GE Aerospace has finished a fourth round of testing on the XA100 adaptive cycle engine “to gather additional data and advance this next-generation technology for future combat aircraft.”  the company said on May 8.

Last November, GE said that it had performed third phase testing of the second XA100 at its Evendale, Ohio plant outside of Cincinnati over the summer.

The following month, GE “completed a major design review” of the second engine, the XA102, which “will now continue toward a prototype engine test” as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program (NGAP), the company said on May 8.

“The combination of digital design and learnings from GE Aerospace’s first adaptive cycle engine will allow XA102 to deliver the required propulsion performance key to enabling future air dominance capabilities,” GE said.NGAP engine prototyping with GE and RTX‘s Pratt & Whitney is a change from the previous strategy, which envisioned just one engine provider in the prototyping phase. That change came because of increased NGAP funding, the Air Force has said.

NGAP is to outfit the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance manned fighter.

“Adaptive cycle engines are critical to ensure U.S. combat aircraft maintain their superiority by providing 30 percent greater range and significantly more thermal management compared to today’s most advanced combat engine,” GE said on May 8.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

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Santa Cruz, CA, May 02, 2024 — Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY), a company developing electric air taxis for commercial passenger service, today announced it has successfully completed its pre-production prototype flight test program and is now focused on the next phase of flight testing, during which the Company will use its production prototype aircraft to prepare for upcoming for-credit flight testing.

Joby first began flying full-scale pre-production prototype aircraft more than four years ago, and the Company’s two pre-production aircraft subsequently completed more than 1,500 flights, spanning a total distance of over 33,000 miles, including more than 100 flights with a pilot onboard. The second pre-production aircraft also completed the first electric air taxi exhibition flights in New York City, when it flew from the Manhattan Downtown Heliport over the Hudson River in November 2023.

“Over the course of this test program, our team has shown the world how real electric air taxis  are, with tens of thousands of miles flown using today’s battery technology,” said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby. “Our pre-production aircraft were the second full-scale generation of Joby’s design, and their performance met or exceeded our predictions throughout the program, successfully achieving our targets for maximum range, speed, and a revolutionary acoustic footprint.”

“Successfully completing this rigorous test program has allowed us to proceed to ramp production with full confidence, the second of which rolled off the line at our production line in Marina, California, earlier this week.  Learnings from the flight test program have been invaluable to our certification program and to the broader development of regulatory frameworks around electric VTOL aircraft, validating the performance, safety, and acoustics of our design while providing insight into daily operations and maintenance.”

In 2021, Joby demonstrated a flight of 154.6 statute miles on a single charge, including a vertical take-off and landing.

In 2022, Joby partnered with NASA to measure and confirm its aircraft’s revolutionary quiet acoustic footprint, which the Company believes will barely be heard in cruise flight against the ambient environment of cities. Joby also demonstrated speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour and flight at altitudes exceeding 10,000 feet above mean sea level.

In 2023, Joby expanded its flight test program to include flights with pilots on board the aircraft, as well as completing the first-ever exhibition flight of an electric air taxi in New York City. Joby also trained four U.S. Air Force pilots to become the first Air Force personnel to fly an eVTOL aircraft through a full flight profile, including the transition from vertical to wingborne flight, as sole pilot-in-command.

And in 2024, in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”), Joby completed 31 pilot-on-board flights in two days, demonstrating the aircraft’s operational characteristics and precision landing capabilities.

James Denham, Joby Chief Test Pilot, commented: “Over the past four years, we thoroughly tested and studied our aircraft in flight, from precision landing and outwash to human factors. We often flew multiple flights per day, demonstrating our ability to fly in a wide variety of weather and operational conditions. As a result, we have the most experienced and professional eVTOL flight test team in the world, and I’m proud to be a part of this program.”

Joby’s second pre-production prototype aircraft will be used for research-and-development on future aviation technologies.

