Aviation Technology
businesswire | September 14, 2023
H2FLY, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Joby Aviation, today announced the successful completion of the world’s first piloted flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft.
H2FLY, acquired by Joby in 2021, continues to lead the industry on the development and testing of hydrogen aviation propulsion systems. The company completed a series of piloted flights with its HY4 demonstrator aircraft, including one that lasted more than three hours, fitted with a hydrogen-electric fuel cell propulsion system and liquid hydrogen that powered it for the entire flight.
The flights demonstrate the viability of using cryogenically-stored liquid hydrogen instead of gaseous hydrogen, which enables significantly lower tank weights and volume, leading to longer range. The successful installation and demonstration of flight with liquid hydrogen is believed to increase the range of H2FLY’s HY4 demonstrator aircraft from 466 mi (750 km) to 932 mi (1500 km), marking a critical step towards the long-term decarbonization of mid- to long-range aviation.
“H2FLY are pioneers in their field, and we’re proud of them achieving this watershed moment in the use of liquid hydrogen to power aircraft,” said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation. “In the years to come, battery-electric and hydrogen-electric propulsion systems will enable us to build aircraft that are quieter and make mid- to long-range air travel possible with zero emissions. It’s critical we take action now and invest aggressively in these technologies for the health of our planet and future generations to come.”
The successful flights are the culmination of Project HEAVEN, a European-government-supported consortium assembled to demonstrate the feasibility of using liquid hydrogen in aircraft. The consortium is led by H2FLY and includes the partners Air Liquide, Pipistrel Vertical Solutions, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), EKPO Fuel Cell Technologies, and Fundación Ayesa.
Following this test flight milestone, H2FLY will increasingly focus on its path to commercialization. In June, H2FLY announced the development of its new fuel cell systems, which will be capable of providing their full power range at altitudes high enough to enable commercial hydrogen-electric aircraft, demonstrating real-world commercial aircraft applications.
About Joby
Joby Aviation, Inc. is a California-based transportation company developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing air taxi which it intends to operate as part of a fast, quiet, and convenient service in cities around the world.
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Defense and Space
Businesswire | July 14, 2023
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced it has signed a deal with Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective to launch two dedicated Electron missions. The new missions bring the total number of Electron launches contracted by Synspective to six.
Rocket Lab has been launching for Synspective since 2020 when the Company deployed the first satellite in Synspective’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation, which is designed to deliver imagery that can detect millimetre-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space. Since that first mission, Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Synspective’s StriX constellation to date, successfully deploying three StriX satellites across three dedicated Electron launches. Including the two new missions, Rocket Lab is now scheduled to launch three missions for Synspective beginning in late 2023 from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck, says: “It’s an honor to be entrusted with the continued deployment of Synspective’s constellation. We’re proud to enable them to build out their constellation with precision and efficiency, giving Synspective ultimate schedule and orbit flexibility with frequent dedicated launch opportunities. We’re delighted to continue delivering this unique ability to Synspective through our continued partnership.”
In addition to providing Synspective with a high degree over schedule and orbit by flying as a dedicated mission, Rocket Lab also delivers the unique ability to perform an advanced mid-mission maneuver with the Electron rocket’s Kick Stage to shield the StriX satellite from the sun to reduce radiation exposure ahead of payload deployment.
Synspective founder and CEO, Dr. Motoyuki Arai, says: “As we celebrate our three-year partnership with Rocket Lab, which began with our first StriX-α satellite in 2020, we are thrilled to entrust them with two more contracts for our StriX satellite launches. Their unwavering reliability and precision have been pivotal to our successful deployments. We’re looking forward to the upcoming launches and the new insights to enhance our satellite data and solution service in line with our customer needs.”
Synspective joins several commercial constellation operators that have signed multi-launch agreements on Electron this year, including HawkEye 360 and Capella Space.
Previous Rocket Lab Launches for Synspective:
• The Owl’s Night Begins: 15 December 2020
• The Owl’s Night Continues: 28 February 2022
• The Owl Spreads Its Wings: 15 September 2022
About Rocket Lab
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with an established track record of mission success. We deliver reliable launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier and more affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, the Photon satellite platform and the Company is developing the large Neutron launch vehicle for constellation deployment. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually and has delivered 163 satellites to orbit for private and public sector organizations, enabling operations in national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a third launch pad in Virginia.
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Air Transport
Globenewsiwre | July 17, 2023
Mercury Systems, Inc. , a technology company that delivers processing power for the most demanding aerospace and defense missions, received a five-year contract worth as much as $83 million from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to deliver high-definition, digital Head-Up Display (HUD) systems for the T-45 Goshawk training aircraft. This firm-fixed-price delivery order was issued under a previously awarded basic ordering agreement. The Navy is the first customer to adopt Mercury’s HUD1080 technology that enables aviators to see critical flight and weapons data in real-time without taking their eyes off the sky.
