The first Mitsubishi Regional Jet, whose parts are now taking shape in Nagoya, will follow a design that in key areas shows unusual features in the quest for fuel economy. Above all, program managers have bet on higher fuel prices justifying a design whose wing is much more slender than usual for a regional jet.
Flying will be cleaner, quieter and more punctual under Europe’s new vision for aerospace except for one small problem; there may be insufficient funds to enable the research needed to achieve this.
James A. MacStravic has been appointed to the Senior Executive Service and is assigned as strategic coordinator in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) in Washington. MacStravic was an acquisition program manager with USAF Materiel Command, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
“Signal Charlie.” Those are the two words on the radio that student naval aviators most look forward to hearing for the first time. They are about to make their first landings on an aircraft carrier, thereby joining what carrier aviators consider to be aviation’s most exclusive club: pilots who have earned carrier qualification.
“Crisis In Japan: Broken Chain” (AW&ST March 21, p. 20) states “Boeing’s Seattle facilities coped well with a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in 2001, while its South Carolina plant is built to ride out hurricanes. On the other hand, that is a reminder that production is exposed to a seismic fault line in the U.S. (Seattle area), fault lines in Japan and South Carolina’s weather.”
Rising fuel prices are squeezing airline profits and will force carriers to cut capacity and replace older aircraft. IATA recently downgraded the airline’s industry profit forecast to $8.6 billion, citing higher fuel prices. This compares to its previous forecast of $9.1 billion. The new estimate is 46% lower than the airline industry’s 2010 profit of $16 billion profit.
MISSION: STS-134 International Space Station Utilization/Logistics Flight 6 (ULF 6), the 134th launch of the space shuttle program and the 36th to the ISS. ORBITER: Endeavour (OV-5), making its 25th and final flight. Endeavour last returned from orbit on Feb. 21, 2010, after the STS-130 flight to install the Tranquility pressurized node with its seven-window cupola.
The Russian government plans to merge Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying the goal is to modernize and expand the capacity of the facilities and then privatize them. The combined entity will present more formidable competition for privately owned Domodedovo Airport, which is expected to remain Moscow’s largest airport. Its capacity is planned at 29.3 million passengers by 2015 and 38.5 million by 2020.
Flight trials are due to commence this year for the new light two-stage Soyuz-1 launch vehicle. The test program will last several years and include five launches. Soyuz-1 was derived from Soyuz-2-1b by removing a side booster and installing an NK-33-1 engine on the central module. The new modification will use the standard nose fairing of the Soyuz family. Soyuz-1 has a liftoff weight of 158 tons and will be able to orbit 2,800 kg (6,200 lb.) of payload. The launch of another new vehicle—Angara-1—is delayed until 2013, according to a Russian military official.
The German government’s reaction to an ongoing nuclear power station crisis in Japan following a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck March 11 caused the value of carbon credits traded in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System to jump to a two-year high. The indirect effect of the catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi facility in the northern part of the country has caused a potentially game-changing, long-term shift in the dynamics of the European power market.
Cynthia Treadwell-McConnell has been named president of Air Transport International , a cargo subsidiary of ATSG, Wilmington, Ohio. She succeeds James L. Hobson, Jr., who retired after 12 years as president and CEO. McConnell was managing director of finance at Continental Airlines and has held multiple audit roles for Ernst & Young and was corporate auditor at PepsiCo.
The first new MC-130J Combat Shadow II rescue tanker—destined for the U.S. Air Force’s Special Operations Command—was rolled out at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Ga., facility last week. The new aircraft combines the capabilities of the Combat Shadow with upgraded sensors, greater speed and the more powerful J-model airframe.
William Calderwood has been appointed interim CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok. He is has been managing director of The Ayre Group Consulting and was head of international operations for the Australian Tourism Commission.
The first hundred years of U.S. naval aviation have seen quantum leaps in technology, including the advent of jet propulsion, helicopters and nuclear power, plus integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on the battlefront, and aircraft carriers with angled decks that permit simultaneous arrested landings and catapult takeoffs. What has not changed is the mission and the people, according to carrier aviators.
P&W President David Hess says China’s Comac is expressing interest in using a version of the geared turbofan (GTF) on its C919—an aircraft launched with the Leap-X engine in development by arch-rival CFM International. Although the C919 will be powered initially by the Leap-X, Hess says a C919 derivative could use the PW1100G GTF now in initial design for the Airbus A320NEO (New Engine Option). Versions of that engine are also under study to power the Comac ARJ21 and possibly “a clean-sheet aircraft,” he adds.
The shuttle Endeavour’s far-reaching final mission will introduce “Big Science” to the International Space Station, with delivery of the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Endeavour’s six-man crew also will unveil an optical relative-navigation sensor to boost NASA’s ambitions of reviving human deep-space exploration.
More than 15 years ago, a number of us in the aerospace industry began to focus on whether there would be sufficient numbers of people to meet our future skills needs. Aviation Week was a pioneer in raising the issue.
Robert Barton (see photos) has been promoted to vice president and general manager of operations for GE Infrastructure Solutions and Scott Glass to vice president and general manager of operations of Aerospace Client Services, both at Philadelphia-based CDI Engineering Solutions . Michael Fatig has been named vice president of business development.
The Transportation Department is manipulating statistics to cover up the rise in cancellations attributable to its new tarmac delay rule, aviation consultants Darryl Jenkins and Joshua Marks contend in a new study at tarmaclimits.com—their third in nine months. Under the rule that took effect last April 29, U.S. airlines face fines as high as $27,000 per passenger if they do not give passengers on domestic flights the option to get off an aircraft stuck on the ground for more than 3 hr. at large and medium-sized airports.
U.S. lawmakers have more ammunition to target major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) performing poorly, playing to Washington’s growing spending-reduction furor. Most at risk are manufacturers of satellites and rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, particularly for the Air Force.
History has proven there is no substitute for maintaining a worldwide power-projection capability, on station and available whenever called upon. For the U.S., the Navy has steadfastly fulfilled that role with air, land and sea forces second to none. When the call does come, more often than not it is naval aviation that is the pointed end of the spear.
With the dearth of new programs, upgrades to keep aircraft relevant through their extended service lives are increasingly driving operating costs. As software is now the key to capability, it should be easier to keep pace with technology and ahead of threats, but the costs and timescales for avionics upgrades are escalating.
NATO may one day field a wide-area, high-altitude ground surveillance system, but it will not be for the mission or of the scale once envisioned. The status of the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program will be discussed this week as NATO officials try to put the effort on a firm path toward the award of a production contract.
Although it looks little different externally from the original E-2A Hawkeye first deployed in 1965, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye will find roles far beyond airborne early warning (AEW) when it becomes operational late in 2014. The heart of the Hawkeye remains its radar, but its central place in U.S. Navy networking plans will give the E-2D an expanding role in battle management.
A replica of the Curtiss A-1 Triad, the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft, alighted briefly from San Diego Bay on Feb. 11 to mark the start of a year’s worth of events marking the centennial of U.S. naval aviation. Rebuilt specifically for the commemorative event, the Triad replicates the aircraft flown by Theodore G. Ellyson, the first naval officer designated as an aviator. Trained at the Glenn Curtiss Aviation Camp at North Island, San Diego, Ellyson became Naval Aviator No. 1 in April 1911.
