PARIS — Airbus Group and Safran will form a 50-50 joint venture to produce a new family of launch vehicles that seeks to keep Europe competitive in the global market for lifting commercial and government payloads. As leading contractors on the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, the companies will retain key roles in their legacy activities, combining the expertise of Airbus Defense and Space (formerly Astrium) in launch vehicles and Safran’s propulsion work through its Snecma and Herakles motor divisions.
PARIS — Lockheed Martin and MBDA are proposing that Poland should take a one-third share of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), along with Germany and Italy, if it selects the system as the main element of its Shield of Poland air defense missile program. The companies are also trying to get both Germany and Italy to commit to full development and production of Meads before current U.S. development funding runs out around the end of this year.
Top Pentagon civilian and military officials continue to express optimism over reaching the in-service deadlines of mid-2015 for the U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B and mid-2016 for the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A. Concern, however, still looms over a plan to reach initial operational capability (IOC) for the F-35C, designed for aircraft carrier suitability, in 2018.
The Hubble Space Telescope has begun preliminary observations with the aim of finding a Kuiper Belt object that NASA’s New Horizons mission can visit after its July 2015 flyby of Pluto.
CHENGDU, China – As China’s well-funded push to build up its aero engine industry gathers strength, details are emerging of new aviation powerplants in early development. Three of the new engines – a turboprop, turboshaft and turbofan – form a family built on a common core, while two others – turbofans for commercial aircraft – are based on the common approach of scaling turbo machinery up or down to meet different thrust requirements.
