Lockheed Martin recently tested new wingtip designs aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of the C-5M Super Galaxy. Engineers tested two separate “winglet” designs fitted to a 10-foot C-5 model in the 16-foot transonic wind tunnel at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tennessee. “The kinds of savings we’re talking about … is reducing the fuel burn of a C-5 by something on the order of 166 gallons per hour” with the addition of features such as winglets, said Jack O’Banion, company mobility improvement director. “The largest consumer of jet fuels is air mobility” in the US military so the possibility for savings is huge, he explained. Lockheed Martin is testing winglet designs as the first of several improvements it hopes to make to the Air Force’s C-5 fleet, if service funds permit, according to AEDC’s Nov. 14 release. (Arnold report by Phillip Lorenz)
The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to design and build a communications satellite prototype with advanced anti-jam and data processing capabilities. The service announced the contract for the Enhanced Protected Tactical SATCOM-Prototype program, or Enhanced PTS-P, May 15, and said the satellite will launch no sooner than…