Latest news with #H-60
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CEO shares secret to creating this unique aircraft the Navy is investing over $7 million in to fly parts to broken warships
The US Navy is looking into using drones to deliver critical repair cargo to broken warships. The BlueWater Maritime Logistics UAS project seeks innovative VTOL designs. The unique PteroDynamics Transwing design recently received a $4.65 million contract expansion. The US Navy wants to know if roughly motorcycle-sized drones can do what its larger piloted workhorse helicopter and tiltrotor aircraft are currently doing — flying critical repair cargo out to broken warships. Critical repair parts for incapacitated warships, such as circuit boards, o-rings, or pumps, around half the time weigh less than a pound. The current delivery approach wastes fuel and other resources and puts a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on Military Sealift Command's H-60 and V-22 aircraft. No one really needs a heavy, crewed aircraft for this. There just isn't a proven alternative, at least not yet. Solving that problem — the primary focus of the Navy's BlueWater Maritime Logistics UAS project — is a major opportunity for defense tech firms like Colorado-based PteroDynamics Inc. "Something is valuable. It needs to get somewhere that is hard to get to. It has to get there quickly. It's time-sensitive. And people are paying a lot of money today to do that mission," PteroDynamics CEO Matthew Graczyk, told Business Insider. The company recently picked up a $4.65 million contract expansion from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for the development of its novel Transwing aircraft design, bringing the total contract value to over $7 million. The new funding will support development of a new Transwing model, the XP-5. Multiple companies have contributed BlueWater UAS ideas, many of which are variations of classic designs. The Transwing, as an articulating- or "cracking-wing" design, is unique. It's a "very interesting design," the BlueWater project lead, Bill Macchione, told BI, explaining that the aim as the Navy evaluates uncrewed vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) designs is to find innovations with reduced complexity both in the engineering and employment. "That is what was very interesting about the PteroDynamics design being an articulating wing," he said. It's a "simple linear actuator that basically just articulates the wings on a pivot, and those pushers, those traditional propellers in fixed wing, become the lift propellers in VTOL mode." The first VTOL aircraft designs were early helicopters. Then came designs like lift jets, tail-sitter aircraft, and tilt rotors. PteroDynamics has now patented a new design that leverages the propellers in all flight modes and can fold the wings around the fuselage. Its wings stretch out in the cruise phase of flight and fold back during vertical flight to a configuration resembling a quadcopter during take-off and landing. Graczyk calls the Transwing design "VTOL 3.0." The unique design came from Val Petrov, a mathematician, chemist, and expert in nonlinear dynamics who spent years in asset and capital management. He wasn't an aviation engineer, but he was, as Graczyk told BI, a "tinkerer." "When you ask someone who is educated in a field, who has worked in a field, how to solve a problem, they go into how they've been taught to solve the problem," Graczyk said, and you ultimately end up with a variation of an existing design. "When you ask a guy who has not been taught how to solve the problem, that's where innovation lives," he said, telling BI that is the key to making something new. "That's where disruption happens. That is how Petrov was able to conceive of this Transwing that didn't come from Airbus or Lockheed or Raytheon or Boeing." Petrov is PteroDynamics' founder and chairman of its board. Whether the PteroDynamics design is what the Navy ultimately needs remains to be seen, but the service is interested. Some of the other uncrewed aircraft designs being looked at and tested by the Navy as part of the BlueWater program include Skyways V2.6, ShieldAI's V-BAT, and Sierra Nevada Corporation's Voly-50, among others featuring their own innovations. The Navy's BlueWater UAS technology development program started years ago, evolving from a 2018 study that found about 48% of all critical repair cargo being flown out to ships by Military Sealift Command aircraft is under 16 ounces, smaller than a regular water bottle. The study found that 76% of all parts are under 10 pounds, and 90% are under 50 pounds. The Navy is interested in determining whether VTOL drones weighing under 330 pounds can run these delivery missions instead of crewed aircraft. The drones have to be able to fly 400 nautical miles round trip, perhaps eventually 1,000 miles, on a mixture of electricity and JP-5 fuel with a 50-pound payload stored internally and land on the deck of a moving ship at sea without any support infrastructure and minimal sailor involvement. Using small drones points to big cost savings. Each Sikorsky SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk costs over $30 million and requires two fully trained and proficient human pilots. That is not even factoring in the operational and sustainment costs. In the drones, there also has to be a certain degree of autonomy. This is "not the kind of thing where somebody is sitting with a controller in their hand and controlling the aircraft," Graczyk said of the Transwing. "You lay out your mission on a computer, so just one laptop, an operator, and an aircraft, that's all you need, and you communicate the mission to the aircraft. You push go, and it takes off, does the mission, and lands. You don't have to be involved anymore." "To a certain extent, it can make decisions on its own," he said. Getting a drone to fly that mission is nothing like Amazon drone deliveries. Amazon doesn't have to worry about