Aerospace & Defense Technology

Last week, Electra announced a new $115 million Series B investment that will provide funding for the pre-production and certification phase of its EL9 Ultra Short hybrid electric aircraft.

Electra, a Virginia-based company, was first launched in2020, and previously completed the first flight of a demonstrator prototype hybrid electric aircraft, the Goldfinch EL-2 in 2023. Since then, the company has been developing the EL9 as an “Ultra Short” aircraft powered by blown lifttechnology that only requires 150 feet for takeoff and landing.

Electra has secured more than 2,200 pre-orders valued at$10 billion for the EL9, and is currently collaborating with the U.S. Air Force on the development of the EL9 for military operations. Marc Allen, CEO of Electra, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology Podcast, to explain how EL9's blown lift hybrid electric propulsion system works, their latest progress with the program and when it could be ready for commercial and military operations.

Over the last year, research and evaluation projects led bydefense agencies in the U.S., U.K. and around the world have demonstrated the potential advantages of operating hybrid and all-electric vehicles for a variety of military applications.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense, for example, recently gave anupdate on its evaluation of hydrogen power units (HPU) for electric vehicle charging. The U.S. Army recently released an update on its own testing of a hybrid tactical vehicle prototype in Germany.

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Mark Findlay, CEO of U.S. and U.K.-based engineering consultancy Drive System Design (DSD) explains why establishing definitive use cases and requirements are essential to unlocking the future potential of hybrid and all-electric military vehicles.

Finland-based startup Donut Defence is developing a donut-shaped in-wheel electric motor for air, land and sea military vehicles. In December 2024, Donut Defence was selected to participate in the DEFINE Accelerator program that connects technology companies that are developing and scaling defense, security and dual-use technologies.

Michael Waksman, CEO of Donut Defence, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology Podcast to explain how the Donut Motor could provide the type of architecture and performance necessary to power next generation military electric vehicles. The podcast is now in its eighth season, running during the month of April with a focus on the future of military electric vehicles.

This episode is sponsored by New England Wire Technologies.

Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) Ethernet is a real-time networking capability that is being developed by a growing number of embedded computing companies for theearliest stages of adoption by aerospace and defense manufacturers and their suppliers.

According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) TSN working group, it is a set of standards that provides deterministic connectivity within IEEE 802-aligned networks.

Nigel Forrester is the Director of Product Strategy for Concurrent Technologies, a UK-based provider of high performance embedded computing solutions for aerospace, defense and many other industries.

A House committee hearing held earlier this month outlined the current federal regulations that limit the use of counter unmanned aircraft system technologies by state and local authorities to detect and mitigate the use of illegally operated drones in civilian airspace.

"Make no mistake, the recent events in New Jersey have highlighted the ease with which bad actors could utilize drones with nefarious and malicious intent or conduct illicit drone operations," Troy Nehls, House Subcommittee on Aviation Chairman said in his opening remarks during the hearing. "We must continue to support and foster new aviation technologies – the future of American aviation depends on it. That responsibility includes ensuring the appropriate and safe use of counter-UAS technologies in the nation’s airspace by authorized users to make certain that civil aviation safety is not jeopardized."

Lisa Ellman, Executive Director, Commercial Drone Alliance (CDA), was one of three expert witnesses that participated in the hearing. She is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast to discuss how current counter UAS regulations can be improved to address illegally operated drones in civilian airspace.

AeroDefense has been developing drone detection technology to address drones flying in civilian airspace for several years has just released a new system, Air Warden Essentials, that could help increase awareness of random drone sightings incivilian airspace.

The system uses a small receiver and cloud computing services to monitor drone traffic using networked Remote ID broadcasts. The company produced the new system based on their "Collaborative Drone Detection Network (CoDDN)" that was developed through a Department ofDefense contract.  

Taylor Sinatra, Chief Operating Officer of AeroDefense, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast. He discusses the use of the AirWarden Essentials system for a variety of civilian and military applications.

Czech Republic-based startup Dronetag has launched a new pocket-sized drone-agnostic Remote ID receiver, RIDER, amid the rise in unidentified drone sightings in U.S. airspace.

While counter UAS systems focus on neutralizing unididentified drones, Dronetag's new technology is a wireless portable system that provides real-time situational awareness. The device is capable of tracking Remote ID signals from commercially operated drones, and transmit that information to a mobile application.

Lukáš Brchl, CEO and Founder of Dronetag, said a major goal for the company's with its drone detection technology is to lower the cost of providing awareness of commercially operated drones in public airspace. "RIDER provides a 'Level 0' solution for situational awareness, offering three connectivity options for real-time data sharing: integrated LTE, Bluetooth, or USB-C." Brchl says, "While mobile phones were initially expected to handle such tasks, their technical limitations left a gap that RIDER now fills seamlessly."

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Brchl explains how the RIDER system works and how it can be used by public safety agencies and drone operators for real-time awareness of commercially operated drones in public airspace.

UxV/35 is a new standard recently adopted by the PC104 Computing Consortium to enable rapid development and manufacturing of drones, automatic vehicles, and vessels.

The standard provides an embedded computing "stackable bus" architecture where modules are assembled by "mating system boards into stacks like LEGOs™ instead of using wires, solder, and tiny screws." Examples of embedded drone computing applications that can be developed using the UxV/35 standard include flight controllers, radios, and GPS systems.

On the first episode of Season 7 of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Dom Koenig, Marketing Manager, Kairos Autonomi, explains how UxV/35 could be used to lower the cost of designing and manufacturing drones in the future.

Register for SAE Media Group's UAV Technology USA and Counter UAS Homeland events here.

Pratt & Whitney is using a new robot named Alfred to assemble high-pressure compressor rotors for its GTF PW1100G-JM engine that powers the Airbus A320neo family of aircraft.

In September, the aircraft engine manufacturing company published a blog post describing how Alfred is helping to reduce the assembly process time for GTF engines.

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Kevin Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Aftermarket Global Operations, Pratt & Whitney, explains how they're using Alfred today. Kirkpatrick also discusses how the company will expand its use of robotics in the future.

The Department of Defense (DoD) recently announced a new $20 million award to Kraus Hamdani Aerospace for its Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program. Under the contract, Kraus Hamdani, the California-based drone as a service manufacturer, will use the funding to support the scaling of production of its K1000ULE unmanned aircraft system (UAS).

The K1000ULE is a solar-powered glider drone that has demonstrated the ability to fly non-stop for 26 hours, and has been evaluated by DoD for a wide variety of defense applications over the last two years.

On episode 4 of season 6 of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Fatima Hamdani, co-founder of Kraus Hamdani Aerospace explains what the APFIT program is and how it will help the company scale production of its autonomous drone that also can be used as a flying cell tower.