MilitaryL3 Wins Multi-Million Air Force Contract for C-130H Avionics Upgrade The Air Force on June 4 awarded L3 Technologies a $499.5 million contract to provide an avionics upgrade for 176 C-130H Hercules aircraft. The competitive fixed-price-incentive-firm contract involves avionics upgrades for the…
UnmannedHow Volocopter's Two-Seater Wants to Overcome the Challenges Facing UAM Air taxi-maker Volocopter released a whitepaper on the challenges facing the urban air mobility (UAM) market in whcih CTO Jan-Hendrik Boelens finds that those concerns are largely well-addressed by the eponymous Volocopter…
RegulationEASA Issues First Space-based ADS-B Surveillance as a Service Certification The European Aviation Safety Agency has certified Aireon as a new air navigation service provider (ANSP) for its space-based ADS-B surveillance, the first of its kind certification ever issued by the civil…
CommercialBoeing Invests in Global Drone MRO Network with an Eye Toward UAM Repair Boeing's HorizonX investment arm has led a funding round for Robotic Skies, a worldwide brokered network of regulator-certified MRO stations for unmanned aircraft. The two companies last year pledged to work together,…
ConnectivitySmartSky's 5G-Ready ATG Network Clears Critical Certification Threshold SmartSky Networks is months away from seeing its air-to-ground (ATG) 4G LTE in-flight connectivity network operating on passenger carrying flights. The ATG aircraft internet service provider’s network is also already using…
CommercialWing Slat Track Woes: Boeing's 737 MAX Issues Mount Boeing discovered improperly manufactured slat tracks that were delivered to its factory to be put on 737 MAX and 737 NG planes, affecting up to 148 parts and 312 aircraft worldwide. The…
CommercialHoneywell Shrinks Fly-By-Wire System for Air Taxi Market Honeywell is bringing its commercial aircraft fly-by-wire system to the urban air mobility (UAM) market, and the aerospace company is packaging it into a box the size of a book. "For UAM,…
ConnectivityHow Lockheed is Using Intermittent Detection to Diagnose Fighter Jet Faults It’s called an intermittent fault, and mounting frustration with equipment that “fails in a working environment” but shows nothing wrong when pulled for testing led the DoD to start a joint service