May 22, 2024 - No. 21 In This Issue : Navy Pays $100K To Replace Each F/A-18 Tire, 3D Printed Repairs Cuts Cost To $300 ; Global Airlines’ Unusual Airbus A380 Ferry Flight : Aircraft Cabin Air International Conference - 17 & 18 September - London : C-130 Floatplane Program Put ‘On Pause’ By Special Operations Command : Damaged B-2 Won’t Be Repaired, Fleet To Shrink To 19 Jets : The wild 656-foot AirYacht concept that debuted two years ago has gone through a redesign to replace the detachable superyacht with a more spacious, permanently fixed lounge :_C-130J Super Hercules makes historic first flight with external fuel tanks under its wings : Boeing's problems rattle US aviation regulator as well : WORLD RENOWNED EXPERT SAYS BOEING 787 IS SAFE : Skunk Works Releases New KC-Z Stealth Tanker Rendering : UPS Aircraft Maintenance Training donating Avionics Training Aid Navy Pays $100K To Replace Each F/A-18 Tire, 3D Printed Repairs Cuts Cost To $300 Additive manufacturing and cold spray technology are revolutionizing how the Navy looks at sustainment, saving millions in the process. BY ERIC TEGLER | PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2024 4:06 PM EDT AIRNEWS & FEATURES U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class (SW/AW) Nathan Burke SHARE At the recent Sea Air Space conference near Washington D.C., Theodore Gronda, program manager for Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) Additive Manufacturing (AM) Team told an audience that replacement tires for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet are wildly expensive. How much? According to Gronda, replacing them costs nearly six figures each. That’s partly because they are swapped out along with the wheels they’re mounted on. The Navy actually buys replacement Super Hornet tires as assemblies, receiving tires/wheel rims already mated to each other. Each tire/wheel assembly costs approximately $100,000. SINGAPORE STRAIT (July 6, 2017) U.S. Navy Aviation Electrician's Mate 2nd Class Lucas Mclean, left, from Arvada, Colo., U.S. Navy Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Mathew Webber, middle, from Riverside, Calif., and U.S. Navy Aviation Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Ivan Avila, from Corona, Calif., replace the tires on an F/A-18F Super Hornet from, the “Black Knights” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 154, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), July 6, 2017, in the Singapore Strait. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Weston A. Mohr) There’s no doubt that wheels and tires on a carrier aircraft like the Super Hornet lead hard, relatively short lives. Since 2019, the Navy’s E/F fleet has progressively undergone a multi-phase service life modification program which stretches the fighter’s service life from 6,000 to 10,000 hours. Over that service life Super Hornets make literally thousands of landings and takeoffs, both arrested landings and catapult takeoffs from aircraft carriers and takeoffs and landings from fixed bases. In the process they consume many wheels and tires, using them up particularly quickly during carrier operations. An F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to the “Golden Warriors” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 87, approaches the flight deck of USS Gerald R. Ford, August 6, 2023. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Tajh Payne Gronda explained that F/A-18E/F pilots often land hard on carrier decks, causing the fighter’s main landing gear wheel rims to oblong and the tire mounted on the rim to shake. If the tire wobbles, he said, the wheel and tire assembly is taken off and discarded. That gets expensive very quickly. “We go through 166 of these tires a year and they cost six figures apiece,” Gronda affirmed to the Sea Air Space audience. According to Boeing, Goodyear and Michelin supply rubber for the Rhino. The War Zone reached out to each company asking for their tire price for the F/A-18/E/F. Both declined to share it. The main landing gear wheels are supplied by Honeywell Aerospace, Aircraft Landing Systems which likewise declined to provide price information. Assuming a nominal $100,000 per-assembly price, simple math shows that the Navy’s Super Hornet wheel assembly replacement bill for aircraft with out-of-round rims amounts to somewhere around $16.6 million per year. Sailors pump air into the tires of an F/A-18F Super Hornet on the flight deck of USS Ronald Reagan, Philippine Sea, November 11, 2023. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Caroline H. Lui If the rims could be fixed and the tires remounted, the Navy’s wheel/tire bill might go down significantly. Gronda explained that NAVAIR’s AM team recognized a possible opportunity to repair Super Hornet rims using solid-state cold spray 3D printing technology. “There wasn’t an effective way to repair [them]... We realized that eighty percent of those rims are repairable with cold spray technology.” Cold spray is an additive manufacturing process that tweaks standard 3D printing. In simple terms, tiny metal particles are mixed with a carrier gas (typically nitrogen or helium) and accelerated to Mach 2-3 speeds through a nozzle. For cold spray repairs, the particles are sprayed directly onto a part, adding material to build it back up and strengthen it. Staff Sgt. Chynna Patterson, a 28th Maintenance Group additive manufacturing spray technician, and David Darling, the 28th MXG additive manufacturing site manager, wait for the VRC Raptor Cold Spray machine to heat up at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, May 12, 2021. