The Pentagon has selected F-35 development partners Italy and Turkey to handle major maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade work for the single-engine, stealthy fighter in Europe, with facilities operational by 2018. The U.S. Defense Department plans to announce the location of maintenance for the Pacific region this week. Japan and Australia are expected to fare well in those assignments. Italy’s Cameri Air Base will be the site for heavy airframe maintenance. Turkey will initially handle the heavy engine maintenance for the Pratt & Whitney F135.
London Bureau Chief Tony Osborne and International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman discuss the U.K.'s recent trouble hunting for a possibly Russian submarine and what it says about their state of readiness.
Will Boeing repeat history by using the parallel 757-767 development model to answer the long-running 737/757 replacement question and, if so, why? The answers lie in the way the 757 and 767 satisfy vastly different markets yet share key design features.
Display electronics were the culprit in the April 19 airborne smoke emergency on a Flydubai Boeing 737-800 (A6-FEK) at 15,000 ft. that was descending into Kiev.
NASA’s new Orion crew capsule flew its first test in space with clocklike precision Friday, using two unmanned orbits that took it deeper into space than any human spacecraft has gone since Apollo 17, and then achieved a bull’s-eye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Aviation Week's John Croft and Sean Broderick discuss the NTSB's 787 battery recommendations with Jim Asker. Learn how Boeing fail-safed the battery and listen as we discuss how the aircraft was certified and still experienced serious problems.
Lockheed Martin says F-35 pilots are getting the education they need thanks to improved simulation technology incorporated into the program’s full-mission simulators that employ the actual F-35 software used by flying aircraft.
By the end of this decade the U.K.'s Panavia Tornado GR4 will have exited service, the Eurofighter Typhoon will have become the Royal Air Force’s primary ground-attack platform, and the Lockheeed Martin F-35B Lightning II will be just starting its deployment and preparing for land-based and shipborne operations.
Short-term older aircraft disposals take priority as Qantas completes Boeing 737 fleet expansion and ponders long-haul replacement plans, pending a return t0 profitability.
Aiming to reduce flight times and fuel burn on domestic routes in Australia, Qantas is working with air traffic authorities to use more flexible flight paths across the continent.
Humans will be noticeably absent from the NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion capsule as it embarks on its first spaceflight, a two-orbit test mission that will include a searing descent through the Earth's atmosphere.
The printer serves as a prototype for a space additive-manufacturing capability that may one day become an essential part of NASA’s toolkit for human deep-space exploration.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat have signed a contract valued at €15 million ($19 million) to provide satellite-based air-traffic monitoring as part of the European Union’s Single European Sky ATM Research (Sesar) initiative. Dubbed Iris Precursor, the Nov. 26 agreement is intended to upgrade Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband service to meet standards set for ground-based VHF data links that will allow flight plans to be updated continually to maintain optimal trajectories. The U.K.
The scheduled Nov. 28 launch of the SES Astra-2G satellite atop a Russian Proton rocket was postponed Nov. 26, owing to a problem with a gyro unit in the rocket’s Briz M upper stage. Russian space agency Roscosmos said prelaunch tests were halted on the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and both the rocket and spacecraft have been returned to their assembly building.
Despite threats of contractual retaliation from Moscow, French President Francois Hollande has indefinitely postponed delivery of the first of two Mistral-class helicopter assault ships to Russia, citing ongoing conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. Since suspending the 2011 contract in September, Hollande has been loath to cancel the €1.12 billion ($1.4 billion) Mistral deal. The first ship is dubbed Vladivostok and located at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard in France.
Japan has chosen the Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye over the Boeing 737 AEW&C to fill a requirement for four surveillance aircraft, while also confirming it will proceed with orders for the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk and Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey. Three RQ-4s will be ordered in the fiscal year beginning April 2015, says NHK television. The timing of orders for the other types is unknown. The mid-term plan also set out the requirement for three surface-surveillance drones. RQ-4 beat the propeller-driven General Atomics Guardian ER, which is based on the U.S.
The U.K.’s F-35 test team has begun captive-carry trials of non-U.S.-made munitions for the aircraft. The Raytheon Paveway IV and the MBDA Asraam, both destined for use on F-35Bs were carried on external pylons for the first time last month. The weapons are scheduled for the Block 3F package.
Russian Helicopters is flight-testing the Mi-171A2 medium helicopter, the latest iteration of the Mi-8, equipped with new engines, rotors and glass-cockpit avionics. Developed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, the Mi-171A2 is powered by two digitally controlled, 2,400-shp, Klimov VK-2500PS-03 turboshafts, replacing the Mi-8/17’s 2,200-shp TV3-117s. The Russian KBO-17 avionics suite developed by Radio-Electronic Technologies includes multifunction displays, TV and infrared sensors and increased automation to reduce the crew to two.
