The design of avionics systems must balance several factors. First, engineers want to increase the performance of the systems installed in aircraft or spacecraft. Second, they want to reduce the size and weight of the equipment that must be carried. Third, they want to maximize the safety of the in-flight systems and maintain communication between the aircraft or spacecraft and other flight vessels and the command center, regardless of the circumstances.

Electromagnetic Compatibility is becoming more and more significant, especially in light of continually evolving EMC legislation and as such has become an important aspect in the design of electronic equipment and systems.

Researchers are testing methods of making helicopters fly faster and more efficiently by controlling the flow and separation of air over the blades including a blade shaped in such a way that it mitigates reverse flow.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has investigated the effects of space weather damage to polyimides – materials used extensively in spacecraft construction due to their high heat resistance. The researchers determined the previously unknown chemical and physical effects of electron bombardment in Earth's magnetosphere on these polymers.

Be grateful you’re not on a dragonfly’s diet. You might be a fruit fly or maybe a mosquito, but it really wouldn’t matter the moment you look back and see four powerful wings pounding through the air after you. You fly for your life, weaving evasively, but the dragonfly somehow tracks you with seemingly instant reflexes. For a moment, you think you’ve gotten away, just as it closes in swiftly from below for the kill. Then, as the dinosaur-era predator claws into you with its spiny legs and drags you into its jaws midair, you might wonder to yourself, “How did it catch me with such a tiny brain and no depth perception?”

The U.S. Army issued a contract award to accelerate the rapid prototyping and fielding of its first combat-capable laser weapon system. This prototype will deliver 50 kilowatt-class lasers on a platoon of four Stryker vehicles in Fiscal Year 2022, supporting the Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) mission. The directed energy M-SHORAD capability is intended to protect maneuvering Brigade Combat Teams from unmanned aerial systems (UAS), rotary-wing aircraft, and rockets, artillery and mortar (RAM).

Who doesn’t like to feel warm in the winter and cool in the summer?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has adopted NASA’s Search and Rescue (SAR) office’s recommendations regarding the installation and maintenance of Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs), the NASA-designed, satellite-aided search and rescue beacons installed in planes.

In January 2016, researchers from AFRL started focusing on the ability to 3D-print parts for the Air Force – specifically, polymer architectures that can replace heavier and complex metal parts currently used in low-cost aircraft or on jet engines.

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In early 2019, the DGA (French Procurement Agency) and the French Army (STAT) organized a campaign to test the MMP land combat missile in extreme cold conditions. Performed on the Swedish state firing range at Vidsel, located near the Arctic Circle with temperatures between -15°C and -30°C, the cold weather campaign of the MMP was determined to be a complete success.