January 20, 2022 - No. 05 In This Issue : The FAA procrastinated on 5G aviation tests for two years : U.S. seeks way to speed delivery of new fighter jets to Taiwan : Jet Aviation gets IS-BAH Stage 2 certificates for Amsterdam and Rotterdam FBO ops : TAP to close its aircraft maintenance center in Brazil : Human error, tech glitches and tape caused May 2020 F-22 crash : Czech Airlines Technics to Expand Its Co-Operation with Leasing Companies : City of Tulsa, American Airlines extend sublease to 2048 : New Mach 5 Hypersonic Scramjet Is Powered by Sustainable Green Hydrogen : Radian Aerospace raises $27.5 million for new orbital space plane The FAA procrastinated on 5G aviation tests for two years On Jan. 19, telecom companies finally began switching on their new “C-band” 5G cell networks. Built for billions of dollars over the last two years, the new wireless standard promises to deliver download speeds 10 times faster than old 4G networks to smartphone users across the US. But the rollout of C-band networks has been anything but smooth for the aviation industry. Airlines canceled at least 275 flights and delayed over 1,000 more on Jan. 19 amid fears that the new 5G networks would interfere with crucial airplane instruments and raise the risk of crashes. A voluntary decision by AT&T and Verizon to delay deployment of about 10% of its 5G cellular antennas around airports prevented the chaos that airlines predicted would make the “nation’s commerce grind to a halt,” but the confusion has prompted angry recriminations between cell carriers and airlines. “This is one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible issues… I’ve seen in my aviation career,” the president of Emirates airline Tim Clark told CNN. A spokesperson for AT&T added the company was “frustrated by the FAA’s inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner.” The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now scrambling to test and approve airplane equipment to fly near 5G towers after US regulators dragged their feet for nearly two years. Why is 5G a problem for airlines? The FAA has already determined that 62% of US commercial airplanes should have no problems with 5G towers, and said it expects to clear even more plane models in the coming days. But it has issued warnings that some planes, like the Boeing 787, should take extra precautions when landing in wet or snowy conditions because of the potential for C-band 5G signals to interfere with their radar altimeters. The worry is that C-band 5G towers, which operate in a frequency range between 3.7 and 3.98 gigahertz (GHz), may interfere with airplane altimeters, which operate in a neighboring frequency range between 4.2 and 4.4 GHz. Altimeters are key instruments that measure an airplane’s distance from the ground and affect the function of other safety and navigation equipment. A malfunctioning altimeter would pose a safety hazard for any pilot taking off or landing in bad weather, when airplane crews rely heavily on their instruments to navigate. The FAA procrastinated on 5G aviation tests for two years The FAA and airlines have been warning about the potential for C-band 5G networks to interfere with airplane altimeters since 2015. In 2018, Boeing and the US Air Line Pilots Association raised concerns over 5G to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization recommended that countries should only deploy C-band networks after testing their impact on airplane altimeters. The issue was on the US government’s radar. Before the FCC gave wireless carriers permission to use the C-band frequency range in 2020, it considered tests of C-band 5G networks’ impact on airplane altimeters. In February 2020, the FCC had auctioned off the C-band frequencies to AT&T and Verizon for $70 billion. In a February 2020 regulatory ruling, the FCC wrote that “the limits we set for the 3.7 GHz Service are sufficient to protect aeronautical services in the 4.2-4.4 GHz band.” Over the next 21 months, regulators did little as AT&T and Verizon spent billions of dollars to build out their C-band networks. But in November 2021—two months before C-band 5G was due to be rolled out—the FAA finally sent a letter (pdf) to airlines, airplane manufacturers, and altimeter manufacturers asking them to test 5G towers’ impact on specific altimeter models and submit their data to the FAA. By December, the FAA still hadn’t issued regulatory approvals for specific altimeter models. It then asked wireless carriers to delay the 5G rollout for two weeks, until Jan. 19, to give regulators more time to figure out which altimeters might be affected. Wireless carriers were annoyed, but agreed to delay the 5G rollout and carve out 5G exclusion zones around 50 major airports. “We were told for the first time late last year that the [FAA] and parts of the aviation community had concerns about the timing of our use of C-Band under the FCC’s February 2020 order,” the CEOs of AT&T and Verizon wrote in a Jan. 2 letter to the FAA. “Now, on the evening of New Year’s Eve, just five days before the C-Band spectrum will be deployed, we received your letter asking us to…once again assist the aviation industry and the FAA after failing to resolve issues[.]” The FAA says it used that two-week reprieve to, among other things, facilitate “data