Aircraft & Propulsion

The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital has made an up to $820 million conditional loan commitment to Performance Drone Works (PDW) to expand domestic drone component manufacturing.

The U.S. Air Force’s series of upgrades to the B-52 bomber face cost and schedule growth, a new report says.

Defense officials from the Global Combat Air Program nations have discussed advancing the service entry of the new fighter by up to two years.

Hensoldt is starting to see serious export interest in Europe for its Pegasus signals intelligence aircraft as it also gears up for the competition in Germany to provide the luWES airborne electronic attack system, CEO Oliver Dörre said.

Rolls-Royce's Orpheus demonstrator engine is now evolving into a family of propulsion systems with a particular focus on autonomous collaborative combat aircraft.

Turkish Aerospace Industries has begun taxi trials of the first fully representative prototype of the Kaan combat aircraft, imagery released by the airframer reveals.

GKN Aerospace has restarted some activities at its Garden Grove, California, industrial site after an industrial mishap, but parent company Melrose is not sure when the site will be fully operational again.

The Philippine Air Force is looking beyond the acquisition of a new multi-role fighter as it transitions from counterinsurgency operations to territorial defense.

Starfighters Space, an aerospace company with a fleet of Mach 2-capable Lockheed F-104s, expects to start flight tests before year-end of a purpose-built adapter capable of evaluating multiple high-speed designs and experiments.

High-speed aircraft developer Hermeus has successfully deployed an inert weapon from its Quarterhorse Mk. 2.1 unpiloted vehicle over New Mexico.

As Boeing continues its Air Force One disclosures, the Pentagon keeps spending on the “Bridge” aircraft secret.

Aviation Week Editor in Chief David North wrote the cover story on Aero Vodochody’s L-159 light attack/trainer aircraft for the magazine’s July 23, 2001, issue. The cover featured the prototype flying near the company's manufacturing facility near Prague.

Bombardier is searching for a site in Canada where it can perform defense-related modifications to its business jets, including to the Global 6500 long-range business jet used as a GlobalEye surveillance aircraft, and other aircraft.

The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead on its plan to have the Sikorsky HH-60W Jolly Green II take on the continuity-of-government and VIP transport role in the Washington area

The Defense Innovation Unit has launched a new $100 million competition to use uncrewed surface vessels to launch UAS to hunt low-cost threats.

U.S. Special Operations Command wants its unique gunships to serve as mother ships for small drones.

Edgewing, the trinational joint venture serving as prime contractor for the GCAP's next-generation fighter, is considering a different approach to flight testing.

The European Union has unlocked an additional €3.47 billion ($4 billion) for Ukraine to pay for a range of military hardware including Saab Gripen fighters.

Rolls-Royce is developing a scalable engine concept for Germany’s collaborative combat aircraft while expanding autonomous propulsion.

Airbus has begun deliveries of a new version of the NH90 battlefield transport helicopter to the French military.

GKN Aerospace supplied composite flight structures for BAE’s Brontanax CCA ahead of planned 2027 flight testing.

MTU and Safran's FCAS engine partnership is increasingly unlikely to survive Europe’s fighter program split.

Expansion of the Global Combat Air Program to other partners should not come at the price of slowing the program, says BAE Systems CEO Charles Woodburn.

As the U.S. Air Force refines requirements for Increment 2 of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, top officials do not expect radical design changes.

Los Angeles-based Chaos Industries, a startup previously focused on counter-drone technology, has acquired autonomous cargo aircraft developer Atropos Group.