U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using video playback of “previous incidents” of nose-wheel landings and pilot-induced oscillations as part of new required annual training for pilots of its General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft. The action comes in the wake of an MQ-9 hard landing and excursion off the side of the 10,000-ft. “skid strip” runway at Patrick AFB, Cape Canaveral, Fla., after a routine patrol of the warning areas to the east of the launch facility in May 2013.
ORION SLIP: The first spaceflight of NASA’s Orion crew capsule, with an instrumented prototype riding atop a Delta IV Heavy, may not come until December. Originally scheduled for September, the Experimental Test Flight-1 (EFT-1) mission first was first bumped to October by range-scheduling issues at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. Now it has slipped to Dec. 4, according to Orion prime Lockheed Martin, with a “protect date” in October in case the logjam clears.
LONDON — Missile manufacturer MBDA says firing trials of its Dual-Mode Brimstone missile from the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle were successful, but a final decision on whether the weapon will be integrated with the UAS is yet to be made. The trials, conducted at China Lake, Calif., during December 2013 and January 2014, were led by the U.K. Royal Air Force but also involved the U.S. Air Force’s Big Safari program office and General Atomics.
Autonomous collaboration could enable existing unmanned aircraft to operate more effectively in less-permissive environments, says the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), revealing details of its new Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program. CODE aims to increase the capabilities of legacy and future unmanned aircraft through increased vehicle autonomy and collaboration between platforms. Industry will be briefed on the program April 11 in Washington.
Science, human-exploration and technology managers at NASA are casting a wide net for input into the agency’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), issuing a broad area announcement for concept studies that include using commercial space vehicles to capture a near-Earth space rock and deploying secondary payloads as far afield as the moons of Mars for mineral prospecting as well as planetary science.
Gain an Accurate View Into The Future With The Aviation Week Military Fleet & MRO Forecast The deepest data available on more than 40,000 aircraft, including fixed and rotary wing! This 10-year forecast includes: - Total airframe & engine MRO Spend - Component spend including APU, electric and hydraulic power, landing gear, pneumatics, wheels & brakes and more - Total field maintenance spends - And much more!
LONDON and MILAN — The prospect of further cuts to Italy’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter buy have increased, with the publication of a report calling for “significant” reductions in the country’s agreement with Lockheed Martin. The document, signed by the ruling center-left Democratic Party earlier this week and published on March 19, comes just days after newly elected Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi suggested Italy could cut its JSF purchase, as the Italian government struggles to bring down state spending.
Fokker Technologies and the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) have signed a letter of intent to establish a highly automated manufacturing facility for composite landing-gear components. Under contract to United Technologies Aerospace Systems, subsidiary Fokker Landing Gear (FLG) is developing and qualifying a composite drag brace for the main landing gear of the F-35A conventional and F-35B vertical-lift versions of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter.
MILAN — Alenia Aermacchi is examining new engine options for its M-345 High Efficiency Trainer (HET) aircraft. The company, which is developing the HET for a possible Italian air force requirement for a jet trainer with operating economies similar to a modern turboprop trainer, says it is looking at several U.S.-made engines for integration into the M-345, initially developed as the SIAI Marchetti S.211 back in the 1980s. The aircraft is currently fitted with the Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5C turbofan.
The U.S. Navy’s proposed fiscal 2015 budget plan underscores the service’s emphasis on precision-strike capability. “Our precision strike capabilities and capacity will be critical to success in any foreseeable future conflict,” says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations.
HOUSTON — Significant cost uncertainty and seemingly optimistic scheduling are just two of the concerns raised over NASA’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) by members of the near-Earth object (NEO) community in a new report. The report is the result of the Target NEO 2: Open Community Workshop organized last year in response to the exploration initiative unveiled by the space agency in April 2013.
SOLAR ORBITER: NASA has negotiated a $172.7 million contract with United Launch Services LLC, the contracting arm of United Launch Alliance, to prepare and launch the U.S./European Solar Orbiter Collaboration mission in 2017 on an Atlas V. Under the deal, the company will handle spacecraft processing, payload integration, launch and related services for the mission, which will study the Sun and its outer atmosphere with high-resolution imagery and in-situ measurements in orbit. The mission will use an Atlas V 411 flying from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) has decided to “urgently” buy 106 PC-7 Mk. 2 Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA) from Pilatus, pulling the plug yet again on state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which is also making an aircraft for training junior pilots. The BTAs will be acquired from the Swiss company under the “Buy & Make (Indian)” category, in accordance with India’s defense procurement policy. India is already taking delivery of PC-7 Mk. 2 aircraft from Pilatus under a contract for 75 such aircraft signed in 2012.
LONDON — AleniaAermacchi has rolled out the first of 30 M-346 jet trainers destined for the Israeli air force. The aircraft, which made its first flight on March 15, was rolled out in Israeli air force colors during a special ceremony at the company’s facility in Venegono, Italy, on March 20. AleniaAermacchi will deliver nine M-346Is to Israel this year, with the first pair due to be formally handed over in the country on July 10.
LONDON — Saab officials say they are confident Swiss voters will approve a May 18 referendum to buy JAS-39E Gripen combat aircraft. Speaking March 19 during the company’s annual Gripen seminar in Stockholm, Richard Smith, Saab’s campaign lead for Switzerland, said he was optimistic about the vote despite recent polling conducted by the Institute Leger and published in the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick, which suggested that around 60% of Swiss voters are against the purchase.
Justifying its decision to award Lockheed Martin follow-on work on the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm) without a competition, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) says changing contractors would incur a 60-month delay in a program seen as responding to an urgent requirement.
NASA’s planned Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (Wfirst) would be greatly enhanced with optical systems donated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), although such upgrades will introduce greater complexity and cost, according to a National Research Council (NRC) assessment. Wfirst is a flagship-level mission intended to follow the James Webb Space Telescope for studies of dark energy, planetary architectures of other solar systems and stellar evolution.
Commercial remote-sensing-services provider DigitalGlobe has confirmed that the satellite images it provided to Australian search-and-rescue authorities in the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were captured on March 16 by its WorldView-2 satellite at a panchromatic resolution of approximately 50 cm. “Working with our customers, DigitalGlobe continues to task our satellites to collect imagery of a wide area that includes the waters around where the possible debris was identified yesterday,” the company said in a March 20 statement.
The U.S. Defense Department’s proposed fiscal 2015 budget calls for a dip in rotorcraft spending compared to enacted fiscal 2014 spending, according to an exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of budget data. The AWIN analysis shows the Pentagon spending about $9.9 billion for rotorcraft and related programs in fiscal 2015, compared to about $10.4 billion in fiscal 2014.
SpeedNews 2nd Annual Aerospace Manufacturing Conference Registration Open April 1-2, 2014 The Battle House Renaissance Mobile, Alabama Supported by ATI Click here to view the pdf
Canada is to upgrade another four of its 18 Lockheed CP-140 Auroras, taking the fleet of modernized maritime patrol aircraft to 14, extending its life and delaying the need to buy a replacement multi-mission aircraft to 2030, the Department of National Defense says. Canada has been considered a potential customer for Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon, to follow India and Australia, which is also planning to buy Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft for maritime patrol. Canada has been looking at the RQ-4 Global Hawk for Arctic surveillance.