adversaries trying to shoot them down or jam their communications. And there is also no need to land it on a moving target in an unforgiving delivery environment. "Landing on ships and working around ships is not easy," John Bruening, the director of MSC's Taluga Group, told BI. Meeting the tough operational expectations of the Navy's BlueWater technology development program is a complex technological challenge that the Navy has been working with a range of companies to overcome. The project is not yet a program of record and is experimental for now. Still, this is clearly where military technology is heading. "The world is changing," Graczyk said. "We're seeing geopolitics changing, we're seeing the way warfare is conducted changing, and the way diplomacy is conducted, all of that's changing. There is a particular shift in bias toward higher volume, lower cost autonomous systems that are attritable, that are expendable." There are tremendous possibilities and "an evolutionary introduction into the market" is the key, he said. "We're trying to use this revolutionary technology to solve problems that exist today." Read the original article on Business Insider
Cedar News
30-01-2025
- General
- Cedar News
Washington: Images from a Helicopter overhead, show several Pieces of the Fuselage
Join our Telegram Images from a Helicopter overhead, show several Pieces of the Fuselage from either the Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-700 or the U.S. Army H-60 'Black Hawk' Helicopter, floating in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, surrounded by Search-and-Rescue Boats.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
"We don't believe there are any survivors": Military helicopter slams into passenger jet outside DC
The search for survivors of a Wednesday night plane crash outside Washington, DC, has turned into a recovery operation, with authorities saying that all 64 people believed on board the American Airlines flight from Kansas were killed just before landing. Around 9 p.m. local time, video shows that a U.S. Army helicopter collided in midair with the full-capacity passenger jet as it descended in Arlington, Virginia. The plane subsequently crashed into the Potomac River, breaking into three parts. First responders, dealing with icy conditions and low visibility, have since recovered more than two dozen bodies, including one of the three military personnel believed to have been on board the Black Hawk helicopter. It is the first fatal plane crash in the United States since 2009, when 50 people were killed in an incident near Buffalo, New York. The plane, a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet, had departed from Wichita, Kansas, earlier Wednesday. It was transporting 60 passengers and four employees, American Airlines said in a statement. By Thursday morning, first responders had lost hope that they would pull anyone alive from the murky, frigid water. 'We are now at a point where we're switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation," DC Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly told reporters at a press briefing Thursday. "At this point, we don't believe there are any survivors from this accident." In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, operating as Flight 5342 for American Airlines, "collided in midair with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport." The National Transportation Safety Board will be leading the investigation, the agency said. An FAA spokesperson did not address Salon's question as to whether the agency currently has an acting director. Previous FAA Director Mike Whitaker resigned when President Donald Trump took office; his resignation came after Elon Musk last year called for him to step aside after he proposed fines of more than $630,000 on the latter's aviation company, SpaceX. NTSB did not respond to a request for comment. Trump, upon being sworn into office, signed an executive order requiring the FAA to end diversity initiatives and another imposing a freeze on federal spending, which Democrats criticized as potentially worsening a national shortage of air traffic controllers. The president also effectively dissolved the Aviation Security Advisory Committee at the Department of Homeland Security, saying in a statement that he was committed "to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security." The committee was created by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 Lockerbie bombing, per the Associated Press. Trump addressed the crash in a post on Truth Social just after midnight Thursday, saying it appeared as if the tragedy could have been prevented. "The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time," he posted, asking "why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or turn" and "[w]hy didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was confirmed two days ago, echoed that sentiment Thursday morning, saying that the military helicopter "was aware that there was a plane in the area." "We're going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point but to back up what the president said and what I've seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely," Duffy said at a press conference. The helicopter was carrying three U.S. Army personnel. It is not known why it was in the plane's flight path, but the area, a short distance from the Pentagon, is heavily trafficked. The crash is also being investigated by the Department of Defense, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed on a party-line vote last week. In a video statement Thursday, Hegseth said the helicopter involved in the incident was taking part in an "annual proficiency training flight." Among those on board the flight were members of the U.S. Figure Skating team. "These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas," according to a statement. "We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families closely in our hearts."