sharing between avionics manufacturers and wireless companies.” But by its self-imposed Jan. 19 deadline, the FAA had only verified that five altimeters used in 62% of the US commercial air fleet won’t be impacted by C-band 5G signals. It’s still working on issuing regulatory approvals for additional altimeter and plane models. When will the 5G flight disruptions end? Wireless carriers point out that 40 other countries have already deployed some version of C-band 5G without interfering with aviation instruments. But the FAA says that US 5G networks are slightly different from the networks in other countries, and argues that it holds itself to a higher safety standard that requires extra caution with new technologies like 5G. (The regulatory body may also be erring on the side of caution in the wake of the Boeing 737-Max crashes, which exposed lax FAA oversight.) “Recent dialogue has helped to establish information sharing between aviation and telecommunications sectors and newly agreed measures to reduce the risk of disruption, but these issues are ongoing and will not be resolved overnight,” the FAA wrote on its 5G information page. Over the coming weeks, AT&T and Verizon will likely finish rolling out their C-band 5G networks in hundreds of cities across the US, if a little behind schedule. While US air passengers won’t face additional safety risks, their flights may be canceled or delayed if the altimeter model used in their particular airplane hasn’t yet been cleared by the FAA. The agency has not released a deadline to issue those approvals, but said it expects to issue “more approvals in the coming days.” https://qz.com/2114860/how-us-regulators-fumbled-the-5g-rollout/?utm_source=YPL U.S. seeks way to speed delivery of new fighter jets to Taiwan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is looking for ways to potentially accelerate delivery of Taiwan's next generation of new-build F-16 fighter jets, U.S. officials said, bolstering the Taiwanese air force's ability to respond to what Washington and Taipei see as increasing intimidation by China's military. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they have not yet come up with a solution on how to speed delivery of Block 70 F-16s, manufactured by Lockheed Martin and equipped with new capabilities. The aircraft are currently slated to be delivered by the end of 2026. Taiwan's government has privately expressed its wish for a faster delivery to U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, a senior Taiwanese official said, as the self-ruled island's air force scrambles jets to intercept increasingly aggressive Chinese military flights https://graphics.reuters.com/TAIWAN-CHINA/byvrjrmgnve. More missions mean more wear-and-tear on Taiwan's aircraft. "It's all about risk assessment ... and it's clear where the risks are," the Taiwanese official said, referring to tensions across the sensitive Taiwan Strait separating the island from mainland China. The F-16 is considered a highly maneuverable https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104505/f-16-fighting-falcon aircraft proven in air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack. Taiwan is on track to field one of the largest F-16 fleets in Asia once it takes delivery of 66 new-build F-16 C/D Block 70 aircraft under an $8 billion deal approved in 2019. It would bring the island's total number of F-16s, including older versions, to more than 200 by 2026. Any move to accelerate deliveries of new aircraft could ultimately come down to a determination by Biden's administration that Taiwan's defense needs are more urgent than those of other U.S. allies and partners, according to experts. "That's a Biden administration decision," said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, the president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, an organization that encourages trade and business ties between the two. "They would have to decide that the threat from China was more important than the threat from Iran or the threat from the Russians." The Block 70 aircraft are the newest F-16 configuration, with new avionics, a modernized cockpit and an improved engine, according to Lockheed Martin. A move to accelerate the aircraft delivery would be seen in Beijing in part through a political lens, according to Abraham Denmark, a former senior Pentagon official. "It is yet another clear signal of U.S. determination to support Taiwan's ability to defend itself," added Denmark, now an analyst at the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank. DWARFED BY CHINA Despite lacking formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the United States is the island's main international backer and arms supplier. That defense relationship angers China, which has ramped up military and diplomatic pressure against the island that it claims as "sacred" Chinese territory. In the face of Chinese pressure, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has prioritized modernizing the armed forces, which are well-armed but dwarfed by China's military. Lockheed Martin declined to comment on any potential future requests to change the production schedule, referring queries to the U.S. government and Taiwan's defense ministry. The U.S. State Department, which oversees foreign military