Aviation Week & Space Technology

I read with great interest the articles in the “Future Cockpits” feature concerning all the new auto-systems—PBN, EVS, SVS, 4D-TBO—that await us (AW&ST Oct. 25, pp. 44-55). However, I noted a lack of discussion of failure modes of these systems or of crew training requirements to handle these failures. Flying, like every physical activity, requires practice. When the Navy trained me in the early 1950s, we practiced for multiple failures.

After decades of promises, directed-energy weapons appear headed for near-term operational use and may be led there by electronic attack programs under development for the military.

For the past seven years, Aviation Week has gathered senior aerospace and defense executives in early November for roundtable discussions of common issues and problems. It is a good time to reflect on a year about to close and the budget cycle that is just beginning. Those who sit in often bear scar tissue from being program managers and are happy to trade their thoughts in a not-for-attribution exchange.

The cordial nature of Latin American aviation may be sorely tested in the coming months as the effects of consolidation heighten competition and alliances battle for dominance. Executives across the region hold each other in high regard, and this was evident during the recent Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) forum in Panama. Avianca/TACA CEO and ALTA President Roberto Kriete praised his peers at LAN Airlines and TAM Airlines for their merger, which he lauded as a boon for the entire region.

Australian safety regulators say operators of Airbus A380s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines should conduct a fresh round of powerplant inspections due to the discovery of a potential flaw in an oil feed pipe. The latest recommendation was prompted by new findings during the examination of the Trent 900 that suffered an uncontained failure during a Qantas flight from Singapore on Nov. 4. The discovery of the oil pipe problem “appears to provide a more definitive explanation for the [Nov. 4] engine failure,” Qantas says.

European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices continued October’s losses during the first few days of November, but regained some ground later in the month as prices climbed in line with higher natural gas and power prices. EUAs for delivery in December 2010 closed at €14.20 ($18.60) per metric ton on Nov. 8, the lowest since July 30. The losses were in line with falling U.K. natural gas and German power prices.

With more than 43,000 delivered since production began in 1955, Cessna’s Model 172 Skyhawk is by far the world’ best-selling civil airplane. And if George Bye has his way, it will become the most ecologically advanced one as well.

Todd Ernst has been tapped by Raytheon Co. as vice president-investor relations. He was a senior research analyst at Neuberger Berman, a division of Lehman Brothers Co. He succeeds Marc Kaplan, who has moved to Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems as head of strategic planning and assessment.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA-19 capsule touches down Nov. 26 near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, with International Space Station Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineer Shannon Walker, both of NASA, aboard, along with ISS Flight Engineer and Soyuz pilot Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos. All were in good shape after 163 days on the ISS.

In reference to several letters from readers over the last two months regarding global warning, an engineering background does help cut through the nonsense about the topic. Any thermal engineer knows that if you slow down heat transfer out of a system, it gets hotter. That’s what carbon dioxide does. Turning that into numbers has occupied many bright people for decades, and they publish their error bars, but the basics are accessible to anyone who knows calculus.

The FAA has returned Mexico to a Category-1 safety rating, which will remove restrictions placed on its carriers since the country’s rating was downgraded in July. The Category-1 rating was based on the results of an FAA review of Mexico’s civil aviation authorities last month. While Category-2 restrictions were in place, Mexican carriers could not add new service to the U.S. There were also restrictions placed on code-sharing between U.S. and Mexican carriers.

The Pentagon is demanding lower prices for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, pressuring Lockheed Martin and engine supplier Pratt & Whitney to go below their most aggressive cost targets.

Air China plans to set up a subsidiary airline at Dalian with the aim of exploiting the economic development in northeastern China. Dalian Airlines would fly local, provincial and national routes, and also to major cities in Japan and South Korea, says an industry official familiar with a framework agreement that Air China and the city have signed.

Airbus may be pitching its strategy to reengine the A320 family as the “minimum change approach,” but the potential consequences for it and its supply chain and rivals could be anything but that. But for those on the sidelines of the A320NEO (New Engine Option), like Bombardier and Rolls-Royce, the competitive landscape looks far worse. Rolls faces big questions about its product strategy (see p. 29) and Bombardier’s CSeries, already hurting for orders, faces a new rival with far greater market pull.

Germany should strengthen its competitiveness in economically useful applications, ensure that European assets on the International Space Station are put to maximum use and protect Europe’s technological independence, particularly in launchers, according to a new strategic space road map. But the plan, unveiled last week, makes scant mention of lunar exploration or space transportation technologies—two elements that had been high on the German agenda—reflecting changing European budget realities.

Australia has placed the acquisition of Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles for its Boeing F/A-18A/Bs on its “Projects of Concern” watch list because of delays. Project AIR 5418 Phase 1, planned for an initial operational capability against land targets this year, is “running late and risks to capability remain,” says the defense ministry. A live-fire test from an Australian F/A-18 in the U.S., planned for June, is now expected late this year or early next year.

With Congress at an impasse over seemingly everything and only one or two bills expected to pass out of the chambers before the 111th session adjourns, advocates are pressing to add their favorite provisions to must-pass legislation. That means getting language added to bills that otherwise would seem unrelated, even inappropriate, in normal times. But these are strange days, and advocates are thinking positively despite the odds.

Opposition party members in the French Senate say rapidly deteriorating economic conditions require a sweeping review of France’s defense spending plan, along the lines of one undertaken by the U.K. a month ago.

It is the most useful spacecraft ever built for humans to fly, and the most dangerous. The product of a crisis in space exploration very much like the one unfolding today, the U.S. space shuttle has defined the state of the art in human spaceflight for 40 years. Now, as it flies its last missions to the International Space Station, mankind’s next step off the home planet, the space shuttle fleet offers at least two generations’ worth of lessons for future space explorers.

David Leblanc has been named chief operating officer and Cameron Burr executive vice president-corporate development and marketing at Avioserv San Diego . Leblanc and Burr were partners at JetCapital, whose projects included the founding of Pogo Jet with Robert Crandall and Don Burr. They also served as managing directors at Aerothrust Leasing.

Just as the Netherlands is embarking on a major defense review in light of a declining military budget, the country is facing up to a 20% spike in the projected program cost for the planned purchase of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The latest cost estimates reflect increases in the core U.S. program, which are adding €1.4 billion to the Dutch bill for 85 aircraft.

USAF Brig. Gen. Teresa A. H. Djuric has been appointed deputy director of the Space and Intelligence Office within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon. She has been commander of the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development at the University of Air Education and Training Command, Maxwell AFB, Ala. Col. Christopher J. Bence has been nominated for promotion to brigadier general. He is deputy director of operations and plans at Headquarters U.S.

Southwest Airlines plans to convert some of its Boeing 737-700 orders to the 737-800—it is not yet saying how many—and expects to receive its first -800 in the first quarter of 2012. The low-cost carrier says it decided to “move forward with finalizing discussions” with Boeing regarding the substitution now that its flight attendants and pilots unions have ratified changes to their collective bargaining agreements to allow for the larger aircraft. Southwest, Boeing’s largest U.S. customer, currently operates 737-300, -500 and -700 series aircraft with 122-137 seats.

Seattle-area composite specialist Aim Aviation, which was featured in a Nov. 15 report (p. 60) on Boeing suppliers, has changed its name to Aim Aerospace.

Barely a week after Safran said it was abandoning plans to bid for French aerospace system supplier Zodiac, Zodiac executives have made a surprise offer to collaborate in electrical systems. Zodiac had rejected earlier overtures from Safran to explore a merger, which the big engine and equipment maker justified by the gradual shift in the aircraft industry from hydraulic to electric systems.