Sometime this year, a Japanese technician will perform the final piece of work on the last F-2 fighter to leave the Nagoya works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. With that, Japan's 45 years of post-war fighter production will cease and the progressive loss of skills already under way in systems manufacturing will have spread to every stage of building combat aircraft.
Brett Kelly has been appointed vice president of Airmall Maryland at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport by developer Airmall USA. Kelly was a vice president at General Growth Properties.
Tim Dooley has been promoted to senior vice president-finance and chief financial officer from vice president-financial planning and analysis at Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings. He succeeds Hal Cooper, who retired March 31. Lars-Erik Arnell has been promoted to senior vice president from vice president-corporate development.
If there is a future for biofuels in aviation, it may be all the more secure thanks to work underway in the historic Chinese port of Qingdao. In this joint research effort, Boeing and a Chinese scientific institute are aiming at cutting the cost of bio jet fuel.
Ever since it was formed as a multi-national consortium four decades ago, Airbus has followed a straightforward model for building civil aircraft. Complete sections are fabricated in factories around Europe, then shipped to Toulouse or Hamburg, where they are joined together. So when the European airframer decided to set up its first final assembly line outside of Europe, it was a relatively easy step.
My experience is primarily in materials and manufacturing processes for space systems, not aircraft. Still, I have to question Boeing's apparent philosophy of designing the 737 with a limit on its operating life based on metal fatigue in the fuselage—expecting it to occur during the operational life of the aircraft while filled with passengers (AW&ST April 11, p. 36). Whether the design and inspection requirements were based on 30,000 or 60,000 pressurization cycles, it is the wrong way to go.
While attention focuses on Beijing's bold bid to take on Airbus and Boeing in the narrowbody airliner market, China is positioning its helicopter industry so it too can compete commercially, both domestically and internationally. The task falls to Avicopter, created by Avic in 2008 to consolidate China's state-owned helicopter industry.
Sometimes it helps to take a long view. Snecma decided two decades ago that China was a coming force in aircraft building, and ever since has steadily built up China's involvement in the best-selling CFM56 engine. That involvement has now reached the point of the complete low-pressure (LP) turbine module for the Boeing 737's CFM56-7B being made in Snecma's wholly owned plant at Suzhou in eastern China. Indeed, all LP turbine modules for U.S.-assembled CFM56-7Bs come from Suzhou.
The global air cargo industry may soon look significantly different now that Lufthansa Cargo is seeking to build an alliance to rival that of Skyteam Cargo's. But it may have to contend with some tough competition in its immediate vicinity now that Qatar Airways is eying an investment in Cargolux. “We will definitely make another try to start anew with Star Alliance partners,” Lufthansa Cargo's new CEO, Karl-Ulrich Garnadt, tells Aviation Week. “There is no reason why this should not work.”
David George has been named sales and service manager for military programs for the Vector Aerospace Corp., Huntsville, Ala. He was director of technology and business development for an aerospace manufacturing company.
Alitalia CEO Rocco Sabelli confirms he intends to resign before year-end on the assumption his mission to return the airline to profitability will have been met. Alitalia is on schedule to achieve operationally neutral results this year, notwithstanding the effects of fuel-price increases and turmoil in the Middle East, both of which are affecting results in medium-haul markets. The carrier has seen traffic slow in many of its Mediterranean and North African destinations.
The operational success the Royal Air Force has had with MBDA's dual-mode Brimstone is driving U.S. and French interest in the munition, says the RAF assistant chief of the air staff, Air Vice Marshal Baz North. The dual-mode weapon (with semi-active and millimeter microwave laser) has been among the main munitions the RAF Tornado GR4 has been relying on during Libya operations. Initial discussions with the French have begun, although they are at an early stage. Still unclear is which French and U.S. platforms would launch the weapons.
Delays in fielding new equipment are undermining the traditional superiority of the Indian air force's ratio of combat aircraft over neighboring rival Pakistan.
I cannot understand NASA's fixation with aircraft exterior noise “NASA Era Objectives” (AW&ST April 18, p. 38). I understand the need for a 50% increase in fuel efficiency or a 75% reduction in NO2, but a 42% reduction in Stage 4 noise levels? Why? Are we afraid we will scare the seagulls asleep in the middle of the runway? Today's newest commercial aircraft are already very quiet and a modest improvement, say 10 db, should be more than enough to satisfy every near-airport dweller. But -42 db is ridiculous.
Boeing and its unionized machinists, who have struck three times in the past 15 years, are locked in a new round of labor strife over whether the airframe maker can open a second 787 final assembly factory in South Carolina, where workers already have voted to push the union out.
Russia plans to send an Indian cosmonaut into orbit in 2015, as the South Asian nation prepares to become the fourth country that can launch humans into space on its own rocket as early as 2017. Alexey Mzareulov, Russian deputy consul-general in Mumbai, announced the upcoming flight—probably to the International Space Station—during celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic orbital mission.
President Barack Obama and his family are set to attend the last launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. EDT April 29. Also expected, as she recovers from an assassination attempt, is Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), whose husband Mark Kelly commands Endeavour's mission to the International Space Station. After Endeavour returns from its 14-day mission, it will be prepared for permanent display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles (see p. 26).
Executives at China Great Wall Industry Corp. find it hard to believe that U.S. Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) is offering lower launch prices than they can. But they concede privately that it's true. China Great Wall, the marketing arm of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CAST), is opening a one-person office in Washington this summer to push Chinese space products, including solar arrays.
Indonesia will pay $10 million to cover 20% of the cost of concept definition of South Korea's proposed KF-X Generation 4.5 fighter and send 30 researchers to work on the project. Korea Aerospace Industries and missile and electronics systems maker LIG Nex1 are the preferred South Korean candidates for the program, while Indonesian Aerospace will also participate, says the South Korean defense acquisition program administration.
While most Western aircraft makers weigh the costs and benefits of ordering more parts from China, a defense factory in the country's northeast is busily turning out three complete airplanes a week for one U.S. company. And the customer, Cessna, is looking at how it might take another step in the relationship, even while supplier Avic Defense is still ramping up production of the current product, the 162 Skycatcher light sport airplane.
Turkey has opted for the Sikorsky Black Hawk over the AgustaWestland AW149 in the Turkish utility helicopter program. The initial buy, valued at around $3.5 billion, is for 109 rotorcraft (with options for 12 more), although the inventory is expected to grow significantly over time.
And while his wife was becoming the latest victim of controller error, President Barack Obama publicly expressed his support for FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and reaffirmed the safety of the U.S.'s air traffic system, as another series of embarrassing incidents involving sleeping or distracted controllers continued to damage the agency's reputation.
France should be applauded for orchestrating the military campaign to stop Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi from butchering his own citizens. And U.S. President Barack Obama should be commended for having his nation take a back seat in the conflict. Libya, a former Italian colony, sits in the European Union's back yard.
