Boeing successfully conducted the first flight of the ScanEagle Compressed Carriage (SECC) UAV at its Insitu test facility in Oregon on May 12. The SECC is designed to be an air or surface vehicle launched derivative of the successful ScanEagle family of small UAVs, and is recovered using the same Skyhook system as ScanEagle. “This
Kuwait has placed an order for three Lockheed Martin KC-130J Hercules tanker transports via a US government FMS sale. The KC-130Js will be used to support Kuwaiti Air Force F-18 Hornets and to add to the airlift capability provided by Kuwait’s current fleet of three L-100s. The aircraft are scheduled to be delivered in late
Boeing has received the first USAF F-16 Falcon at its Cecil Field facility in Jacksonville, Florida, that is to undergo conversion work into a QF-16 aerial drone. The Boeing led team, which includes BAE Systems, will begin engineering, manufacturing and development of the full scale manned and unmanned QF-16s during Phase 1. The drones will
Space Shuttle Atlantis has returned from its last mission, landing on May 26 at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the last time after a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). On its 32nd and final mission, Atlantis carried six astronauts who installed a Russian component to the ISS as well
Boeing’s X-51A WaveRider broke the record for the longest scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) powered flight in history after it sustained flight for nearly three and a half minutes at a top speed of Mach 5 on May 26. The unmanned WaveRider was released from a US Air Force B-52H (pictured) off the coast of southern
Boeing, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and the US Air Force Research Laboratory will launch the scramjet powered X-51A WaveRider on May 25 from a B-52 off the coast of southern California. The WaveRider is expected to fly for five minutes powered by its scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) motor, accelerating to approximately Mach 6.0 to ride
