Search results for: Richard Whittle

Bell: Beyond The Tiltrotor

Bell: Beyond The Tiltrotor
Bell: Beyond The Tiltrotor

Other companies build planes. Other companies build helicopters. Bell’s “secret sauce,” its CEO says, is its aircraft can be both.

Predator Started Drone Revolution, And Made Military Innovation Cool

Predator Started Drone Revolution, And Made Military Innovation Cool
Predator Started Drone Revolution, And Made Military Innovation Cool

  The iconic weapon of the post-911 era, the Predator, is being retired today. I asked Rick Whittle, who quite simply wrote the book on the subject, to tell our readers why Predator matters both as a weapon and as a concept. See what the man who fired the Predator’s first Hellfire missile — and…

GM Touts Hydrogen Cell Vehicles At AUSA

GM Touts Hydrogen Cell Vehicles At AUSA
GM Touts Hydrogen Cell Vehicles At AUSA

AUSA: Last year we introduced Breaking D readers to a camouflage-painted, hydrogen-powered pickup truck GM was going to test for the Army. This year, the Chevrolet Colorado ZH2 is back at AUSA, still dirty from months of tests at various Army bases around the United States. Its fuel cell turns hydrogen into electricity, powering an…

Bell Update On ‘Amazing’ V-280

Bell Update On ‘Amazing’ V-280
Bell Update On ‘Amazing’ V-280

AUSA: Bell Helicopter is moving right along with its new V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor being built under the Army-led, multiservice Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. The V-280 – which flies at 280 knots cruising speed — resembles the bigger V-22 Osprey built by Bell and Boeing for the Marine Corps, Air Force Special Operations Command…

‘Flying’ Sikorsky-Boeing’s SB>1 Defiant At AUSA

‘Flying’ Sikorsky-Boeing’s SB>1 Defiant At AUSA
‘Flying’ Sikorsky-Boeing’s SB>1 Defiant At AUSA

AUSA: Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky and teammate Boeing are taking a deliberate approach to building their prototype for the Army-led Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, the SB>1 Defiant, officials told our contributor Richard Whittle when he visited their booth. Based on Sikorsky’s award-winning X2 technology demonstrator, the Defiant is a compound helicopter with coaxial rotors…

Why America Really Needs ITEP Engines

Why America Really Needs ITEP Engines
Why America Really Needs ITEP Engines

With the Association of the US Army’s annual conference starting Monday, there is no better time for an analysis of the top modernization program for Army aviation. And we’ve got one of the top experts on helicopters providing the commentary, Mike Hirschberg of the American Helicopter Society International. Should the Army plow ahead with an engine upgrade…

Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280

Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280
Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280

The future of tilt rotor aviation is taking shape, quite literally, at the Bell Helicopter factory in Fort Worth, where the company attached the wing of its prototype V-280 Valor to the fuselage. Now we can see in real life, not just computer drawings, what one vision for the military’s Future Vertical Lift aircraft will look…

SP-MAGTF Commander Details ISIL Strikes; Notes 1st Marines ‘Could Clear’ Iraq

SP-MAGTF Commander Details ISIL Strikes; Notes 1st Marines ‘Could Clear’ Iraq
SP-MAGTF Commander Details ISIL Strikes; Notes 1st Marines ‘Could Clear’ Iraq

BALLSTON, Va: Since early November, three Marine Corps MV-22B Ospreys and 26 marines have been on alert at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, on 30-minute alert to fly in and rescue a U.S. or coalition pilot downed while bombing or shooting at the Islamic State in Iraq or Syria. On 29 occasions between Nov. 1 and…

The 100 Year Helicopter: Sign Of Army Helo Fleet’s Vulnerability

The 100 Year Helicopter: Sign Of Army Helo Fleet’s Vulnerability
The 100 Year Helicopter: Sign Of Army Helo Fleet’s Vulnerability

ARLINGTON: You probably don’t plan to keep your current car for 20 years. But that’s what the US Army has to do with its helicopter fleet. With the Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) helicopter stillborn for lack of funds and the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) family not entering production until the 2030s, the Army has to invest carefully…

Marines Brush Off DoD IG Criticisms Of V-22 Readiness Reporting

Marines Brush Off DoD IG Criticisms Of V-22 Readiness Reporting
Marines Brush Off DoD IG Criticisms Of V-22 Readiness Reporting

THE PENTAGON: The Marines say the V-22 tilt rotor aircraft has deployed and flown “with properly trained and equipped combat ready Marines and mission capable aircraft” over the last six years. That statement stands in stark contrast to the findings of a classified Pentagon Inspector General’s report released late Friday afternoon. In an unclassified summary, the…

John Brennan: CIA Nomination, Drones, Death And Justice

Richard Whittle, in addition to being a regular contributor to Breaking Defense, is a senior scholar at the Wilson Center. He is writing a book on the Predator, the first armed drone. In an earlier incarnation, Rick once accompanied the late congressman Charlie Wilson to Pakistan for a visit to the Afghan mujahedeen. The Editor…

Flying The Osprey Is Not Dangerous, Just Different: Veteran Pilots

In the last few weeks the Air Force and the Marines have officially blamed pilot errors for two Osprey crashes. Given the plane’s dark past and the continuing controversies about whether it’s a safe aircraft I commissioned our regular contributor Richard Whittle, author of “The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey,”…

Thornberry Cites AOL D During House V-22 Debate

WASHINGTON: While we here at Breaking Defense are perfectly willing to criticize Congress on occasion, we’re very happy to have them say nice things about us, or at least mention us. In this case, it’s Rep. Mac Thornberry on the floor of the House, citing our article on the V-22 by aviation expert and regular…

‘Killer Drone’ Demo Marks HASC Chair McKeon’s Speech

WASHINGTON: Defense conferences rarely attract much notice from the American public but we saw a spark today as a demonstrator leapt onto the stage while Rep. Buck McKeon spoke in favor of a strong defense and robust funding for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. “These drones are playing God,” the slight, middle-aged woman shouted, trying to unfurl…

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