Senate backs Air Force deal to keep Boeing C-17 going

Posted at: Fri Nov 11th, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a measure Thursday that would keep open the production line for Boeing's C-17 transport plane. An amendment to the defense-authorization bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., would authorize the Air Force to purc...

Global Hawk UAV gets bigger and more capable

Posted at: Fri Nov 11th, 2005

November 11, 2005 The Global Hawk UAV was still in its development stages when the needs of the war in Afghanistan saw it pressed into service. Since then, Global Hawk has successfully completed more than 225 missions through three deployments and more than 4,900 combat flight hours. Now the aircraf...

A Nervous Eye On Defense Firms

Posted at: Fri Nov 11th, 2005

The End of the Mighty Post-9/11 Pentagon Budgets Could Put Big Weapons Projects Under Scrutiny and Industry Stocks in Retreat By Renae Merle Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 11, 2005; Page D01 For the makers of the military's ships and fighter...

Revolution or curiosity? UCAVs wait for a mission statement

Posted at: Fri Nov 11th, 2005

By Bill Sweetman, IDR Aerospace and Technology Editor Everyone agrees that UCAVs [Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles] are the answer," one speaker commented at a recent conference on unmanned combat air vehicles. "We just have to figure out what the question is." Like most ...

NASA Flying Wing Model Soars In Historic Wind Tunnel

Posted at: Fri Nov 11th, 2005

Ask anyone what an airplane looks like and most will tell you a tube with wings. NASA researchers are trying to expand that image. They're testing a design for a flying wing, called a blended wing body. Technicians have installed a five-percent scale model of a blended wing body in th...