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Quentin K. Marx “Cold spray” is a bit of a misnomer. The additive particles used are heated but only to less than 80% of their melting point, rendering them fungible. The particles coalesce into a solid state, creating a high-strength, structurally sound bond. Once applied, the new material is modified to match the original shape or tolerances of the part being repaired. In that way, solid-state cold spray is both an additive and subtractive process. The Air Force has been using the cold spray process with additive manufacturing machines since 2020, repairing rather than replacing everything from aircraft hinges to structural supports, shafts, and landing gear components. The service used solid-state cold spray to repair an over-wing fairing slip joint for a B-1B in 2021. It’s possible that the process may be used to aid in regenerating a decommissioned Lancer recently pulled from storage as The War Zone reported. NAVAIR began adopting additive manufacturing technology over a decade ago and employed it to build its first flight critical aircraft component — a 3D printed link and fitting assembly for a V-22 Osprey engine nacelle — in 2016. Supply chain issues driven by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Navy to accelerate its investment in, and use of, additive manufacturing beginning in 2020. Today, NAVAIR has furnished 96 additive manufacturing devices to 33 sites, including deployed aircraft carriers. An MV-22B Osprey equipped with a 3D printed titanium link and fitting inside an engine nacelle maintains a hover as part of a demonstration at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland, July 29, 2016. NAVAIR The Command uses a variety of 3D printers to make repairs to flight critical components. In 2021 NAVAIR awarded a five-year IDIQ contract worth up to $5 million to deliver fully-deployable 3D printing systems including Ultimaker S5 3D printers. That investment looks set to pay off across different platforms and equipment types including Super Hornet tire/wheel assemblies. In an email response to questions from The War Zone, Gronda reaffirmed that the AM team’s “initial assessment is that over 80% of the 166 [wheel rims/tires] sent to [scrapping/recycling] each year are repairable with this cold spray technique.” He added that the cold spray repairs to each take two hours and cost $300 per wheel. That works out to a total cost of about $40,000 to repair the rims and re-mount the tires annually. Set against a $16.6 million bill to simply replace the assemblies as customary, AM repair looks like a no-brainer. Its potential to be employed in the field and/or in forward operating locations, like an aircraft carrier, adds further value. For example, the AM team recently facilitated the speedy provision of new coupler fittings for a deployed aircraft carrier’s optical landing system. Thanks to fatigued couplers, the system had failed, preventing some of the aircraft aboard from flying. Once contacted, the team redesigned the small fitting for 3D printing, tested it, received approval, and sent the coupler data electronically to the ship where it was then printed. That said, Navy fighter squadrons will not be making Super Hornet rim repairs at sea. According to Gronda, the environmental requirements that come with the metal powders used during the cold spray process mean that such repairs can only be done at shore-based installations and maintenance facilities at the present. An F/A-18E/F Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 103 takes off from Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS George Washington, December 8, 2023. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class August Clawson But the broader repair-rather-than-replace idea that goes hand in hand with additive manufacturing is inspiring NAVAIR and the Navy as a whole to reconsider its supply chain design and deployment, Gronda explained. “Cold spray is causing us to reevaluate items already in the supply system. These items were previously deemed not repairable/consumable, so reevaluating this process could help us reduce overall sustainment costs, harvest those savings and reinvest in more critical DoD capabilities.” In February, NAVAIR and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) opened the Naval Aviation Schoolhouse for Additive Manufacturing in Danville, Virginia. With a team of instructors on hand, six-week courses held at the schoolhouse will produce a pipeline of AM artisans to meet growing supply and re-supply needs at lower cost and on shorter timelines. The supply chain pressures that the Pentagon is under, from munitions to parts to equipment, combined with budget pressures and inefficiencies (right down to paying $90,000 for a simple bag of washers) will hopefully drive more innovative approaches to fixing or locally manufacturing hardware instead of simply firing the parts cannon at problems. A $16-plus million annual wheel/tire bill for a single fighter type, which could be reduced to less than $50,000, is the kind of opportunity that the services can’t afford to squander. Global Airlines’ Unusual Airbus A380 Ferry Flight The aircraft crossed the Atlantic Ocean with its landing gear down. Global Airlines’ first A380 (Photo: Global Airlines) [ PLANES ]May 7, 2024 10:55 am ET By Filip Kopeć Last week a very unusual flight made the headlines with a transatlantic trip consisting of two legs. An Airbus A380, brought back from long-term storage, operated in a peculiar configuration. The Ferry Flight The operator of the ferry flight was the Portuguese charter carrier Hi Fly. which has a history of operating Airbus A380 aircraft. This time around, it officially reported the details of the flight. The trip started at Mojave Air and Space Port in the United States, where the aircraft had been stored and was slated to reach Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland. Under normal circumstances, this would be easily reachable for a widebody aircraft like Airbus A380. The distance of approximately 4400 nautical miles (8200 km) is well within the commercial range of the type which stands at 8200 nautical miles (15200 km). This time was different though as the aircraft required a specific type of maintenance