29-Jan-2024Source: NASA
In late October, two research helicopters from the manufacturer Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, made a dozen test flights over Long Island Sound, Connecticut taking care to avoid other aircraft in the area around them. Except the ordinary-looking helicopters were flying autonomously – guided by NASA-designed software – and those other aircraft were virtual, part... Read more
27-Nov-2023Source: Bell
Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, has been selected to compete for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) X-Plane program. The SPRINT program intends to design, build, and fly an X-Plane, an experimental aircraft to demonstrate enabling technologies and integrated concepts necessary for a transformational... Read more
3-Nov-2022Source: Sikorsky
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have successfully demonstrated to the U.S. Army for the first time how an uninhabited Black Hawk helicopter flying autonomously can safely and reliably perform internal and external cargo resupply missions, and a rescue operation. Sikorsky is partnered with DARPA to... Read more
22-Aug-2022Source: NASA
New forms of highly automated Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, could transform transportation, cargo delivery, and a variety of public services. NASA, working alongside the Federal Aviation Administration, is applying its decades of expertise in aeronautical research to ensure this new type of technology enters... Read more
8-Mar-2022Source: Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance (PTG) program to develop a prototype artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. The prototype will be embedded in an augmented reality (AR) headset to help rotary pilots perform expected and unexpected tasks. Northrop Grumman’s prototype AI... Read more
18-Feb-2022Source: Sikorsky
Sitting on the runway in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, one of Sikorsky’s pilots in an S-70™ BLACK HAWK® helicopter flips the optionally piloted cockpit switch from two to zero, exits the aircraft and walks across the runway. Moments later, the Model A BLACK HAWK aircraft, identifiable by DARPA’s logo and tail number N60-OPV, completes a pre-flight... Read more
31-Oct-2018Source: DARPA
An S-76B commercial helicopter flew over a small crowd gathered at Fort Eustis, Virginia, landed in an adjacent field after adjusting to miss a vehicle, and rose up to hover perfectly motionless for several minutes. The mid-October demonstration was remarkable because the pilot carried out the maneuvers using supervised autonomy in an aircraft equipped with... Read more
16-Jan-2017Source: Lockheed Martin
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) company, has won the contract for Phase 3 of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. DARPA’s ALIAS program is leveraging advances in autonomy to reduce pilot workload, augment mission performance, and improve aircraft safety and reliability. DARPA is working with Sikorsky... Read more
19-Oct-2016Source: Honeywell
Honeywell has signed an agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further develop the next generation of precision inertial technology. As a legacy supplier of this navigation technology for commercial and military applications, Honeywell is working to improve the accuracy of inertial measurement unit (IMU) technology by three orders of magnitude compared... Read more
1-Jun-2016Source: Sikorsky
Sikorsky has successfully demonstrated a 30-mile autonomous flight using a Sikorsky S-76® commercial helicopter to complete Phase 1 of an $8 millionaward from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. Sikorsky’s ALIAS system directed the rotorcraft flight demonstration from Sikorsky’s Stratford, Connecticut, facility to Robertson Airport in Plainville,... Read more
26-Apr-2016Source: Aurora
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that a subscale vehicle demonstrator (SVD) of its LightningStrike, Vertical Take-off and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL x-plane) for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was successfully flown at a U.S. military facility. The flight of the subscale aircraft met an important DARPA risk reduction requirement, focusing on validation of... Read more
22-Mar-2016Source: AVX Aircraft
AVX Aircraft Company announced today that it is part of a team with Northrop Grumman Corporation that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected to complete Phase 3 of Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). AVX will be responsible for the final design, fabrication... Read more
6-Mar-2016Source: Aurora
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company the prime contract for Phase 2 of the Agency’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL X-Plane) program. VTOL X-Plane seeks to develop a technology demonstrator that could: Achieve a top sustained flight speed of 300 kt-400 kt... Read more
17-Feb-2016Source: Honeywell
Honeywell (NYSE: HON) has been awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to continue improving three-dimensional visibility and safety for U.S. military helicopter pilots experiencing inclement weather and harsh environments. Among the visual challenges faced by pilots are issues with rain, snow, dust, fog and other elements that reduce the ability to... Read more
8-Sep-2015Source: US DoD
Aurora Flight Sciences Corp.,* Manassas, Virginia, has been awarded a $15,350,660 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00003) to exercise the Phase II Option of previously awarded HR0011-15-C-0027 for the Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. Phase II will focus on refinement of the overall ALIAS system, risk reduction, demonstration of rapid installation time, and more in-flight demonstrations.... Read more
23-Apr-2015Source: DARPA
Close air support (CAS)—delivery of airborne munitions to support ground forces—is difficult and dangerous because it requires intricate coordination between combat aircrews and dismounted ground forces (for example, joint terminal attack controllers, or JTACs). DARPA’s Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program focuses on technologies to enable sharing of real-time situational awareness and weapons systems data... Read more
4-Mar-2015Source: Sikorsky
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. today announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company an $8 million contract for Phase 1 of the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. Sikorsky Aircraft is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX). The objective of DARPA’s ALIAS program is to develop and insert new automation into... Read more
2-Oct-2014Source: Aurora Flight Sciences
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company Phase 1B funding to continue participation in the DARPA Vertical Take Off and Landing Experiment Plane (VTOL X-Plane) program. The award is intended to carry Aurora’s participation in the project through a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) milestone in... Read more
14-Jul-2014Source: Rockwell Collins