sales, declined to comment on any internal discussions about potential changes to the delivery timeline. Lockheed Martin's new F-16 production line in Greenville, South Carolina has several customers in the production queue ahead of Taiwan, including Bahrain, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The U.S. government has not asked Lockheed Martin for delivery timeline changes for the Taiwanese F-16 jets, a person familiar with the situation said. The source declined to speculate about how much sooner Taiwan could get new-build F-16s even if a decision were made to accelerate deliveries. Any such effort would be complicated by production constraints, which include long lead times to source materials for Taiwan's specific configuration of fighter aircraft. Taiwan's Air Force did not respond to questions on potential accelerated deliveries but told Reuters in a statement that the Taiwanese military's major weapon purchases are "rigorously planned in accordance with actual combat needs and planning schedules." The U.S. sale of F-16s to Taiwan was guided by U.S. law and "based on an assessment of Taiwan's defense needs and the threat posed by (China), as has been the case for more than 40 years," a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement. 'WEARING OUT THEIR OPPONENT' The missions to intercept Chinese aircraft are putting stress on Taiwan's air force, which last year had several mishaps, including three fatal crashes. Over time, fuel costs, pilot fatigue and wear and tear on Taiwanese aircraft will threaten the readiness of the island's air force if this pressure continues, Taiwanese and U.S. military analysts said. Last March, a senior Taiwanese official said Taiwan's military had stopped intercepting every Chinese aircraft. Taiwan's air force last week suspended combat training for its entire F-16 fleet after a recently upgraded model of the fighter jet crashed into the sea in the latest of a series of accidents. "They (the Chinese) are wearing out their opponent without firing a shot," said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation. Taiwan's air force in 2020 scrambled 2,972 times against Chinese aircraft at a cost of T$25.5 billion ($905 million). https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-u-seeks-way-speed-163447436.html Jet Aviation gets IS-BAH Stage 2 certificates for Amsterdam and Rotterdam FBO ops https://www.collinsaerospace.com/sustainabilityJet Aviation announced that it has received International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH) Stage 2 Safety Registration for its two FBO locations in The Netherlands. The company currently operates 27 IS-BAH-registered FBOs around the world. It expects to gain further IS-BAH certifications in the coming months. “Along with our commitment to safety and quality, these new IS-BAH certificates clearly demonstrate that challenges are also opportunities to shine,” said Edwin Niemöller, Jet Aviation’s senior director of FBO Operations in The Netherlands. “I couldn’t be prouder of our teams for their agility, professionalism, and unwavering adherence to the highest standards, particularly during these extraordinary times. It’s the experience, dedication and passion of our handling teams that enables them to deliver incomparable service to our customers. We work to get the aircraft serviced for safe, timely departures — every time, and continue to focus on our safety performance and sustainability goals,” said Niemöller. Jet Aviation recently secured an ongoing supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for offer on-site at its FBO located at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Its Rotterdam location remains the only airport in The Netherlands where night operations (PPR) are permitted for business aviation. Jet Aviation is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) with some 4,000 employees and 50 locations worldwide. Jet Aviation’s offerings include aircraft management, aircraft sales, charter, completions, defence, FBO, maintenance and staffing. https://asianaviation.com/jet-aviation-gets-is-bah-stage-2-certificates-for-amsterdam-and-rotterdam-fbo-ops/ TAP to close its aircraft maintenance center in Brazil TAP Air Portugal confirmed the phased closure of its aircraft maintenance subsidiary in Brazil, as mandated by the European Commission in exchange for the government aid plan approved at the end of last December. The Portuguese group «decided to end the activity of TAP M&E (TAP Maintenance and Engineering) as part of the restructuring plan approved by the European Commission on December 21,» the company said in a statement. As reported by the Portuguese website SAPO, the closure of the company will be done little by little, and the contracts signed or in progress will be maintained, but TAP M&E will no longer accept new orders. This decision was taken after the unsuccessful sale of the company, which has some 500 employees, due to the major crisis in the aeronautical sector caused by the pandemic, according to our Brazilian partner Aeroin. The closing of TAP M&E will not affect the passenger transport activity to and from Brazil, «as it represents between 25% and 30% of the business volume», were the words of the company’s directors. The Portuguese airline group, whose financial