Boeing is starting flight tests of aerodynamic and performance improvements to the 737 using a United Airlines -800. Testing and certification of the package, aimed at reducing fuel consumption by 2%, will continue through April 2011. The changes are expected to be phased into production from mid-2011 through early 2012.
Jimmy Johnston has joined Primus International as chief people officer. He was leader of global human resources management teams for GKN Aerospace. Pat Thurman has been named senior vice president of Primus’ Composites Group. She was vice president/general manager for several businesses of TECT Aerospace.
Two Boeing 787s were ferried back to Seattle from remote sites on Nov. 16 after being grounded in the wake of the Nov. 9 inflight electrical fire on test aircraft ZA002. Boeing says an investigation of the fire in the P100 power distribution panel in the aft electronic equipment bay shows the fire itself burned for less than 30 sec., while the entire incident lasted for less than 90 sec.
The U.K. Royal Air Force took delivery of its seventh, and possibly final, C-17 at Boeing’s Long Beach, Calif., facility on Nov 16. Following the ceremony, the aircraft flew to the U.S. Air Force’s San Antonio Air Logistics Center at Kelly AFB, Texas, for installation of the Northrop Grumman Large Aircraft IR Countermeasures system, and is expected to arrive in the U.K. before year-end.
A chain of related announcements have served to focus attention on the capability and future of the Hawker 400. One of the more popular light jets, the aircraft began life in the late 1970s as the Mitsubishi MU-300 Diamond and was renamed the Beechjet 400 after Beech Aircraft acquired the program the following decade. It then became the Hawker 400 after the merger with that marque.
Final approval of the space segment of Eumetsat’s Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) weather satellite system should be forthcoming by all the Eumetsat states next month, following Germany’s approval of the plan. MTG, which will comprise four imaging satellites and two sounding spacecraft, is expected to begin replacing Eumetsat’s existing geostationary Meteosat network in 2018. Seventeen nations, representing 75% of the satellite system’s total cost, are now ready to green-light development.
Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie’s Viewpoint on the F-35 engine competition is right on (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 66). A weapon system program of the size and scope of the F-35 should not be restricted to one engine program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s emphasis on reducing cost and improving acquisition efficiency is appropriate, but his opposition to a competitive engine for the F-35 is penny-wise, pound-foolish thinking.
Defense systems engineering has slid backward in recent years. Cookbook processes numb the mind with checklists that have no relation to achieving what former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin calls “elegant design.”
Orbital Sciences Corp. will mount an early test flight of its planned Taurus II liquid-fueled launch vehicle to “buy down risk” before launching to the International Space Station, provided Congress makes extra funds available. David W. Thompson, Orbital’s chairman and chief executive, says the early test would enable his company to send as much as a half-ton of cargo to the ISS on the demonstration flight it must make under its Commercial Orbital Tansportation System (COTS) partnership agreement with NASA.
The chill that has left business and general aviation shivering for the past couple of years seems to be easing, at least in sunny Torrance, Calif., home of Robinson Helicopter Co. President and CEO Kurt Robinson says that whereas some customers last year were unable to obtain financing and defaulted on orders, “All that’s gone now. We’re back to regular production, which is great.”
As India’s homegrown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas) nears critical initial operational clearance next month, Indian air force officials say the aircraft will fail to meet performance requirements laid down by the service for the limited-profile Mk.1 platform.
U.S. aerospace and defense program management has come down to three things: execution, execution and execution. Two years into the worst programmatic bloodletting in generations, and with as many or more years of the same to come, program managers and corporate bosses are recognizing that their business lines will depend on excellent execution of contracts already won. Whether they can adopt that focus quickly and deeply enough in their enterprises, however, remains to be seen.
Russian ground forces are preparing to field new unmanned aircraft, plugging a capability gap in their arsenal that was highlighted during the 2008 conflict in Georgia. The Russian military has opted for three unmanned systems to be evaluated for a trial period, after a downselect from a larger set of candidates. Shortlisted are the Orlan-10, built by St. Petersburg-based Special Technology Center (STC); the Zala-421-04M Lastochka, designed by a Zala Aero/Vega Concern team; and Eleron-10, developed by Enics from Kazan.
Festooned with more than 2,000 sensors, Pratt & Whitney’s first PW1524G geared turbofan engine is in the midst of its initial development test program at the company’s West Palm Beach, Fla., site. Destined to enter service in 2013 on the Bombardier CSeries family of airliners, the engine is the first of a series of low-noise, low-fuel-burn geared turbofans Pratt is developing for regional and mainline jets including, it hopes, re-engined versions of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
Despite a stinging rebuke by Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, the Obama administration and Democratic allies in the Senate are pressing ahead for ratification of the U.S.-Russian New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty in December—before the GOP-infused 112th Congress takes over. Kyl, deputized by his party to negotiate Senate ratification with the White House, sent shock waves from Washington to Moscow last week when he said he would not support a Senate vote during the “lame-duck,” post-election session of the 111th Congress.
Concern over the pace of the Airbus A350XWB’s systems-installation design has prompted Airbus to warn of a potential schedule slip, as memories of the A380’s production line dramas continue to haunt the manufacturer.
Iain Blackhall has been appointed managing director-civil aviation at Aviation Week . Blackhall was managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
While controversy over the TSA’s latest airport security screening fills web pages and cable news channels, lawmakers and federal officials face several more aviation security issues. Even as some airline passengers complain over the “law-enforcement” pat-downs, the US Airline Pilots Association (Usapa) and Allied Pilots Association tell member pilots to choose them over Advanced Imaging Technology scans to help limit their total potential radiation exposure.
GKN Aerospace is examining how technologies developed for the all-electric deicing system on the Boeing 787 can be adapted to address other issues arising with new aircraft designs, particularly the widespread use of composites in airframes.
Marvin Díaz (see photo) has been named managing director for Mexico by American Airlines . He was managing director of finance for Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. Marixa Franco was appointed managing director of ramp services at Miami International Airport.
Eric Cote (see photo) of Syracuse Research Corp., has been selected for the Technology Outreach Program of the National Reconnaissance Office . William Penny, CBE, was made an honorary doctor of technology by Bournemouth University in England. He is best known for his leading role in developing the “black box” flight recorder.
I read “Designs for Success” with bemused amazement, especially the discussion of a need for a new approach to the design and implementation of complex systems. Today’s systems engineering approach lacks respect for following through on the complete process. When heritage designs are scaled into new territory and trade studies are short-circuited, “elegance” is hard to achieve. When budgets are formulated without allowing for sufficient test time, robustness similarly suffers.
Sukhoi plans to hand over a new batch of four Su-34 fighters to the Russian air force by year-end, with the aircraft currently undergoing flight testing.
As the Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation progresses into the Nov. 4 in-flight uncontained failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine on a Qantas Airbus A380, it has emerged that Rolls may have known about deficiencies well before the incident.
Scientists in Japan and elsewhere will have a new batch of extraterrestrial samples to study, following confirmation that Japan’s Hayabusa sample-return probe collected and returned material from the asteroid Itokawa in its troubled seven-year mission.
