AeroVironment’s Puma AE unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is to be used for commercial missions in the Arctic following receipt of restricted-category type certification from the FAA. Insitu’s ScanEagle also received type certification and operational approval for Arctic flights. AeroVironment expects the 13-lb., hand-launched Puma AE to be deployed later this summer to support oil-spill monitoring and wildlife observation in the Beaufort Sea off the coast of Alaska’s North Slope inside the Arctic Circle.
Tying a potential repair station safety management system (SMS) mandate to specific criteria, such as work performed on transport category aircraft, could be an acceptable alternative to a broad rule covering all FAA-certified facilities, a survey of MRO executives suggests. The survey, conducted by St. Louis University’s Center for Aviation Safety Research (CASR), generated about 440 responses from repair stations of all sizes, including some foreign facilities.
AVIC International’s Continental Motors unit is establishing a management team to assess the integration of the newly acquired Thielert Aircraft Engines as the company looks to expand and strengthen its diesel technologies, says Continental Motors President Rhett Ross.
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AAR Corp. sees solid growth in its commercial airframe and component maintenance businesses near-term, continuing a steady upward trend that is helping the maintenance, airlift, and cargo systems supplier offset declining demand from its defense customers.
Southwest Airlines has slowed the rollout of its new domestic revenue management system as it fine-tunes the product to ensure it is producing better results than the current one, say senior executives.
EADS’s board of directors is scheduled to meet today to approve sweeping changes to the group that, if approved, will renamed the company Airbus Group and reduce the number of divisions from four to three. The new structure will merge EADS’s defense and space operations into one entity, which will be called Airbus Systems. Berhard Gerwert, currently head of EADS’s defense unit Cassidian, is expected to be named CEO of the new unit, industry sources tell Aviation Week. The future of Francois Auque, CEO of EADS’s Astrium space division, is unclear.
Jet Airways moved closer to finalizing the sale of a 24% stake to Etihad Airways after India’s investment regulator yesterday issued conditional approval. Under a strategic equity alliance unveiled in April, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier will subscribe to 27.3 million new shares of Jet Airways at 754.74 rupees ($13.92) per share. Etihad’s overall commitment to Jet includes an injection of $220 million to create and strengthen a wide-ranging partnership between the two carriers.
African low-cost start-up Fastjet plans to launch its first international flights Sept. 27 with the inauguration of services from its base at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The Tanzanian airline says initially it will operate three weekly flight to Johannesburg, but adds “as demand for seats on Fastjet’s . . . Airbus A319s is expected to be high, the company intends to increase the frequency of flights.”
Etihad Airways will purchase 73 International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 SelectTwo engine upgrade kits for its current and future fleet of Airbus A320-family aircraft. Launched in June 2011 with orders from Gulf Air and US Airways, the SelectTwo configuration is projected to provide 0.58% fuel burn savings compared to the SelectOne engine for a 500 nm A320 mission, says IAE.
Boeing has asked operators to inspect Honeywell-made emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) installed on 717, 737NG, 747-400, 767 and 777 aircraft less than two weeks after the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch highlighted possible problems with a Honeywell ELT onboard the Ethiopian Airlines 787 that was damaged by fire at London Heathrow Airport July 12.
While the FAA is making significant progress in deploying its en route automation modernization (ERAM) system, there are still concerns that more slips will occur in the program’s timetable and budget. ERAM is now being used to control traffic—to varying degrees—at 16 of the 20 en route centers that are slated to receive it. This represents a considerable turnaround for the program, which has been one of the FAA’s major headaches in recent years. Past delays and cost overruns have severely hampered ERAM, which is an essential precursor to NextGen.
Southwest Airlines Flight 345’s nose gear collapse came after a rapid change in pitch attitude that apparently caused the nose gear to touch down first as it landed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport July 22, preliminary information released by NTSB says.
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Insitu is planning to launch the first U.S. commercial unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operation following receipt of FAA type certification for its ScanEagle UAS on July 19. No details are available yet, but the operation is expected to be in the Arctic. Restricted-category type certifications for the 44-lb., gasoline-powered ScanEagle and the 13.4-lb., battery-powered AeroVironment Puma AE are the first to be issued by the FAA under Part 21.25 of the federal aviation regulations.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787 was involved in a smoke incident at Doha International Airport earlier this week, say sources familiar with the situation. Smoke is understood to have been discovered towards the rear of the aircraft cabin, possibly originating in the equipment bay, the sources say.
Even as they develop engines promising 15-16% lower fuel burn on the latest narrowbodies, manufacturers are looking toward the 25-30% fuel-consumption reductions expected to be required by the mid-2020s to help keep airlines ahead of oil prices and emissions targets. For Safran group company Snecma, that means continuing work begun three decades ago on open-rotor engines—then with General Electric, but now with a European flavor.