difficulties increased with the Covid-19 pandemic, was urgently rescued in 2020 by the State. The government had to resolve its renationalization to restore its economy in exchange for a restructuring plan. The shutdown of its maintenance activity in Brazil, which helped TAP’s accounts to collapse in recent years, was one of the requests from Brussels in exchange for the €2.55 billion rescue plan validated in December 2021. The European Commission also asked TAP to release departure and arrival slots at Lisbon airport, to spin off its subsidiary Portugalia or even to sell its shares both in the baggage transport company Groundforce, as well as in a catering company. https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/01/tap-to-close-its-aircraft-maintenance-center-in-brazil/ (Photo Courtesy: US Air Force) Human error, tech glitches and tape caused May 2020 F-22 crash Several mistakes — including maintenance, pilot and technology errors, plus a wayward piece of tape — compounded to cause the secretive May 2020 plane crash in Florida that totaled an F-22 Raptor fighter, according to the results of an Air Force investigation. Redacted results of a commander-directed inquiry into the $202 million incident, obtained by Air Force Times via the Freedom of Information Act, sheds the most light so far on how the accident transpired for one of the Air Force’s most advanced airframes. Air Force Times first reported in October 2021 that the F-22 grew increasingly wobbly upon takeoff, then refused to turn left and barrel-rolled into the ground after the pilot safely ejected. The service said last year that a mismanaged wash caused the plane’s demise, but didn’t offer further details. It was one of nine major F-22 mishaps in fiscal 2020. The unnamed pilot involved in the May 15, 2020, incident was a captain serving as the 43rd Fighter Squadron’s assistant operations director. The 43rd FS is the only Air Force unit that provides initial and requalification training for active-duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve F-22 pilots. Problems began two days earlier when maintainers towed in the advanced fighter jet for its monthly wash to help prevent corrosion. A crew chief was tasked with managing the wash team of four maintainers to ensure they correctly cleaned the jet. The crew chief periodically checked in on their work but didn’t stay throughout the process, and inspected the plane once the wash was done, the report said. According to the technical order, or maintenance manual, that tells airmen how to wash the Raptor, a supervisor needs to watch over and participate in the cleaning. But the only team member with training in that role didn’t know who the designated supervisor was supposed to be. Neither did the other three airmen. Hurricane Michael, the Category 5 hurricane that forced F-22s to relocate from Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, to nearby Eglin AFB in 2018, was partly to blame. “The discipline and standardization of conducting washes in this unit suffered when operations moved from Tyndall AFB to Eglin AFB after Hurricane Michael,” the report said. Airmen saw no problems during routine preflight checks run before and on the day of the crash, though it’s unclear how thoroughly the jet was inspected. They missed something crucial. Maintainers need to cover up electronics on the outside of an aircraft that would be damaged by water before they start a wash. But airmen left tape on a part of the F-22′s air data system, known as a “Beta port,” that no one caught before the jet took flight. The port, manufactured by Collins Aerospace, is one of multiple pieces that collect and process information about a plane’s activity. Then they send those figures to a flight control system that uses the data to tell the plane how to adjust. A series of human and technical issues quickly piled up. While the jet was still on the runway, an alert popped up to tell the pilot that something was amiss with the flight control system. The pilot ignored it and started to climb. A new emergency procedure, instituted for the F-22 just 15 days before the crash, told pilots to abort takeoff if a flight control system advisory comes up during departure. The pilot who would soon face that exact situation did not review the updates before signing off on the new file and wasn’t aware of changes to the emergency protocol, the investigation found. An official in charge of F-22 standards had pinged airmen on the Slack chat app to let them know the flight manual had changed, but pilots aren’t required to read Slack messages. Nor do they have to read the new material on their tablets in order to accept an updated flight manual. “If the pilot had aborted the takeoff, the aircraft would have avoided the flying environment that depended on the left Beta port providing reliable air pressure data,” the report said. A week after the accident, multiple other pilots’ tablets hadn’t been updated with the new flight manual either. “In my opinion, poor [technical order] distribution practices failed to proactively notify the F-22 community of the existence [of] a new publication and any critical flight safety changes contained in the new version,” Col. Jonathan King, the accident investigation board president, said in the report. “This factor