Northro
p Grumman has completed fuselage and empennage strength tests on its next generation Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, exceeding Air Force strength and safety requirements. Each of three successive tests of the Block 20 RQ-4 Global Hawk surpassed USAF requirements by about 20 percent, according to a company statement. Northrop also announced Tuesday that it had completed the first flight for the Block 20 last month. The AF-8 vehicle flew from the Northrop facility at Palmdale, Calif., to Edwards AFB, Calif.
The Air Force rolled out new interim height standards for Career Enlisted Aviators aimed at improving aircrew diversity and “safely meeting accession demands,” as the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center works to update a 1967 anthropometric study used to establish USAF flight requirements for more than half a century.…