Also: VG Readies for 5.25 Flight, FedEx Strike?, Reliable Robotics, US Aviation Academy
A long time coming? Yes. But a new generation of powerplants has just been certified with the LONG-awaited news that the DeltaHawk DHK180 has received FAA certification... and is on its way to production of the jet-fueled aircraft piston engine. The 180 horsepower DHK180 is the first of a family of engines expected to come from DeltaHawk. The FAA has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) germane to the adoption of a new Airworthiness Directive (AD) specific to the B-17. ”The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Boeing Model B-17E, B-17F, and B-17G airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report indicating
They Did It... A Lot of Naysayers Will Need A Good Recipe For Crow...
A long time coming?
Yes.
But a new generation of powerplants has just been certified with the LONG-awaited news that the DeltaHawk DHK180 has received FAA certification... and is on its way to production of the jet-fueled aircraft piston engine. The 180 horsepower DHK180 is the first of a family of engines expected to come from DeltaHawk.
Stratolaunch announced it had successfully completed a separation release test of TA-0, the company’s Talon-A separation test vehicle. The flight was Roc’s 11th and occasioned the second instance in which the company’s teams conducted flight operations within Vandenberg Space Force Base's Western Range. The flight, which lasted a total of four-hours and eight-minutes, demonstrated the Talon-A launch system’s capability to cleanly and safely separate hypersonic vehicles from Roc's center-wing pylon.
The FAA has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) germane to the adoption of a new Airworthiness Directive (AD) specific to the B-17. Pursuant Docket No. FAA-2023-1048; Project Identifier AD-2023-00620-A,T; Amendment 39-22440; AD 2023-10-04 relating to “Airworthiness Directives; Boeing Airplanes,” the FAA sets forth: ”The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Boeing Model B-17E, B-17F, and B-17G airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report indicating that the left front spar lower fitting had completely separated at the wing-to-fuselage joint, and the equivalent joint on the right side of the airplane was cracked. This AD requires inspections of the wing terminal-
On 15 May 2023, a United States Air Force F-15D returning from a routine training mission in day CAVU weather touched down upon then departed the paved surface of Runway 14 at southern-Oregon’s Crater Lake–Klamath Regional Airport (LMT)—coming to rest in a Bureau of Reclamation irrigation canal south of the airfield.
Founded in 2017 by CEO Robert Rose and CTO Jureg Frefel for purpose of bringing safe, certified automation systems to commercial aviation, Mountain View, California-based Reliable Robotics announced on 17 May 2023 that it had, during the recent Golden Phoenix readiness exercise at Travis Air Force Base, demonstrated capabilities by which the United States Air Force (USAF) stands to contemporaneously up the modernity of its aircraft fleet and better project safe, rapid, global mobility.
Existing at the confluence of the airplane, the helicopter, and the pinwheel, the machine known alternately as the autogiro and the gyrocopter is among powered flight’s stranger birds. Invented by Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish engineer seeking to create an aircraft capable of flying safely at low speeds, the gyrocopter is characterized by a free-spinning rotor impelled to rotation by the passage of air across its blades from below. The downward component of the rotor’s total aerodynamic reaction imparts lift to the vehicle while a separate, longitudinally-oriented, powered-propeller provides forward thrust.
Kathy Lueders, the latest of an august line of NASA human spaceflight experts, has thrown in with Elon Musk’s SpaceX boffins for purpose of lending her expertise to the ongoing development of the company’s Starship spacecraft.
On 17 May 2023, FedEx Express pilots represented by ALPA voted overwhelmingly in support of a strike—were such an action forced by FedEx management and deemed necessary by union leaders. All but one-percent of the 97-percent of FedEx Express pilots who participated in the vote authorized union leaders to call a strike—if needed—for purpose of achieving a new contractual agreement with FedEx.
Textron has expanded support for its European business jet customers by bringing a new Cessna Citation CJ3+/Cessna Citation M2 Gen2 Convertible Full-Flight Simulator to the United Kingdom. Subject simulator is scheduled to be operational and ready to facilitate training events at FlightSafety International’s Farnborough, England Learning Center in January 2025.
The NTSB has made public its preliminary report on an 11 April 2023 accident in which an experimental amateur-built Glastar G1 airplane, registration N8488, was substantially damaged and its two occupants—the pilot and his wife—were fatally injured. The aircraft’s final flight was conducted under Part 91 and undertaken for purpose of conveying the pilot and his spouse from their winter residence in Nevada to their primary residence in Iowa.
Aero Linx: The Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS)
The Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) is an International Non-Profit Association,
with the aim to develop a framework within which the major Aerospace Societies in Europe can work together. CEAS presently comprises twelve Trustee Member Societies with a combined roughly 35.000 individual members...
Visibility [ICAO]
The ability, as determined by atmospheric conditions and expressed in units of distance, to see and identify prominent unlighted objects by day and prominent lighted objects by night.
Flight Visibility- The visibility forward from the cockpit of an aircraft in flight.
Ground Visibility- The visibility at an aerodrome as reported by an accredited observer.
Runway Visual Range [RVR]- The range over which the pilot of an aircraft on the centerline of a runway can see the runway surface markings or the lights delineating the runway or identifying its centerline.
“We began by completely reimagining what a general aviation engine should be... And the result is that we now have a certified engine that is a game-changer. It’s been a long time coming but, in engineering, simple is hard. However, this engine’s performance, simplicity, and reliability have made it worth the time and the investment, as it is truly ‘Power Reimagined.’”
Source: Christopher Ruud, Chief Executive Officer at DeltaHawk, summarizing the long road to certification for the DeltaHawk DHK180.