No, not really. This Bell Helicopter patent might suggest to some that the company is returning its roots as a manufacturer of fixed-wing aircraft, but company officials say they simply file patents anytime one of their engineers comes up with a good idea.  This was one of those ideas.

Basically, even though these drawing might seem to be reminiscent of some sort of vertical take-off and landing flying-wing strike aircraft, Bell says it is no such thing--it's merely a patent for a new type of control system. But it would be pretty awesome if they actually built something like this.

Nonetheless, it does look a lot like some of the concepts being looked at for a recently launched Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) X-plane project. Basically, DARPA wants to build a machine that hovers better than a helicopter but could fly much faster--300 knots to as high 400 knots.

However, DARPA says it wants something radically different from anything that has come before, so whatever folks come up with will likely be quite different from this.

My colleague Zach wrote about this a few weeks ago. Also here is a link to the patent.

This piece is courtesy of my colleague Zach Rosenberg--our resident unmanned aircraft reporter.

North Korea has made its first public showing of a flying unmanned air vehicle (UAV), showing a series of pictures on state media that apparently depict a remotely-piloted vehicle during launch and flight.

The grainy pictures appear to show a North Korean copy of the MQM-107 Streaker target drone, evidently modified to contain explosives, making it a steerable cruise missile.

"Super precision drone planes lifted off to the sky," wrote state media outlet Korean Central News Agency. "After making long-range flight as planned, the planes headed toward 'enemy positions' and stormed the targets, destroying them with accuracy."

North Korean media is known for greatly exaggerating capabilities, if not lying outright.

The MQM-107, built by Beech Aircraft, was initially used as a target drone, simulating enemy aircraft during training and serving as live targets for testing new equipment.

Reports from South Korea in early 2012 suggested that North Korea had purchased several of the drones for reverse engineering, with the aim of building a weaponised version as a sort of maneuverable cruise missile.

North Korea has embarked on a capability upgrade in recent years, including developing both nuclear weaponry and missiles to carry them. Nations thought to be assisting North Korea in weapons development, particularly Iran, have developed an aerospace industry that has produced several new UAVs.

While those aircraft are not thought to be equal to Western variants, it is notable that UAV technology has not made its way to North Korea. Iran, amongst others, has been accused of providing technical expertise to North Korea with its missile and spaceflight programmes.

The US Marine Corps' VMFA-121, the first "operational" Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II squadron, conducted its first short take-off vertical landing sortie at MCAS Yuma, Arizona, on 21 March.

Maj Richard Rusnok, a test pilot previously assigned to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, flew the unit's first short take-off and short landing. He also performed the first F-35B hover and vertical landing outside of flight-testing in aircraft BF-19.  Rusnok was accompanied on his flight by VMFA-121 commanding officer Lt Col Jeffrey Scott, who was flying chase in a second F-35B.

 "The first STOVL flight for an F-35B outside of the test environment was another milestone achieved by the Marine Corps and the Green Knights today here at MCAS Yuma," Scott says.  "The F-35 program and specifically the F-35B have made significant progress to make this possible."

 The USMC says VMFA-121 will grow over the next year or so to include about 300 personnel. It is also scheduled to receive a total of 16 F-35Bs before the end of 2013, the Marines say.

The US Navy is very interested in exploring the possibility of adding conformal fuel tanks onto the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, sources says. Test flights are scheduled for later this year. The Navy doesn't deny it, but they're not able to talk about it yet because the data is proprietary to Boeing and Northrop Grumman. The tanks would enable the jet to carry about 3,500lbs more gas in addition its internal fuel (and drop tanks if required), extending the Super Hornet's range.

Read the full story here

Extended range would be an important factor for operations in the Pacific theatre, but some analysts suspect that there might be more to it. The Navy might be hedging its bets against further delays on the Lockheed Martin F-35 program or it might even be preparing for the eventuality that it will have to abandon the stealthy single-engine fighter entirely.

The Navy is already working on a series of other upgrades to the Hornet including adding an infrared search and track sensor and fusing the aircraft's sensor data.

Here is a Boeing presentation on the F/A-18E/F international variant.

89698867-Sea-Air-Space-f18-Presentation.pdf

While Boeing is working to reduce the Super Hornet's signature for future international variants, the F/A-18E/F already has a fair number of features built-in to reduce its radar cross section. This is an excerpt from the jet's Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) manual which describes some of those features.

This you have the time and inclination, this is the entire F/A-18E/F NATOPS manual save for the section on the aircraft's weapons systems and performance diagrams. 

34302299-A1-F18EA-NFM-000-NATOPS-Flight-Manual-F-A-18E-F-Super-Hornet.pdf

Yesterday, the first operational British F-35B pilot started flying the stealthy fifth-generation fighter at Eglin AFB, Florida. Here are some photos of the event courtesy of USAF Maj Karen Roganov at the 33^rd Fighter Wing. As you can see, Squadron Leader Frankie Buchler flew his first training sortie in a US Marine Corps aircraft rather than a British one. That's because while the UK pilots training at Eglin, they are essentially treated like they are part of VMFAT-501, the USMC training unit at the base.

Read the fully story here

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Big thanks to writer and photographer Gunnar Åkerberg for filing and illustrating an ace feature in the new issue of Flight International about the Swedish air force's involvement in exercise Red Flag 13-2 earlier this year.

Eight Gripen Cs from the 172nd Fighter Squadron made the long trek from Ronneby air base to Nellis AFB, Nevada, in what was the type's third appearance in a Flag event. But unlike before, this year's participation included air-to-air refuelling, night vision goggle and Link 16 use and live weapons drops.

As seen through the Swedish air force's provision of tactical reconnaissance services using the Gripen during NATO's 2011 Libya campaign, the only thing that's holding the service back from combat participation in coalition operations now is domestic politics. That remains quite a big hurdle, mind you.

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