AVIATION
AVIATION NEWS
Aviation Week Webinar: Where Next in the Aviation Sustainability Quest: See it here: https://aviationweek.com/webinars/webinar-where-next-aviation-sustainability-quest.
Aviation Week’s annual “Flubs and Forecasts” edition for 2025-2026 can be found here: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-flubs-forecasts-2025-26-edition.
Near-collision at IAH: Two aircraft had to take evasive action on December 18 when one of them turned the wrong way after take-off. The planes got to within 750 feet laterally and 150 feet vertically at their closest approach. For more, see: https://avweb.com/aviation-news/close-call-at-bush-airport.
AVIATION FYI
Hybrid Propulsion: NASA has recently been working with a U.S. electric power company, Magnix, to modify a De Havilland Dash 7 to use hybrid-electric engines. The new power plants have the promise of being much more efficient and less costly to operate than present jets, at least for smaller aircraft. “Magnix says it aims to continue working with NASA on the technology regardless of whether the full-scale hybrid propulsion flight demonstrator it is developing with the agency is axed under budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. Funding for two Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstrator (EPFD) projects at Magnix and GE Aerospace is currently due to stop at year’s end under NASA’s proposed budget, which cuts spending on aeronautics research to $588.7 million in fiscal 2026 from $935 million in 2025, a reduction of 34%.” For more info and the quote, see: https://aviationweek.com/space/launch-vehicles-propulsion/magnix-aims-continue-nasa-electric-power-push.
NATO’s Role in Newly-contested Space Domain: “NATO is preparing to assume a more active role in space, acknowledging that it must adapt its defensive structure to support operations in the domain above Earth’s atmosphere.” For more info, see: https://aviationweek.com/defense/budget-policy-operations/nato-contemplates-its-role-newly-contested-space-domain.
Pratt & Whitney Unveils Hydrogen/Steam Hybrid Engine Design: “Pratt & Whitney thinks it may have taken the first steps along that path with the Hydrogen Steam-Injected, Intercooled Turbine Engine (HySIITE) concept—a novel hybrid engine configuration that combines the advantages of the fuel’s cryogenic properties with the thermodynamic benefits of steam injection. Pratt & Whitney has unveiled details of the concept, which has been studied under a two-year $3.8 million U.S. Energy Department Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) effort. While Pratt acknowledges the cycle is complex and requires more study, it is encouraged by the results, which show potential for as much as 35% lower energy use compared with current state-of-the-art engines.” For more information on this exciting development, see: https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/emerging-technologies/pratt-whitney-unveils-details-hydrogen-steam-hybrid-engine-cycle! But the picture isn’t all that rosy…
AVIATION LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION
The XB-70 Valkyrie Revisited: The Valkyrie supersonic aircraft was amazing piece of engineering. Its story, and tragic ending has been touched upon in two past Items of the Week, covering its development and first flight test (here) and the crash of one of the two ever built (here). Alas, it proved to be a technological dead-end. I’ve recently come across some additional information that may be of interest to you. It’s from the archives of the Air Force Material Command, a research facility at Wright-Patterson AFB, a piece called, “A Look Back… NAA B-70 Valkyrie Variants: A Future That Never Was,” edited by Tony R. Landis, a writer/archivist at the HQ AFMC History Office. See it here: https://media.defense.gov/2020/Nov/23/2002540204/-1/-1/1/B-70%20VARIANTS.PDF. Planners were thinking about using the Valkyrie as a reusable high-speed high-altitude launch vehicle for all sorts of lifting bodies, rockets, even manned orbital craft like the Dyna-Soar and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (the subject of a future Item of the Week)!
Related Article: Podcast: Hypersonic Hopes – The Legacy of the X-30 “Orient Express” President Reagan’s 1986 State of the Union Address contained his vision for a Mach 25 (not a typo) airliner, the X-30 National Aero-Space Plane (NASP). Just as the Valkyrie was hoped/hyped as supersonic launch platform for direct LEO spacecraft, so, too, was the X-30. “DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, really talked them into this idea of this Copper Canyon project. This was a way of sort of delivering this hypersonic single stage to orbit type capability to the Air Force. They wouldn't have to worry about rockets and the shuttle. They could do it their own way. And so this Copper Canyon project really was the sort of the genesis of what became, dressed up as a civil project in some ways, the Orient Express.”
Let’s just say that the Oriental Express concept was a tad optimistic, but this was a very interesting discussion, especially since it comes on the 20th anniversary last month of the Mach 9.6 flight of NASA’s X-43. For the full Check 6 podcast, see: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/check-6-revisits-hypersonic-hopes-legacy-x-30-orient-express.
What’s It Like to Fly to Telluride? Telluride, Colorado, located in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, is a spectacular setting, home to celebrities famous, skiers, and festival goers. There are more private jets flying into its small airport, at over 9000’, than just about anywhere. AVWeb just posted a video of what landing there is like, in a propeller-driven plane. Imagine what it would look like flying a jet! Check it out at: https://www.avweb.com/multimedia/featured-video-flying-into-telluride-a-stunning-high-stakes-approach.
And if you think that’s wild, try jeeping into Telluride over the (in)famous Black Bear Pass (if you are not too late; it recently was closed due to damage by a rockfall). For example, see: https://www.cntraveler.com/video/watch/the-road-less-traveled-traversing-black-bear-pass.
Oh, and watch out for falling cars!
Other Information Sources:
Aviation Week: https://aviationweek.com
Commercial Aviation Info, Photos, and News: https://www.airliners.net/aviation-news
AVweb: https://www.avweb.com
General Aviation News: https://generalaviationnews.com
NASA Aeronautic Research: https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch/resources
NASA Next Gen STEM: Aeronaut-X: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/nextgenstem/aeronaut-x/index.html
NASA Aeronautics at Home: https://www.nasa.gov/aero-at-home
Aeronautics E-books: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aeronautics_ebooks_archive_1.html