Airlines are facing much tougher security standards for airfreight in the wake of the printer-bomb scare that may threaten current operational practices and raise costs considerably. Authorities in the U.S. have tamped down on security, banning shipments from Yemen and Somalia and adding restrictions on transporting printer cartridges and toners. Meanwhile, European interior ministers are pushing for new and stricter regulations to be adopted in December.
The European Commission has launched so-called “infringement procedures” against France, Germany, Austria and Finland over their discussions with Russia. The EC is worried the countries are working out bilateral deals on the charges that European Union-designated carriers must pay to Aeroflot in order to fly over Siberia on their way to Asia. European law requires aviation agreements to be negotiated at the EU level.
South Korean low-cost carriers have been targeting Japan as their major market for international expansion, but Japanese airlines will soon be fighting back. All Nippon Airways’ new low-cost carrier—no name for it has yet beeen made public—will start flying in the second half of 2011, and its first international stops are likely to be in China and South Korea.
The Royal Thai Air Force is adding unmanned aircraft to its shopping list as part of a plan to keep an eye on potential insurgent activities. The move is the latest in a series of procurement efforts aimed at upgrades across a range of capabilities. Although small in scale, owing to limited defense budget resources, the modernization drive spans mission sets from high-end fighters to establishing an air combat network and employing a host of surveillance tools. Helicopter updates are yet to come.
General Electric is poised to start testing a major upgrade to its GEnx-1B engine for the Boeing 787. The company’s goal is to bring specific fuel consumption within a percent of the original performance specification.
An attention-grabber in the Citation Ten is its instrument panel (below), which centers on three 14-in. LCD displays supplemented with four touch-screen control panels, an all-new capability. The integrated system’s laundry list of features includes synthetic vision, electronic charts, TCAS II, dual FMSs, solid-state weather radar with turbulence detection and vertical scan, ADS-B Out, and data link.
Astrium will acquire a majority stake in ND Satcom from SES Astra, reinforcing its government services business. The EADS affiliate will take a 75.1% stake in the Immenstaad, Germany-based integrator and supplier of satellite communications ground systems and equipment. ND Satcom has annual sales of €80 million ($110 million). Early this year SES announced its decision to unload the company, which was a non-core activity and weight on its profitability.
The French navy is planning a major overhaul of its airborne maritime surveillance fleet, and the first elements of the strategy are starting to take shape. The activity, due to unfold in the coming few years, involves several parallel paths that will extend the life of existing types but also introduce both new manned and unmanned systems.
Robert Behler (see photo) has been named president and CEO of Syracuse Research Corp. , succeeding Bob Roberts, who plans to retire by year-end. Behler was senior vice president and general manager of Mitre Corp.’s Command and Control Center. He also was the general manager of Precision Engagement at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. Before joining industry, he retired from the Air Force as a two-star general after a 31-year military career.
The Canadian defense ministry did a poor job estimating the cost and complexity of two of its main helicopter modernization projects, leading to a large underestimation of costs, the Auditor General of Canada has determined in a report issued Oct. 26. The audit looked only at government actions and missteps in purchasing 28 CH-148 Cyclones (modified Sikorsky S-92s to replace Sea Kings) and acquiring 15 CH-147 Chinooks. The combined life-cycle bill is several billion Canadian dollars higher than estimated, and both efforts have suffered delays, the report notes.
NASA is upping the ante for commercial human space travel with $200 million in the offing for companies to flesh out or flight-test technologies, an effort that will bolster a new market being pioneered by Bigelow Aerospace to operate leased outposts in orbit.
Sea Launch has completed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization under a plan that cedes control of the company to Energia Overseas Ltd., a unit of Russian space contractor Energia. Return to launch of the Land Launch derivative, carrying Intelsat 18, is planned in the first quarter of 2011, and Marine platform launches in the third quarter.
Tel Aviv’s major manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries, has flipped the American export industry model on its head. Instead of focusing on cheap, off-the-shelf products, it is moving into the role of providing foreign customers with systems tailored to their specific military needs.
The Italian air force is embarking on an extensive program to revamp its helicopter force to revitalize and redefine its combat search-and-rescue missions and other roles.
Small engines these days can mean big business, particularly if core architectures and technology can be leveraged for other higher-thrust applications. Early in the 2000s, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce realized the emerging super-midsize (SMS) business jet arena provided opportunities to launch new technology cores that could open doors to other markets, ranging from regional jets to next-generation airliners.
Australian investigators will review engine maintenance records as they look for the cause of the uncontained failure of a Rolls-Royce RB211-524G engine on a Qantas Airways Boeing 747-400 on Aug. 30. The intermediate turbine of the No. 4 engine disintegrated 15 min. after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport. Examination of the engine revealed that all blades had separated from the disk of the intermediate-pressure turbine. Debris burst through the engine, but without serious effects.
As systems become more complex, and more dependent on collaborative development using modeling and simulation, the ability to tap into computing power and software applications on demand could hold the key to making the aerospace industry’s products more affordable. Cloud computing is a business model, not a technology, but could transform the industry as profoundly as composites have and nanotech could—by making unlimited processing power and sophisticated software tools available affordably, collaboratively and securely across the global supply chain.
This false-color image of the Moon’s cratered south polar region illustrates the latest science on water ice there. Areas colored blue are the richest in hydrogen, which researchers believe is a component in water ice preserved in subsurface soils. The data shade through drier green to the red areas, which lack the water signature.
Aeroflot and Moscow’s second-largest airport, Sheremetyevo, are among about 900 Russian state-owned companies earmarked for privatization in the next five years as the government seeks to reduce the country’s deficit. Transport minister Igor Levitin says the privatizing of Aeroflot and Sheremetyevo is eyed for 2014-15, when consolidation of the airline and airport expansion will have boosted the value of both enterprises.
As a former naval aviator, F/A-18 program manager and commander of U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, Joe Dyer, chief operating officer of robotics company iRobot, has a unique perspective on how an innovative commercial company can prosper in the regulation-bound defense marketplace. His conclusion: The defense business brings discipline and technology; the commercial market brings a focus on value for money.
Heather Kelly has been tapped to become manager-external communications at Global Training and Logistics . With Kelly’s arrival, Warren Wright has been promoted to senior manager-internal and community relations and Gary Wilcox to manager-creative services.
The Russian air force expects to grow its fleet of Ansat-U light training helicopters to seven units by year-end, with five already handed over to the Syzran air force academy on Oct. 8 and Oct. 20. Air force commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin promised that these helicopters will gradually replace aging Mil Mi-2s as the rotorcraft used for initial pilot training in the military academies.
Twenty-five years after the discovery of fullerenes gave life to nanotechnology, these novel forms of carbon are making their presence felt in aerospace electronics and structures. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are cylindrical carbon molecules a few nanometers in diameter, 50 times stronger and 10 times lighter than steel, with three times the thermal conductivity and hundreds of times the electrical conductivity of copper. They are being used to develop conductive composites and multi-function materials.
The new electric-powered, tilt rotor “Panther” unmanned reconnaissance aircraft has just flown out of the black world of classified programs at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) where it made a series of clandestine flights to demonstrate its myriad capabilities, including low noise, electric power, small infrared signature, cruise and hover flight, and vertical takeoff and landing prowess.
