The U.S. Army is once again having problems acquiring a new intelligence-collection aircraft, and this latest snag is likely to squelch its plan to field the new system by mid-2012. The service agreed this month to reassess proposals that were submitted last year from bidders for the Enhanced Medium-Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (Emarss) after an acquisition mishap came to light during a government audit.
Joe Gibney, Alicia Rodites and John “Cy” Farmer (see photos) have been promoted to executive positions at Signature Flight Support , Orlando, Fla. Gibney, formerly vice president of sales, is now vice president and managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Rodites is the new vice president of revenue management, following a stint as director of financial reporting and accounting at BBA Aviation. Farmer, who was Southeast U.S. vice president, has become vice president of network development-Americas.
Facing declining budgets in its home markets, EADS is once again overhauling its defense and security activities to find a more sustainable business model. Now called Cassidian, the defense and security unit has undergone several iterations, in part because its early financial performance was lagging. Although several years of efforts managed to reverse that trend, concerns are rising that bleak spending plans from the German and French defense ministries could have a negative impact.
An aerodynamic improvement kit designed to reduce the drag of MD-80 family twinjets by at least 3.5% is about to be certificated and offered for retrofit for both passenger and converted freighter models. Developed by Long Beach, Calif.-based design company Super98, the kit is the first of a potential two-phase improvement plan that could ultimately see MD-80 drag reduced by as much as 7.5%. Elements of the package are also being evaluated for a potential follow-on MD-90 improvement kit for 2012, as well as for the Boeing 717.
Approval of biofuels for use in aircraft is now expected by August, a glitch in fuel testing having pushed back a final vote on the new specification by the aviation fuels subcommittee of standards developer ASTM International. Approval was delayed after unexpected results from fuel testing led to several negative votes in December. The tests are being repeated by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, using fuel supplied by Honeywell company UOP.
United Airlines will upgrade its 52 777-200/200ERs with a Boeing-developed aerodynamic performance improvement package (PIP), taking total orders for the fuel-saving upgrade to 352, or more than 70% of the early 777 fleet.
Do recent calls to reform security at U.S. ports of entry with “novel” approaches—such as having passengers provide personal information in advance of travel so they can be labeled “low risk” and pass through more quickly—seem like something we’ve seen before?
Advocates for airships are not all enthusiasts for lighter-than-air flight. Some strongly believe there is unmet demand for the services airships can provide, including carrying extremely heavy or bulky cargo over long distances to remote or inaccessible regions.
Boeing is extendingthe GoldCare maintenance support system it developed for the 787 to the 737, its largest airplane program. As with the 787, GoldCare’s service offerings will be tailored to individual airline needs. At its fullest, GoldCare offers airlines blanket protection of maintenance issues throughout an aircraft’s life cycle.
: Embraer’s diligent support of its Super Tucano is emblematic of the growth of Latin America’s aviation and aerospace sectors over the past decade. In a special report on the region beginning on page 46, AW&ST analyses the replacement of government-supported airlines by a new generation of commercial carriers, the rise of business aviation manufacturing and operations, and the potential of a fledgling defense industry. Embraer photo.
The Pentagon’s March 24 stop-work order on the General Electric-Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter elicited immediate howls of protest from GE and F136 boosters on Capitol Hill. And if the tenor of their protests is any measure, Congress could see the biggest showdown over a defense earmark since F-22 supporters forced through a multiyear production award several years ago. “It’s not over yet,” GE representative Rick Kennedy tells Aviation Week.
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center applied almost 1 million lb. of force to crush a 20-ft.-tall aluminum lithium cylinder in a test-to-failure designed to update engineering data generated in the Apollo era. A follow-on to tests with smaller articles, the large-scale trial aims to generate shell-buckling knockdown factors that can be used to build the new heavy-lift launch vehicle Congress wants, with lighter structures based on modern materials and manufacturing processes that are still strong enough to withstand launch loads.
NG Aircraft, the company behind the Fokker 70/100NG, is betting that the airframe’s original design is still relevant and that new Rolls-Royce engines and other systems will be sufficient to make the NG aircraft a competitive and highly fuel-efficient product.
First flight of the passenger 747-8 puts the last model of Boeing’s big airplane development programs into the air and signals a leveling off into a smoother, albeit very busy, flight-test program for the remainder of the year.
European aerospace and defense (A&D) leaders see an urgent need for a “last supper”—not unlike the 1993 Pentagon meeting that set off a wave of industrial consolidation—if the sector is to retain its autonomy.
Hardly a month seems to go by without a new move by the Chinese aerospace industry to acquire critical know-how from Western competitors. The maneuvers have been increasing in number and perhaps in effectiveness—from encouraging, and later requiring, Western companies selling in China to work with Chinese partners, to Beijing’s state enterprises simply buying foreign companies that had key technology.
Aviation in Latin America and the Caribbean, for decades a weak link in the global network, in the past five years has gained strength as the region benefitted from a shift in the world economic order, the development of its own upwardly mobile middle class and a growing acceptance of air travel as a viable and valued form of transport.
PowerJet, a joint venture of Snecma and NPO Saturn, is developing the first higher-thrust version of the SaM146 engine as it ramps up production to support initial deliveries of Sukhoi’s Superjet 100 regional airliner. Developed to cover the upper end of the 13,500-17,500-lb. thrust range required for all planned variations of the SSJ100, the uprated engine will produce an additional 5% takeoff thrust over the baseline version due to enter service in April.
International Launch Services is filing a complaint with the European Commission over continued European Space Agency aid to its competitor, Arianespace, and is even considering World Trade Organization options. ILA President Frank McKenna argues the European Guaranteed Access to Space program has pumped more than €1 billion ($1.4 billion) into Arianespace since 2003.
Key officials in the U.S., Germany and Italy, the three nations developing the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), have agreed to truncate the program’s flight-test plan in light of the Obama administration’s decision to walk away from the effort without buying any units. The three countries now plan to conduct only two flight trials of the new air- and missile-defense system; one against an air-breathing target and another to shoot down a tactical ballistic missile.
The caption with the photo on page 46 of the March 21 issue contained computer-induced garble. The caption should have read: Boeing’s Richard Stephens received the Workforce Laureate from Aviation Week Special Projects Editor Carole Rickard Hedden.
USN Rear Adm. (ret.) Edward Masso has been named a senior fellow of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies , Arlington, Va. He is president of Flagship Connection, a defense-sector consulting firm. His naval career included nine commands in both the active and reserve components. His flag tenure was served as vice commander of Naval Surfaces Command.
Brazil’s long-time love affair with helicopters is likely to deepen as it welcomes tens of thousands of visitors to the Federation Internationale de Football Association’s World Cup and summer Olympics in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
It is, as Delta Air Lines describes it, a relatively simple equation. Fuel costs have risen dramatically, and if fare increases in a market cannot raise revenue enough to keep pace, the number of seats must be cut. That is how Delta, under a newly revised plan that could be a harbinger for the industry, is calculating where to reduce capacity or trim back its planned growth for the second half of 2011, and that is why the transatlantic market is its biggest focus.