substantially contributed to the mishap.” When asked whether the incident has spurred any changes to how airmen learn of manual revisions, Capt. Sarah Johnson, a spokesperson for the 325th Fighter Wing, said the organization “follows Air Force guidance and procedures for technical order updates.” While airborne, the tape interfered with the port’s ability to sense where the F-22 was in the air and gathered wrong information about the plane’s position. The jet showed the pilot an altitude and airspeed that were off by about 1,000 feet and 40 knots, or 46 mph, the report said. Typically, redundancies built into an F-22 allow it to still fly even when one component isn’t working. The flight control system can determine which part is providing false data and turn it off, according to the report. However, that backstop didn’t kick in because the pilot was moving faster, and at a steeper angle, than what constitutes the F-22′s “happy place.” The term refers to flying at no more than 1 G, 400 knots, or 20 degrees up; the jet was climbing at 480 knots, 5.5 G’s and 55 degrees. “The [pilot] was aware of the [flight control system’s] happy place, but did not think about it during the departure,” the report said. Flight controls had permanently shut off one component of the air data system while the plane left the runway. Because the tape was interfering with another component, causing the jet to roll, the flight controls turned off a second piece of the sensor system to adjust for the pressure changes. “At this point, it was no longer possible for the [pilot] to recover the aircraft safely,” the report said. If he had stayed within the plane’s “happy place” and reset the flight controls, the F-22′s computer would have instead shut down the taped-over Beta port to cut off the faulty data. “The [aircraft] would have been sufficiently controllable to perform a safe landing,” the report said. F-22 manufacturer Lockheed Martin ran the scenario through a simulator about 100 times. Each time, the report said, the plane’s wobbly departure caused the flight controls to turn off part of the air data sensors. The Air Force recently revealed, more than a year after the accident, that it had not convened an accident investigation board to look into the crash due to operational security concerns. Al Killeffer, a spokesman for Collins Aerospace, the maker of the port, referred to the Air Force a query on whether the company has revamped its air data and flight control components following the crash, and whether related issues have affected any other jets. Johnson declined to answer whether anyone was disciplined for their mistakes that day, citing privacy concerns. The wing “remains focused on a maintenance culture that ensures assigned aircraft and equipment are safe, serviceable and properly configured to meet mission needs,” she said. Witness testimony revealed that “clear violations” have occurred during other F-22 washes, too, the report said. Johnson told Air Force Times that shoddy cleaning protocols haven’t caused any other Raptor malfunctions. The Air Force lost a B-2 Spirit bomber in 2008 due to a similar issue. In that case, rain interfered with the air data sensor upon takeoff and sent the stealth aircraft plummeting to the ground. In the F-22 accident’s aftermath, the 43rd Fighter Squadron “made some internal adjustments to provide more oversight on aircraft washes,” Johnson said. She did not provide further details. The coronavirus pandemic contributed to the decay of robust maintenance practices as well. Leaders at the 43rd Fighter Squadron and 325th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron each broke into two teams and began switching between in-person and telework every other week. “Most meetings, to include pilot meetings, were canceled or held virtually in accordance with COVID-19 mitigation directives,” the report said. “This disrupted the normal flow of communication and learning.” In total, the F-22 mishap cost more than $202 million in damages, including the $201.6 million aircraft, two CATM-9 air-intercept training missiles valued at $32,000 apiece, and $850,000 in environmental cleanup costs. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2022/01/20/human-error-tech-glitches-and-tape-caused-may-2020-f-22-crash/ Czech Airlines Technics to Expand Its Co-Operation with Leasing Companies Alongside air transport, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the demand for aircraft maintenance services. As a result, for over a year, Czech Airlines Technics (CSAT) has been providing its services to new clients, namely leasing companies, alongside traditional airline customers. Their number has been growing steadily, and a new service model of one-stop-shop maintenance has been created to suit their needs. "We respond to market development trends and offer leasing companies a service model that includes complex work by one provider, without the need for additional suppliers and unnecessary overflights to organize subsequent maintenance. We are able to provide complex customer support during aircraft parking, including CAMO support, aircraft registration / deregistration, and aircraft readiness according to the specific requirements of the new operator after a leasing agreement termination," Pavel Haleš, Chairman of