Aerospace & Defense Roundup: Jan. 19

Dash-8

Boeing

Russia’s deployed Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is, President Vladimir Putin said, a “game changer.” The nuclear-tipped, intercontinental-range weapon is also a “super weapon” that will be “invincible” against the U.S. missile defense system, he said. Credit: U.S. Air Force

Electric motor developer MagniX is consolidating its global operations near Everett, Washington state. Electric aircraft startup Eviation, a sister company of MagniX, is building a final assembly, flight test and delivery center in Arlington, just north of Everett. Credit: MagniX

Counting drones among his final priorities as U.S. president, Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 18 that directs the heads of federal agencies to determine if they have legal authority to stop using, acquiring or funding the purchase of foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Credit: DJI

Leonardo’s Seaspray search radar is to be integrated onto the MQ-9B SkyGuardian as General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) pushes the unmanned aircraft system for the maritime surveillance mission. Credit: GA-ASI

The location of a drone operator should be made available to police but not to the public, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) says in a Jan. 19 critique of the FAA’s new Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft final rule. Credit: Bill Carey

Conservative test parameters for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage hot fire prompted the early but orderly shutdown of the Boeing-built booster’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines, NASA said on Jan. 19. The 212-ft.-long stage, serving as both test vehicle and flight hardware, was undamaged from the engine shutdown 67.2 sec. into a planned 485-sec. static test fire. Credit: NASA

Leading Tier 1 supplier Spirit AeroSystems and the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) have inaugurated a new kind of federally backed, discounted-rate lending for aerospace suppliers—beginning with a $40 million transaction based on receivables from Spirit’s lower-tier providers. Ex-Im’s board on Jan. 13 approved a 90% guarantee of the new $40 million loan by Bank of America to Spirit under the export credit agency’s newly launched Supply Chain Finance Guarantee program. Credit: Spirit Aerosystems

Boeing has completed a review and verification of 1 million lines of software for the upcoming reflight of an uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. Software problems led to an abbreviated Starliner debut flight in December 2019, scotching a test run to the International Space Station (ISS.) Credit: NASA

Plans for a satellite launch site in the Shetland Islands have been submitted to the local authorities for planning permission. The planning application to the Shetland Islands Council for the Shetland Space Center on the island of Unst calls for the construction of three launchpads as well as facilities for satellite tracking, hangars and integration. Credit: shetland.org