Business & Military

U.S. ‘Might’ Ban Laptops On International Flights

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says he “might” ban laptops in the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the U.S. In an interview Sunday he said airliners with lots of Americans aboard are a prime target for terrorists and the ban wouldn’t be a response to a specific threat, but a general […]

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New Russian Airliner Flies

Russia’s newest airliner took its first flight Sunday with little fanfare but a reportedly substantial order book. The Irkut MC-21-300 will compete directly with the Boeing 737 MAX, Airbus A320 Neo and Bombardier CSeries for the increasingly crowded single-aisle airliner market. It will carry 163 to 211 passengers and is projected to be 12 to […]

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Drones That Track Footsteps

As drones get ever more capable, a company called ARA has married them to a system of ground sensors that can automatically dispatch a drone to monitor suspicious foot traffic. That means border protection and military perimeter monitoring. view on YouTube

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Warthog Retirement Reversed

The Air Force has reversed its plan to retire the A-10 and now says all 283 Warthogs have a productive future. The 2018 budget plan sent to Congress this week says the iconic close support aircraft will be in the fleet “for the foreseeable future,” according to The Associated Press. All the A-10s were supposed […]

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Privatizing Airports: Another DOA Idea

As sure as winter turns to spring, the ATC privatization idea has resurfaced and just as surely as summer is coming, so too are the alphabets protesting it. We’ve already hashed out ad nauseam why turning over air traffic to a private entity is a bad idea, but this season’s regurgitation has a new twist: […]

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Administration Wants Drone Shoot Down Authority

As the drone industry gears up to produce technology to knock down their own products, they may find a big customer in the U.S. government. The Trump administration is circulating draft legislation that would give the government sweeping powers to track and destroy drones over the U.S., according to The New York Times. The proposed […]

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DARPA, Boeing To Build Spaceplane

Boeing’s Phantom Works will partner with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to design, build and test a technology demonstration vehicle for the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program, DARPA announced this week. Boeing will develop an autonomous, reusable, hypersonic spaceplane, called Phantom Express, capable of deploying small satellites of up to 3,000 pounds into low […]

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One-Ton Cargo Drone In The Works

An online retailer in China, JD.com, announced this week it plans to develop heavy-duty drones that can deliver one ton or more of cargo. The drones could also be used to ferry goods out of the rural areas, such as fruits and vegetables headed for urban markets, according to the company. JD chairman Richard Liu […]

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London City Switching To Remote Tower

London City Airport, a general aviation field popular with business travelers, will become the first airport in the U.K. to install a digital control tower, the airport has announced. The tower will be equipped with 16 high-definition cameras that will transmit data to a control center in Swanwick, Hampshire, about 100 miles away, where air […]

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First Flight For New K-Max

The newly in-production K-Max helicopter, built by Kaman Aerosystems, flew for the first time on May 12, the company announced last week. The aircraft performed “flawlessly,” said test pilot Bill Hart. “I look forward to successfully completing our production flight-test schedule over the coming weeks.” The single-seat K-Max features a counter-rotating rotor system and is […]

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