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.
Various technical issues continue to delay the first flight of the X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which remains in ground testing at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. A joint effort of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Boeing, the Dragonfly is a hybrid helicopter with an unusually wide rotor that can be slowed down and stopped in flight, allowing the UAV to fly as a fixed-wing jet (DAILY, April 12, 2002).
With the ultimate goal of enabling an automated aerial refueling (AAR) demonstration in 2005, NASA is gathering data on U.S. Navy-style hose/drogue refueling, a process whose physics are not well understood, according to AAR Project Manager Gerard Schkolnik. "The state of the art right now for Navy-style refueling ... hasn't changed in 50 years," Schkolnik told The DAILY. "The system that flies today, in large part, has evolved by trial and error with no real understanding of the physics or the science.
With the backing of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Pyramid Vision Technologies Inc. is trying to merge unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery with maps and other sources to create a coherent real-time picture of the battlefield and give context to otherwise confusing data.