after the storage which could not be performed on the spot. The storage facility lacked jacks to lift the aircraft and perform a test procedure of landing gear retraction/extension and free-fall extension (REFF). As a result, the ferry flight had to be split into two parts to facilitate flying with the landing gear in the down position. Global Airlines’ Airbus A380 transatlantic ferry flight (Photo: gcmap.com) A stop at Montréal-Mirabel International Airport for refueling was scheduled. The aircraft, registered as 9H-GLOBL, an ex-China Southern Airbus A380, departed Mojave on Tuesday, April 30 and arrived 5 hours 40 minutes later at the mid-point. From there the onward travel to Prestwick took another 7 hours and 44 minutes for a combined duration of more than 13 and a half hours of flight time. Normally such or similar flights would take around nine and a half hours, but the airspeed of an aircraft in such a configuration had to be limited. That was likely the longest gear-down Airbus A380 on record, but similar feats were already performed on shorter flights when other carriers like Lufthansa were bringing back the type. Global Airlines The mentioned Global Airlines is a startup company with a business model that was sparked by retired Airbus A380-type aircraft becoming available on the market. For some, the pandemic was the catalyst, for others the fuel consumption of the four-engine aircraft. Slowly but surely many operators with smaller fleets started retiring the A380, with some going back on their word at some point. Founded in 2021, the company is on its way to acquiring aircraft and attaining all the required certifications. The company is currently looking for its niche in the market. The British startup wants to fly the superjumbo jet between London and New York, with the first commercial flight penciled in for later this year C-130 Floatplane Program Put ‘On Pause’ By Special Operations Command The grand on again, off again plan for putting a special operations MC-130 on floats is not moving forward. BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK | PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2024 8:42 PM EDT AIRNEWS & FEATURES Artist rendering of the MC-13-0J on Floats. USAF The U.S. military is pumping the brakes on a high-profile program that intended to convert an MC-130J special operations tanker/transport aircraft into a floatplane. U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has largely blamed budgetary pressures for this decision. At the same time, SOCOM is also actively exploring alternative ways of providing added air mobility, especially in a potential conflict in the Pacific region against China. Air Force Col. T. Justin Bronder, SOCOM's program executive officer for fixed-wing aviation programs, provided an update on what is formally known as the MC-130J Amphibious Capability (MAC) project at the annual SOF Week conference earlier today. The Air Force first unveiled the MAC effort in 2021, but the schedule for the planned flight testing of the converted Commando II aircraft had repeatedly been pushed back. "Looking at kind of the budget projections, and some of the actual cost-effectiveness [considerations] of that particular kind of integration effort, [we] decided it was best to kind of take all that work and transition it for potential kind of future use," Bronder said. "And [we] kind of reach[ed] that first milestone of understanding what it would take to field MAC." A rendering of a C-130 floatplane previously released in relation to the MAC project. USAF SOCOM is now "kind of hitting a pause on any specific plans to actually operationalize that [MAC] right now as we look at... the cost-effectiveness of what we learned from all that data, and certainly what the requirements might actually be for AFSOC [Air Force Special Operations Command] when it comes to amphibious operations in the future," Bronder added. The U.S. military's Fiscal Year 2025 budget request, which was rolled out in March, had included $11.5 million for SOCOM to pay for the fabrication of initial components necessary for the MC-130J floatplane conversion. In its proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget, the Pentagon had asked for $15 million for the MAC project, and the year-over-year "decrease of $3.5 million... is due to [the] completion of detailed design activities in FY 2024," according to official budget documents. The Pentagon was limited in how much funding it could ask for in the upcoming fiscal cycle under the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law last year. The U.S. military has already had some of an on-again-off-again relationship with MAC. This is not the first time plans related to the project have been put on hold, including ostensibly due to funding constraints. "For a variety of reasons, at this time we do not have the capability demonstration scheduled," an AFSOC spokesperson told The War Zone last year. "Those reasons vary from funding challenges to a recent reprioritization of capabilities." Col. Bronder did stress today that MAC "certainly is a capability we could field if called upon" and highlighted the value of the work that has already been done on the project. "The team really got after that [MAC] with some aggression... that really kind of typifies SOCOM acquisitions. [They] completed a very successful technical deep dive in close partnership with our industry partners... to come up with a real rich, data-driven model on just how to make something like MAC on the C-130 fleet operational... [that] included dynamic wind tunnel testing [and] included hydrostatic testing," Bronder explained. "And I think the neatest part of that was [taking]... all that information and put[ting] it into a new living digital environment." Artist rendering of the MC-130J in flight. USAF It is worth noting that MAC is not the first time that amphibious and seaplane C-130 concepts have been explored by the aircraft