piaggio Aerospace

From South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) successfully testing a solid-fuel rocket demonstrator designed to launch small military reconnaissance satellites, to a new mini cruise missile. Take a look at these and more in our daily roundup of aerospace & defense news. 

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