U.S. Navy investigators have begun an inquiry into the fatal crash of a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet on July 31 during a low-level flying exercise near Death Valley, California.
Boeing’s exit from the Ground-based Strategic Deterrent program to replace the U.S.’s nuclear ICBMs leave the Air Force with Northrop as a lone contractor. Aviation Week editors discuss the company’s possible motivation and what it means for the future of the Pentagon’s nuclear program.
The Sikorsky S-70 is increasingly becoming the backbone of Saudi Arabia’s rotary-wing fleet and, as Jon Lake reports, a number of S-70 and UH-60 variants are now spread across several of the kingdom’s military and parapublic air arms.
Avionics companies will show off future cockpit concepts for U.S. Special Operations Command rotorcraft in September, the Sofwerx rapid acquisition office announced.
Boeing has invested $115 million into a formerly shuttered facility to support the Marines common configuration reliability and maintainability program for the MV-22 Osprey.
The Czech Aerospace firm said on Aug. 1 it plans to “omit the certification of the L-39NG in basic training configuration” and deliver the certification of the full trainer configuration, which will allow the aircraft to perform both advanced and lead-in fighter training.
The decision to retain a full-duration static test firing of the Space Launch System core booster all but officially bumps the rocket’s debut flight into 2021.
Israel Aerospace Industries has backed off from a tender to supply UAVs to the Israel Defense Forces, claiming the program as structured would not leave it any profit.
USAF testers have begun preparations for flight tests of a prototype autonomous combat aircraft by flying a suite of safety software in a subscale jet-powered unmanned aircraft at Edwards AFB in California.
The Pentagon says data from an upcoming four-year test campaign covering 40 flights and three basic vehicle concepts will lay the foundation for a comprehensive hypersonic weapon road map.
Sales to Riyadh generated 13% of company revenues in the first half of 2019, the British defense company told investors July 31 as it detailed its half-yearly results.
Russia’s Progress MS-12 resupply mission spacecraft successfully docked at the International Space Station’s Russian segment at 11:29 a.m. EDT on July 31.
Responding to operational concerns caused by hypoxia events in fighter and trainer cockpits, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory plans to demonstrate sensors that could monitor and alert pilots to their physiological state in flight.
The swarms of small satellites are intended to provide near-continuous coverage of areas, operating in parallel with Israel’s full-sized Offeq spy satellites.
NASA tagged 13 U.S. companies on July 30 to partner on seven broad technology fronts needed to advance the agency’s future deep space exploration goals, including a return to the lunar surface with human explorers in 2024.
Orbit Beyond, based in Edison, New Jersey, was one of three companies awarded lunar flight contracts by NASA on May 31. The company had agreed to deliver up to four payloads in September 2020 for a fee of $97 million.
