A multirole fighter jet built by Boeing flew for the first time Tuesday at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Missouri for the evaluation of the aircraft's digital backbone and its mission preparedness.
Read More »Boeing, Navy Fly MQ-25 UAS With Cobham-Built Refueling Pod
The U.S. Navy and Boeing have tested the aerodynamics of an MQ-25 unmanned aircraft system that features a Cobham-built aerial refueling store mounted on the vehicle wing structure.
Read More »AFRL, DZYNE Technologies Conclude Debut Flight of Unmanned Flight Tech
The Air Force Research Laboratory and DZYNE Technologies demonstrated the capacity of a robotic pilot unmanned conversion program during a test flight at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.
Read More »SpaceX to Put Reusable Upper-Stage Rocket Through Hover Test
SpaceX is set to demonstrate a prototype of its Starship reusable launch vehicle during a low-altitude flight test after the company completed installation of an engine into the second-stage rocket, SpaceNews reported Friday.
Read More »Kratos Completes Second Test Flight for Valkyrie UAV
Kratos Defense and Security Solutions achieved its test objectives for the XQ-58A Valkyrie, an unmanned aerial vessel, during its second flight test on June 11.
Read More »Lockheed Begins Assembly Work on Orion EM-2 Spacecraft
Lockheed Martin has teamed up with NASA to begin construction work on the components of an Orion spacecraft that is expected to take off by 2022 to perform the crewed Exploration Mission-2, NASASpaceFlight reported Monday. Four astronauts aboard the Lockheed-built Orion will perform a lunar flyby as part of the EM-2 test flight.
Saab Flies New GlobalEye Aircraft From Linkoping Airfield
Saab has flown a new surveillance jet platform from the company’s airfield in Linkoping, Sweden to gather verification data on performance and modelling. The GlobalEye, a modified Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft, underwent a test that lasted one hour and 46 minutes, following a wave of ground trials, Saab said Wednesday. The aircraft’s modifications include …
Read More »Lockheed Test Pilot Mark Ward Reaches 100 Flight Hours Aboard T-50A
Lockheed Martin test pilot Mark Ward has become the first to fly the T-50A for 100 hours. The company said Wednesday Mark Ward’s T-50A flight was part of the company’s contribution to the U.S. Air Force‘s Advanced Pilot Training competition. Lockheed announced the T-50A’s APT participation in February 2016. The test-flying began November 2016 at the Greenville …
Read More »General Atomics’ MQ-1C Extended Range Variant Surpasses Flight Test Goal
An extended-range variant of General Atomics‘ MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system has exceeded the 40-hour goal during an endurance flight test. General Atomics said Thursday MQ-1C ER was configured for a representative U.S. Army mission and flew 41.9 hours after the UAS was launched from El Mirage, California. It marked the aircraft’s …
Read More »Inmarsat Demos Global Xpress Satcom Service Aboard Gulfstream IV Aircraft
Inmarsat has completed a flight test to demonstrate the capability of its Global Xpress satellite network to deliver high-speed communications coverage to users aboard a Gulfstream IV aircraft. Global Xpress worked to deliver data, voice, internet access, video teleconferencing, application streaming and file transfer support services to the aircraft through …
Read More »NASA Issues Test Flight Schedules for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Vehicles
NASA on Thursday released schedules of crewed and unmanned test flights of space vehicles from Boeing and SpaceX as part of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts the agency awarded in 2014, Space News reported Friday. The SpaceX-built Crew Dragon vehicle is expected to carry out an unmanned test flight in February …
Read More »Report: Northrop Reschedules Global Hawk Flight Test With UTC-Built Sensor
Northrop Grumman has pushed back the test flight of its RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft equipped with a United Technologies Corp.-built multispectral imaging sensor technology to late January, Inside Defense reported Wednesday. Rachel Karas writes testing of the MS-177 sensor-equipped Global Hawk was originally scheduled to occur in late December. The report said …
Read More »SpaceX Postpones Manned Dragon Capsule Launch to May 2018; Boeing Reschedules CST-100 Test Flights
SpaceX has pushed back from the spring of 2017 to May 2018 the first manned flight of its Dragon spacecraft designed to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Andy Pasztor writes the delay comes as SpaceX works to develop new fueling …
Read More »Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Outfit Conducts Rocket Failure Test Flight in Texas
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin outfit carried out a test flight that had a crew capsule go through a simulated rocket failure in Texas in support of preparations to launch a suborbital system for space tourists in 2018, USA Today reported Wednesday. James Dean writes the New Shepard vehicle booster survived the unmanned test to complete the fifth …
Read More »Lockheed, Pilatus Aircraft Complete PC-21 Aircraft Initial Production Test Flight
Lockheed Martin and Pilatus Aircraft have conducted an initial production test flight of the first PC-21 training aircraft as part of the estimated $896.8 million AIR 5428 Pilot Training System Program contract signed in 2015. Lockheed said Thursday it will supply integrated ground-based training technologies and pilot training system project management to support future pilots in Australia’s air …
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