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Rockwell Collins a contract to develop new electronically scanned array (ESA) antenna technology as part of the Arrays at Commercial Timescales (ACT) program. The ACT program is focused on shorter design cycles and creating a commercial market approach to developing antenna arrays. This program aims to... Read more
10-Feb-2014Source: Aurora
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today the award of a Phase I contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) X-Plane program. Aurora’s innovative VTOL X-Plane, known as LightningStrike, is designed for efficient hover and high speed, meeting DARPA’s ambitious goals for performance and useful load capacity. LightningStrike leverages Aurora’s... Read more
15-Dec-2013Source: Senator Thad Cochran
U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today reported that the Department of Defense has awarded a $14.0 million competitive contract to Aurora Flight Sciences in Columbus to assist in the development of a new aircraft for the Department of Defense. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded the contract under its X-Plane program to support development... Read more
13-Dec-2013Source: Sikorsky
Sikorsky Innovations, the technology development organization of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., today announced it has won a contract for Phase 1 of the Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Aircraft (VTOL X-Plane) program by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The proposed effort is valued at $15 million to develop the preliminary design for the... Read more
11-Sep-2013Source: Rockwell Collins
Rockwell Collins has been selected by Raytheon to integrate a suite of advanced technologies for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program. As a teammate to Raytheon for the design and development phase of the program, Rockwell Collins seeks to streamline CAS workflows and Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC)... Read more
26-Feb-2013Source: DARPA Story
One of the greatest challenges of the past half century for aerodynamics engineers has been how to increase the top speeds of aircraft that take off and land vertically without compromising the aircraft’s lift to power in hover or its efficiency during long-range flight. The versatility of helicopters and other vertical take-off and landing (VTOL)... Read more
23-Jan-2013Source: Rockwell Collins
Imagine having GPS navigation capability embedded on something as small as a hummingbird-size unmanned aerial vehicle. That day may be coming soon, thanks to ongoing research and successful testing completed by Rockwell Collins and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA’s Dynamics Enabled Frequency Sources (DEFYS) effort has created tiny electronic oscillators and Rockwell... Read more
11-Dec-2012Source: DARPA
When a person reaches out to place an object in just the right place, their mind makes a series of judgments requiring vision, stability and careful movement. Trying to do the same thing robotically from a hovering unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) requires several technology advances. A DARPA-funded technology demonstration recently finished a successful testing of... Read more
7-Jun-2012Source: Rockwell Collins
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Rockwell Collins to develop the synthetic vision avionics backbone for next generation helicopter operations under the Multi-Function Radio Frequency (MFRF) program. Rockwell Collins is teamed with BAE Systems on the first two phases of the $5.1 million contract. An optional third phase would bring the contract... Read more
27-Mar-2012Source: BAE Systems
BAE Systems has been awarded a $34 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to develop the next generation Multi-Function Radio Frequency (MFRF) Advanced Rotary Wing Multifunction Sensor (ARMS) system for helicopter operations. The MFRF ARMS system improves aircraft survivability in degraded visual environments (DVE) while enhancing platform lethality and minimizing size, weight, power... Read more
11-Dec-2010Source: Carter Aviation Technologies
AAI, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today that its team has been selected to participate in Phase I of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Transformer program. The winning team also includes fellow Textron businesses Bell Helicopter and Textron Marine & Land Systems, as well as... Read more
10-Dec-2010Source: US DoD
Frontier Systems, Inc., Irvine, Calif., is being awarded a $12,800,000 (NTE) cost plus fixed-fee contract modification (HR0011-07-C-0100). This modification provides for the development of necessary planning, payload integrations, and air vehicle improvements in support of an operational demonstration to further evaluate the military utility of the A160T integrated with a modified ARGUS-IS pod which includes... Read more
16-Nov-2010Source: AAI
Nov 15, 2010 — AAI, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today that its team has been selected to participate in Phase I of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Transformer program. The winning team also includes fellow Textron businesses Bell Helicopter and Textron Marine & Land... Read more
15-Oct-2010Source: DARPA
To meet much of transportation needs of today’s deployed Warfighter, either highly mobile multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWV) are used, or helicopters, which have limited availability, are used. DARPA’s Transformer (TX) program seeks to combine the advantages of ground vehicles and helicopters into a single vehicle equipped with flexibility of movement. The concept is to provide... Read more
17-Jul-2010Source: AVX
AVX Aircraft Company has responded to a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeking designs for a tactical fly-drive vehicle known as the Transformer (TX). The DARPA stated objective of the program is “to demonstrate a four (4) person flyable/roadable vehicle that provides the warfighter terrain-independent mobility. This presents... Read more
22-Feb-2010Source: Sikorsky
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. announced today that its Sikorsky Innovations group has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a contract to develop active rotor technologies that will allow aircraft to adapt to a changing environment and dynamically enhance performance. Sikorsky Aircraft is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX). Once... Read more
15-Oct-2009Source: Boeing
The Boeing A160T Hummingbird unmanned helicopter successfully completed 20 test flights from Aug. 31 to Oct. 8 with the Foliage Penetration Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Tracking and Engagement Radar (FORESTER). The tests, conducted at Fort Stewart, Ga., validated the radar-carrying A160T’s flight characteristics with more than 50 hours of flying time.... Read more
3-Feb-2009Source: Philadelphia Business Journal
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2-Feb-2009Source: The Register
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