Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Irene Klotz
The new 11-year solar cycle is expected to match its extremely quiet predecessor, which concluded in December 2019.
Space

By Tony Osborne
National support from the UK and a need to retain basing flexibility has prompted U.S. Air Force commanders to reverse the decision to close RAF Mildenhall, England.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Britain’s Royal Air Force will adopt new technologies to identify and prosecute targets in more locations simultaneously than what is possible today, the air arm’s most senior officer says.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A January missile firing test offered a glimpse of the MC-130’s potential in a new role as an Arsenal Plane.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Lee Hudson
The head of the U.S. Air Force’s mobility fleet needs more data from Boeing on the KC-46 Remote Vision System (RVS) upgrade plan to determine if an interim fix is worth taking the maintenance downtime.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Steve Trimble
A full-scale flight demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program has already flown in secret and “broken records” in the process, a senior official said on Sept. 15.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Guy Norris
Supersonic business jet developer Aerion has selected BAE Systems to develop and integrate a fly-by-wire flight control system for the AS2 high-speed aircraft.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Graham Warwick
Universal Hydrogen has selected MagniX to provide the electric propulsion system for its planned conversion of the de Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 regional turboprop to hydrogen fuel-cell power.
Emerging Technologies

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.
Defense

On Sept. 15 the European Space Agency awarded a €129.4 million ($153 million) prime contract to Germany’s OHB for the agency’s first mission for
Defense

By Bill Carey
California-based startup Volansi said on Sept. 15 it has secured $50 million in venture funding to further develop its line of hybrid vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) delivery drones.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Steve Trimble
The ground test moves the Airpower Teaming System closer to a scheduled first flight later this year
Defense

By Steve Trimble
The three-phase demonstration aims to prove the C-17 can be weaponized if called upon, but top U.S. Air Force leaders have not yet decided on a specific role for the strategic airlifter.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Bill Carey
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FAA is busier than it has ever been licensing commercial space launches, officials said Sept. 14.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Ampaire has flown a second prototype of its Electric EEL, a Cessna 337 Skymaster modified to hybrid-electric propulsion.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
California-based Astra, a startup vying to get into the small-satellite launch business, conducted a flight test of its Rocket 3.1 booster, but the mission ended prematurely when the vehicle started to head off course due to a guidance system problem.
Space

By Irene Klotz
Work stoppages due to Hurricane Laura, the Category 4 storm that came ashore in Louisiana last month, will delay the long-awaited static test fire of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage at NASA’s Stennis Space Center until late October or November.
Space

By Mark Carreau
A British-led research effort has caught a possible low probability hint of biological activity in the high altitude cloud layers of neighboring Venus.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Steve Trimble
U.S. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett on Sept. 14 announced a new “e” weapon system designator prefix for aircraft set to be designed and tested using digital engineering tools, starting with the rebranded Boeing eT-7A Red Hawk advanced jet trainer.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Britain’s Scilly Isles could receive regular freight deliveries using unmanned air systems through a new partnership between FlyLogix and the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
Lockheed Martin F-35 deliveries postponed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain will not fully recover by the end of 2021, a company executive told Aerospace DAILY.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Lee Hudson
Although the U.S. Air Force proposed to terminate the General Atomics MQ-9 production line in the last budget cycle, the service may opt to employ the Reaper in a new way: as an attritable aircraft that the military can afford to lose in a war with China or Russia.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Air Force has started the market research phase to demonstrate by 2027 a 1-5-megawatt, fixed-site microreactor that could provide an alternative to the civilian electric power grid on military bases.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
The German Army has begun to take delivery of Airbus Tiger attack helicopters with a new upgrade that will act as a baseline for Tiger Mk.3 development.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
Greece will purchase six new-build Dassault Rafales and receive 12 second-hand aircraft from French Air Force stocks, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has confirmed.
Aircraft & Propulsion