While the Strategic Defense and Security Review published on Nov. 23 appears to be good news, the government’s pledges appear to do little more than paper over gaping cracks in military aircraft capabilities left by previous reviews.
The small lithium-metal and lithium-ion batteries we use everyday can pose big safety problems on aircraft, especially when carried as bulk cargo. This video shows the intensity of those fires when just a few batteries enter a state known as thermal runaway. FAA engineers at the William J. Hughes Technical Center have quantified the risks and are now testing methods to potentially mitigate them.
The test aimed to deploy the six-seat crew capsule into suborbit for a planned 4-min. weightless period, but attention was focused on whether the rocket stage could be successfully recovered using the tricky vertical-powered-landing technique.
Pratt & Whitney is poised to realize its decades-long goal of introducing the geared turbofan into commercial service, with certification of the PW1100G-powered Airbus A320neo achieved on November 24, and the PW1500G-powered Bombardier CSeries expected to follow within weeks.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket will fly again after achieving an intact powered vertical landing of the launch vehicle and parachute recovery of the unpiloted crew capsule to conclude a test flight.
Blue Origin has successfully launched and landed a reusable rocket for the first time. The New Shepard space vehicle flew to just over 329,000 feet before landing safety at its launch site in Texas. Check out Blue Origin's video of the rocket's test flight.
Do we still have a need for speed? Join Aviation Week as we discuss the history and technology of speed and whether, moving into the future, supersonic aircraft are economically feasible.
Air Canada recently told investors that when it switched from the 767 to the 787-8 between Toronto and Tel Aviv, the airline was able to carry 31% more passengers while using 3% less fuel.
Lightweight textile-based approach to blastproofing baggage containers could lead to wider market acceptance of device to protect airliners from terrorist bombs.
A formal protest of the Pentagon’s Long-Range Strike Bomber award to Northrop Grumman has to be based on failure to follow rules, but the challengers’ public case goes far beyond that.
Flutter-suppression X-56 crashes; laser IDs target by vibrations; new venture to commercialize morphing structures; Airbus helo R&D in the U.K.; Iceye’s low-cost radar imaging from space.
Since launching the Leap program, GE-Snecma joint venture CFM has added more engines to support Airbus, Boeing and Comac, partly to reduce risk as production begins.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. (ret.) Kelly Latimer (see photo) has been chosen to pilot for Virgin Galactic, based in Mojave, California. Latimer was the first female research test pilot to be hired by NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center. Global aerospace components manufacturer Norsk Titanium has appointed Steve Carrington vice president-sales, Tony Prezioso vice president-contracts and Nicholas Mayer vice president-product development.
General Electric is targeting the general aviation and business turboprop market with an engine using an integrated gas generator and propeller control.
French President Francois Hollande and the National Assembly had set very different defense ministry spending plans before the Nov. 13 Islamic State group attacks in Paris. A robust response is forcing a change in those priorities.
BUSINESS AVIATION Cessna is to enter the large-cabin business-jet market with the clean-sheet, 4,500-nm-range Citation Hemisphere, to fly in 2019. With a 102-in.-wide cabin, the aircraft is larger than the Citation Columbus canceled in 2009. The Citation Longitude (pictured), to fly in 2016, has been repositioned below the Hemisphere, with range reduced to 3,400 nm.
Bomber lobby lays the groundwork for the kind of attack on its budget now threatening the F-35; new space bill allows citizens to mine the Moon for its water ice.