manufacturer, now Lockheed Martin, and branches of the U.S. military. A model of a now decades-old amphibious C-130 concept from Lockheed involving a boat-like hull. Lockheed An artist's conception of a C-130 plane that well predates the MAC project. Lockheed Martin SOCOM's top fixed-wing aviation acquisitions officer also explicitly touted the strategic signaling potential of acquiring and fielding something like an amphibious MC-130J. "I think the value of that in the messaging you see with something like MAC is pretty clear, right?" he said. "Taking our C-130 fleet and making it readily adaptable to kind of operate all over the backyard of a pacing threat and near-peer competitor in China." Conflict and contingency scenarios in the Pacific region, especially a potential high-end fight against China continue to provide the primary use cases for capabilities MAC would offer to SOCOM and the rest of the U.S. military, as The War Zone has explored in the past. That being said, amphibious C-130s could offer valuable added runway-independent air mobility for operations elsewhere in the world, too. Artist rendering of the MC-130J on the water. USAF China has also developed a new large amphibious transport aircraft called the AG600. The War Zone has highlighted in the past how this aircraft is ideally suited to supporting the People's Liberation Army's man-made outposts in the South China Sea. The U.S. military is otherwise increasingly concerned about the vulnerability of large, established bases, especially in the context of a possible future large-scale conflict, such as one against China. There is great interest now in a variety of aviation concepts that have little or no need for traditional runways. "In the meantime, ...SOCOM is very much pathfinding with DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on the High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing [project]," Bronder said today after discussing the current state of MAC. "That is a DARPA hard challenge... a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that can go well over 400 knots with some range and nominal payload." HSVTOL is technically the SOCOM companion to the DARPA program in question, which is actually called Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT), but the two efforts a directly tied to each other. The HSVTOL/SPRINT "effort is kind of working through some white papers and modeling, and working through a down selection now to a couple of vendors and industry partners," according to Bronder. "We're going to... essentially build up to a preliminary design... type of review next summer to further down-select, [and] ultimately looking forward to a flying prototype demo in the late 2020s." On April 30, DARPA awarded a new contract valued at just under $25 million to Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, to advance in the SPRINT program. You can read more about what is known about Aurora's proposed design here. A rendering of Aurora Flight Sciences' SPRINT design concept. Aurora Flight Sciences It is not immediately clear if any of the companies that had been on contract in the previous phases of SPRINT – Bell, Northrop Grumman, and the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation – are still doing work under that project. Since at least last September, Bell has been testing non-flying test articles as part of work to develop technologies relevant to HSVTOL and SPRINT at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. "I'll note that that's an effort there where we are more and more kind of closely working with the services, especially the Air Force, to see the utility of this capability we're kind of pathfinding around a SOF [special operations forces] use case, because we think it's very relevant to where the Air Force needs to go with contested logistics," SOCOM's Col. Bronder noted. "When we get to that flying prototype in the late 2020s, I think we're looking to be well-postured there for success, and for a potential transition with a willing service partner. ... [SPRING is] really moving the needle on a capability that I think cuts across where a lot of the services want to be." DARPA is also working on a separate project, called Liberty Lifter, which is exploring potential designs for long-range and low-cost amphibious transports using wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) ekranoplan-like concepts. Aurora Flight Sciences (teamed with Gibbs & Cox, a Leidos company, and ReconCraft) and General Atomics (partnered with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation) are currently working on designs as part of that program, which you can read more about here. The current plan is to eventually pick one of the two competing teams to build a full-scale flying demonstrator. A rendering of Aurora Flight Sciences Liberty Lifter design concept. Aurora Flight Sciences The design that General Atomics has been working on under the Liberty Lifter program. General Atomics The pause in MAC could also reinvigorate interest in the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2 seaplane, a very capable existing option. Since last December, authorities in Japan have been relaxing arms export restrictions, which has been seen in part as opening the door to new sales opportunities for the US-2 specifically. A Japan Self-Defense Force US-2 seaplane. USAF New and/or refined tactics, techniques, and procedures may be another way of getting at the kind of added mobility SOCOM and the Air Force had been looking at with MAC. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the head of AFSOC, talked about the renewed importance of being able to operate C-130s and other aircraft from beaches and other impromptu runways at a roundtable at the Air & Space Force's main annual conference in September 2023. "We're ... looking at the ability for beach landings," Bauernfeind said at that time. "There's a lot of 3,000-foot [long] straight beaches that we can bring MC-130s and CV-22s into to deliver the effects we need." "Our adversaries have watched the American way of war for several decades, and they are going to hold our initial staging bases and our forward operating bases at risk," Bauernfeind added. "They understand that [the way] to slow the American joint force down is … to target our basing." This is a core reality that led to the MAC project in the first place. However, for the moment at least, the idea of addressing these issues, even in part, with an amphibious MC-130, has been shelved again. Damaged B-2 Won’t Be Repaired, Fleet To Shrink To 19 Jets The Air Force deeming one of its B-2s to be “uneconomical to repair” comes as it pushes ahead with work on the new B-21 Raider. BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK | PUBLISHED MAY 10, 2024 6:36 PM EDT AIRNEWS & FEATURES The U.S. Air Force has decided not to repair a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber involved in a mishap because of the costs and complexities involved and will divest the aircraft instead. The news of striking one of the precious B-2s from its fleet comes as the Air Force continues to move toward fielding its new B-21 Raider stealth bombers as replacements for its existing B-2s, as well as its supersonic swing-wing B-1 bombers. Details about the Air Force's decision to get rid of the damaged B-2, which is set to formally happen sometime in the next year or so, were included in an annual force structure report that the Pentagon released in April. Aviation Week was among the first to report on this development. There are currently just 20 B-2s in the service's inventory, including the damaged one. 10 of the Air Force's 20 B-2 bombers seen together at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri during a mass fly-off exercise in April 2024. USAF "The B-2 is being divested in FY 2025 due to a ground accident/damage presumed to be uneconomical to repair," according to the Pentagon report. Fiscal Year 2025 begins on October 1, 2024. The report does not provide any further details about the accident in question, the projected costs to repair the aircraft involved, or the Air Force's decision-making process on the matter. It's also not clear what will physically happen to whatever is left of the bomber. The War Zone has reached out to the Air Force for more information. It seems very likely that the B-2 to be divested is the one that made an emergency landing and suffered a fire at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on December 10, 2022. At the time of writing, the cause of that mishap does not look to have been publicly disclosed. Whiteman is the main operating base for the entire B-2 fleet. Photo of the damaged B-2 that made an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base over the weekend has emerged. This B-2 probably will be a write-off since B-21 program is in full steam. What is known is that B-2 ended up blocking Whiteman's single runway for more than a week afterward. The entire B-2 fleet was largely grounded for some six months after that incident as a result. The Air Force did insist throughout the "safety pause" that the bombers, which are a key element of the air leg of America's nuclear deterrent triad, could still be employed in that role if required. Imagery from Planet via EarthCache today 12/18/2022 of the runway at Whiteman AFB seems to show the B-2 Spirit is still partially on Runway 1 just north of Taxiway Bravo. The B-2 Spirit suffered an in flight emergency requiring an emergency landing and post landing fire. Another B-2 had suffered a similar-looking mishap at Whiteman in 2021. That bomber was subsequently made airworthy and was flown to Northrop Grumman's facility at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California the following year for more extensive repairs. There is also a possibility that the Air Force could have halted work to return that aircraft to service for some reason. The B-2 that was involved in the 2021 mishap at Whiteman seen coming in to land at Plant 42 the following year. Tom Jordan None of the other 18 B-2s currently in the Air Force's inventory are known to be seriously damaged. Northrop (which merged to form Northrop Grumman in 1994) built all these bombers – 21 in total – at Plant 42 starting in the late 1980s. Another B-2 was lost in a crash at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam in 2008. What it would have cost to avoid this now-planned B-2 divestment is unknown and the Air Force itself may not have known for sure. The April Pentagon force structure report notably describes the damaged aircraft as simply being "presumed to be uneconomical to repair." This is not surprising. The B-2s are extremely complex aircraft even when it comes to their composite structures and exterior coatings, the latter of which are extremely sensitive just to general environmental factors. The fleet is also very small and already extremely costly to maintain on a day-to-day basis. As is the case with many stealth aircraft, even relatively minor mishaps are often very expensive and complicated affairs. In hangar. USAF How much the Air Force is already paying to fix the B-2 involved in the earlier 2021 mishap is unclear, but an initial assessment estimated the repair bill would be at least $10.1 million, and likely far higher in actuality. It cost the service $105 million to get another B-2 flying again after it suffered a fire at Andersen on Guam in 2010, but that also included the price of a planned overhaul of that aircraft that was performed simultaneously with the repairs. There is also a question of return on investment given that it can take years to return complex stealthy aircraft like the B-2 to service after a mishap. The B-2 involved in the 2021 accident is still at Plant 42 as far as we know. It took nearly three years for the bomber that suffered the fire on Guam to begin flying operationally again. The