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Airplane from Kansas collided with helicopter near Washington, DC airport, officials say
An airplane collided with a military helicopter while trying to land at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, forcing all takeoffs and landings to be halted, officials said, prompting a large emergency response near the Potomac River. The crash occurred at about 9 p.m. when a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet "collided in midair" with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter, the FAA said in a statement. The plane, operated by American Airlines, had departed from Wichita, Kansas. Wichita's Eisenhower Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to KAKE News that there were 60 passengers and four crew on board the flight and three Army soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter. In a post on X shortly after 9 p.m., the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department said an aircraft was "down in Potomac River" and fireboats were currently at the scene. The department later said there was "no confirmed information on casualties at this time." Local police and other agencies were also responding to the scene, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. "All takeoffs and landings have been halted at DCA," the Reagan National Airport said in a statement. "Emergency personnel are responding to an aircraft incident on the airfield. The terminal remains open." Be the first to know: Sign up for The Oklahoman's breaking news alerts President Donald Trump has been made aware of the situation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday night. "Tragically, it appears that a military helicopter collided with a regional jet at DCA airport right here in Washington, D.C," Leavitt said. "The thoughts and the prayers of the entire Trump administration are with all those that are involved." American Airlines said it was aware of reports that American Eagle flight 5342 was involved in an incident. "We will provide information as it becomes available," the airline said in a statement. Fire and police officials in Washington, D.C., said multiple calls came in at 8:53 p.m. reporting an aircraft crash "above the Potomac River." Washington, D.C., Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services have joined multiple agencies in search and rescue operations. "There is no confirmed information on casualties at this time," they said in a joint statement.' Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is 'actively monitoring' the situation. 'Poised to assist if needed. Prayers for all involved,' he said in a post on X. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was confirmed by the Senate to his post earlier Wednesday, said, "I am on-site at the FAA HQ and closely monitoring the situation." U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said he is in contact with authorities. "Please join me in praying for all involved," Moran said in a statement. This is a developing story. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Plane crash: Flight from Kansas, helicopter collide near DC airport
USA Today
30-01-2025
- General
- USA Today
American Airlines jet from Wichita collided with helicopter near DC airport, officials say
American Airlines jet from Wichita collided with helicopter near DC airport, officials say An airplane collided with a military helicopter while trying to land at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, forcing all takeoffs and landings to be halted, officials said, prompting a large emergency response near the Potomac River. The crash occurred at about 9 p.m. when a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet "collided in midair" with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter, the FAA said in a statement. The plane, operated by American Airlines, had departed from Wichita, Kansas. Wichita's Eisenhower Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to KAKE News that there were 60 passengers and four crew on board the flight and three Army soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter. In a post on X shortly after 9 p.m., the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department said an aircraft was "down in Potomac River" and fireboats were currently at the scene. The department later said there was "no confirmed information on casualties at this time." Local police and other agencies were also responding to the scene, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. "All takeoffs and landings have been halted at DCA," the Reagan National Airport said in a statement. "Emergency personnel are responding to an aircraft incident on the airfield. The terminal remains open." Be the first to know: Sign up for The Oklahoman's breaking news alerts President Donald Trump has been made aware of the situation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday night. "Tragically, it appears that a military helicopter collided with a regional jet at DCA airport right here in Washington, D.C," Leavitt said. "The thoughts and the prayers of the entire Trump administration are with all those that are involved." American Airlines said it was aware of reports that American Eagle flight 5342 was involved in an incident. "We will provide information as it becomes available," the airline said in a statement. Search and rescue operation Fire and police officials in Washington, D.C., said multiple calls came in at 8:53 p.m. reporting an aircraft crash "above the Potomac River." Washington, D.C., Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services have joined multiple agencies in search and rescue operations. "There is no confirmed information on casualties at this time," they said in a joint statement.' Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is 'actively monitoring' the situation. 'Poised to assist if needed. Prayers for all involved,' he said in a post on X. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was confirmed by the Senate to his post earlier Wednesday, said, "I am on-site at the FAA HQ and closely monitoring the situation." U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said he is in contact with authorities. "Please join me in praying for all involved," Moran said in a statement. This is a developing story.
