Defense

Dubai authorities have begun the first flight trials of an urban air mobility system using the German Volocopter 2X multicopter.

The U.S. Army has completed its final flight of a Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter, ending the aircraft’s 32-year career.

L3 Technologies is protesting the U.S. Army’s award of a 10-year, $387 million contract to support Army and U.S. Air Force rotary wing training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, after the incumbent lost a recompetition for the work.

Boeing is sponsoring a $2 million competition to develop a safe, viable personal air vehicle with a fly-off of the finalist designs in 2019.

Blue Origin has signed a third customer for orbital space launch services, agreeing to fly a communications satellite for Thai-based startup mµ Space Corp.

Rocket Lab will fly cubesats for paying customers Planet and Spire Global aboard the second test flight of its Electron small satellite launcher.

Vice President Mike Pence has once again pledged to boost U.S. leadership in space exploration.

China is open to expansion of its planned space station in cooperation with foreign partners, a senior official involved in the program says.

The Israeli defense ministry’s advanced technology department is developing wide-area surveillance UAVs, new ways to pick targets out of a crowd and a system of a thousand scattered sensors.

The Pentagon has rolled back an Obama administration requirement that sought to make companies better align their so-called independent R&D with Defense Department technology goals.

Sikorsky is beginning major assembly of the first aircraft of the U.S. Air Force’s HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program at its production facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Indonesian Aerospace has delivered the last two of six Airbus H225M search-and-rescue helicopters, ordered by the country’s air force in 2012.

The U.S. Air Force may eliminate a phase of helicopter pilot training in order to free up resources to produce additional fighter pilots.

Fifty years after Australia launched its first satellite into space, the government on Sept. 25 announced plans to establish a national space agency.

The main engine of the forthcoming H3 Japanese space launcher has performed successfully in a series of hot-fire tests, with program engineers working toward a first flight in around three years.

Reaction Engines has won a contract from Darpa to conduct high-temperature testing of the pre-cooler technology at the heart of its proposed hypersonic air-breathing combined cycle Sabre rocket concept.

Germany and Norway have signed contracts for five Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transports.

An Italian Air Force test pilot was killed Sept. 24 in the crash of a Eurofighter Typhoon at an air display.

India’s state-run space agency has begun work on IRNSS-1I, the ninth satellite of the country’s navigation constellation, following the failed launch of a backup satellite last month.

Prime, OEM and Tier 1 aerospace and defense players are buying major rivals, answering the question of how they will grow in the near- and mid-term.

The U.S. Air Force anticipates delivery of the first “cross-decked” EC-37B Compass Call airborne electronic attack aircraft from L3 Technologies in 2021.

The two most serious issues are uncommanded refueling boom extensions and the boom operator’s inability to detect when the probe has missed the receiver aircraft’s receptacle and causes damage.

Sierra Nevada Corp. has offered the first glimpse of its “Freedom Aircraft” prototype, originally conceived for the U.S. Air Force's $16 billion T-X trainer competition.

The Atlantic I will formally end its 45-year career in October in favor of the Leonardo P-72, a maritime patrol version of the ATR-72-600 turboprop-powered regional airliner.

Osiris-Rex, NASA’s first-ever asteroid sample return mission spacecraft, swooped close to Earth on Sept. 22 for a planned gravity assist maneuver on its way to the space rock Bennu.