Jeff has been involved in aerospace journalism since the mid 1990s. Prior to joining Aviation Week, Jeff served as managing editor of Launchspace magazine and the International Space Industry Report. He has been the editor and chief of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report since 2007 and has been a regular contributor to Aviation Week magazine. He received his B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Within the past several months, input from the astronaut corps has significantly reshaped the requirements for NASA's Orbital Space Plane (OSP), according to Mike Coats, vice president of advanced space transportation for Lockheed Martin. "The requirements have evolved rapidly here in the last two or three months as the crew's gotten involved," Coats said Nov. 20 at a briefing at Lockheed Martin's new OSP Demonstration Center in Arlington, Va.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engine (VAATE) initiative is striving to stay ahead of future aircraft turbine engine requirements while keeping costs low.
The Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft is about to begin another round of sea trials onboard the USS Bataan, in part to verify that a problem from a previous round of trials has been solved. Sea trials on the USS Iwo Jima last January unearthed a phenomenon known as "roll-on-deck," in which the aircraft "tended to be disturbed while it was on deck with its rotors turning" by the presence of helicopters landing in its vicinity, according to Chief Test Pilot Tom MacDonald. "We've made some software changes and improvements to minimize that."
