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.
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin believes high-profile program failures in aerospace and defense could be avoided by engineering elegant system designs. But he cannot quite define “elegance in design.” Paul Eremenko, a program manager with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), believes problems could be avoided by measuring and minimizing the complexity of system designs. But he cannot yet measure “complexity.”
Frederico Fleury Curado, the president and CEO of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, is frustrated that his company cannot shake long-held perceptions that it operates in a low-cost environment. He points to Brazil’s rising wages, high taxes and costly regulatory burdens. Meanwhile, a sharp rise in the value of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar is further eroding the once enviable cost advantage of operating in Brazil. Those are reasons why Embraer is moving assembly of some of its new business jets offshore—to the U.S.
Karen Loughran has been appointed manager-defense and aerospace for North America by the State Government of Victoria , Australia. Loughran, a native of Australia, brings more than 20 years of experience in business development for U.S. government and commercial organizations, including several aerospace companies.
An engineer clicks on an icon and the three-dimensional solid model on screen digitally transfers to a machine that hums to life half a world away. Metal powder melts under an incandescent beam of energy and a complex part takes shape, layer by layer. The component complete, the machine downloads another design file and begins building a different part.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board took a closer look last week at regional airlines and the codeshare agreements they frequently operate under, to discuss ways to improve operational safety, both real and perceived. Regional Airlines Association President Roger Cohen says regionals are “still very misunderstood,” even though they operate more than half of U.S. departures.
Airbus Military remains confident that the A400M Grizzly’s civil certification program will be completed by the end of next year as engineers recover from several problems that caused testing to slip slightly. There is also progress on the contractual front, with German government sources indicating that the country will only take 53 of the 60 military transports originally on order. In addition, French avionics specialist Thales will have to cover possible additional expenses for flight management system (FMS) changes, the sources say.
The layer of crushed concrete positioned at the terminus of 51 obstacle-ridden runways in the U.S. has accounted for seven aircraft saves, the latest when a Gulfstream G4 ground to a halt Oct. 1 at Teterboro (N.J.) Airport, its landing gear entrenched in what the FAA refers to as Engineered Material Arresting Systems (EMAS).
Howard Lefkowitz has joined inflight broadband provider Row 44 as chief commercial officer. He served as vice president-business development and marketing for Earthlink and helped Dick Clark Productions bring the first interactive prime-time show to network TV.
MISSION: STS-133, Fifth International Space Station Utilization Flight (ULF5), the 133rd launch of the shuttle program and the 35th to the ISS. ORBITER: Discovery (OV-103), making its 39th flight. Discovery last returned from orbit on April 20 at the conclusion of the STS-131 mission to deliver a load of supplies to the ISS.
Michael Mecham (Busan, South Korea, and Nagoya, Japan)
The biggest names in aerospace manufacturing in South Korea and Japan are heavily involved in their nations’ defense and space industries, but they are leveraging wing and fuselage contracts for Boeing’s 787 to expand their reach as global suppliers in commercial aviation.
Frank Morring, Jr., Aviation Week’s senior editor for space, received the 2010 Von Braun Memorial Dinner’s Media AwardOct. 27 from the National Space Club-Huntsville, Ala., Chapter during its 22th Annual Dr. Wernher von Braun Memorial Celebration.
Michael A. Taverna (Brussels), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
With a new U.S. space policy finally taking shape, plans to assemble a multinational space exploration effort patterned after the International Space Station are starting to advance. The five ISS partners, along with dozens of other countries with an interest in space—China and India among them—concurred at a European Union conference in Brussels Oct. 21 that exploration is only feasible if undertaken as an international partnership. The participants also accepted basic precepts to guide this effort.
Army acquisition, including of unmanned air systems and helicopters, increasingly will be driven by the imperative to “buy less, more often,” according to Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center. The Army Training and Doctrine Command also will speed up the frequency with which it reviews the concepts that inform new requirements, Vane told the Association of the U.S. Army conference last week in Washington.
