Hawker Beechcraft reports its 2010 net sales of $2.802 billion were down $393.8 million from a year earlier, but its operating loss had slowed to $173.9 million last year. from $712 million in 2009 The T-6 Texan II military trainer represented a bright segmentof the Wichita manufacturer’s business. Of the 318 aircraft it delivered last year—versus 418 in 2009—80 were T-6s, valued at $681.1 million. The company delivered 73 business jets, 114 King Airs and 51 piston models. Its $1.4 billion backlog at year-end includes “significant orders” from the U.S. government.
With budget cuts likely to be the sharpest in 20 years, I hope we don’t repeat the mistakes of the Clinton administration, when then-Defense Secretary William Perry convened the infamous “Last Supper” to trumpet industry-wide consolidation. Instead of the lower-cost weapons that were promised, we got a union of government/industry that failed on all counts: cost, innovation and vitality.
An old comet sample-return mothership, recycled to take a second look at the comet that was blasted in 2005 by NASA’s Deep Impact probe, spotted what remained of the crater left from that experiment during a fast flyby on Feb. 14. The Stardust-NExT mission collected 72 images of Tempel-1 as the 12-year-old spacecraft hurtled by at 24,000 mph, approaching as close as 111 mi. from the icy body that circulates between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.
Long-stalled plans to modernize Russia’s venerable Ilyushin Il-76 transport are set to begin this year with the maiden flight of the Il-476 upgrade. Alexander Tulyakov, vice president of Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), announced last week that Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar-SP facility, a UAC subsidiary, will deliver a prototype aircraft toward year-end for the start of flight trials, along with a second aircraft for static tests. The Il-476 constitutes a modernization of the Il-76MD transport that is currently in service with the Russian air force.
John Lambeth has joined Qinetiq North America , McLean, Va., as chief information officer. He cwas was vice president of the Technology Solutions Group. of Blackboard Inc.
Boeing photographers had a chance to shoot two Royal Australian Air Force Wedgetails over Washington state before the new Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft left for their home base. The fleet of six aircraft is scheduled to be complete this summer. They will tie into an Australian air and sea surveillance system that monitors traffic as far away as Guam, according to some specialists. The Wedgetail is a Boeing 737-700 derivative carrying a Northrop-Grumman, L-band, long-range, active, electronically scanned array radar.
Klaus Tritschler (see photo) has been named vice president of design for ICON Aircraft of Los Angeles. He was creative director at BMW Group DesignworksUSA.
For decades, the head-up display (HUD) has been the primary flight instrument in fighter cockpits. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program took the bold decision to dispense with the HUD in favor of a sophisticated helmet-mounted display (HMD). Just how big a technical challenge that decision created is now becoming clear.
Calls for more civility in Washington—along with the changing of the guard—may have resonated among aviation’s alphabetters. A nice selection of California wines probably helped. There has long been a feud in the capital between the Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents scheduled Part 121 carriers, and the business and general aviation community. Simply put, the airlines want to offload several billion dollars in federal taxes onto the latter group.
March 7—Speednews Aerospace Raw Materials and Manufacturers Supply Chain Conference. Also, March 7-9—25th Annual Commercial Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference. Both events at Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, Calif. Call +1 (310) 203-9603, +1 (310) 203-9352 or see www.speednews.com March 7-10—Practical Aeronautics Short Course: “Introduction to Aeronautics, A Practical Perspective.” The National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Va. Call +1 (970) 887-3155 or see www.practicalaero.com
As fiscal 2011 FAA reauthorization nears conference consideration by the House and Senate, appropriators are already becoming mired in disagreements over cuts for fiscal 2012. It is, therefore, a race to keep a stripped down FAA bill free of as many extraneous measures as possible, which could stall it again; the last bill, which expired in 2007, was passed in 2003.
In discussing trends for the next decade, neither AeroStrategy’s David Stewart nor TeamSAI’s Chris Doan mention parts manufacturer approval (PMA) components. “Maybe it’s not a trend anymore,” explains Stewart, a principal with AeroStrategy. “Maybe it’s established behavior.” TeamSAI President/CEO Doan nods in agreement. “[PMA] is becoming more mainstream, I agree with that.”
