Hispasat is moving to reinforce its Amazonas transatlantic spacecraft fleet and Hisdesat secure communications satellite business in spite of a planned leverage buyout that could see one of its largest blocks of shares shift to new owners. The Spanish satcom operator last week selected Space Systems/Loral to build Amazonas-3, a big new C-/Ku-band satellite intended to replace the Amazonas-1 and provide additional growth capacity at the 61 deg. W. Long. Amazonas orbital slot. It is due to be orbited in 2012 by an unnamed launch provider.
Two years ago, a comparatively unknown—at least in the U.K.—Canadian company began to operate key facilities at the heart of British military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Privatizing the rotary-wing element of the Defense Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) was controversial, and the choice of the winning bidder—Vector Aerospace—raised eyebrows. CEO Declan O’Sheasat down with London Bureau Chief Douglas Barrie to discuss the challenges encountered and the progress made in supporting a major element of the British military’s helicopter fleet.
Michael A. Taverna (Villepinte, France), Douglas Barrie (London)
Contenders for an emerging French anti-tank missile requirement are positioning to bid for the program, though budget revisions may yet affect the shape and timing of any procurement, or indeed, whether one takes place at all.
This year’s rankings of publicly traded airlines identify those managers who have best positioned their companies for recovery from last year’s global recession and volatility in fuel prices. Scores represent the composite of five performance categories, placing significant emphasis on financial fitness and earnings performance. The five categories (and their contributions to total score) include:
Airbus CEO Tom Enders and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney are diametrically opposed when it comes to the U.S.-European trade dispute about government aviation subsidies. But the leaders of the two commercial aircraft giants are in tandem on another issue: China’s future as an aviation superpower. Airbus and Boeing believe Beijing’s drive to become a major producer of commercial aircraft is unstoppable. In Enders’s view, China is going to be “the aviation nation of this century. I see no way of preventing that.”
Matters of moment continue to be full of irony. Hours after the U.S.-Europe aviation trade dispute further escalated, Spirit AeroSystems and Airbus jointly opened composite materials manufacturing facilities in Kinston, N.C. The initiative underscores that the production of commercial transports is, more than ever, global. Spirit will produce the long-range A350 twinjet’s “Section 15,” a 65-ft.-long fuselage barrel, as well as other key airframe elements such as the wings’ front spars.
Sid Ashworth has been named vice president-Washington operations for GE Aviation . She was principal of the Ashworth Group and had been on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Allies’ eyebrows are raised by Joint Strike Fighter program director Vice Adm. David Venlet’s decision to skip the Farnborough air show. Venlet’s decision came as a surprise, given the important role that allies play in the F-35 program and the squeezes on their defense budgets. Venlet plans to stay in the U.S. to keep his focus on restructuring the program. Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter is planning to attend the show, although only for a short period.
Thales is working on a new slate of spinoffs for its active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, including a family of airborne surveillance radars and flat-panel and conformal designs suitable for communications, electronic attack and other advanced missions.
The German air force expects to overcome its main Eurofighter shortfall by year-end, allowing it to start rebuilding its operational squadrons. But pilots still want industry to fix several perceived deficiencies and are increasingly eager to add a multirole capability to the aircraft’s current air-to-air mission.
Fears of a giant defense hardware spending cut in France are diminishing after a cabinet decision on July 2 limiting the defense ministry’s contribution to a planned budget-trimming exercise. Press reports indicated the government asked the ministry to cut hardware spending by only €3.5 billion over the next three years, instead of the up to €5 billion that had been feared. The ministry must still decide which programs will be affected, though managers are considered likely to use payment deferrals, rather than delivery delays or cutbacks, to meet spending objectives.
The delivery last week of six Boeing F/A-18F aircraft has expanded the Royal Australian Air Force’s young Super Hornet fleet to 11. The first five arrived in late March. Australia is purchasing 24 of the Block II aircraft, with the last one due next year. Initial operational capability is slated for later this year. These aircraft constitute a gapfiller force to add volume to the RAAF fleet while it awaits the Lockheed Martin F-35.
A pair of big new plant investments underscore Safran’s commitment to reinforce and grow its aircraft electronics and turboshaft businesses. Safran’s new €60-million ($76-million) facility in Massy, near Paris, is intended to help regroup the company’s onboard electronics activities. Those businesses, previously spread across eight different sites operated by Safran’s Sagem, Hispano-Suiza and Messier-Bugatti affiliates, involve onboard computers, inertial navigation systems and other avionics equipment for civil and military aircraft.
The rollout of the naval variant of India’s homegrown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the NP-1, in Bengaluru (Bangalore) brought with it a reminder by Defense Minister A.K. Antony to the government’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which designed it, and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), which is building it, to keep up their industrial momentum.
Indonesian regional carrier Merpati Nusantara Airlines has received financial backing from the government to lease 13 Xi’an MA-60 aircraft from that subsidiary of China’s Avic Aircraft. Muhammad Said Didu, secretary of the state-owned enterprises ministry, says the aircraft will be progressively delivered this year and adds that Merpati’s technical team is planning a visit to the Xi’an plant to check on their condition.
As Germany considers a big reduction in force structure, it is mulling a multibillion-euro cut in procurements. All major equipment programs are vulnerable, according to a list the German defense ministry has drafted as background for budget deliberations. On the list are reducing Airbus Military A400M airlifter buys, parking Transall C160s, cutting the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter and NH Industries NH90 troop transport helicopter fleets, and curtailing Eurofighter Typhoon purchases.
USAF Brig. Gen. Michael A. Keltz has been named assistant director of operations, plans, programs and requirements at Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Hickam AFB, Hawaii. He was vice commander of the 7th Air Force, Pacific Air Forces/chief of staff of Air Component Command at Osan AB, South Korea. Brig. Gen. Robert P. Otto has been appointed director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities/deputy chief of staff for ISR at Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon.
Carol Marinello (see photo) has been appointed vice president-cabin solutions for Crane Aerospace & Electronics , Lynnwood, Wash. She was vice president-business operations and site leader for Alliant Techsystems’ Integrated Systems Div., Woodland Hills, Calif.
NASA’s inspector general says the agency has dealt adequately with most of the astronaut mental-health issues raised by Lisa Nowak’s February 2007 stalking arrest at the Orlando, Fla., airport. However, recommendations that the agency establish an alcohol-testing program, and that it adopt a mechanism to ensure astronauts report all illnesses and private treatments, have not been met, says the IG.
When it comes to electronic combat, receivers and antennas are not a problem (AW&ST June 28, pp. 52 and 56) as witnessed by the latest PDA in one’s pocket or purse. Power to emit long-duration jamming signals is the 800-lb. gorilla. Heat generated by the power source and, perhaps, massed computers will be secondary. The fractal geometry to design a conformal antenna is the same for a PDA—a jammer or a receiver is the same. Requiring it to be the size of a fuel tank, unless its for cubic storage of power units, or overly large antennas, is dumb.
After years of strategizing, and two failed attempts to select a KC-135 replacement, the Air Force is reviewing bids for the newest iteration of the KC-X refueler competition. The proposals were due by July 9. EADS North America’s proposal to replace 179 Boeing KC-135 tankers with an Airbus A330-200 derivative is based largely on the configuration in development for Australia and runs to 8,819 pages.
