Aviation Tech Today

Global Aviation Round-Up from Aircraft Value Intelligence (AVN) U.S. Marine pilots with Marine Helicopter Squadron One practice landing and take-off of Marine One on the south lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., March 18, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by: Lance Cpl. Micha R. Pierce) Editor’s Note: To watch John’s video version of this article, click here.

Global Aviation Round-Up from Aircraft Value Intelligence (AVN) Editor’s Note: To watch John’s video version of this article, click here. America’s air traffic controller shortage has become a numbers game, and the FAA is trying a new way to improve the odds: recruit gamers. The idea itself is not new.

Under the new contract, Chaparral will be used in large-scale test events, allowing the company to further develop the cargo-carrying drone for operations in contested electromagnetic spectrum, and continue to increase the “functionality of our modular payload system,” a company spokesperson told Defense Daily. Chaparral is runway independent and can carry more than 500 pounds of payload. The aircraft has an extended range up to 450 miles.

Capacity Expansion PDW currently has a 90,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Ala., Drone Factory 01 but the company will need to add more capacity to dramatically increase production of drones and key parts, hence the pending loan from the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital. “A substantial amount of our expansion plan is additional CapEx and facility expansion,” Slider said.

The CDR process had the Navy’s E-2/C-2 Airborne Command & Control Systems Program Office (PMA-231), under Portfolio Acquisition Executive Aviation, work with Northrop Grumman to convene a technical review board that the Navy said rigorously assessed the finalized system product baseline. With CDR completed, the Navy said the upgrade program has transitioned out of the design phase and into physical aircraft retrofits and flight-testing phases.

Global Aviation Round-Up from Aircraft Value Intelligence (AVN) Aircraft leasing used to be fairly predictable. Rising interest rates pushed up borrowing costs, lease rates climbed, and airlines paid more to add capacity. When borrowing costs eventually fell, lease rates usually followed. That pattern has broken down. Despite growing expectations that central banks will begin lowering interest rates, lease rates for many commercial aircraft remain unusually high.

Global Aviation Round-Up from Aircraft Value Intelligence (AVN) A weather forecasting image generated by eWAS. Photo: SITAONAIR For all the advances aviation has made over the past century, one challenge has never gone away: weather. Storms, turbulence, icing, wind shear, and rapidly changing conditions continue to shape every flight. They influence departure times, routing decisions, fuel planning, and whether an aircraft can safely reach its destination.

The Air Force is to require the delivery of engines that reduce instances of Mission Impaired Capability Awaiting Parts (MICAP). On the support side, the competition “is designed to solve key fleet-level issues by requiring a newer engine with improved supportability, directly addressing and decreasing supply MICAPs,” the notice said. The F-15EX has the F110-GE-129 engine by GE Aerospace. The F-16 Block 70 uses the F110, and the F-16 Block 72 has the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine.

The four-year-old OSC originally had just under $1 billion in total authority for loans—which typically have been made to support shoring up the domestic supply base for critical materials—but that amount has been increased to over $210 billion during the Trump administration. OSC’s loans are meant to spawn private capital infusions into the companies it finances.

Global Aviation Round-Up from Aircraft Value Intelligence (AVN) Logos of Airbus and Boeing. The order books at the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow told an encouraging story for Boeing. When the four-day event wrapped up on July 24, the U.S. aerospace giant had logged 186 firm commercial aircraft orders, topping Airbus’ total of 157.