With Seoul’s selection of the A330 MRTT, the Airbus tanker has now beaten the Boeing KC-46 in nine non-U.S. competitions. Launch customer Australia, meanwhile, has set Airbus’s airliner-to-tanker conversion program in motion.
How to get to Mars is only part of the question. NASA calls for ideas on the best places to actually land, optimal also for living, mining resources and conducting scientific exploration.
Russia’s Progress 60 resupply vehicle delivered supplies to ISS crew, along with a sense of relief to space handlers worldwide in the aftermath of a spate of resupply mission launch failures.
The Chinese government has ordered A330s in bulk and will encourage—if necessary, direct—Chinese airlines to take them. Hainan Airlines has the best reason to comply.
The U.K. Airports Commission’s unanimous decision to select the £15 billion northwest runway option proposed by Heathrow’s owners was hardly a surprise, but it will likely provoke protests.
U.K. government investment in civil aerospace R&D is now channeled through the Aerospace Technology Institute, and the organization releases its first strategy to guide where the money will be spent.
Clinic deliveries by UAS; new turbine superalloys in the mix; airline backs biofuel from waste; Embraer to fly ecoDemonstrator; better carbon-fiber repairs.
Lapse in Ex-Im bank assistance could hurt Boeing in the long term, and the general aviation community sooner; Former NASA chief provides another perspective on SpaceX’s commercial viability.
DEFENSE A Lockheed Martin F-35B dropped the U.K.’s Raytheon Paveway IV precision-guided bomb for the first time on June 12, two inert 500-lb. munitions being released from the aircraft’s weapons bay. On June 23, the first F-35B ski-jump launch was conducted at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. U.K. Queen Elizabeth-class carriers will be equipped with ski-jump ramps.
Frank Wilson has Worner been named CEO of ControlCam, a Jacksonville, Florida-based aerial imaging business specializing in high-resolution and geo-referenced imagery. He was previously senior vice president and general manager of the Defense and Security Business unit of iRobot, and as a vice president and general manager of several businesses at BAE Systems.
The spacecraft is in the midst of taking “hundreds” of images and science measurements, “about half” of them programmed for the day that surrounds closest approach to Pluto at 7:49:57 a.m. EDT, according to Leslie Young, the deputy project scientist and Pluto-encounter planning lead.
When massive Stratolaunch program begins to wind down, Scaled Composites promises a return to the Rutan days of smaller, fast-paced projects that result in flight testing of aviation breakthroughs.
Like former U.S. President Harry Truman, he made bold and consequential decisions that damaged his popularity but positioned his organization for long-term success.
