Call it a case of being let down by one's older brother: New delays in the certification of the Comac ARJ21 regional jet could force the development of the C919 mainline commercial aircraft to be prolonged. The FAA is insisting its shadow certification effort on the ARJ21 be completed before the agency begins work on the C919. But the C919 is already near the point at which a certification agency needs to be brought in; if the project advances much further without the FAA's involvement, the U.S. regulator may decide it can never become involved.
Boeing is placing its reengined single-aisle transport, the 737 MAX, into a market with a demand that dwarfs anything either it or rival Airbus experienced since they began competing for 100-200-seat jet sales 27 years ago.
Facing tough competition from the Airbus A320NEO, Boeing's design team is treading a fine line between conflicting forces as it homes in on the final configuration for the newly launched 737 MAX.
Finally responding to calls from operators and industry to begin work on replacing its hard-pressed helicopter fleets, the U.S. Army is moving ahead with a program to develop the next generation of rotorcraft. But the service faces a challenge securing sufficient government and industry funding to sustain competition until a development program can begin around the end of the decade.
Forget death and taxes. Probably the surest thing in aerospace these days is that South Korea will want serious technology transfer in any major military equipment order. The country's manufacturers are increasingly confident in their ability to win manufacturing contracts without the compulsion of offsets. More and more, they and the government want the know-how behind the systems that the country buys, with the aim of making the next generation themselves.
Knowing it could never keep up with its potential adversaries in quantity, maintaining a qualitative equipment edge has always been key to Israel's defense planning. Last year's agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for the sale of 84 F-15SAs and 170 APG-63(v)3 active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, therefore, has drawn particular interest and concern. Although some backers of Israel in the U.S. were hoping to scuttle the deal, Israel has opted to pursue a path to assure it maintains a competitive technical edge.
As Britain's defense industry adjusts to a new era of fiscal austerity, it has been looking for guidance from the government on what capabilities to preserve and where it can afford to retrench. However, there is growing concern that a primary document informing these decisions will not provide the expected road map. Moreover, industry is struggling to define its plans in part because of uncertainty caused by the multitude of Defense Ministry reviews under way—even a year after the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) was concluded.
The inflight failure of Blue Origin's second test vehicle is not necessarily a failure of the secretive company's efforts to begin launching scientists and space tourists on a reusable suborbital rocket. Nor will the aborted launch affect NASA's plans to use private operators to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS).
A new strategic partnership between SES S.A. and Russian satellite services company Gazprom Space Systems could give the Luxembourg-based satellite operator a foothold in the Russian market, positioning SES to take on Paris-based Eutelsat and its long-standing partnership with the Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC).
Major airlines across the Continent are looking to reposition their business now that the sky over Europe's network carriers has darkened, with little prospect in sight for economic recovery. Europe's three big airline groups, Air France-KLM, International Airlines Group (IAG) and Lufthansa, are developing different ways to deal with an expected market slowdown. Strategies reach from asset disposals and acquisitions to cost-cutting programs and a focus on new consumer groups.
The relatively low rate of commercial aircraft accidents in recent years has meant that crashes may trigger individual safety recommendations but not shake up the entire aviation system. However, the ripple effects from Air France Flight 447 may defy that axiom. As investigators drill down into the sequence of events that led to the crash of the Airbus A330-200 on June 1, 2009, during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, they are putting the spotlight on a range of concerns that had not yet received close scrutiny.
Bombardier is hoping its sales push into the Asia-Pacific region will boost aircraft orders to keep its Q400 and CRJ production lines busy. The Canadian aircraft maker's backlog of firm orders for the Q400 and CRJ-series aircraft is 40 and 61 units, respectively, says a spokesman. “The planned Q400 production cut and resulting layoffs are scheduled during this fall. For CRJ, we will continue to assess” the situation, he adds.
When the so-called Arab Spring uprisings kicked off, many Israelis began to worry that their country's security environment would be far more fluid and more dangerous. That reality is now setting in. After deciding to speed deployment of the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, the Israeli government is now also concerned that commercial aircraft may be increasingly vulnerable to attack from man-portable air-defense system (Manpads) missiles.
Colombia and Ecuador are expanding their airport infrastructures to keep pace with air transport growth. But even with new construction projects under way, capacity constraints are likely to remain.
What Has Worked •Fast and effective explosive detection technology for baggage screening • •Detection capabilities of advanced imaging technology body scanners •Screener training, improved since 9/11 •Reinforced cockpit doors •Arming pilots Not Worked •100% screening of international inbound cargo •Explosive trace detection portals, known as the “puffer” machines •Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening, failed over privacy concerns Questionable
Every morning since 9/11, Boston Logan International Airport hosts a face-to-face meeting of representatives of all stakeholders—from airline managers to FBI special agents—to be certain they are all on the same page of Logan's daily operations.
The Checkpoint of the Future concept proposed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is emerging as a model that governments and manufacturers are using as the coming gold standard for addressing future terrorist threats.
The European airline industry is pushing for more pro-active security measures that are better harmonized within the EU and with the U.S. and that can make air travel safer and more pleasant while keeping security costs under control. However, recent experience indicates that those aims may miss their mark.
If there is one thing that has become clear since the aviation community was shaken by a printer-cartridge bomb attempt originating in Yemen last October, it is that closer cooperation among the airline industry, freight forwarders and government agencies—and the sharing of timely information—is crucial to improving worldwide security of air freight.
When it comes to replacing its long-serving OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout helicopter, the U.S. Army faces one of the widest ranges of options of any recent Pentagon acquisition program. Choices range from further upgrades of Bell's venerable OH-58 to Sikorsky's S-97 Raider, a development of its high-speed, coaxial rotor X2. Somewhere between lies EADS North America's AAS-72X, a derivative of the Army's UH-72A Lakota light-utility helicopter.
Sept. 18-20—Aircraft Builders Council's Annual Conference. InterContinental Boston. Call +1 (617) 217-5030 or see www.aircraftbuilders.com Sept. 19-22—BCI Aerospace Meetings Casablanca. Parc des Expositions-Office des Changes, Casablanca, Morocco. See www.bciaerospace.com/casablanca Sept. 21-22—American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Centennial of Naval Aviation Forum. Virginia Beach Convention Center. See www.aiaa.org
It doesn't take a road warrior to attest to how aggravating commercial air travel has become since 9/11—mostly to protect aircraft and airports from the threat of terrorism. That said, how much safer is the transport of passengers and cargo as a result of the billions of dollars that industry and government have invested in aviation security in the last 10 years, and how much better does it need to be?
This Block 30 F-16C is involved in a program to test various combinations of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors and weapons being conducted by the Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve Command Test Center at Tucson, Ariz. This program encompasses non-traditional, airborne intelligence gathering and targeting, which is one of the themes of the 25-page special report on the future of ISR that begins on page 44. In the case of the F-16C, the payload is a Litening Advanced Targeting pod, two AIM-120 Amraams, two AIM-9M Sidewinders, four GBU-38 500-lb.
