Italian investigators probing the fatal crash of the second prototype AgustaWestland AW609 commercial tiltrotor have reportedly impounded the third prototype, preventing it from being shipped to the U.S. for flight testing.
Researchers say data from a successful Mach 7.5 flight test will help designers of future hypersonic vehicles and weapons more accurately predict the behavior of the boundary layer, one of the great areas of uncertainty still remaining in the high-speed flight regime.
Flight tests of an extremely high frequency through-weather targeting sensor developed by Raytheon are planned for late this year under Darpa’s Video Synthetic Aperture Radar program
Flight decks of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are to be protected from damage by the exhaust from Lockheed Martin F-35Bs using a U.K.-developed metal coating.
Japan and Italy are partnering with NASA to fly three CubeSats beyond Earth orbit on the U.S. space agency’s inaugural flight of a new Space Launch System (SLS) in 2018.
The U.S. Navy successfully validated significant progression in the Fire Control Improvement Process (FCLIP) program through a live-fire test involving the Ship’s Self Defense System (SSDS) and Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Weapons System at Point Mugu, California, Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) says.
A graphene-based de-icer developed by Rice University has been further modified to prevent icing by adding water-repelling superhydrophobic properties to passively prevent ice forming at temperatures above 7F. The de-icer, a thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy that is sprayed on, has shown in the laboratory the ability to melt ice formed on a helicopter rotor blade in a -4F environment. When a small voltage is applied to the conductive coating, electrothermal heat melted centimeter-thick ice.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is slated to launch a classified U.S. National Reconnaissance Office payload next year in an arrangement that appears to have been brokered by a third party.
NASA and Bigelow Aerospace halted a first attempt to extend the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module early May 26 when the flexible enclosure grew only a few inches before exceeding the anticipated internal pressure.
The U.S. Navy is struggling to meet traditional service readiness needs for aerial missions, says Capt. Randy Stearns, commodore for the Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic.
General Electric has won the competition to supply engines for the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-X fighter, beating rival Eurojet for a program that may require more than 300 combat turbofans.
The U.S. Army should be used for more “coastal artillery” missions, including attacking enemy forces at sea in places like the Asia-Pacific region, says Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the Pacific Command (Pacom).
The first aerospace challenge to be launched by Airbus Group and Local Motors has produced the biggest response yet seen by the U.S.-based global crowdsourced vehicle design specialist.
The winner of the contract, worth $2.9 billion, would be in charge of some of the nation’s most vital national security work —the non-nuclear engineering development of all U.S. nuclear weapons and systems of integration of the weapons with delivery vehicles.
Chinese researchers are developing a vision-based system for autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) in which both the tanker and receiver are unmanned aircraft.
Agricultural aviation is a market expected to be affected more significantly that most by growing use of unmanned aircraft for task ranging from aerial mapping to crop spraying.
LCC 20 USS Mount Whitney, the U.S. 6th Fleet’s flagship, became the first amphibious command ship to have an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor land on its flight deck earlier this month.
When a small plastic component broke recently in a vital piece of calibration equipment used to maintain readiness aboard a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship, it looked like the pilots and air crews were out of luck.
