Airbus A320neo Makes Maiden Flight

Major changes on the propulsion side give Airbus high hopes to reduce costs by 15% or more for the class of aircraft.  Very few actual details of the flight are available so far, but the link below shares a few.

http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1411682681.html

Bombardier CSeries Testing Moving to Wichita

I don't know whether this was always the plan, but the move from Montreal to Wichita is a clear statement that Bombardier is taking recent huge schedule slips very seriously and is pulling out the stops to move their test program forward.  The fact is that the prognosis is better than the present situation would lead one to believe.  Consider how bad the 787 looked a couple of years ago, or even the C-17 a couple of decades ago.  If it is a good plane, it will recover from test program issues.

http://atwonline.com/airframes/bombardier-cseries-flight-test-aircraft-move-kansas?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AtwDailyNews+(ATW+Daily+News)

USAF KC-46A Flight Tests Delayed

Delays to a flight test program?  Yawn...  It is more shocking when a test program is NOT delayed.  Once under way, I would expect the traditional P&FQ kind of stuff to go pretty quickly unless:

1. The USAF intends to clear a flight envelope that is vastly different from the standard B-767 envelope, or:
2. The flight control system hardware or computer logic has had major changes.

The real excitement should be watching as all the various receiver platforms beging to cycle through the program.  There ought to be some great pictures coming out eventually.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140916/DEFREG02/309160034/First-Flight-Delayed-KC-46A-Test-Aircraft?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Lockheed-Martin F-35B Sets HQ and Weapons Milestones

The story at the link below details some recent accomplishments of the B-Variant during flight testing, to include formation handling qualities in the vertical lift mode. 

Wait!  Are we planning formation vertical landings to speed guys aboard ship?  No way! 

Or is there?

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2014/august/140825ae_f-35-flight-test-milestones-maturing-combat-capabilities.html

Paramount's AHRLAC ISR Platform Makes First Flight

It is interesting that the first indigenous military design on the African continent is for ISR.  I guess that tells us something about the importance of the mission in that part of the world.  It is also a reminder that ISR is usually more about the sensors than the platform they are mounted on.  The story at the link below gives some interesting details about the genesis of the plane, as well as a bit of intel on the planned test program.

(Photo Credit: Paramount Group)

 

http://www.janes.com/article/41854/paramount-s-ahrlac-makes-its-first-flight



Generation Orbit Learjet 35 Prepares for Satellite Launches

Systems integration, handling qualities... the profiles and missions described at the link below are essentially the same kind of thing that the folks at Scaled and Virgin have been doing recently in preparation for their first passenger flight of SpaceShipTwo.  This area of flight test is getting more interesting by the week.

http://www.satellitetoday.com/launch/2014/08/06/generation-orbit-conducts-flight-test-for-air-launch-smallsat-vehicle/