CENTENNIAL, CO—Boom Supersonic has confirmed plans to flight test the XB-1 prototype of its Overture commercial airliner for the first time this year, after raising $100 million in its latest funding round. Boom plans Overture to enter service in the mid-2020s.
HAWTHORNE, CA—Citing fewer planned launches in 2019, SpaceX says it will layoff roughly 10 percent of its workforce. Those to be cut include production managers, avionics technicians, machinists, inventory specialists and propulsion technicians.
FLINT, MI—Over the next few months, hundreds of General Motors employees will be relocating, and some of those will be coming to the automaker’s assembly plant here.
GAITHERSBURG, MD—Created by a team including scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an advanced filtering material can extract the key ingredient in the most common form of plastic from a mixture of other chemicals while consuming far less energy than usual.
DETROIT—Ford is recalling more than 953,000 vehicles worldwide to replace Takata passenger air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel. The move includes more than 782,000 vehicles in the United States, and is part of the largest series of recalls in U.S. history.
MOBILE, AL—Airbus has firmed up orders for 120 A220 aircraft, including 60 for JetBlue and 60 for JetBlue founder David Neeleman's new airline called Moxy. Airbus will produce the planes at a new plant here, with construction beginning this month.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—Strata Manufacturing has entered into an agreement with UAE-based DGWorld (Digi Robotics Technologies) to implement a robotics system in its manufacturing processes, the company announced on Sunday. The agreement will enable Strata, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, to automate the company’s operations assembly unit, including drilling, reaming and countersinking of aircraft components.