Tag: Aviation
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Airlines Push IFC Operators on Latency as LEO Constellations Scale
What Technical Standards Are Airlines Demanding from Satellite IFC Providers? Airlines are demanding sub-100 millisecond latency from in-flight connectivity (IFC) providers as LEO satellite constellations scale capacity, industry executives revealed at Aircraft Interiors Expo 2026. The technical specifications represent a 5x improvement over legacy GEO systems that typically deliver 500-600ms round-trip latency. Major carriers are…
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Starliner’s first commander: Don’t expect perfection on crew test flight
HOUSTON—While it doesn’t have the same relevance to public consciousness as safety problems with commercial airliners, a successful test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in May would be welcome news for the beleaguered aerospace company. This will be the first time the Starliner capsule flies into low-Earth orbit with humans aboard. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore…
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Stratolaunch ascends to new heights with successful test of world’s biggest airplane
Stratolaunch’s Roc airplane flies over California’s Mojave Desert. (Stratolaunch via Twitter) Stratolaunch says its mammoth carrier airplane rose to its highest altitude yet during its seventh flight test over California’s Mojave Desert. The aerospace venture, which was established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen more than a decade ago but is now owned by a private…
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Stratolaunch celebrates Star Wars Day with fifth flight of its giant airplane, featuring a new pylon
Stratolaunch’s Roc airplane comes in for a Mojave landing. (Stratolaunch / NASASpaceflight.com) Stratolaunch took the “fifth” on May the 4th, otherwise known as Star Wars Day. Today brought the fifth flight test for Stratolaunch’s 385-foot-wide carrier aircraft, known as Roc (in a nod to the giant bird of Middle Eastern mythology). Roc ranks as the…
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‘We are airborne!’ Stratolaunch sends the world’s biggest plane on second test flight
Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier plane flies above California’s Mojave Desert. (Stratolaunch via Twitter) Stratolaunch, the aerospace company founded by the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, put the world’s biggest airplane through its second flight test today, two years after the first flight. “We are airborne!” Stratolaunch reported in a tweet. Today’s takeoff from California’s Mojave Air…
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Year in Aerospace: Looking back at Boeing’s troubles, looking ahead to commercial triumphs
The first 737 MAX 8 plane undergoes final assembly at Boeing’s Renton plant in 2015. (Boeing Photo) 2019 was a tough year for the aerospace industry — a year when a control system flaw caused the second catastrophic crash of a 737 MAX jet and sparked a worldwide grounding of Boeing’s fastest-selling plane. Nine months…
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Hermeus wins seed funding for hypersonic aircraft, with former Blue Origin president as adviser
This artist’s conception shows Hermeus’ hypersonic aircraft. (Hermeus Illustration) Atlanta-based Hermeus Corp. says it’s won some high-profile seed funding for its effort to develop aircraft capable of flying more than five times the speed of sound The startup’s advisers includes Rob Meyerson, the former president of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture in…
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Billionaires leave space legacies: Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen join ‘Legends of Aviation’
Two Seattle billionaires, Jeff Bezos (left) and the late Paul Allen (right), will be honored for their contributions to aviation and space next week at a Beverly Hills awards ceremony. (GeekWire Photos) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has racked up another round of recognition for his role on the space frontier: Next week he’ll be inducted…
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Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg lays out his vision for space airplanes and aerospace traffic system
GeekWire’s Alan Boyle listens to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg during a fireside chat at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. (Photo by Dan DeLong for GeekWire) A decade from now, Boeing will still be primarily known as an airplane company, the company’s CEO says. But some of the things we’ll call airplanes might be what we’d…
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From farm to final frontier: How Boeing’s CEO plants the seeds for tomorrow’s tech
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg grew up on a farm in Iowa. (Boeing Photo) Dennis Muilenburg is leading Boeing into a second century of innovation with dreams of hypersonic flight, self-flying planes and journeys to Mars. But to lead the way, the 102-year-old company’s CEO, chairman and president turns to the values he learned from his…