Sikorsky has begun certification test flights of its improved S-76D commercial helicopter, which is flying over the company’s test center in West Palm Beach, Fla. Upgrades include new engines, avionics and a dual-speed rotor for reduced noise. Certification is planned by year-end and when deliveries begin early in 2012, the S-76D will be the first of a wave of new rotorcraft to enter commercial service. Sikorsky Aircraft photo.
The Pentagon’s next bomber will protect itself against enemy aircraft and air- or ground-launched missiles with an electronic attack weapon, probably based on an advanced array whose effects can be moved at the speed of light around the battlespace.
Go to the website www.armyaircrews.com/index.html and select Kiowa to see how many of those helicopters were shot down both in Vietnam and Iraq. As an light-observation helicopter pilot flying the Bell Helicopter’s OH-6, we saw numerous OH-58s shot down and aircrews die needlessly due to lack of survivability of this weapon system.
As the aviation industry fights for dwindling federal funds to pay for programs crucial to advancing the air traffic control system and improving airport facilities, it finds itself in an unusual situation—one of great uncertainty on how the Republican-controlled House will square its four-year fiscal 2011 FAA reauthorization bill with the two-year Senate bill, or how it will handle the plethora of amendments expected.
The turmoil shaking the Middle East and North Africa is creating uncertainty about weapon programs. Several competitions are in doubt, and suppliers are anxious about whether they need to step back from the market.
John Burnum, Jr. (see photo) has been named director of business development for Business Jet Access of Dallas. He was regional sales manager for King Aerospace.
Politicians and diplomats may be struggling to understand the fast-moving events in the Middle East, but those who watch U.S. defense exports expect little change (see p. 22). As Wall Street analysts at RBC Capital Markets put it, look at the buyers and sellers during 2009 and 2010. Over those years, 88% of U.S. defense exports to the Middle East went to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt.
ViaSat and African operator RascomStar-QAF are introducing a low-power portable GSM cellular uplink station that should significantly lower the cost of serving cell-phone customers in rural areas and sharply reduce satellite price disparities with respect to terrestrial networks.
Mark Carreau (Houston), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
With the lengthy assembly of the International Space Station drawing to a close, NASA is moving to extend use of the orbiting laboratory to other federal agencies, academia and the private sector through a fast-paced competition to select a non-profit manager for oversight of the broad, cutting-edge research agenda envisioned by Congress under a National Laboratory designation.
Embraer has unveiled the first of three EMB-145s ordered by India as testbeds for an indigenously developed airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system. The first aircraft—equipped with the antenna structure for the phased-array radar under development by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization’s (DRDO) Bengalaru-based Center for Airborne Systems (CABS)—will be flight-tested at Embraer before its scheduled delivery to India in August.
The most experienced crew of astronauts in space shuttle history is in orbit for the final mission of the shuttle Discovery, working through a busy timeline to equip the International Space Station (ISS) with an equipment storage compartment and an external platform securing a spare thermal control system radiator. Also aboard are 5 tons of cargo, including Robonaut 2, an experimental humanoid developed by NASA in partnership with General Motors.
Treg Manning (see photo) is the new vice president of sales at American Eurocopter , Grand Prairie, Texas. He comes from the Med-Trans Corp., where he was senior vice president of business development.
Allowing increased foreign ownership in U.S. airlines and changing the definition of “control” of them is a debate whose time has come—again. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee steered clear of any language in the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011, now awaiting full House debate. Erstwhile Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) had tried to reduce the amount of foreign ownership allowed but he lost re-election.
Airbus Military and the Europrop International (EPI) engine consortium appear close to a settlement over claims and counterclaims on cost overruns in the Airbus A400M program. MTU Aero Engines, a key EPI partner, has dissolved a €45 million ($62 million) provision for possible Airbus claims, the company revealed in its annual results presentation. Such a step is only possible if management believes there is a better than 50% chance it will no longer need the money.
During the years in which Emirates has grown from an important regional carrier to a worldwide powerhouse, rivals have often claimed—with modest proof—that the airline merely has benefited from a range of special privileges and circumstances. Soon the accusers will have the opportunity to test their hypothesis as one of those supposed perks—cheap export financing for aircraft—goes by the wayside. And judging from Emirates’ reaction, this perk, like most of the others, appears to count for less than meets the eye.
Facing a flat sales outlook and bleak budget environment, European defense companies are looking to streamlined operations and targeted acquisitions to help sustain profitability.
The FAA’s new 20-year aerospace forecast underscores the recovery U.S. carriers have made in the past year—but also the greater-than-usual uncertainty about the future of the market. Regarding the former, the FAA forecast released here Feb. 15 in conjunction with its 36th Aviation Forecast Conference predicts more than 1 billion passengers will board U.S. airlines in fiscal 2021.
Tim Rens (see photo) is the new chief financial officer of Executive AirShare , a Kansas City, Mo.-based fractional ownership company, where he had been a consultant. He was chief financial officer and treasurer of CVR Energy Inc.
Boeing is 80% of the way through its test program for the Rolls-Royce-powered 787 and 60% for the General Electric version, says 787 Vice President and General Manager Scott Fancher. The focus now is “about getting the Rolls-Royce [version] through its final 20%,” he adds. The engine maker has delivered the first upgraded Package B variants, which are designed to bring fuel burn closer to specification. “We recently got the first engines and they will be put on aircraft in-flow,” says Fancher.
Top NASA managers are preparing for the day when foreign governments and private businesses help defray the cost of U.S. space operations through the purchase of transportation and accommodation on U.S. commercial human spaceflight assets in low Earth orbit.
The Pentagon’s first National Security Space Strategy and its recently released budget request for space are attempting to prioritize procurement and operations after a decade of problematic performance. But work still needs to be done.
NASA’s plan to halve its funding for hypersonic research in fiscal 2012 and redirect $24.7 million to “higher-priority” projects to increase airport capacity and aircraft safety and reduce environmental impact has been met with disappointed resignation by advocates of high-speed flight. The decision to cut back research on turbine-based combined-cycle (TBCC) engines could adversely affect Air Force plans for a larger demonstrator to follow the scramjet-powered X-51A Waverider, believes the Hypersonic Industry Team.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget request is largely good news for the Pentagon. Though the $671 billion defense blueprint is 5% lower than the president’s request last year, much of the reduction comes from the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq. Other modest cuts already were telegraphed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Pentagon’s core budget would actually rise slightly, to $553 billion, though not enough to keep pace with inflation.
The A Train of Earth-observing satellites that NASA leads is set to get a new member with the Feb. 23 launch of Glory. The $424 million mission focuses on the subtle ways solar radiance influences the planet’s climate. While climatologists have developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the role that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide play in climate change, they are less certain about how solar variability and aerosols factor into the climate-change equation.
