Jade Cargo has selected Boeing’s Airplane Health Management (AHM) system to monitor its fleet of six 747-400 freighters. The performance monitoring and custom alerting and analysis modules transmit airplane performance and consumption data to help carriers improve airplane fuel efficiency, flight-planning and maintenance scheduling. AHM system alerts and notifications are sent to airline staff through the MyBoeingFleet.com portal. Boeing is also supplying Italy-based cargo operator Cargoitalia with a newly converted MD-11 freighter through a long-term lease.
James Huddle, director of advanced projects in the Advanced Technology and Strategic Applications organization at the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Navigation Systems Div., Woodland Hills, Calif., has won the Kershner Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Institute of Navigation Position Location and Navigation Symposium Executive Committee. The award, which is named for Richard B.
The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has set a July 15 deadline for submissions to its pilot fatigue survey. EBAA plans to present the results to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is writing regulations on pilot flight times for implementation among all EASA members beginning in June 2012. Current regulations vary among states. Historically, rules for business aviators are generally the same as those for airline pilots. EBAA hopes the survey will result in regulations more tailored to business aviation operations.
The trinational Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is once again under scrutiny, and its fate could be determined by a series of political and programmatic developments due to unfold in the coming weeks. The U.S.-German-Italian lower-tier air and missile defense program has been on knife’s edge more than once. And this summer, government officials must confront what it will cost to complete the program, while also deciding how to finance and structure the last few years of the design and development phase.
Boeing is gearing up to start full performance tests of the 787 and is in the planning stages for a service-ready demonstration with launch customer All Nippon Airways.
The implications of the maiden Falcon 9 launch (see pp. 37 and 41) are not being lost on overseas space agencies. European Space Agency director general Jean-Jacques Dordain says there are lessons to be learned from the launch success, even though he notes there is a big difference between the U.S. and European contexts.
Christian Gras (see photos) has been appointed executive vice president-customers and Matthieu Louvot vice president/head of corporate strategy and development for Eurocopter , Marignane, France. Gras succeeds Philippe Harache, who has resigned. He was executive vice president-customer support for Latin America for the Strategy and Marketing Group of parent company EADS. Louvot was an adviser to the French president on industry, energy and transportation. He succeeds Andreas Loewenstein, who is now senior vice president-strategy and development for Paris-based DCNS.
Ad Astra Rocket Co. is assessing a cooperative unmanned rendezvous mission to a yet-to-be-selected asteroid with a spacecraft and scientific payload powered by the experimental Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr), according to Franklin Chang-Diaz, the seven-time space shuttle astronaut who serves as the company’s CEO and president.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries is considering a joint venture with a foreign aerospace company to build and support a minimum-change civil version of its XC-2 airlifter, the YCX.
Russian Helicopters has unveiled plans to add a new member to its best-selling Mil Mi-8/Mi-17 medium helicopter family. The Mi-171M is due for its first flight in 2011 and to enter service in 2013. Russian Helicopters, a holding that unites the country’s rotorcraft industry, says it has seen a surge in Mi-17/171 customer interest, in large part because of the system’s performance in Afghanistan.
Former NASA astronaut Jim Reilly has been named dean of the School of Science and Technology at the online American Public University System , Charles Town, W. Va.
India’s fervor for self-sufficiency in the defense sector has been matched so far only by its inability to deliver fully on this aspiration. The path is marked with failed—or ineffective—programs, while others stretch decades beyond their original development and delivery schedules.
Surging passenger and freight demand is propelling a dramatic improvement in the financial outlook for the global airline industry. Asian and U.S. carriers are leading the turnaround, and even Europe’s economic and volcano woes should not be enough to derail a return to profitability this year.
A clear trend toward regulatory reform is promoting Indian business aviation, leaving the industry increasingly focused on other obstacles to its growth, notably infrastructure.
Bombardier plans to purchase ExelTech Aerospace’s Saint-Laurent, Quebec, facility and use it for Global 5000 and Global Express XRS business jet completions. Bombardier has been working on plans to expand its Global Completion Center in Montreal for a while, so when ExelTech Aerospace declared bankruptcy, Bombardier jumped at the chance to buy the 115,000-sq.-ft.-facility, which is across the street from its own location.
Boeing has rolled out the first 747-8F in the colors of launch airline Cargolux and, despite recent test delays, says delivery remains on track for the fourth quarter.
The acrimony generated by FAA’s response to a slot swap between Delta Air Lines and US Airways could be dissipating after the regulator acquiesced to the airlines’ request for another 30 days (until July 2) to respond to the ruling. This differs greatly from the airlines’ initial reaction to FAA’s decision, which demands divestiture of slots at New York LaGuardia Airport and Washington Reagan National Airport. The deal would give Delta a dominant presence in New York and US Airways a hub in Washington.
President Barack Obama’s latest nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration hears from senators about how unhappy they are with the TSA. Deputy FBI Director John S. Pistole is the third candidate for a key job that has been vacant for more than a year.
Whether the wording of the New Start treaty contains restrictions on U.S. missile defenses is fast emerging as the critical issue for the Senate as it considers ratifying the treaty. Given the stakes involved, it is worth pausing to see whether the infatuation with missile defense—on both sides of the aisle—is really justified. The thinking is that these “defenses” will somehow protect us from the enemy’s nuclear missiles. They will not. The New Start treaty, which would lead to reductions in nuclear stockpiles, should not be held hostage to this tempest in a teapot.
Bettina H. Chavanne (Washington), Andy Nativi (Genoa)
The myriad industrial relationships broken and reforged for the newly relaunched U.S. presidential helicopter competition seem to represent a larger trend in defense manufacturing. It’s not the world that’s shrinking, it’s the world economy. Boeing announced June 8 it is buying full intellectual property, data and production rights from AgustaWestland for its AW101 aircraft. “This is not a partnership,” says Phil Dunford, vice president and general manager of Boeing Rotorcraft. “This will be a Boeing-built airplane.”
Engineers are checking out Japan’s second Servis satellite following a successful launch on June 2. The spacecraft was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia by a Rockot booster. It was the first mission since last year for Rockot, which is marketed by the Astrium-Khrunichev joint venture Eurockot. Like Servis-1, launched in 2003, Servis-2 will serve to demonstrate the use of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies (COTS) in space conditions. The 736-kg. (1,622-lb.) 1.3-kw.
Although the Obama administration’s space policy is not yet in place, NASA is already exploring ways to implement the president’s new partnership approach. Deputy Administrator Lori Garver was in Berlin last week on the first leg of a six-day trip that will also take her to Paris and Vienna. Garver said the trip is intended to explain new programs planned and solicit potential international cooperation, even though formal commitments will have to await approval of the agency’s new budget.
A technician of Indian company Dynamatic Technologies works on fabrication of the left vertical stabilizer of a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft under subcontract from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Such defense work has helped Dynamatic build its credentials in winning commercial business from Western customers. Dynamatic is part of the wave of privately owned Indian aerostructures and component makers that is moving into the international market. A special report on the aerospace industry in India begins on page 50. Dynamatic Technologies photo.
Reader Tom Megna doesn’t “get” spaceplanes (AW&ST May 24, p. 10). Spaceplanes are airplanes. They have rocket engines, reaction controls and thermal protection but are airplanes in engineering essentials. Also, they are fully reusable and are piloted.
