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.
MANASSAS, Va. - Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., which is building what could be the first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to fly on another planet, recently received approximately $2.5 million from NASA to perform a second high-altitude prototype demonstration on Earth. Led by NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) mission is one of four finalists competing to go to Mars as part of NASA's 2007 Mars Scout program (DAILY, Dec. 18, 2002). NASA will select the winner in August.
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. - After achieving the world's first computer-controlled extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) maneuver on a runway April 22, the X-31A experimental test flight program is drawing to a close at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. During an ESTOL landing, the aircraft approaches the runway at relatively slow speeds and at a high angle of attack (AOA), with its nose pointed upward. It then executes a highly precise, computer-controlled derotation maneuver two feet above the runway to come in for a safe landing.
Working under a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Raytheon is preparing to choose from among 62 designs for a "morphing" version of the company's Tomahawk cruise missile. Raytheon received a $4.1 million contract from DARPA earlier this year to perform work for the agency's Morphing Aircraft Structures (MAS) program. Lockheed Martin and HyPerComp, Inc. of Westlake, Calif., are working under similar grants (DAILY, March 4), all of which culminate in wind tunnel prototype testing in 2005.
