Boeing, China’s leading provider of passenger airplanes, projects that China will need 5,260 new commercial airplanes valued at $670 billion over the next 20 years. China is forecast to be the second largest market for new commercial airplanes. “It’s impressive that over 75 percent of the demand in China will be for growth instead of…

Aerojet, a GenCorp company, and the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a new fellowship for basic research in the aeronautical and aerospace sciences. The fellowship initial research will focus on the development of autonomous systems, which entails the theory and development of logic structures and control processes that…

Aerojet announced Aug. 30 that United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V successfully lofted NASA’s twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes on a two-year mission to explore the Van Allen belts. Each RBSP relies on an Aerojet integrated propulsion system that will be used throughout the mission to position the satellites. The Atlas V launching RBSP also used…

Northrop Grumman’s Battlefield Airborne Communications Node has completed 3,000 missions flying aboard the E-11A Bombardier Global Express BD-700 aircraft in support of overseas contingency missions. The 451st Tactical Airborne Gateway at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, executed the 3,000th mission on July 14. BACN is a high-altitude, airborne communications and information gateway system that provides situational awareness…

A winged version of the Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition that will triple the weapon’s glide range to more than 40 miles is a step closer to production after completing wind tunnel tests at a U.S. facility in June. Developed in partnership with the Commonwealth of Australia, the 500-pound JDAM Extended Range features a modular…

Aug. 23, XCOR Aerospace announced they will be starting operations in Florida. That announcement, and an earlier one regarding operations in Midland, Texas, raised concerns about the future of XCOR at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. According to Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s chief operating officer, “We will have Mojave as an operational site…

General Dynamics has completed its previously announced purchase of Fidelis Security Systems, Inc., a market leader in cyber security tools that provide real-time network visibility, analysis and control. It will become part of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics. The value of the cash transaction has not been disclosed. Fidelis…

Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Missile successfully destroyed a tactical ballistic missile target today at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., in an Operational Test conducted by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command. The test involved three incoming targets; two Patriot-As-A-Target TBMs and one MQM-107 drone. A ripple launch of two PAC-3 Missiles successfully engaged the second…