the Czech Airlines Technics Board of Directors, said, adding: “It is a very interesting model for our company, which can ensure the use of our capacities even during the off-season period.” By the end of 2020, CSAT's client portfolio comprised predominantly airline aircraft operators. However, the air transport downturn due to the Covid-19 pandemic caused airlines to reduce aircraft numbers and terminate contracts with aircraft owners. In the second half of December 2020, the first aircraft owned by a leasing company thus headed to Prague Airport. "After the first project, we managed to negotiate a follow-up co-operation, and in the 2021 summer season, we performed several checks for two large leasing companies. We also launched co-operating with more clients among leasing companies," Pavel Haleš added. Currently, CSAT provides parking for several aircraft, on which it will soon carry out major inspections and redelivery projects, incl. complementary services, such as DOA and CAMO. The arrival of other aircraft to undergo inspections is planned during the summer of this year. Parking services are also offered to airlines, both at Prague Airport and at partner airports in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/maintenance-providers/press-release/21253803/czech-airlines-technics-czech-airlines-technics-to-expand-its-cooperation-with-leasing-companies City of Tulsa, American Airlines extend sublease to 2048 Empty seats are stored on the floor as work takes place at American Airlines Tech-Ops Tulsa maintenance facility on April 7. VIDEO The city of Tulsa and American Airlines recently extended their leasing agreement to nearly the midway point of the century. The pact between the Tulsa Municipal Airport Trust and the Fort Worth-based airline, approved Thursday, amends and restates the June 1958 sublease and its subsequent 18 amendments, incorporating the language into one document and eliminating provisions no longer needed. As part of the agreement, American, the oldest and largest tenant at Air Force Plant No. 3 with about 5,200 employees, must pay the airport trust $217,597 in base “ground rentals” in 2022, an annual rate that nearly triples before the sublease expires in 2048. “This amended lease further solidifies Tulsa’s relationship with American Airlines for decades to come, paving the way for American’s plans to invest half a billion dollars in the Tulsa Base,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement. “I want to extend a big thanks to Tulsa International Airport, City of Tulsa, and American Airlines staff who have spent the past several years working behind the scenes to structure this new lease. American has stood as Tulsa’s largest employer for 75 years, and we are thrilled they will continue to claim that title for years to come.” Air Force Plant No. 3 is located at the southeast corner of Tulsa International Airport. A holdover from World War II, when more than 3,000 aircraft were manufactured in the facility, the mile-long building complex contains about 2.9 million square feet of industrial space that houses tenants such as American and Spirit AeroSystems. The extended sublease between the Tulsa Municipal Airport Trust and American also modernizes much of the decades-old language, updates the legal description of the leased premises (246.14 acres) from a current survey and provides for more robust reporting between American and the airport, the city said. In addition, the sublease provides a more structured and simplified rental escalation component that ultimately allows the trust to collect more revenue to support Tulsa International Airport operations. Rentals paid to Tulsa Municipal Airport Trust must be remitted to the Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust annually. The base ground rentals grow to $298,924 by 2032 and $584,537 in 2042 before topping out at $635,941 in 2047, the year before the sublease expires. American Airlines has begun work on $550 million worth of upgrades it pledged in February 2020 to Tech Ops-Tulsa, the largest commercial aviation maintenance base in the world. Among the main upgrades proposed are a 132,000-square-foot base support building and a 193,000-square-foot hangar that will hold two wide-body aircraft and replace two existing hangars no longer equipped to fully hold American’s current planes. https://tulsaworld.com/business/local/city-of-tulsa-american-airlines-extend-sublease-to-2048/article_f51aeabe-7871-11ec-8ba3-1f996b0e47a0.html New Mach 5 Hypersonic Scramjet Is Powered by Sustainable Green Hydrogen The reusable satellite launch technology could one day power hypersonic airliners. It's rare that faster can also equate to greener in the aerospace industry, but that's the goal of Australian startup Hypersonic has in sight. The company has developed a new hypersonic satellite launch system that will make launches more accessible and also more sustainable. The technology could one day also help develop hypersonic airliners capable of crossing the Atlantic in a little over an hour. "At Mach 5 and above, friction caused by molecules flowing over the hypersonic aircraft can generate temperatures in excess of 2,000˚C (3,632˚F)," the company says in a press statement. "Suffice to say that Brisbane-based aerospace engineering start-up, Hypersonix