“The ‘A’ Word” ( AW&ST Aug. 11/18, p. 40) notes that the U.S. is spending billions of dollars to develop unmanned autonomous aircraft and other robotic machines. If I was a cash-strapped enemy of the state, I would be spending my limited funds on developing software that would allow me to take control of the aircraft in flight and send it back to destroy its base of operations.
Northrop Grumman has unveiled a vertical-launch, horizontal-landing reusable booster design for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s XS-1 experimental spaceplane.
With regard to several letters in recent weeks referencing “False Promises” ( AW&ST July 21, p. 38) about false glideslopes, please note that transport pilots should use (most do) a 3-for-1 ratio as a backup for accuracy on descent to landing. Specifically, at 3 mi. the aircraft should be at 1,000 ft.; at 6 mi., 2,000 ft., and so on. If you are not on this ratio you are not on the proper glideslope. The 3-for-1 method helps to ensure arriving at the correct airport. It is simple and it works.
The fact that the British were even considering early retirement of the Royal Air Force’s airborne stand-off radar (Astor) system, “Staying Alive” ( AW&ST Aug. 4, p. 53), reveals an appalling ignorance about which military capabilities are important. Anyone with an elementary understanding of modern warfare should realize that vehicles have transformed how armies fight by providing them with mobility, heavy firepower, armored protection and supplies.
When the U.S. Army and, at some point, the Marine Corps select a new rotorcraft, they would do well to keep in mind the hard lessons of past wars. In tactical situations, steep, fast approaches and close-in maneuvering to tight landing zones are sometimes necessary. In such circumstances, tiltrotor aircraft with their relatively wide wingspans and more restrictive maneuvering envelopes are at a disadvantage compared with more conventional designs like coaxial rotor helicopters.
The third Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus commercial cargo carrier to reach the International Space Station reentered the atmosphere Aug. 17 for a splashdown in the Pacific east of New Zealand, wrapping up the second of eight resupply missions for the company under its $1.9 billion commercial resupply services contract with NASA. Carried to orbit July 13 on an Orbital Sciences Antares launch vehicle from Wallops Island, Virginia, the pressurized capsule carried 3,550 lb. of garbage for its destructive return to Earth. It took 3,669 lb.
Under current plans, the U.S. Army’s oldest Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks will not be replaced before 2035 at the earliest, six decades after the medium-utility helicopter first flew.
More than half of the U.S. Air Force’s F-16D fighters have been grounded due to cracks found during inspections. Eighty-two of 157 F-16Ds, primarily used for training, were removed from flight status after cracks were found in canopy sill longerons between the front and rear pilot seats, the Air Force announced Aug. 19. Longerons run the length of the aircraft and transfer loads throughout the structure and skin of the platform.
NASA Langley Research Center has begun tethered tests of the GL-10 Greased Lighting, a 10-ft. wingspan prototype of a hybrid-electric distributed propulsion vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft.
Four crewmembers onboard two Italian air force Panavia A-200 Tornado combat aircraft were killed when the aircraft collided during a training mission for an upcoming NATO exercise, over eastern Italy on Aug. 19. The aircraft came down in a forest near the town of Ascoli Piceno; the accident caused a forest fire. The aircraft were from the 6th Stormo (Wing) at Ghedi air base. An investigation into the accident has begun.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has put its new RC-135W Rivet Joint into action for the first time. The aircraft, which was quietly forward-deployed in July, is supporting Operation Shader, the U.K.’s humanitarian operation in northern Iraq, providing intelligence on Islamic State fighters who have taken over major parts of northeastern Iraq. The aircraft is likely to be operating alongside U.S. Air Force Rivet Joints from Al-Udeid AB in Qatar. The RAF has two more RC-135s on order, the type formally entered service in May.
Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed a Peruvian cubesat and worked with materials-space-exposure experiments during a 5-hr. extra-vehicular excursion at the International Space Station Aug. 18. Unlike cubesat deployments from the Japanese Kibo module’s robotic arm, which use a mechanical dispenser, Artemyev deployed the small satellite with a toss of the hand in the direction opposite the station’s travel to avoid a future collision.
Aerojet Rocketdyne plans to demonstrate fabrication of large-scale metal rocket-engine parts using laser-melting additive manufacturing (AM) under a cost-shared Technology Investment Agreement with Wright-Patterson AFB under Title III of the Defense Production Act, worth $11,750,886.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has further widened the market for its Surion utility helicopter, gaining a defense ministry contact to develop a medical evacuation version of the aircraft. Development is due to be completed by 2016, with the aircraft going into service in 2018, says KAI. Parliament last year authorized the acquisition of eight medical evacuation helicopters; the army reportedly has a requirement for about 20. KAI does not yet have a production contract, however.
Avic subsidiary Avic Capital says it is in talks to buy Irish aircraft lessor Avolon but stresses that no deal is certain. In a stock exchange statement, Avic Capital denies a newspaper report that the deal will be valued at 12 billion euros ($16 billion). Reuters reports that Avic Capital and China Investment Corp., also a state firm, were negotiating to buy Avolon for $4-5 billion, including the value of debt that they would assume in the acquisition. Avolon, which owns more than 190 aircraft, has reportedly raised $7.2 billion in capital since it was launched four years ago.
The European Union is preparing to launch its first fully operational Galileo navigation, positioning and timing satellites Aug. 22, putting the 28-nation body in line to compete with the U.S. GPS, Russian Glonass and Chinese Beidou systems, even as it finalizes details of Galileo’s use.
Europe’s air traffic control agencies claim they are better prepared than in 2010 for the potential impact on aviation from volcanic ash, as eyes turn to another impending eruption in Iceland. Civil protection authorities sealed off parts of the region surrounding the Bardarbunga volcano in southeast Iceland after earthquake swarms, some registering as high as four on the Richter scale, were measured, indicating a possible impending eruption.
Less than four years after the AC311, one of Avicopter’s key new helicopters, made its first flight, an upgraded version with a different engine has taken to the air. The AC311A also features improvements to flight controls and the rotor, says Avic, the parent of the state helicopter maker. The flight of the aircraft, introducing the Turbomeca Arriel 2B1A engine to the AC311 series, lasted 10 min. and took place at Jingdezhen, the home of Changhe Aircraft, a long-established Chinese helicopter maker that now is part of Avicopter.