Joby’s electric air taxi is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 mph, offering high-speed mobility with a fraction of the noise produced by helicopters and zero operating emissions.

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California-based EpiSci said this week that the company finished multiple collaborative autonomy tests last month under the U.S. Air Force’s Autonomy Prime program to train operators on the company’s Starling Tactical Artificial Intelligence (AI) system. Autonomy Prime is under the service’s AFWERX innovation arm.

“This [Starling] effort continues EpiSci’s participation in a variety of autonomy efforts across the Department of Defense, focused on delivering trusted autonomy for a secure future for U.S. and allied warfighters,” EpiSci said on May 1.

“The flight test events demonstrated EpiSci’s autonomous search algorithms during live flight on two unique uncrewed platform types,” the company said. “The test results demonstrated Starling’s portability to integrate on and enable uncrewed aircraft to operate in contested environments and perform search and automatic target recognition tasks.”

Privately-held Anduril and General Atomics got the nod from the Air Force last week in the service’s first round of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) picks to beat out publicly traded defense industry heavyweights, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

EpiSci has said that its Tactical AI software is hardware agnostic and has already been deployed “on a growing list of systems from swarms of uncrewed aerial and maritime systems to tactical fighter aircraft.”

Last month, EpiSci said that it had begun working with Northrop Grumman to integrate EpiSci’s TacticalAI software with Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics system architecture “to accelerate the delivery of advanced autonomous solutions.”

Dan “Animal” Javorsek, EpiSci’s chief technology officer and a former F-22/F-35 pilot and Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program manager at DARPA, said in the EpiSci statement on May 1 that company “teams have integrated and operated TacticalAI-enabled autonomy products on 10 uncrewed airborne and surface platform types in less than 6 months.”

“EpiSci is committed to accelerate the pace at which we can bring relevant operational capabilities to the warfighter across all domains,” he said.

RTX in December 2022 said its venture capital arm had made a minority investment in EpiSci.

Air Force leaders have said that CCA is one of their top priorities. Kendall has said that plans are to field “more than 100” CCAs in the next five years with a top unit cost of $25 million to $30 million.

By the end of the year, Kendall said that he will fly on the X-62A Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA) equipped with the Shield AI Hivemind AI piloting software. VISTA is a modified Block 30 F-16D in service since 1992.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, said this week that he is concerned by a steep reduction in the Air Force’s request for Autonomy Prime in fiscal 2025.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

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Next year, the Block 5 Extended Range version of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) MQ-9A Reaper drone is to receive a self-protection pod developed by GA-ASI in concert with U.S. Special Operations Command, BAE Systems and Leonardo DRS.

The Airborne Battlespace Awareness and Defense (ABAD) pod is for the MQ-9A Block 5 Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance Tactical (MALET) Extended Range drone in use by Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla.

ABAD is to detect Radio Frequency (RF) and Infrared (IR) missile threats and enable defensive measures to allow the Reaper to survive and function in contested environments, GA-ASI said on May 9.

“The first phase of contract work evaluated suitable RF Electronic Warfare (EW) and IR countermeasures systems,” GA-ASI said. “This led to the down selection of a next-generation software-defined radio-based EW system from BAE Systems and the AN/AAQ-45 Distributed Aperture Infrared Countermeasure System (DAIRCM) from Leonardo DRS.”

Joshua Niedzwiecki, vice president and general manager of electronic combat solutions at BAE Systems, said in the GA-ASI statement that “BAE Systems’ advancements in small form factor EW technologies will provide affordable multifunction capabilities for the MQ-9A, enabling it to operate in previously inaccessible airspace.”

In adherence to the 2022 National Defense Strategy’s shift to deterrence of China and Russia, AFSOC is moving to have an aircrew control multiple drones under the command’s Adaptive Airborne Enterprise (A2E) effort.

A2E “is vital to thickening the Joint Force kill web throughout the spectrum of conflict and continues to be AFSOC’s number one acquisition priority,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the head of AFSOC, said in January.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

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