Leaders of Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Textron, L3Harris Technologies, General Dynamics, BAE Systems and Huntington Ingalls Industries have all signed letters asking the government to maintain funding levels for the Pentagon and avoid negative impacts on the budget due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is expected to award the first Skyborg drones and could select from a range of top suppliers, including Boeing, Kratos, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Leidos has been named the program's design agent.

The US Air Force has enlisted dozens of companies to support capabilities of its Advanced Battle Management System. "There is a lot that can be contributed from companies that are commercially focused, that know a lot about data, that know a lot about machine learning and AI and know a lot about analytics," said acquisition executive Will Roper.

Japan is planning to begin developing prototypes of its next fighter aircraft in 2024, with production to commence in 2031. A decision on the vendor that will build the fuselage should come by early 2021.

Aerion Supersonic and Carbon Engineering are exploring the potential of a sustainable synthetic fuel for Aerion's developmental supersonic commercial aircraft dubbed AS2. CE is working on a way to create fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Boom Supersonic plans to unveil the scaled prototype of its XB-1 supersonic passenger plane in October. The full-scale version, called Overture, will have a capacity for 50 passengers.

The American Rocketry Challenge is teaming with the Kerbal Space Program video game for a contest with $6,000 in prizes available to participants. The new activity is called the Kerbal Rocketry Challenge and features humanoid green aliens.

Boeing is preparing to test its Starliner capsule before year's end with the full support from NASA after a failed attempt in December. "Right now I cannot imagine a scenario where SpaceX is the only provider. ... We need both Boeing and SpaceX to be there for us," NASA's Steve Stich said referencing SpaceX's Crew Dragon successful attempt.

A spending bill currently under review by the House Appropriations Committee includes $344 million for 16 General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones. The US Air Force has not requested any Reaper drone buys for 2021.

In a CNBC segment discussing economic models during the pandemic, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin addressed the Treasury Department's loan agreement with US airlines, saying, "We wanted to make sure the airlines had backstops so they had liquidity." Mnuchin stressed the importance of air travel within economic recovery. "We need to keep these airlines. When the economy continues to rebound, we need to have air travel," he said.