WORLD
test update
// FINAL TESTING OF MARS
HELICOPTER UNDERWAY
The Mars Helicopter project has
passed a number of key tests
over the past several months
and is approaching its final
phase of testing, NASA has said.
The aircraft, which was first
flown in January 2018, has so far
flown for a total of five hours at
the Pendleton UAS Range in
Oregon, USA.
The small autonomous
helicopter is expected to reach
the surface of Mars in February
2021, as part of the Mars rover
mission. It will be deployed a
few months later for initial test
flights of up to 90 seconds long.
The Mars Helicopter will be
the first vehicle ever to attempt
heavier-than-air flight on
another planet. It will confirm
that powered flight in the
Martian atmosphere,
which is about 1% of
the density of Earth’s
atmosphere, is
possible and that
control from Earth
over large interplanetary
distances can be achieved.
California , USA
JUNE \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.4 COM
// PHOENIX ENDURANCE
DRONE MAKES FIRST FLIGHT
The world’s first large variable
buoyancy-powered autonomous
unmanned air vehicle (UAV) has
been successfully flown during
a test.
The Phoenix is 15m long, has a
10.5m wingspan and spends half
its time as a heavier than air
aircraft and the other as a lighter
than air balloon.
The prototype aircraft was
flown successfully and
repeatedly during indoor flight
trials under the command of a
fully autonomous flight control
system over a distance of 120m,
the length of the Drystack facility
at Trafalgar Wharf in Portsmouth,
UK. Approximately five
transitions between aircraft and
balloon mode were made during
each test flight.
A team of researchers from
academia and industry have
developed the Phoenix
endurance aircraft over the last 3
years, primarily for it to be used
as an atmospheric satellite
for communications.
Portsmouth, UK
// EMBRAER AND UBER
LAUNCH AIR TAXI
Embraer has revealed the air taxi
concept it is developing in
partnership with Uber.
The electric vertical takeoff
and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is
being developed by
EmbraerX, a
subsidiary company
to Embraer which
aims to “enable and
accelerate the
development of the
urban mobility ecosystem”.
EmbraerX launched the
eVTOL at the Uber Elevate
Summit in Washington, D.C.
Speaking at the event, Antonio
Campello, president and CEO of
EmbraerX said, “We have been
combining human-centered
design thinking with our 50-year
history of building and
engineering expertise to this
new eVTOL concept.”
Washington, D.C, USA
// NEW PRESIDENTIAL
HELICTOPER FLIGHT-TESTED
The US President is to get a fleet
of new helicopters, the VH-92A
Presidential Helicopter, a
modified version of the S-92,
after it passed its flight test
program and was approved for
production by the US Navy.
The US President’s
current fleet consists
of 35 vehicles,
primarily the ageing
Sikorsky VH-3D Sea
King and smaller
VH-60N White Hawk. The
aircraft are operated by the
Presidential Helicopter Squadron
HMX-1, which is based in
Quantico, Virginia.
Sikorsky were given the
go-ahead to build six new
VH-92A Presidential Helicopters
to replace the Sea Kings by the
US Navy at the end of May.
Under the contract the first
will be delivered between 2021
and 2023.
The VH-92A test aircraft has
undergone rigorous US
government testing and
operational assessments,
including operating on the south
lawn of the White House. The
test aircraft has flown over 520
flight test hours to establish the
aircraft’s technical maturity and
readiness of its mission systems.
Patuxent River, Maryland
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