Lightweight textile-based approach to blastproofing baggage containers could lead to wider market acceptance of device to protect airliners from terrorist bombs.
Flutter-suppression X-56 crashes; laser IDs target by vibrations; new venture to commercialize morphing structures; Airbus helo R&D in the U.K.; Iceye’s low-cost radar imaging from space.
A formal protest of the Pentagon’s Long-Range Strike Bomber award to Northrop Grumman has to be based on failure to follow rules, but the challengers’ public case goes far beyond that.
French President Francois Hollande and the National Assembly had set very different defense ministry spending plans before the Nov. 13 Islamic State group attacks in Paris. A robust response is forcing a change in those priorities.
Bomber lobby lays the groundwork for the kind of attack on its budget now threatening the F-35; new space bill allows citizens to mine the Moon for its water ice.
BUSINESS AVIATION Cessna is to enter the large-cabin business-jet market with the clean-sheet, 4,500-nm-range Citation Hemisphere, to fly in 2019. With a 102-in.-wide cabin, the aircraft is larger than the Citation Columbus canceled in 2009. The Citation Longitude (pictured), to fly in 2016, has been repositioned below the Hemisphere, with range reduced to 3,400 nm.
Fleet plans have already been made for most carriers, both for short-haul and long-haul services, and Airbus and Boeing order books are full for the next eight years. Anything but some kind of pause would be both unusual and unhealthy.
Nov. 30-Dec. 2—Defense & Aerosupply India 2015. Novotel Hyderabad International Convention Center. Hyderabad, India. See aerosupplyindia.com Dec. 1-2—IndiaMRO Aerospace & Defense 2015. The Lalit Ashok. Bengaluru, India. See indiamro.in
Since launching the Leap program, GE-Snecma joint venture CFM has added more engines to support Airbus, Boeing and Comac, partly to reduce risk as production begins.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. (ret.) Kelly Latimer (see photo) has been chosen to pilot for Virgin Galactic, based in Mojave, California. Latimer was the first female research test pilot to be hired by NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center. Global aerospace components manufacturer Norsk Titanium has appointed Steve Carrington vice president-sales, Tony Prezioso vice president-contracts and Nicholas Mayer vice president-product development.
General Electric is targeting the general aviation and business turboprop market with an engine using an integrated gas generator and propeller control.
PowerPoint and whiteboards don’t cut it for teaching the new generation to fly, crew and maintain aircraft. This is what the military and civilian aviation worlds are doing about it.
