An “A322” would have a minimum range of 5,000 nm, opening up many new, thin international routes to Europe from U.S. hubs currently unreachable with single-aisle aircraft.
Navy tweaks littoral combat ship, NASA environmental missions may face more scrutiny, media experiments with UAVs and Ashton Carter returns to the Pentagon.
With the cost of a fleet of new nuclear submarines threatening to crowd out other Navy shipbuilding projects, Congress has taken a “first step” toward maintaining funding for other projects, according to the Navy’s top acquisition official. Last year, lawmakers established the National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund, a place outside the traditional shipbuilding accounts to set aside up to $3.5 billion for the SSBN(X) Ohio-class submarine replacement program. Unobligated balances from other programs can be transferred into the fund.
The FAA is not quite finished with its official rules for small unmanned air systems (UAS), those under 55 lb. In the meantime, the agency did produce a public service announcement aimed at people receiving UAS as holiday gifts. “Many will be excited when they unwrap the box and find an unmanned aircraft. How do you make sure you stay off the naughty list?” the video asks, proceeding to list a number of operating guidelines.
Powerful New York senator takes aim at airline ticket prices that carriers contend remain a bargain, Republican committee leadership changes and Southwest wins slots from Kansas City to Washington.
A $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill designed to keep the U.S. government open for the remainder of fiscal 2015 includes $18 billion for NASA for the year.
Although the FAA has not yet completed rules for how UAVs should be operated in U.S. airspace, it can fine commercial operators for “careless or reckless” flying of unmanned aircraft—even those that cost less than $200. That is the upshot of what being perceived as a “win” for FAA regulators: an NTSB ruling this week on Raphael Pirker’s promotional video for the University of Virginia—shot from a remote-control aircraft.
Opinion: USAF has the rare opportunity to improve U.S. national security, impose costs on an aggressive foreign power, promote American technological innovation and create jobs at home.
Despite ongoing budget cuts that are forcing the Army to shrink, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says U.S. land forces will remain relevant now and into the future. The Army will be tapped to respond to potential threats in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific—often thought of in terms of air- and sea-based response.
NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to take U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) as a way to stop paying Russia $76 million a pop for seats (and training) in the Soyuz capsule after early 2018. But even in this era of cooling relations between the countries, it doesn’t mean astronauts will stop flying Soyuz. And cosmonauts probably will fly in the new U.S. vehicles, to restore the “dissimilar redundancy” in ISS crew transport that has been missing since the space shuttle retired.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is not happy about its loss to Boeing and SpaceX in the competition for federal funds to complete commercial human vehicles to take crews to the International Space Station (ISS), but it plans to keep building its reusable lifting-body spaceplane and use it to compete for the next round of ISS commercial cargo-delivery contracts NASA awards.