B-2 that suffered the fire at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam in 2010 seen here returning to Whiteman in 2013. USAF The B-2's future replacement, the B-21 Raider, is now in low-rate initial production and the expectation is that the new stealth bombers will begin entering service sometime in the late 2020s. The first pre-production B-21 made its maiden flight in November 2023 and is now undergoing initial flight testing. “As of today, good progress is being made. We believe we are on track," Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “I’m looking forward very much to talking to you when we can come back with data on those efforts and let you know where we stand." The first pre-production B-21 Raider. USAF It is worth noting that the B-2 fleet still has years of service life left ahead of it and that the bombers are still set to receive upgrades and additional capabilities before they are retired for good. At the same time, it is not hard to see how the Air Force could decide the cost and time required to repair a damaged example now is no longer a worthwhile investment as it pushes ahead with the B-21 program. The wild 656-foot AirYacht concept that debuted two years ago has gone through a redesign to replace the detachable superyacht with a more spacious, permanently fixed lounge by Sayan Chakravarty Two years ago, a Switzerland-based company named AirYacht revealed a flying superyacht concept that was meant to revolutionize the industry of leisure crafts. The dual-purpose concept combined a helium airship powered by a hybrid propulsion system with a luxury superyacht, enabling it to be operated like an aircraft and a sea vessel. It’s not to be confused with the Air Yacht concept by Lazzarini Designs, which was also showcased in the same year. The original plan was to prepare the multi-functional luxury craft for the market by 2026. However, the company has released a new iteration of the 656-foot-long AirYacht concept and has pushed the timeline by at least one year. Instead of featuring a two-part design with a detachable 197-foot superyacht that releases from the upper blimp portion, the 2.0 version of the concept features a nondetachable lounge with bigger interior space that can accommodate more guests. CEO Guillaume Hoddé said the AirYacht will now operate exclusively in the air. “We founded the company with a dream of living in the air,” Hoddé told Robb Report. “At 500 feet, you can see, feel, and smell the environment with almost limitless accessibility. That is different from any other mode of travel.” The permanently attached lounge, which has been completely redesigned, will have about 8,600 square feet of livable space, upping the passenger capacity to as many as 40 people. It will also have enough space to support 12 crew members and 3 pilots. Version 2.0 also includes a 12-person elevator that will help make boarding and getting off the AirYacht possible without the airship landing on the ground. This feature will help AirYacht explore remote areas with difficult terrains. The Swiss company claims that the airship cruise at a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), while it will also have the capability to hover at the same spot, giving the guests enough time to soak in the beauty of any particular spot. The hybrid propulsion system will give the AirYacht a top speed of 50 knots (57.5 mph); however, the company plans to make the airship emission-free by 2030 with the help of a hydrogen-powered propulsion unit. There’s also a focus on sustainability with energy optimization through AI control of systems, water recycling, and fuel cell tech. The company has fabricated prototypes for many subsystems, according to Hoddé, while the first full-scale prototype will serve as the first airship. Initial flight tests are planned for 2026, and the AirYacht could be commercially available for sale after two years. C-130J Super Hercules makes historic first flight with external fuel tanks under its wings • The C-130J Super Hercules has made history • It’s the first in America’s Air Mobility Command to fly with external fuel tanks • They sat beneath its wings as it flew for the Max Endurance Operation (MEO) mission Published on May 9, 2024 at 2:22PM (UTC+4) • by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones Last updated on May 10, 2024 at 1:18PM (UTC+4) Edited by Tom Wood Note: See the original articl3e for photos and a video. The C-130J Super Hercules has made history as the first in America’s Air Mobility Command to fly with external fuel tanks attached beneath its wings. It was flown for a special mission of the Max Endurance Operation (MEO). Said to be the ‘backbone of NATO’s airlift superiority’, the plane was designed by Lockheed Martin. C-130J Super Hercules Lockheed Martin The first comes shortly after almost three million hours of tests that started last year. External fuel tanks are fairly commonplace for fighter planes of the US Air Force (USAF), like the F16, which is currently undergoing AI testing. The F-35 and F-22 Raptor also sport them, but which is the best fighter jet in the USAF arsenal? In fact, pilots from the Spanish Civil War in 1923 used them to extend aircraft range. The extra fuel tanks gave the C-130J Super Hercules an extra 17,000 pounds of fuel, which equates to 7,700 liters. This translated into an extra four hours of airtime – essential if it needs to be deployed fast in the Indo-Pacific area. However, more testing in a controlled environment is needed before it’s deployed in the real world. The 317th Airlift Wing recently took part in Exercise Hazard Spear and Balikatan 2024 earlier this month. However these ‘drop tanks’ are almost unheard of for military transport aircraft. The latest in the C-130 Hercules family, as well as one of the largest, it allows a small crew of two pilots and a loadmaster to transport tons of supplies up to 4,828 km (3,000 miles). USAF 450 of them have been delivered