March 23, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Farnborough International Airshow, this year's largest showcase of commercial and military aerospace technology, has been canceled due to ongoing health concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
The cancellation of the event, which was slated to take place July 20-24 at Farnborough Airport in England, has broad economic implications for the aerospace industry. Farnborough Airshow is often a venue for major deals, with airlines announcing large buys of commercial aircraft during the show. While big defense contracts are sometimes also announced, the show provides a venue for industry to interface with U.S. and international military officials, paving the way for sales.
“After very careful consideration, the unprecedented impact of the global coronavirus pandemic has forced this decision in the interests of the health and safety of our exhibitors, visitors, contractors and staff,” the Farnborough International Board of Directors said in a statement on March 20. “This decision was reached taking into consideration several major factors surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19, all of which we have concluded, make it is impossible for us to create and host the Airshow this July.”
“We understand this news will be an incredible disappointment to all across the international aerospace industry, not to mention our important exhibitors, suppliers and visitors. We at Farnborough International share your disappointment that we are unable to present the Airshow as planned, but rest assured, we are determined to continue to work together and will ensure the Farnborough International Airshow returns in 2022 better than ever,” the statement said.
Farnborough International Airshow is held every other year, alternating with Paris Airshow held in Le Bourget, France.
Show organizers announced the decision minutes after the formal cancellation of the Royal International Air Tattoo, a major military airshow in England that traditionally occurs in the days before Farnborough International Airshow.
This is a developing story. Check back with Defense News for more details.
August 22, 2024 | International, Aerospace
The Air Force plans to spread out forces during a fight with China, and Gen. David Allvin wants to do more to defend dispersed bases from missile attacks.
January 16, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Isotropic's approach to next-generation integrated terminal creates profound change in terminal economics and performance to unlock the satellite industry's full potential LONDON, Jan. 16, 2019 /CNW/ - Isotropic Systems Ltd., the next-generation integrated satellite terminal solution provider, today announced a $14 million Series A round of funding led by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, with participation from WML, Space Angels and Space Capital. "The Series A financing builds on an exceptional year for Isotropic which saw a rapidly growing roster of strategic partners and customers who are poised to unlock the full potential of high-throughput satellites and mega-constellations across all orbits," said John Finney, founder and chief executive officer of Isotropic Systems. "Boeing's investment provides our team access to Boeing experts, testing labs, and other valuable resources to fast-track the deployment of our terminal solutions and to leverage our intellectual property across other space-based and wireless connectivity applications." Leveraging a transformational optical beamforming technology to control the direction of radio waves, Isotropic Systems has developed communication terminal solutions that are significantly more cost-effective, use significantly less power and yet achieve superior performance benefits for the end users. The substantial reduction in cost and power combined with improved performance result in newly-addressable markets and enable mass adoption of satellite communications. "Isotropic's solution allows for increased capabilities at reduced costs for satellite service providers," said Brian Schettler, managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures. "This investment accelerates the expansion of space-based connectivity services to the mass market and continues Boeing's leadership in space innovation." This new funding will allow Isotropic to accelerate the commercialization of its technology to benefit its satellite operator customers and to leverage its technology to explore new applications in adjacent markets. Read the Boeing HorizonX Ventures press release for more information regarding this announcement. About Isotropic Systems Isotropic Systems is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminal designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services. The company's team of industry experts and scientists has pioneered several firsts in satellite terminal design. For more information visit http://www.isotropicsystems.com. Visual media assets available here. About Boeing HorizonX Ventures Boeing HorizonX Ventures targets investments that help scale startup innovation in aerospace. Its portfolio includes companies specializing in autonomous systems, additive manufacturing, energy and data storage, advanced materials, augmented reality systems and software, machine learning, hybrid-electric and hypersonic propulsion and Internet of Things connectivity. About Boeing Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company, the leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes and defense, space and security systems, and a major provider of commercial and government aerospace services. A top U.S. exporter, the company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in more than 150 countries. SOURCE Isotropic Systems Limited (ISL) https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/isotropic-systems-raises-14-million-in-series-a-funding-led-by-boeing-horizonx-ventures-to-advance-space-based-connectivity-832444227.html
January 4, 2019 | International, C4ISR
DARPA seeks to develop schema-based AI capability to enhance reasoning about complex world events and generate actionable insights Rapid comprehension of world events is critical to informing national security efforts. These noteworthy changes in the natural world or human society can create significant impact on their own, or may form part of a causal chain that produces broader impact. Many events are not simple occurrences but complex phenomena composed of a web of numerous subsidiary elements – from actors to timelines. The growing volume of unstructured, multimedia information available, however, hampers uncovering and understanding these events and their underlying elements. “The process of uncovering relevant connections across mountains of information and the static elements that they underlie requires temporal information and event patterns, which can be difficult to capture at scale with currently available tools and systems,” said Dr. Boyan Onyshkevych, a program manager in DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O). The use of schemas to help draw correlations across information isn't a new concept. First defined by cognitive scientist Jean Piaget in 1923, schemas are units of knowledge that humans reference to make sense of events by organizing them into commonly occurring narrative structures. For example, a trip to the grocery store typically involves a purchase transaction schema, which is defined by a set of actions (payment), roles (buyer, seller), and temporal constraints (items are scanned and then payment is exchanged). To help uncover complex events found in multimedia information and bring them to the attention of system users, DARPA created the Knowledge-directed Artificial Intelligence Reasoning Over Schemas (KAIROS) program. KAIROS seeks to create a schema-based AI capability to enable contextual and temporal reasoning about complex real-world events in order to generate actionable understanding of these events and predict how they will unfold. The program aims to develop a semi-automated system capable of identifying and drawing correlations between seemingly unrelated events or data, helping to inform or create broad narratives about the world around us. KAIROS' research objectives will be approached in two stages. The first stage will focus on creating schemas from large volumes of data by detecting, classifying and clustering sub-events based on linguistic inference and common sense reasoning. Researchers taking on this challenge will apply generalization, composition and specialization processes to help generate schemas that describe both simple and complex events, sequence multiple schemas together to understand key contextual elements like roles and timelines, and apply domain-specific knowledge to tailor the analysis for a particular need. The second stage of the program will focus on applying the library of schemas created during stage one to multimedia, multi-lingual information to uncover and extract complex events. This stage will require identifying events and entities, as well as relationships among them to help construct and extend a knowledge base. DARPA will hold a Proposers Day on January 9, 2019 from 10:00am to 2:30pm (EST) at the Holiday Inn at Ballston, 4610 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22203 to provide more information about KAIROS and answer questions from potential proposers. For details of the event, including registration requirements, visit https://www.schafertmd.com/darpa/i2o/KAIROS/pd/. A Broad Agency Announcement that fully describes the program structure and objectives can be found here, https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=0fc6d1a237556c5d59847e7165af3aef&tab=core&_cview=1. Image Caption: This image outlines the two stages of the KAIROS program. The first stage will focus on creating a library of schemas from large volumes of data by detecting, classifying and clustering sub-events based on linguistic inference and common sense reasoning. The second stage will apply those schemas to new information to uncover and extract complex events, as well as relationships among them, to help construct and extend a knowledge base. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-01-04