When Lockheed Martin began developing the F-35 in 2001, several technologies needed for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to succeed were far from ready. One was a revolution in helmet-display technology. The goal was to combine the functionality of head-up and head-down displays and a helmet-mounted cueing system into a single helmet for the F-35 pilot. But Vision Systems International (VSI), a Rockwell Collins/Elbit Systems joint venture, encountered some thorny issues while maturing the technology.
With troubles on its eastern borders, it is perhaps no wonder that Turkey wants to keep a close eye on its frontiers. Turkey sees unmanned aerial vehicles as the ideal platform for this important role but has been frustrated by export controls which have prevented the country from being able to buy the U.S.-built armed General Atomics Predators and Reapers it has long desired.
Live-fire testing on pressurized single-aisle and widebody aircraft cabins is set to start at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Test Center in northern Maryland. The work is part of a long-running Army and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program to study locations or designs that will yield the least damage if a bomb found onboard an aircraft detonates.
Turkey is awaiting the imminent maiden flight of the Hurkus, a turboprop training aircraft named for one of the country's greatest aviation pioneers. Vecihi Hurkus is the most celebrated Turkish aviator, who achieved many of the country's aeronautical firsts. As well as being the first Turk to shoot down an enemy aircraft, he was also the first to design and build an indigenous aircraft in the 1920s. But his numerous designs failed to move beyond the prototype stage.
The A400M's fly-by-wire system is based on the three-axis digital flight controls developed by Airbus for the A380, but modified to increase maneuverability and agility. The maximum bank angle is 120 deg. and load factor 3g. Software provides flightpath stability, plus high- and low-speed flight-envelope and overstress protection.
Over the last two decades, Turkey has modernized its air force with “off-the-shelf” combat aircraft and weaponry, but it has been sorely limited in what it could procure.
In what could be the biggest shake-up of U.S.-funded science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) promotional efforts since the dawn of the space age, the Pentagon, NASA and Department of Homeland Security are set to lose many of their STEM programs.
Producing up to 11,065 shp, at an 860-rpm propeller speed for takeoff, the TP400-D6 is the most powerful turboprop to enter production in the West. The engine is built by Europrop International, a consortium comprising Rolls-Royce in the U.K., Snecma in France, MTU Aero Engines in Germany and Industria de Turbopropulores in Spain.
Turkey wants to shape itself into a major aerospace and defense exporter in the coming years. Last year, the country's A&D sector exported $1.28 billion worth of armored vehicles, small patrol boats, electronic warfare and air defense systems. While this represents a small fraction of Turkey's exports each year, its growth is no small part of the government's strategy to become of the world's largest exporters as well as one of the 10 strongest economic world powers by 2023.
Budget constraints are affecting all of Europe, resulting in severe procurement cuts, minimal research and development spending, and an absence of new programs necessary to lay the groundwork for the future. Moreover, leading European countries, which maintain a sizable defense industry, are still striving to reach a consensus on unified operational requirements. Many still dwell in the past, according a higher priority to sovereignty despite the European Union's mission to establish a 27-nation common destiny.
MOSCOW — The Russian defense ministry has ordered 15 Antonov An-148 regional jets to be assembled under license in Russia at a Voronezh-based VASO facility. Although the deal was signed in May, the announcement was made June 6 during the VASO annual shareholders meeting. The first aircraft is expected to be delivered to the military this year, according to a representative of the VASO parent company, United Aircraft Corporation. The rest of the batch will be shipped at a rate of three to four aircraft per year through 2017.
ARLINGTON, Va. — A program developed for the U.S. Navy with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) support that integrates full motion video (FMV) with data intelligence feeds should be ready for full fleet exercises in summer 2014, says an executive for KAB Laboratories, the company developing the technology.
Airbus Military is to test a C295 medium transport aircraft fitted with an aerial firefighting system. The company confirmed to that it plans to modify the prototype C295 for trials due to take place in late September. The aircraft will use a tank system fitted in the main cargo hold dropping the water through openings cut into the belly of the aircraft.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The best way to access the darkest depths of the oceans may be from above. At least that is the thinking behind the station-keeping low-visibility glider (SK-Glider) being developed with U.S. Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding by the LBI company of Groton, Conn. The SK-Glider can be deployed from standard launch tubes from P-3 and P-8 aircraft and transit a long distance to provide persistent surveillance in denied or hostile areas, the company says.
The Pentagon may be trying to clip the U.S. Army’s purchase of 30 additional Light Utility Helicopters, but Congress is poised to help the EADS North America program. In its draft of a fiscal 2014 policy bill, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) recommends adding $135.1 million to the president’s requested funding level- — a 196.3% boost. The proposed funding increase makes the Mississippi-manufactured UH-72A Lakota one of the big winners in the mark-up. (See charts pp. 6-9.)
LONDON — The first Bell-Boeing CV-22 Ospreys to be assigned to a squadron based outside the United States will be delivered to the U.K. later this month.
Saab is pulling its JAS 39E Gripen out of Canada’s fighter competition, having “decided not to take part,” according to a company official. The next-generation Gripen was among candidates to replace the Lockheed Martin F-35 as Canada’s future fighter. “Our conclusion is that the conditions were not yet ripe for us to act,” Saab spokeswoman Karin Walka said June 5. “We feel that we have a good dialogue with Canada in both this matter as well as in others.”