to operators worldwide. The mission that the first flight was part of was labeled Hazard Leap. It saw the C-130J Super Hercules fly from an unknown USA location to Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. island territory of Guam. The secrecy surrounding the mission means we aren’t sure how far this mission was. However, the external fuel tanks were credited for the plane landing only once in Hawaii to refuel. The MEO mission required careful route planning, including planning for wind patterns and storms required. The USAF hasn’t released a statement on how common these drop tanks could become, stating it entirely depends on the mission. Check out its predecessor, the C-130 Hercules, aka ‘Fat Albert’, perform a rocket takeoff that looks like an explosion. Boeing's problems rattle US aviation regulator as well Elodie MAZEIN The US Federal Aviation Administration, sharply criticized after the crashes of two Boeing planes in 2018 and 2019, is again being dragged into a maelstrom surrounding the major American aerospace manufacturer. The dramatic mid-flight blowout on January 5 of a fuselage panel on an Alaska Airlines plane precipitated the departures of a series of top Boeing officials -- including CEO Dave Calhoun, who is set to step down at year's end -- and the reduced production of the 737 MAX. But as Boeing faces multiple inquiries and audits in the United States and abroad, it has repeatedly assured critics that it is working "with full transparency and under the oversight" of FAA regulators. And the FAA, which itself has seen four bosses come and go since August 2019, has been unable to evade a share of the responsibility. "The FAA has to be held accountable as well," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, who heads a subcommittee investigating Boeing's safety practices. After the panel incident in January, the agency dispatched a team to inspect Boeing factories, and gave the firm 90 days to provide an "action plan" to address several problem areas. - Self-reporting - "I think the FAA is doing the best that they can and that they have greatly improved their surveillance of Boeing" since the 2018 and 2019 crashes off Indonesia and in Ethiopia, which killed 346 people, said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation consultant and former head of the agency's investigation division. "But they did fail to catch production problems," he said, noting that for decades the FAA relied on manufacturers themselves to "self-report problems." The FAA, short on money and personnel, has long delegated the job of quality assurance to pre-approved employees of the airplane manufacturers. That creates "a conflict of interest," said Hassan Shahidi, president of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation. "There needs to be a shift where the FAA has more direct responsibility for oversight," he said. Like Guzzetti, he said he has seen some improvement but believes the FAA must dispatch more of its own inspectors -- and not delegate so much regulatory authority to manufacturers. "This is going to take some time and it will need vigilance," Shahidi added. But the agency "is on the right track now," said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of the AeroDynamic Advisory consultancy. "It's nothing that can't be corrected with additional oversight and resources," he said. - 'Record' funding - Those resources depend directly on the US Congress, and the Senate on Thursday approved a "record" amount of agency funding for the next five years. "We need to show (the public) that we are asking for, implementing and holding accountable the FAA to a gold standard for safety," said Senator Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The "record" level of financing, Cantwell added, would allow the FAA to step up inspections. It still needs House approval before President Joe Biden can sign it into law. Industry shortages of qualified personnel, from mechanics to engineers, were made worse by the pandemic, affecting every stage of manufacturing -- from supply procurement to production and maintenance. "It's difficult to recruit and retain good craftsmen, even for Boeing," Guzzetti said. And the FAA has specifically struggled to fill its hiring needs because workers can find higher pay and better benefits in the private sector. Investigations into the 2018 and 2019 Boeing crashes showed that the company knowingly concealed from the FAA problems in a software system linked to the accidents, whistleblower Joe Jacobsen told Blumenthal's committee in mid-April. Jacobsen, who worked for the FAA for 25 years after 11 years with Boeing, said the agency had become "too captive to Boeing." The FAA falls under the US Transportation Department, whose inspector general in June 2022 opened an audit into the agency's supervision of 737 and 787 production. A final report is expected this summer. The inspector general's office already concluded in 2021 that "weaknesses in FAA's certification and delegation processes hindered its oversight of the 737 MAX 8." Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange. WORLD RENOWNED EXPERT SAYS BOEING 787 IS SAFE By Geoffrey Thomas May 14, 2024 A world-renowned aircraft structures expert John Hart Smith has told the Seattle Times and Airlineratings.com that the Boeing 787 is safe. Responding to a Boeing whistleblower and engineer Sam Salehpour’s claim that small gaps in the 787 created when fuselage sections are joined could cause a catastrophic accident, Hart-Smith has said that “the gaps are too small to make that happen.” “It’s not a safety issue.” The Seattle Times, Dominic Gates explains the issue thus: “These gaps are not along the circumference of the join but inside the aircraft, between the splice plate and the skin of the fuselage. “Salehpour claims the forces Boeing mechanics apply to close these gaps during final assembly can damage the carbon composite skin around the fasteners at the join — risking a major structural failure.” “Hart-Smith believes Salehpour is mistaken. His analysis supports Boeing’s insistence that the 787 fuselage gaps are not a safety risk.” Hart-Smith from Melbourne Australia, is famous at Boeing for not only his scientific pedigree but also as a strident critic of the company warning it that cost-cutting was shortsighted. A fellow of the prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society, Hart-Smith — now 83 and retired from Boeing since 2008, though he consulted for the jet maker until 2015 — still writes scientific papers for aerospace engineering journals on how to economically build sound aircraft structures. After obtaining his engineering doctorate in Australia, in 1968 he joined Douglas Aircraft, the commercial aircraft division of McDonnell Douglas, which later became part of Boeing and attained the status of senior technical fellow, the highest level of engineer at the company. Skunk Works Releases New KC-Z Stealth Tanker Rendering May 13, 2024 Military Aviation STEFANO D'URSO A notional rendering of a tanker design for the Next-Generation Air Refueling System. (Photo: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works via AviationWeek) Lockheed Martin’s secretive division released the rendering of a notional stealth tanker for the Next-Generation Air Refueling System program which aims to replace KC-46 and KC-135 tankers. Lockheed Martin’s highly secretive Skunk Works division released a rendering of a notional stealth tanker meant for the Next-Generation Air Refueling System program, also known as KC-Z, which aims to replace KC-46 and KC-135 tankers in the 2030s. The tanker, which appears smaller than the types it will replace, is shown refueling an F-35A with the flying boom system. The aircraft in the rendering, first published by the Aviation Week, appears to be based on a rather large lambda wing with canted twin tails. The engines, possibly two, are buried in the fuselage, with the air inlets under the wing’s root (also called “armpit” inlets) and possibly flat nozzles in the rear. While the design in the rendering is notional (Lockheed Martin released another completely different rendering last year), it is interesting to notice that the concept of low observability is also making its way into the high value air assets. However, similarly too what we mentioned many times for the Next Generation Air Dominance program, the renderings might not be representative of the real designs being developed. Last year, the U.S. Air Force released a request for information to the industry for a new tanker capable of surviving in contested airspace, mention the service is interested in innovative solutions in all size and performance classes that might address the stressing mission requirements. The service has later started an analysis of alternatives. The Next-Generation Air Refueling System NGAS will be the third of three increments to the Air Force tanker recapitalization plan, following increment 1 (represented by the KC-46 program) and increment 2 (known as KC-Y or “bridge tanker”). The new tanker would be able to operate closer to the frontlines to better support fighters, while more “traditional” tankers would be employed at a safer distance. “It’s not one airplane. It’s a system, so it’s not one-size-fits-all. I’m not looking to develop a fleet that has to handle every threat environment,” Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, told reporters earlier this year. Gen. Minihan previously said he envisions three roles for tankers as part of NGAS. The bulk of the air refueling missions would be performed in a permissive environment by “traditional”, commercial-based tankers such as the KC-46, while a second tanker would operate closer to the fight thanks to improved survivability and connectivity. A KC-46A Pegasus from the U.S. Air Force’s 412th Test Wing conducts tanker-receiver aerial refueling compatibility testing with an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye from the U.S. Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 20. Certifying the tanker-receiver pair will sustain the E-2D aerial refueling capability as the Air Force modernizes its tanker fleet ultimately extending the airborne early warning, battle management, and integrated air and missile defense missions through significantly increased persistence and range. (U.S. Navy photo by Erik Hildebrandt) The last type, possibly KC-Z, would operate in the same area of operations of fighter jets for high-end missions, so it needs to be small and survivable. Because of this, it needs to have more self-protection and advanced networking than the current types, addressing threats that are posed by potential adversaries to high-value aircraft such as tankers while still being able to perform its air refueling mission. In addition to refueling, these aircraft might do much more, said Gen. Minihan. In fact, he listed open architecture, autonomy, and battle management capabilities among the things that could be included on the new aircraft. Some of these capabilities might find their way on operational KC-46s even before NGAS enters service. The plan for the new tankers, however, is not final. Last year, the Air Force said it will buy only 75 tankers as part of the upcoming “Bridge Tanker” and push to field NGAS faster. Skunk Works Releases New KC-Z Stealth Tanker Rendering or sure, funding will get a big role in the plans as the Air Force is already working on big programs such as the B-21 Raider and NGAD and the new tankers need to be fielded “without bankrupting the Air Force,” said Gen. Minihan. Steve Sweeden , Aircraft Maintenance Training Manager at UPS UPS Aircraft Maintenance Training is donating a previously used Avionics Training Aid to Jefferson Community & Technical College A&P School. Notice retired UPSers, Alex Restrepo and Armando Unzueta, now teaching at the A&P School investing in the next generation of AMTs. Curt Lewis