Eight Japanese companies are now working to design the nation’s F-X fighter: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Subaru, IHI, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Fujitsu and NEC.
Airbus has ground tested a prototype mechanism to deploy an unmanned aircraft from the rear ramp of an Airbus A400M airlifter in flight as part of studies aimed at supporting the European Future Combat Air System.
Germany is set to receive its first C-130J Hercules airlifter in early 2022, which will join a new Franco-German air transport unit that will become operational this September with French C-130Js.
Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East said he is confident about a rapid recovery of the air transport sector after the pandemic led the company to a £4 billion ($5.6 billion) loss in 2020.
LiquidPiston is to study the application of its rotary diesel engine technology to hybrid-electric propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft and advanced air mobility vehicles under a contract from the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX innovation unit.
The delivery begins a series of government testing on the supersonic strategic bomber, which is now powered by Kuznetsov NK-30-2 turbofan engines, Rostec said.
The Netherlands is temporarily taking over Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) air-policing duties for Belgium following the grounding of that country’s F-16 fighter fleet.
Startup Jump Aero is to study the use of an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle to calibrate navigation aids, as an alternative to a costly fixed-wing platform.
The ELM program chose the V-22’s brownout problem as an early test case for the complex, multicellular organisms that can “grow on-site, self-repair and respond predictably to their environment."
The unnamed suitors are proposing to purchase the two companies—Piaggio Aviation and Piaggio Aero Industries—which form Villanova d’Albenga-based Piaggio Aerospace.
In response to higher power requirements for the emerging autonomous air cargo and urban air mobility markets, Honeywell is developing a 1-megawatt turbogenerator based on the company’s HGT1700 auxiliary power unit.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee believes it is time for Congress and the Pentagon to “cut our losses” on the F-35 program and begin to debate a future fighter mix that does not depend as heavily on the Joint Strike Fighter.
The difficulties of the Future Combat Air System program not only hinge on intellectual property issues, but also on work sharing between its French, German and Spanish partners, Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier says.
