TOP NEWS Commercial Cobham SB-Helo X-Stream to Improve Satellite Communications from Helos in the Air ATLANTA — Inmarsat is set to approve satellite communication rates for a new waveform, developed by Cobham last year, that promises to bolster significantly beyond-line-of-sight communications for helicopters in the air. Spinning rotors can drastically disrupt satcom signals, a signal degradation known as "rotor shadow" that leads to up to 40 percent packet loss for…
Military Air Force FY20 Budget Includes $171 Million for Huey Replacement Program The Air Force is asking for nearly $171 million in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds for fiscal year 2020 to continue developing the…
Military AW159 Wildcat Helicopter Helps Royal Navy Net Record Drug Busts The Leonardo AW159 helicopter — dubbed the Wildcat by the Royal Navy — has helped HMS Dragon and 815 Naval Air Squadron net eight drug…
Public Service Aviation Initiative Saves More Than $110 Million in Rotary and Fixed Wing Costs, U.N. Says In April, 2017 United Nations Secretary General António Guterres announced an initiative to trim helicopter and fixed-wing costs. Thus far, the organization has saved more than…
Uncategorized It’s Electric Another year, another HeliExpo looms as the helicopter market is both on a cautious upswing and realizing some major changes from within. In our cover…
Commercial The Next Decade The next decade looks to be one of modest declines or steady-state sales for the rotorcraft industry in both the civil and military markets worldwide,…
Commercial eVTOLution–Gaining Ground The urban air mobility (UAM) vision of carrying a high volume of commuters and other passengers affordably and quickly to their destinations in several dozen…
Commercial A Day in the Life–Flying Offshore The Gulf of Mexico is a seabed that seems to offer a never-ending supply of crude oil and natural gas, covered by 587,000 square miles…
Uncategorized Multi-Mission–Old Birds Keep On Whirlin’ From the get-go, the appeal of dual-purpose aircraft was evident. WWI combat planes were retained postwar as airmail conveyors and, just as popularly, as entertainment…
Commercial Modern Engine Updates From rotary, radial and reciprocating gasoline engines used on first-generation helicopters to gas turboshaft engines found on modern helicopters, an engine’s function is to provide…
Commercial Single-Engine IFR Rotorcraft technology is advancing faster than regulations can be rewritten to account for new capabilities, like safely flying single-engine aircraft in foul weather or soon,…
Safety A Taste of Maintenance Magic Hopefully, you enjoyed the holiday traditions that wrapped up 2018 and got through your New Years’ celebrations relatively unscathed. For the last 70 years, the…
Military Defiant Mystery As of this writing, the much-anticipatedSB-1 Defiant compound helicopter has yet to break its earthly bonds. The Sikorsky-Boeing team building the aircraft has played most…
Public Service Living to Fly I recently fell off my barn roof. I fell 13 feet, missing a wheelbarrow by four feet. I compression-fractured two vertebrae and broke two ribs.…
Uncategorized Coming Up March/April 2019 Army Aviation Update: Ahead of the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual symposium in April, we look at where the Army stands with…
Military Northrop Grumman Looking To Offer Laser Weapon Capability For Army’s Short-Range Air Defense