Top Army acquisition officials had some explaining to do Friday when a House Armed Services Committee member accused the service of buying helicopters that don’t fly and withholding details about major field radio program. “It appears the Army has been paying for [AH-64] Apaches … without transmissions,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the ranking member of […]
Rotary Wing
Undeterred by past failures, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is launching another attempt to develop a high-speed vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft with the hover capability of a helicopter. The VTOL X-Plane program is a 52-month, $130 million effort to fly an experimental aircraft capable of exceeding 300 kt., but with a hover efficiency […]
Army Aviation faces cutbacks in training, maintenance and funding that threaten the lives of aircrews and the troops they carry to the front lines and medevac out, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno. “They will go in there with a hell of a lot less capability,” Odierno said of the soldiers flying […]
British soldiers are flying in Afghanistan a miniature helicopter that is the size of your hand and weighs just 14 grams. The Black Hornet Nano Unmanned Air Vehicle is equipped with a camera that provides full motion video and sill photos. British soldiers have used it mostly to see around corners and into rooms.
