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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Boeing expects to launch the first unmanned test flight of their commercial CST-100 manned ‘space taxi’ in “early 2017,” said Chris Ferguson, commander of NASA’s final shuttle flight in an exclusive one-on-one interview with Universe Today for an inside look at Boeing’s space efforts. Ferguson is now spearheading Boeing’s human spaceflight capsule project as director of Crew and Mission Operations. “The first unmanned orbital test flight is planned in January 2017 … and may go to the station,” Ferguson told me during a wide ranging, in depth discussion about a variety of human spaceflight topics...

An RAAF Super Hornet taxis with live Harpoon ASuW missiles. (Defence) The F/A-18Fs of the RAAF’s 82WG based at Amberley have been conducting trial flights with Boeing AGM-84J Harpoon anti-surface warfare (ASuW) missiles in recent weeks. The trials are part of the development of systems, procedures and training to employ the Harpoon with a full operational clearance, and are based on those used by the US Navy. A Defence spokesperson told Australian Aviation that the Harpoon will complement the Raytheon AGM-54C-1 JSOW precision weapon in the Super Hornet’s ASuW arsenal. In a written response to questions, the spokesperson said: “The...

Sikorsky Aircraft rolled out the CH-53K, the U.S. Marine Corps’ future heavy lift helicopter, on May 5 at the company’s West Palm Beach, Fla. facility. According to Sikorsky, the mostly composite helicopter—dubbed the “King Stallion”—will fly by year-end, with operational service expected in 2019. “The rollout of the CH-53K helicopter introduces a new era in Marine Corps aviation,” said Sikorsky president Mick Maurer. “The clean-sheet CH-53K will effectively triple the external load carrying capacity of the CH-53E aircraft—to more than 27,000 pounds over a mission radius of 110 nautical miles. With its 88,000-pound maximum gross weight, powerful new engines, lightweight...

To compete with India's Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters, the People's Liberation Army Air Force may consider replacing the RLPK-27VE integrated radar targeting system of its Sukhoi Su-30MKK fighters with more advanced passive electronically scanned array radar, according to the Moscow-based Military Parade magazine. Even though China has shown itself capable of building its own version of Russian fighters such as the J-11B and the J-15 through reverse engineering, many Western experts still question whether the quality of these Chinese fighters is really equal to the Russian originals. This is the reason why China still needs to purchase the Su-35S, Russia's 4.5-generation,...

Virtually every country on Earth will be able to build or acquire drones capable of firing missiles within the next ten years. Armed aerial drones will be used for targeted killings, terrorism and the government suppression of civil unrest. What’s worse, say experts, it’s too late for the United States to do anything about it. After the past decade’s explosive growth, it may seem that the U.S. is the only country with missile-carrying drones. In fact, the U.S. is losing interest in further developing armed drone technology. The military plans to spend $2.4 billion on unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs,...

Wind gusts on Monday afternoon blew a Wasilla pilot off course at takeoff from a rural airstrip in the Matanuska Valley — and stuck him and his plane into a tree 40 feet off the ground.

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas. The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000 feet, but the computers were attempting to keep...

Two months from now, the UK Royal Navy’s largest ever warship will be named, before being floated out of its dry dock in Rosyth, Scotland, as the HMS Queen Elizabeth. The first of two 65,000t vessels to be delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, the lead ship is still more than four years away from receiving its first visit by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and over six from reaching full operational status. Aircraft Carrier Alliance With Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to perform the naming act on 4 July, the ship that will bear her name is...

Lockheed’s strategy of basing its F-35 marketing strategy on its “stealth” capabilities is beginning to backfire as their effectiveness is being increasingly challenged by competitors and outside analysts. (RAAF photo) Boeing has been loudly criticising Lockheed Martin’s F-35 in hopes that the Navy and other clients will buy more of its EA-18G Growlers for support and F/A-18 Super Hornets as contingency. Developed in a Joint Strike Fighter contract that Lockheed won over Boeing in 2001, the F-35 is wildly over budget and has run into various design problems. Chief among them, according to Boeing, is the weakness of its stealth...

One Iranian Tomcat lobbed a 7,000-pound munition Nearly 30 years, ago, the Iranian air force modified its U.S.-built F-14 Tomcat fighters to carry air-to-ground ordnance—including, in one spectacular case, a massive, 3.5-ton bomb. Iran’s bitter enemy Iraq actually inspired the idea of outfitting the twin-engine, swing-wing F-14s as bombers. Iran and Iraq fought a bloody war between 1980 and 1988. Iraq’s most notorious interceptor and recon jets were also its most prolific bombers. Baghdad’s Soviet-supplied MiG-25 Foxbats could carry free-fall bombs and still reach Mach 2.5 at 60,000 feet. Using the advantage of speed and altitude, a MiG-25RB could release...