Launch Systems, is choosing its materials to cope with these extremes." The Hypersonix team is composed of roughly 20 aerospace engineers and it has come a long way since it was founded in 2019 just before the pandemic shifted the global landscape. Since that time, they have developed a three-stage satellite launch system, called Wirraway, that utilizes reusable scramjet engine technology powered by sustainable green hydrogen fuel, meaning its satellite launch system will not produce any carbon emissions. The team is building its new technology using Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC) as these are capable of withstanding the incredibly high temperatures seen in hypersonic flight. Hypersonix's SPARTAN engine can accelerate from Mach 5 to Mach 12 and it will be featured in the company's Delta-Velos craft, which will form one part of the Wirraway launch system and will be able to fly 1,553 miles (2,500 km) before landing like a conventional aircraft ready to take flight again after refueling and checks. The Delta-Velos will launch attached to Hypersonix's reusable Boomerang first-stage booster, which also returns to Earth for reuse in a similar fashion to SpaceX's Falcon9 first stages. Once in the upper atmosphere, the Delta-Velos spacecraft will release satellite payloads of up to 50 kg (110 lb), which will then be boosted to low-Earth orbit (LEO) or sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Using green hydrogen fuel, the operation will emit only water vapor and no carbon emissions. What's more, Hypersonix says its flexible launch system will allow missions to launch to any orbit from any launch site. The company hopes to fly its Delta-Velos system by 2024. All going to plan, it eventually aims to join the race to develop hypersonic airliners. Other companies such as the U.S. Air Force-backed Hermeus are also working on this technology, which could eventually take passengers from London to New York in only 90 minutes. https://interestingengineering.com/new-mach-5-hypersonic-scramjet-is-powered-by-sustainable-green-hydrogen Radian Aerospace raises $27.5 million for new orbital space plane The Radian One vehicle could transform spaceflight, company representatives believe. There's a new private space plane in the works. VIDEO Washington-based Radian Aerospace emerged from "stealth mode" Wednesday (Jan. 19), announcing that it has raised $27.5 million in seed funding. The money will aid the development of Radian One, a crew-carrying orbital space plane that Radian hopes will transform spaceflight as well as travel here on Earth. "We believe that widespread access to space means limitless opportunities for humankind," Radian CEO and co-founder Richard Humphrey said in a statement. "Over time, we intend to make space travel nearly as simple and convenient as airliner travel," Humphrey said. "We are not focused on tourism; we are dedicated to missions that make life better on our own planet, like research, in-space manufacturing and terrestrial observation, as well as critical new missions like rapid global delivery right here on Earth." Radian One is an ambitious vehicle. It's designed to launch and land horizontally on a runway, unlike NASA's old space shuttle orbiters, which landed horizontally but lifted off vertically with the help of solid rocket boosters. (Radian One will get some takeoff help, too, from a sled that will accelerate the vehicle on the runway.) The new space plane will be fully reusable and capable of spending up to five days in orbit, according to its newly unveiled specifications page. Rapid turnaround time is also part of the plan: Radian aims eventually to refly vehicles as soon as 48 hours after touchdown. Radian One is designed to carry people and payloads to and from orbit. But the space plane could also do a lot of work here on Earth; the plane will be able to deliver up to 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) anywhere on the planet in less than an hour, Radian Aerospace representatives said. Radian has not revealed many other details about the space plane — for example, its size, how many passengers it will be able to carry and when it's expected to start flying. Radian representatives said in Wednesday's press release that it has signed launch services agreements with a variety of private companies and government agencies, but it did not name any of those customers. The new round of seed funding was led by the venture capital fund Fine Structure Ventures. A number of other investors chipped in, including Exor, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, SpaceFund, Gaingels, The Private Shares Fund, Explorer 1 Fund and Type One Ventures, Radian representatives said. "On-demand space operations is a growing economy, and I believe Radian's technology can deliver on the right-sized, high-cadence operations that the market opportunity is showing," Dylan Taylor, chairman and CEO of Voyager Space and an early personal investor in Radian, said in the same statement. "I am confident in the team working at Radian and look forward to cheering them along in this historical endeavor," added Taylor, who recently flew to suborbital space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle. https://www.space.com/radian-aerospace-funding-reusable-space-plane Curt Lewis