Sam Sayani, deputy managing director of Pakistan International Airlines Engineering/PK MRO, points out the interesting conundrum his company faces today. With what he calls tremendous revenue growth in 2010 (23%), PIA is happy. But its costs have risen 12%, he says, surpassing its 7% year-over-year growth.
Boeing has added three 767 orders from LAN Airlines and four from unidentified customers to its backlog, raising its net for the year to nine total airplanes. The 777 is its best seller with nine net purchases, and the 767 ranks second with three. After 32 earlier cancellations, the 737 net order book stands at just one; four 787 orders have been lost.
Frank Morring, Jr.’s article “The Accidents (AW&ST Dec. 6, 2010, p. 59), reminds me of a phrase “the normalization of deviance,” which I encountered in Dianne Vaughn’s book The Challenger Launch Decision. Here at Vandenberg AFB, when there was an anomalous equipment operation that was brought to the attention of the manager, he would say “We’ll have to watch that.” When the same anomaly would again occur, he would say “Oh, well! We’ve seen that before.”
Let’s face it: Most travelers in the U.S. who flew on turboprop aircraft in the 1990s and early 2000s do not have pleasant memories. My wife talks about the prospect of another turboprop flight as just a cut above flying on a hang glider all the way from Washington to New York. My most vivid memory is of sitting in the front row, with my left foot practically in the cockpit, watching the pilot’s tight grip on the control column as the aircraft shook on takeoff.
All flight safety experts unanimously agree: An unexplained accident is the worst-case scenario. The entire aviation community, as well as victims’ families, expects to determine the causes of crashes so that systems and training procedures can be improved, if warranted. The ultimate goal is to come closer to a zero-accident world. Such aspirations are being echoed again and again while French investigators strive to understand why Air France Flight 447—operating on the Rio de Janeiro-Paris route on June 1, 2009—plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.
Jeffrey McRae is the new president of Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Integrated Programs Div. , Wayne, Pa. He was general manager for United Defense’s Armament Systems Div.
An item in the In Orbit column of Feb. 7 (p. 20) incorrectly stated the number of flybys that NASA’s Messenger spacecraft has made of Mercury. Messenger has made three flybys of Mercury, plus one of Earth and two of Venus for gravity assists to reach the innermost planet.
Jiri Matousek (see photo) has become chairman of Central European Private Aviation of Prague, succeeding founder Dagmar Grossman, who is stepping down to focus on developing Grossman Jet Service. Matousek spent 16 years with SAS.
Before demonstrating success, any advanced first-of-kind military technology is guaranteed to produce cost, technology, schedule and political nightmares. Whether in Canberra or Washington, those expeditions into the unknown provide targets for budget-cutting zealots.
The U.S. Transportation Department has fined Delta Air Lines $2 million for its treatment of disabled travelers, in what the department is calling the largest civil penalty it has assessed in a non-safety related case. Of the $2 million, Delta must pay the government $750,000, but it can use up to $1.25 million to improve its service to passengers with disabilities beyond what is required by law.
The Obama administration’s multi-billion-dollar plan to bring wireless broadband to almost every American could hit an immovable object in society’s everyday dependence on GPS, if warnings of disastrous jamming of satellite signals by terrestrial networks come true. Desperate for broadband spectrum, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in late January fast-tracked conditional approval for LightSquared to deploy up to 40,000 wireless base stations across the U.S. to augment its mobile satellite service.
Robert Verbeck is the new chief financial officer for Boeing Defense, Space and Security of St. Louis, succeeding Randy Simons, who is retiring. Verbeck was chief financial officer for the Boeing Military Aircraft unit of BDS and was BDS controller and program manager for the U.K. tanker program.
Rolls-Royce is projecting modest revenue growth in 2011 and “good growth” in underlying profits after delivering strong operating results in 2010 that were tinged by £56 million ($89.6 million) in costs linked to an uncontained Trent 900 engine failure last year. Overall, Rolls-Royce reported revenue of £11.1 billion, up from £10.4 billion the year prior, and a growth in the order book to £59.2 billion. The underlying profit was £955 million, £40 million above 2009 levels.
