Aircraft & Propulsion

How Taiwan can counter Chinese escalation; DARPA demos small UAS comms; Romania buys 12 Black Hawks; and testing the limits of Army precision strike missile.

A milestone paves the way for a potential demonstration of the first operationally practical inflight aircraft recovery system next year.

The U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift program has flown dozens of firsts over the last several weeks with a UH-60 Black Hawk “surrogate” for the Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft equipped with a prototype of the future helicopter’s launcher.

Dubbed the Quarterhorse, the single-engine structural prototype is just under 40 ft. in length overall and has wingspan of almost 12 ft.

Taiwan wants to be able to better counter “Grey Zone threats” posed by China, which the island says are designed by the mainland to “seize Taiwan without a fight.”

Romania’s Ministry of the Interior has signed a contract to buy a fleet of up to 12 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters to be used by the country’s emergency services agency.

Startup ZeroAvia has partnered with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics to develop a supplemental type certificate for its conversion of the 19-passenger Dornier 228 regional turboprop to hydrogen-electric propulsion.

Israel Aerospace Industries has teamed with Romania’s IAR-Brasov to offer the Heron unmanned air system for expected military requirements.

Germany’s Navy has received six Skeldar V-200 rotary-wing unmanned air systems to support the operations of its K130 corvettes.

If all options are exercised, work on the contract will last until Oct. 31, 2031.

The Air Force and Navy have defined requirements for a new fleet of tactical aircraft that defy capabilities of existing jet trainers.

The program now could enter a new phase of demonstrations with a single human controller assigned to launch and recover multiple X-61s from a C-130.

With an eye on Iran, the Middle East’s air forces are expanding and broadening the capabilities of their fighter fleets.

A year after the Abraham Accords, the Dubai Airshow offers the next venue to measure the strength of a new diplomatic partnership.

Skyborg is the tip of the iceberg in a multiservice push to bring autonomous control systems from laboratories to the battlefield.

U.S. Special Operations Command recently released a request for proposals for Armed Overwatch, with a production award expected in spring 2022.

A second prototype of the Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS) has commenced flight tests at Australia’s Woomera Range Complex.

Airbus and France’s Dassault Aviation are still ironing out details of the work sharing agreement they reached last spring for the trinational Future Combat Air System program, according to Airbus Defense and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn.

Active sales campaigns for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are underway in the Czech Republic, Greece and Spain, officials say.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Airborne International Response Team have joined forces to study the use of small unmanned aircraft systems by public safety and emergency response organizations.

A U.S. Air Force A-10 is returning to service more than three years after it was severely damaged during an inflight emergency and belly landing in Michigan, after an extensive rebuild that required remanufacturing components of the attack jet.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Joe Biden was “positive” toward the possible sale of new F-16s and upgrades to existing aircraft after the two leaders met over the weekend, as U.S. and Turkish officials separately meet on military cooperation after Turkey was kicked out of the F-35 program.

Boeing delivered the first KC-46A refueling tanker to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force on Oct. 28, marking the first international delivery for the program.

Leduc won Aviation Week’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 but had to wait a year to accept it because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before stepping down as Lockheed Martin CEO in mid-2020, Hewson earned a reputation as one of the most accomplished U.S. chief executives.