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Boeing Conducts World's 1st Flight With 'Green Diesel' As Aviation Biofuel
Boeing has completed the world's first flight using "green diesel," a sustainable biofuel that is widely available and used in ground transportation. The company powered its ecoDemonstrator 787 flight test airplane Wednesday with a blend of 15 percent green diesel and 85 percent petroleum jet fuel in the left engine. "Green diesel offers a tremendous opportunity to make...Read More
Boeing: Aviation Growth Is Sustainable
Dennis Muilenburg, the chief operating officer of Boeing, predicts a bright future for the aircraft manufacturer. Boeing has a backlog of seven years for its aircraft. "When you look at traffic growth and associated fleet growth, combine that with replacement growth, that is a long-term sustainable cycle," Muilenburg said...Read More
Boeing Completes First Milestone For NASA's CCtCap
NASA has approved the completion of Boeing's first milestone in the company's path toward launching crews to the International Space Station from the United States under a groundbreaking Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract. The Certification Baseline Review is the first of many more milestones, including flight tests from Florida's Space Coast that will establish the basis for certifying Boeing's human space...Read More
Orion's 'Trial By Fire' Delivers Data For Final Design
NASA's new Orion crew capsule flew its first test in space with clocklike precision Friday, using two unmanned orbits that took it deeper into space than any human spacecraft has gone since Apollo 17 before a bull's-eye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. On board was a load of recorded engineering data that will shape final design as the agency builds toward astronaut...Read More
Repairs At Wallops Expected To Take A Year
The Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority says that repairs to the a launch pad on Wallops Island damaged when an Orbital Antares rocket exploded on launch will take up to a year. The assessment comes after the authority received a detailed engineering report following inspection of the damage. The failure of the booster and the subsequent explosion left a crater north of the launch pad, but water samples indicate that there was no environmental...Read More
F-16 Pilot Has Brush With Russian MiG
A NATO F-16 was involved recently in a near-collision with a Russian MiG that the pilot was tracking off the coast of Norway. The MiG was first tracked off the coast after in penetrated Norwegian airspace, and the F-16 was scrambled to investigate. In video footage that has been released by Norway, the Russian MiG drops into the flight path of the NATO F-16 with just 60 feet of separation. The only thing that prevented a mid-air collision...Read More
Office Of Naval Research Earns DoD Manufacturing Award For F-35
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) received one of the nation's top manufacturing awards for an innovative, cost-saving method for making advanced cockpit enclosures, or canopies, for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program Dec. 2. Officials from ONR's Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program accepted the Department of Defense's Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award at the Defense Manufacturing Conference in San Antonio...Read More
U.S. Carriers Are Watching Market For Long-Range Boeing 757 Replacement
American Airlines has been most vocal in asking for a Boeing 757 replacement for long missions, such as New York to Paris, New York to Manchester, U.K., and New York to Madrid. American's next smallest long-haul airplane-the Boeing 767-has 209 seats in its new configuration, so losing the overwater Boeing 757 could pose challenges for some thin routes. In the short-term, American will continue to fly nearly 20 757s across the Atlantic...Read More
Marines Shift F-35 Deployment Plans The US Marine Corps is changing the way it plans to use its Lockheed Martin F-35B short take-off, vertical landing fighters. Briefly, the new concept of operations envisages the use of mobile forward arming and refueling points to support groups of F-35Bs, which would return to U.S. Navy amphbious warfare ships, allied carriers (special mention to the British Queen Elizabeth class) or even regional land bases for routine maintenance...Read More Moog Supplying Flight Control Systems For G500, G600 Moog Inc. Aircraft Group had been selected by Gulfstream Aerospace as the supplier of the high lift system and the pilot directional control system for the Gulfstream G500 and G600 business jets. The high lift system includes flight control computers and software, pilot interfaces, flap actuation, power drive, transmission components and accessories. The pilot directional control...Read More A-10 Warthog Not Going Down Without A Fight In light of shrinking defense budgets, the A-10 "Warthog" has been on the chopping block for some time, and the Pentagon is currently