Editor's Picks: The Week In Aerospace & Defense

Korea Aerospace Industries has selected Airbus Helicopters’ H155 as the basis for the Light Civil Helicopter to enter service in 2020 and derivative Light Armed Helicopter (LAH) to become operational with the South Korean army in 2022. The army needs at least 200 LAHs.

Turkey has issued a request for information to manufacturers interested in participating in the TF-X indigenous fighter program, seeking input on what capabilities they can offer. The indigenously designed, developed and produced TF-X is planned to fly in the early 2020s and replace the Turkish air force’s F-16 fleet in the 2030s.

Credit: TAI Concept

Boeing and Saab are jointly targeting the Ground-Launched Small-Diameter Bomb at Multiple Launch Rocket System operators demilitarizing their M26 artillery rockets to comply with the Oslo Convention on cluster munitions. Three demonstration flights were conducted in February, and the weapon could be operational within 18-24 months of a contract award.

There will likely be two U.S. next-generation fighter X-plane prototypes, one for the Air Force and one for the Navy, under the Pentagon’s Aerospace Innovation Initiative, says the deputy director of Darpa, which will lead the effort. The prototypes will integrate technologies for air-dominance fighters to enter service after 2030.

United Technologies is assessing “strategic alternatives” for Sikorsky, including spinning off the helicopter manufacturer because it is not sufficiently profitable. As a platform provider with the Pentagon as its biggest customer, Sikorsky cannot match the margin or growth protections of UTC’s other, mainly commercial, aerospace units.

A software patch is being flight-tested to improve the fusion of the threat picture within a formation of Lockheed Martin F-35s. Data from different sensors is shared across a secure network and blended into a single display, but fusion has been less than perfect. The upgrade is expected to reduce pilot workload and improve awareness of the battlefield.

Airbus Group has sold a 17.5% stake in rival fighter manufacturer Dassault Aviation, raising €1.64 billion ($1.8 billion). Dassault Aviation bought back a 5% stake for €451 million and, with parent Dassault Group, now holds around 61% of the share capital. Airbus still holds just under 25%.

As the U.S. Army retires its Bell OH-58B Kiowa Warrior rotorcraft to save money, the first unit to take over the armed scout role using a combination of Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and Textron Systems RQ-7Bv2 Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft has been formed.

Boeing is test-flying a 757 with an actively blown vertical tail and new wing leading-edge sections, which could pave the way for use of natural laminar flow and active flow control in future airliners. The aircraft is the company’s third ecoDemonstrator, and Boeing is planning a series of follow-on technology testbeds.

Germanwings Flight 9525 was “deliberately crashed” by the first officer flying the Airbus A320 into the ground, killing all 150 people onboard, according to investigators. The March 24 flight was en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany. After locking the captain out of the cockpit, the copilot apparently initiated the descent. The aircraft hit a mountain in the French Alps.

As U.S. airlines and labor unions step up their campaign against alleged subsidies for the Big Three Gulf carriers—Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways—key players in European transport policy are seeking to negotiate a new agreement with Gulf states to regulate state support. Gulf countries and carriers are strongly resisting the effort.

Bombardier has flown the fifth and final test vehicle for the initial 110-seat CS100 version of CSeries. FTV5, the first with a cabin interior, joined the program on March 18. Testing of the CS100, and first 135-seat CS300, has passed 1,200 hr., but new CEO Alaine Bellemare is reviewing the certification schedule.

The first two all-electric satellites have begun an eight-month journey to final orbit after launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 on March 1. The twin Boeing 702SP spacecraft for Eutelsat and Asian Broadcast Satellite use xenon-ion thrusters for both station-keeping and orbit-raising and weigh half that of the equivalent chemical-propulsion satellites.

Sierra Nevada Corp. has entered NASA’s second-round competition for unmanned vehicles to deliver cargo to the International Space Station with an autonomous version of its lifting-body Dream Chaser with folding wings and a pressurized/unpressurized “cargo trailer.” The vehicle initially would be launched on an Atlas V or Ariane 5.

SES of Luxembourg, the world’s largest satellite fleet operator by revenue, says concepts like the Jupiter space tug proposed by Lockheed Martin to ferry cargo to the ISS could serve a variety of functions aimed at lowering the cost of building, launching and operating geostationary satellites. This includes refreshing payload technologies on orbit.

The European Aviation Safety Agency is proposing a framework for civil unmanned-aircraft operations with three categories based on risk, the lowest of which would not involve any oversight by aviation authorities. The “Concept of Operations for Drones” says UAVs “should be regulated in a manner proportionate to the risk of the specific operation.”

Operators with exemptions from FAA airworthiness requirements to enable low-risk small unmanned aircraft flights now have blanket authorization to fly below 200 ft. altitude under an interim policy to speed the startup of commercial operations. The FAA also has streamlined exemptions for applications similar to already approved operations.

The package-delivery unmanned aircraft for which Amazon has received FAA experimental certification is already obsolete and no longer being flown, the online retail giant says, lamenting the time it took to gain approval for outdoor testing in the U.S. Amazon has applied for approval to fly a more advanced UAS and hopes “this permission will be granted quickly.”

Europe’s follow-on civil aeronautics research program, Clean Sky 2, faces the challenge of balancing near-term large-scale integrated demonstrations of mature technologies with longer-term research into breakthrough ideas for 2035 and beyond.

The Boeing 777 jet was rolled out in high style on April 9, 1994. To accommodate 100,000 invited employees, customers and suppliers, the company held a series of 15 continuous rollout ceremonies from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Aviation Week reported the 777 was being introduced to a “tentative market.”

Today, Boeing has taken orders for nearly 1,700 777s and will introduce a radically updated version, the 777X, at the end of this decade.

Read our original coverage of the 777 rollout and other momentous events at: AviationWeek.com/100