Under this program, Mercury expects to deliver nearly 300 HUD systems, with the first $45 million production order awarded in conjunction with this contract. The T-45 Goshawk is a tandem-seat jet trainer used to train Navy and Marine Corps aviators to fly the U.S. military’s most advanced fighter jets, including the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35 Lightning, and the EA-18G Growler, as well as tactical airborne early warning aircraft such as the E-2 Hawkeye. The new T-45 HUD with an integrated camera is based on Mercury’s low-profile HUD design that minimizes pilot discomfort, enhances situational awareness, and maximizes an aviator’s field-of-view. It is also DAL-A certifiable—the highest level of design assurance that can be applied to airborne systems—allowing it to be used for critical flight and mission tasks such as landing on aircraft carriers.
Why It Matters
Pilots must understand a wealth of rapidly changing data while flying, and a HUD allows them to maintain awareness of this information without having to take their eyes off the sky to look down at multiple instruments. Current training aircraft use older analog HUD systems that have a bulky design, are out of production, and cannot integrate with the modern enhanced vision systems used in today’s fighter jets. The integration of Mercury’s HUD into the T-45 solves the obsolescence problem for the aircraft and ensures pilots are trained in an operationally realistic environment, as the systems are compatible with upcoming T-45 avionics upgrades. “The introduction of the HUD1080 expands Mercury’s display technology portfolio and our ability to deliver mission-ready technology and solutions for all aspects of the avionics ecosystem,” said Mitch Stevison, Executive Vice President and President of Mercury’s Mission Systems division. “We look forward to delivering our digital HUD for the T-45 Goshawk, ensuring today’s student pilots have the technology to train for current and future missions.”
About Mercury Systems
Mercury Systems is a technology company that pushes processing power to the tactical edge, making the latest commercial technologies profoundly more accessible for today’s most challenging aerospace and defense missions. From silicon to system scale, Mercury enables customers to accelerate innovation and turn data into decision superiority. Mercury is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, and has 24 locations worldwide.
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Defense and Space
Businesswire | August 08, 2023
D-Wave Quantum Inc. a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, and Davidson Technologies, Inc., a technology services company that provides innovative engineering, technical and management solutions for the Department of Defense, aerospace and commercial customers, today announced progress in their collaboration to create solutions that advance national defense efforts. In support of the companies’ joint presence at this week’s Space and Missile Defense Symposium, D-Wave and Davidson Technologies revealed that together they have built two applications, focused on interceptor assignment and optimized radar scheduling Designed to mitigate potential attacks, the interceptor assignment application is able to take into account a multitude of complex variables, including missile capability in negating threats, balanced allocation of missiles to threats, and availability of resources to help quickly identify the potential defense threats and identify key mitigation tactics. The radar scheduling application efficiently manages the time-limited resources of a phased-array radar system, enabling scheduling of communication with moving objects.
Together, D-Wave and Davidson are working to advance intelligent technology solutions for the defense and aerospace industries, creating applications that could support a variety of mission objectives, including supply chain optimization, logistics management, weapon system optimization, and vehicle routing. D-Wave’s solutions are available now through the company’s Leap™ quantum cloud service and work synergistically with other technologies like high-performance computing and AI/ML.
“During times of military response, speed matters, and our artificial intelligence, powered by D-Wave’s technology, provided an answer much faster than other computational options,” said Major General John W. Holly (USA, Ret.), president, CEO and chairman of Davidson. “Our mission is to deliver advanced, agile technology solutions in defense of our Nation, and together with D-Wave, we’re providing our government customers with critical applications in service to our country.”
“By utilizing emerging and advanced technologies, Davidson is able to provide its customers with unique military implementation and national defense tools,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. “We share that spirit of imagining the unimaginable and harnessing the power of technology to keep America safer. We are excited to see advancement in our collaboration and look forward to more robust application development over our multi-year relationship.”
D-Wave and Davidson have been collaborating since August 2022, when the companies entered into a multi-year reseller agreement to allow Davidson to resell D-Wave’s products and services, including the Leap quantum cloud service.
About Davidson Technologies, Inc.
For more than 25 years, Davidson has distinguished itself in the aerospace and missile defense industry with an outstanding reputation for performance excellence. Specifically, the company is recognized for innovation and subject matter expertise dedicated to the mission and the warfighter by designing and delivering advanced, intelligent technology solutions in defense of our Nation.
About D-Wave Quantum Inc.
D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services, and is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers—and the only company building both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing today to benefit business and society. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Wave’s technology is being used by some of the world’s most advanced organizations, including Volkswagen, Mastercard, Deloitte, Davidson Technologies, ArcelorMittal, Siemens Healthineers, Unisys, NEC Corporation, Pattison Food Group Ltd., DENSO, Lockheed Martin, Forschungszentrum Jülich, University of Southern California, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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