set to defund the program. But at least one group has written to the Secretary of Defense to say that the A-10 fulfils a unique niche on the battlefield. The group is the Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) Association, which represents battlefield spotters. The Washington Times reports that in a letter addressed to outgoing Defense...Read More NTSB 787 Battery Recommendations Focus On Processes, Quality, Oversight The U.S. NTSB has issued 18 recommendations to the FAA, Boeing and lithium-ion battery manufacturer GS Yuasa following its 23 month investigation into a 787 auxiliary power unit (APU) battery fire on a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 on the ground in Boston on Jan. 7, 2013...Read More Pilot Killed In F-16 Crash In Jordan A U.S. Air Force pilot assigned to bomb ISIS targets in the Middle East was killed when his F-16 fighter crashed on Sunday, military officials said. The Fighting Falcon reportedly suffered a mechanical malfunction shortly after takeoff. The pilot attempted to return to an airstrip in Jordan...Read More Boeing, Ryanair Finalize Order For 100 737 MAX 200s Boeing and Ryanair have finalized an order for 100 737 MAX 200s, valued at $11 billion at current list prices. The order, originally announced as a commitment in September, includes options for 100 additional 737 MAX 200 airplanes, and makes the Irish low-cost carrier the launch customer for the newest member of the 737 MAX family of airplanes. "Ryanair is proud and honored to become the lead operator...Read More Woman To Be Honored On Capitol Hill For WWII Service Jane Soeten was just 15 when she joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1943. She had hoped to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots program, but the war ended before she was old enough. Soeten is one of approximately 100 surviving CAP members who will be awarded a replica of a Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of more than 200,000 people who served in the CAP during World War II. The ceremony is set for Wednesday in Washington...Read More Lockheed, Boeing Team Up To Design Supersonic Airliner Lockheed Martin and Boeing have teamed up to design an 88-passenger supersonic airplane that will fly at Mach 1.6 -- twice as fast as conventional airliners. The two companies are working with NASA to reduce the sonic boom through aircraft design that would allow the aircraft to fly legally over land...Read More Some Delta Pilots Working To Establish A Breakaway Union There is a bit of a power struggle going on between ALPA, which has represented Delta pilots since 1940, and the upstart Delta Pilots Association (DPA), which was created in 2010 and would like to become the bargaining body for Delta's pilots. DPA says that it has collected cards backing its effort from nearly half of the 12,000 pilots that fly for Delta. But U.S. Labor laws make about a third of those invalid because they were not signed in the past 12 months...Read More Boeing Delivers 6th P-8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft To India There is a bit of a power struggle going on between ALPA, which has represented Delta pilots since 1940, and the upstart Delta Pilots Association (DPA), which was created in 2010 and would like to become the bargaining body for Delta's pilots. DPA says that it has collected cards backing its effort from nearly half of the 12,000 pilots that fly for Delta. But U.S. Labor laws make about a third of those invalid because they were not signed in the past 12 months...Read More Airman Awarded Bronze Star With Valor TSgt. Matthew Treadwell, a combat arms advisor for NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan, was awarded a Bronze Star Medal with Valor during a recent ceremony in Afghanistan, according to a Dec. 2 release. On July 17, Treadwell awoke to sounds of explosions and gunfire just after 4 a.m. Insurgents had "gained access to a multi-story building under construction" about a quarter mile from the base and airport fence line...Read More USAF Must Create A Five-Year C-130 Basing Plan The House and Senate Armed Services Committees Fiscal 2015 defense authorization agreement requires the Air Force to submit a five-year basing plan for C-130H and J-variant aircraft to Congress. It also prohibits USAF from transferring any C-130s until the Air Force Secretary and the Comptroller General have conducted a full cost-benefit analysis of any desired transfers. In addition, the report must certify that units...Read More NASA To Deliver Futuristic Aircraft Part To Virginia For Structural Testing A representative test article of a futuristic hybrid wing body aircraft will be delivered Thursday, Dec. 11 at the agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The large test article, representing the uniquely shaped fuselage cross-section, is made out of a low-weight, damage-tolerant, stitched composite structural concept called Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure, or PRSEUS. Langley's Combined Loads...Read More | 
