Satellites do a lot of things — they help people navigate from one place to another, they deliver television programming, they search for new stars and exo-planets and they enable the U.S. nuclear deterrence strategy. But until recently, one thing they haven’t done — or needed to do — is defend themselves. That may soon change.

Is the U.S. ready for a chemical attack on the homeland? With the very real possibility of a chemical attack in public spaces like stadiums, religious buildings, museums and theaters, or even contamination of the food or water supply, the U.S. needs to be prepared to take appropriate action to save lives. This means having security measures in place to prevent or minimize the attack. It also means having effective medical responses that consider the quantity of medical supplies needed, transportation of those supplies to the scene, and medical facilities and personnel to care for the injured.

Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has been selected by the U.S. Army to provide a next-generation Mounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing System (MAPS) for manned ground vehicles. Known as ‘MAPS Gen II’ by the Army, the system will maintain the integrity of positioning and timing during operations in GPS-contested environments. Collins Aerospace will deliver new systems to be evaluated for a year with the potential for fielding up to 8,000 additional vehicles upon completion.

NASA’s Pilot Breathing Assessment (PBA) program documents how pilots breathe in fighter aircraft while flying a variety of scripted profiles to better understand how flight conditions may cause pilots to experience a physiological episode during flight.

The leading edges of aircraft wings have to meet a very demanding set of characteristics. New research shows that a combination of steel composite metal foam (CMF) and epoxy resin has more desirable characteristics for use as a leading-edge material than the aluminum currently in widespread use.

In the high desert of California, where some of the most important aircraft in aviation history have been built and flown, the next airplane destined to make history continues to take shape on a legendary factory floor. That airplane is NASA’s X-59 QueSST (short for Quiet SuperSonic Technology), an experimental piloted aircraft designed to fly faster than sound without producing sonic booms.

Airbus has inaugurated a highly automated fuselage structure assembly line for A320 Family aircraft in Hamburg, Germany, showcasing an evolution in Airbus’ industrial production system. With a special focus on manufacturing longer sections for the A321LR, the new facility features 20 robots, a new logistics concept, automated positioning by laser measurement, as well as a digital data acquisition system. These will further support Airbus’ drive to improve both quality and efficiency while bringing an enhanced level of digitalization to its industrial production system.

Alloys (metals combining two or more metallic elements) are typically stronger and less susceptible to cracking than pure metals. Yet when alloys are subjected to stress and a harsh chemical environment, the alloy can fail.

Southwest Research Institute engineers are conducting tests that elucidate the conditions a future aircraft may experience traveling faster than 10 times the speed of sound. Because that environment is so unique, recreating realistic flight conditions to test vehicles for hypersonic flight is a challenge.

Porsche and Boeing have partnered to leverage their unique market strengths to study the future of premium personal urban air mobility vehicles.