A major engine upgrade for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet is being seriously considered by the US Navy for a programme launch in Fiscal Year 2016. GE Aviation and the navy jointly funded a one-year study – which kicked off last October – to examine the details of implementing a nearly 15-year-old proposal to upgrade the F414-GE-400 with the “enhanced durability engine” (EDE) kit. Following a decade of component and rig testing and several false starts on the export market, the study may be GE Aviation’s best hope of salvaging a programme that could improve the thrust of the...

A 007-style of mission to capture a Mig-21 in the 1960s. Built in more than 11,000 examples and acquired by countless countries around the globe, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 was introduced in several Arab arsenals in the early 1960s, becoming the most modern among the Soviet jets flown in the Middle East in that period. After it entered the active service, Israelis feared that the Fishbed was superior to the Mirage III fighter jets hence they needed as much details about it as possible to assess its capabilities since any information about this new fighter could give to the Israeli Air...

Mooney International Corporation is proud to present Planes of Fame Air Show 2014, May 3 & 4: "A Salute to the Mighty Eighth". This year’s airshow will feature over 40 historic aircraft, performing for your enjoyment as well as a salute to the 8th Air Force in WWII. We invite you to Airshow 2014 to celebrate the history and contributions of the men, women, and aircraft of the 8th Air Force. Performers include U.S.A.F. F-22 Raptor Demo Team ...

Ever since 1986′s Top Gun, music and the carefully-choreographed mayhem that happens on a carrier’s flight deck have gone together like peanut butter and chocolate. But if you thought such confections are limited to the U.S. Navy, you’d be wrong. Not only does China have a new carrier, with another on the way, it now has a video showing off some of what its existing flattop, the Liaoning, and its J-15 fighters can do. The video celebrates the 65th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. It was produced by AVIC—the Aviation Industry Corporation of China—a state-owned aerospace and defense...

The supersonic Brahmos currently has a limited range of 295 kilometres, which means targets far across the border are out of reach There will soon be a more practical way of retaliating against a foreign-backed terrorist attack on Indian soil than mobilising our 1.6 million-strong military for a war that might trigger a nuclear conflagration. Instead, New Delhi will soon be able to punish terrorists harbouring across the border with surgical strikes from Brahmos cruise missile, fitted on Sukhoi-30MKI fighters. The supersonic Brahmos, jointly developed by India and Russia, already equips Indian warships and artillery units. Yet its limited range...

Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG and Aviadvigatel have confirmed that work continues on “radical modernization” of the MiG-31 Foxhound, with the focus on extending the performance of the aging, out-of-production Mach 3 interceptor so that it can carry out not only air-defense duties but also serve the recently established VKO, the Russian acronym for the country’s Air and Space Defense (Command). Under a directive from the Russian defense ministry, RAC MiG is working on new versions of the aircraft more capable than the current MiG-31BM. Speaking to AIN at the Engines-2014 exposition held April 15 to 17 in Moscow, Aleksander Inozemtsev,...

The Swedish government has announced plans to beef up its defence forces by fitting its fleet of Gripen fighter jets with long-range cruise missiles. Defence Minister Karin Enström said the high-precision missiles would chiefly act as a deterrent to other countries that might be considering an attack on Sweden. “They would give new capabilities by offering a longer reach, but also the ability to fight targets that are further away,” she told Sveriges Radio (SR) on Thursday. She said the move would “increase the effectiveness” of Sweden’s defence. The cruise missiles would be added to the next generation of Gripen...

For months, US Air Force officials have used the adjective “hard” to describe their decision to ground entire fleets of aircraft in response to budget cuts. But on 23 April, USAF chief of staff Gen Mark Welsh says a review of the service’s options showed “very clearly” that grounding its Fairchild Republic A-10s is the right choice. Speaking at a National Press Club event in Washington, DC, Welsh says the service evaluated a number of cost-cutting options against a “very detailed operational analyses” before making decisions. “We came very clearly to the conclusion that of all those horrible options, the...

THE Abbott Government will purchase 72 advanced American-built stealth fighter jets to spearhead the nation’s defence for the next half century. The $12.4 billion through-life outlay, to be announced in Canberra today by the Prime Minister, is the biggest defence purchase in Australian history and includes every aspect of the system from hangars to missiles. The so-called “fifth generation” JF-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) planes will be deployed in three operational squadrons and a training squadron based at RAAF Williamtown near Newcastle in NSW and RAAF Tindal near Katherine in the Northern Territory. About $1.6 billion will be spent...

The Eurofighter Typhoon’s proposed conformal fuel tank (CFT) configuration has entered windtunnel testing in the UK, partner company BAE Systems has revealed. BAE says it is “currently assessing the aerodynamic characteristics of carrying two fuselage-mounted conformal fuel tanks on the Typhoon aircraft”, using a high-speed windtunnel at its Warton site in Lancashire. “This testing will help to accelerate the clearance process for such tanks to be integrated on to Typhoon, offering increased range and flexibility to the aircraft,” the company adds. BAE Systems A new configuration item for the Tranche 3 production standard Typhoon, the conformal structures would free up...