As new competitors enter the commercial aircraft market, Boeing and Airbus face big decisions about how to keep their products on the leading edge. Should they make incremental upgrades now, or wait until game-changing technologies are ready? Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney sat down at the company’s Chicago headquarters with AW&ST Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo to discuss the options the company is mulling and why he thinks China will become the industry’s next big power.
African leaders are hoping a new spacecraft will give fresh impetus to a bold plan to set up the continent’s first coast-to-coast indigenous satellite system. Scheduled for liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, onboard an Ariane 5 ECA booster on Aug. 4, the 3-metric-ton, 6.4-kw. spacecraft, Rascom-QAF1R, will replace an initial satellite, Rascom-QAF1, orbited in December 2007. It suffered a helium leak shortly after launch that cut its expected lifetime from at least 15 years to three.
As the defense industry bemoans dwindling money in Defense Department coffers, it is benefitting from brisk business abroad, with billions of dollars in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) each year. The helicopter industry in particular may be able to take advantage of overseas markets as production stateside slows.
In the push for ever-longer endurance for unmanned aircraft, conventional fuels are being left behind. Liquid hydrogen is the flavor of the day because its energy content is almost three times that of jet fuel, offering the lightest solution for the longest duration.
AmSafe has introduced cargo and bulk-hold nets manufactured using lightweight Dyneema, the world’s strongest fiber, according to the company. Safety-critical aviation barrier nets are the only certified form of textile restraints that are structural to the aircraft and are designed to meet or exceed the requirements of aviation regulatory authorities worldwide. The company says cargo restraint system made with 100% Dyneema can substantially contribute to the reduction of weight when compared to those made with conventional polyester or nylon.
The U.S. is preparing to launch a study of its future theater airlift options, but affordability could doom the more advanced concepts offering new battlefield capabilities. The Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL) analysis of alternatives could answer the question of whether the principal role of tactical transports will continue to be moving people and pallets or evolve to include the delivery of combat forces direct to the battlefront.
John Young has become a senior fellow and member of the board of regents of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies , Arlington, Va. He was U.S. undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Joe Sprague has become vice president-marketing for Alaska Airlines , in addition to heading Alaska Airlines Cargo. Steve Jarvis, who was vice president-marketing, sales and customer experience, has been appointed vice president-customer innovation and alaskaair.com.
Makino, the global machine tool company, has linked the capabilities of a new series of machining centers with an advanced technology for cutting titanium, the expensive, lightweight and durable metal that coexists easily with composites.
Roy Minson has been appointed vice president-business development/deputy general manager of for unmanned aircraft systems for AeroVironment Inc. , Monrovia, Calif. He was vice president/operations manager for an R&D business within the Tactical Systems and Solutions Div. of the Science Applications International Corp.
In 10-20 years, the U.S. Air Force could have a fleet of human implants, “smart” skull caps and autonomous “fractionated,” but survivable, aircraft, says the service’s top scientist. Improved autonomy, human-machine interfaces and fractionated systems (those that spread functional elements across many platforms rather than integrating them) are areas that Air Force Chief Scientist Werner Dahm says are “intelligent bets” for investment.
While it may be only a “third”-generation platform, China’s FC-1/JF-17—slated to make its show debut—is a harbinger of the changing shape of the manned combat aircraft landscape.
Boeing is still officially saying it expects to make its first 787 delivery to launch customer All Nippon Airways by year-end, but the program’s general manager, Vice President Scott Fancher, has issued a “caution” that the handover might slip into the first weeks of 2011.
A verdict is still pending on the eventual commercial success of Bombardier’s CSeries narrowbody. But one thing is already clear—the aircraft has sounded the end of the Airbus-Boeing duopoly that has dominated the market for the past two decades.
Joanne Davis (see photos) has been named director of government contracts and William Gay director of completion sales for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. , Savannah, Ga. Davis was contracts manager for General Dynamics Land Systems in London, Ontario, while Gay was a Gulfstream completion sales executive.
Wes Bush has wasted no time putting his mark on Northrop Grumman Corp. Three days after he became CEO on Jan. 1, the U.S. defense and space giant announced it would move its headquarters to the Washington area from Los Angeles. Then, Northrop pulled out of a partnership with EADS NV to bid on the gargantuan U.S. Air Force tanker contract, charging that the Pentagon’s revised selection criteria gave an unfair advantage to Boeing Co.’s smaller and less costly aircraft.
The entire supply chain for Airbus and Boeing is fretting over the strategic choices the two will make on their near-term single-aisle strategies, with an eye on new business opportunities should the aircraft makers proceed with plans to reengine their narrowbody aircraft or even launch something new.
The new U.S. Air Force “Technology Horizons” study contains a list of 30 “potential capability areas” that Chief Scientist Werner Dahm says could provide a disproportionate advantage for the Air Force. The top 10 are: •Inherently intrusion-resilient cyber-systems. •Automated cyber-vulnerability assessments. •Decision-quality prediction of behavior. •Augmentation of human performance. •Constructive environments for discovery and training. •Adaptive flexibly autonomous systems.
British Army Gen. David Richards will succeed Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup as U.K. chief of the defense staff, in October. The changeover will likely follow the publication of the government’s Strategic Defense and Security Review. Richards is the Army’s chief of the general staff.
Marijana O’Dwyer (see photo) has been appointed head of commercial aviation activities for Luxembourg-based Aviatrax . She was head of marketing and administration for the Dubrovnik (Croatia) Airport.
Bradley J. Little has been appointed senior director of international development for Arinc Engineering Services , Annapolis, Md. He was chief of staff for the U.S. State Department at Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mark Gaffney has been named director of advanced support for Metron Aviation , Dulles, Va. He was director of the FAA’s air traffic management laboratories for the Lockheed Martin Corp.
I was intrigued by reader Joseph Lavender’s suggestion for streamlining weapons systems acquisition (AW&ST June 7, p. 10). It is very bold indeed. Either this individual has visions of grandeur or he knows how to develop performance-cost-schedule simulations and may have done so.
A fix to the Minotaur IV rocket software that held up launch of the first Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite will take about two weeks, says Gary Payton, Air Force deputy undersecretary for space. SBSS, designed by Boeing/Ball, will provide surviellance of other satellites in the crowded geosynchronous belt. Once testing of the repair is complete, SBSS has top launch priority from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
