News in brief

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• Raytheon Technologies has announced it will be moving its corporate HQ to Arlington VA, close to the Pentagon. Raytheon’s HQ has been in Waltham, Massachusetts since the company was founded a century ago.
• Airbus has announced it will open a new Zero Emission Development Centre (ZEDC) in the UK. Based at Filton, the ZEDC will focus on hydrogen research for aviation applications, including the development of a cost-competitive cryogenic fuel system for the company’s ZEROe zero-emission aircraft project, which aims to introduce a hydrogen-powered airliner into service by 2035.
• China’s AVIC has conducted the first flight of a revised prototype of its four-engined AG600 amphibian. The new seaplane features a higher maximum take-off weight (MTOW) and flew from Zhuhai Jinwan Airport on 31 May on a 20-minute test flight. The new variant is designed for the aerial firefighting mission, with a MTOW of 60t and water drop capacity of 12t. It is expected to enter service in 2024. 
• Helicopter pioneer Frank Piasecki’s son, John, has announced plans for a revolutionary hydrogen-powered craft aimed at the emerging eVTOL UAM market. Based upon the X-49A Speed Hawk, which was a specially modified compound variant of the Sikorsky UH-60 fitted with a vectored-thrust ducted propeller in place of a tail rotor, the PA-890 is described as an ‘all-electric, hydrogen-powered, slowed-rotor, and winged compound helicopter.’

• EASA is preparing for the introduction of a new generation of supersonic passenger aircraft at the end of the decade with the publication of a framework for environmental protection regulations covering SSTs. Legislation covered in the Advanced Notice of Proposed Amendment 2022-05 include rules on take-off and landing noise, as well as CO emissions. Proposed take-off and landing noise limits for SSTs would be similar to existing limits for subsonic jet airliners.
• Environmental groups have launched legal action against KLM, accusing the airline of ‘greenwashing’ and breaching European consumer law. The first-of-its-kind case has been raised in a Dutch court by campaigners from Fossielvrij NL and Reclame Fossielvrij, assisted by environmental lawyers from ClientEarth. KLM’s Fly Responsibly and ‘Be a hero, fly CO2ZERO’ advertising campaigns suggest that the airline is on track to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. However, environmental campaigners state that such claims are ‘highly misleading.’ 
• Start-up Connect Airlines, which was formed by Waltzing Matilda Aviation in 2021 to fly domestic flights from Canada to the US with five leased Bombardier Q400s, plans to buy 15 hydrogen-electric powered DHC-8300s. Following testing, Connect’s stated intention is to operate 100 used Q400s, which will be retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cell propulsion, and order 400 new hydrogen-electric-powered ATR72Es at a delivery rate of six per month. 

• The Australian Department of Defence has released a statement saying that a Chinese J-16 fighter carried out a ‘dangerous manoeuvre’ close to an RAAF P-8 maritime patrol aircraft over the South China Sea on 26 May. Local media reports claim the Chinese fighter first approached the side of the Poseidon and released flares. It then cut across the nose of the P-8 and released chaff, some of which was sucked into the engines.
• The next phase in the multinational programme on the Next-Generation Medium Multi-Role Helicopter was marked in Brussels on 16 June when the Ministers of France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK dedicated €26.7m to define the future of their helicopter fleets under NATO’s Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) project.
• The USAF formally re-established the 65th Aggressor Squadron (AGRS) on 9 June at Nellis AFB, Nevada to exclusively fly early production variants of the F-35A Lightning II. The first two aircraft to be assigned to the unit have been revealed in a new bespoke aggressor paint scheme that makes use of existing radar-absorbent coatings. 

• In a first, satellite company Inmarsat has broadcasted an overlay GPS signal for UK users as part of a test to replace Britain’s involvement in the European Galileo satnav system. The UKSBAS (UK Space-Based Augmentation System) signal, broadcast by an Inmarsat communications satellite in GEO, sharpens the precision of GPS positioning from metres down to centimetres.
• Following US Navy revelations and high-level Congressional inquiries about UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), more commonly known as UFOs, space agency NASA is to launch a nine-month study into these mysterious aerial sightings. NASA says, however, that ‘there is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin.” 
• China launched three astronauts (dubbed Taikonauts) aboard the Shenzhou-14 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on 5 June. Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe arrived safely at the nation’s Tianhe space station at the culmination of a six-month mission that will see the crew cooperate with the ground team to complete the assembly and construction of the facility, developing it from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules. 

• Medical and humanitarian drone operator Zipline has revealed a new non-radar, non-ADS-B ‘sense and avoid’ systems for its small delivery UAVs, using microphones. The UAV equipped with several microphones on the leading edges of its wings, uses signal processing to detect other aircraft or UAVs in 3D space and take avoiding action. It does not require the other aircraft to have ADS-B and can work at night, low-visibility and in cloud.
• Backed by $145m in new funding from South Korean investor Hanwha Group, Californian air taxi start-up Overair has announced plans to begin flight testing its five-seat eVTOL Butterfly prototype in the second half of 2023.
• Bulgarian-owned Dronamics, which was founded in 2014 to operate small, low-cost, medium-range cargo drones, received the first EU issued Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) on 25 May. Granted by the Transport Malta Civil Aviation Directorate, the LUC is recognised in all EU member states and relates to its Black Swan UAV. The fixed-wing machine can carry 350kg over a distance of 2,500km and Dronamics is now creating the world’s first ‘cargo drone network’, having signed agreements with private airports and airport groups operating in more than 35 airports in 11 European countries.