David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
With military tensions growing in East Asia, the U.S. is sending F-22s and F-15s equipped with advanced, long-range radars to Okinawa. The radars are designed for air-launched cruise and ballistic missile defense, U.S. Air Force and aerospace industry officials tell Aviation Week.
Like the customers to whom they supply products and services, aerospace and defense companies in recent years have had to adapt to a more difficult operating environment. For the most part, they have done remarkably well—so much so that exaggerated swings in business cycles may no longer define the industry. Only time will tell, of course, but evidence from Aviation Week’s 15th annual Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study surely points in that direction.
The global appetite for heavy-lift helicopters is boosting the prospects for Russia’s commercial rotorcraft industry and providing energy to several new projects.
Scott Thompson (McLean, Va. ), James W. Thomas (McLean, Va.)
The aerospace and defense industry managed to turn in a respectable performance in 2009, despite a severe global recession. Revenues increased by 2%, reaching a record. Deliveries of large commercial aircraft hit an all-time high of 979, despite concerns about available financing. Furthermore, defense spending remained stable and all the large defense primes except EADS reported revenue increases.
An Airbus-funded study estimates that the global gross domestic product has been cut by $5 billion because of the impact of volcanic ash-related airspace restrictions, of which $2.2 billion was incurred in the aviation sector. Losses of $4.7 billion reflect the GDP impact from the one-week shutdown of airspace in Europe in April. Another approximately $235 million in losses were incurred during airspace disruptions in May. Europe, where air transport was hit most severely, saw a loss of $2.6 billion.
India is carrying out a feasibility study into two designs of unmanned combat air vehicles as part of what is known as the Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft program. The Aeronautical Development Establishment and Aeronautical Development Agency are the two state-owned research institutes involved in the program. The planned technology demonstrator for the program is sometimes referred to as the Indian Unmanned Strike Aircraft Program.
Preparations to test the James Webb Space Telescope’s flight hardware are prompting an extensive remake of the giant thermal vacuum chamber that was so important in the Apollo era that it is registered as a national landmark.
Just days after formally announcing its operations, aircraft leasing company Avolon has announced a deal with Dutch counterpart AerCap to buy six Airbus A320s and form a joint venture to manage other assets. The joint venture, in which both companies are equal partners, starts out with the acquisition of three A330-200s that belonged to AerCap outright and are placed with Aeroflot on long-term lease. AerCap will continue to manage the lease. Of the six A320s Avolon is buying, two had been delivered to AerCap in 2008 and four are coming off the production line this year.
Mike Ellis (see photo) has been appointed vice president for pre-owned aircraft for the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. , Wichita, Kan. He was president of Mike Ellis & Associates and chairman of the National Aircraft Resale Association. Recent Hawker sales appointments are: Noell Michaels, vice president for the Eastern U.S.; Jim Christiansen, vice president for the Central U.S.; David Coppock, vice president for the Western U.S.; and John Meehan, vice president for Latin America.
Boeing recently announced that its ScanEagle Compressed Carriage (SECC) unmanned airborne system on May 12 underwent testing at a facility in eastern Oregon. In a 75-min. flight, the aircraft’s airworthiness and flight characteristics were evaluated in a simulated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission. The SECC, powered by a 6-hp., heavy-fuel engine, was launched from a ground vehicle, flew an autonomous flight plan at various altitudes and provided streaming video from its electro-optical/infrared sensor package to a nearby ground station.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Michael Bruno (Washington)
A high-stakes test of U.S. defense contractors’ willingness to defy their customer and apply political pressure to safeguard their programs is unfolding here. While key congressional votes late last week threatened to determine the fate of the alternate engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the bitter battle between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney is likely to continue until Congress finalizes the Fiscal 2011 defense budget.
Engineers have given up attempts to contact NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, after a new image of the spacecraft collected from orbit suggests a solar array has collapsed under the weight of frozen carbon dioxide at its polar landing site. Attempts to contact the spacecraft from the Mars Odyssey orbiter in 61 overflights earlier this month failed, and managers believe the lander is dead—probably after being buried by as much as a foot of carbon dioxide ice.
PowerJet, a joint venture between Snecma of France and NPO Saturn of Russia, completed its last certification test on May 26—medium bird ingestion—on the SaM146 regional jet engine that will power the Sukhoi Superjet 100. The powerplant now awaits European Aviation Safety Agency certification, which is expected this summer, perhaps in time to “break some news” at the Farnborough air show in late July, says Chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga. The contract with Sukhoi is to supply engines for the 122 firm orders already placed for the aircraft, plus 10% more for spares.
Kevin Burke, who is chairman/president/CEO of Consolidated Edison Inc. of New York, has been named to the board of directors of Honeywell International , Morris Plains, N.J.
The British coalition government is approving an independent review of the evidence into a 1994 Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook helicopter crash that killed 29 people. A board of inquiry at the time found the pilot and co-pilot guilty of negligence, though this finding has increasingly been contested.
Did anyone at NASA realize the irony of Atlantis launching on May 14, 37 years to the day—almost to the same hour—that the last Saturn V lifted off from the same Pad 39A? What a sad confluence for the endings to the U.S.’s two best accomplishments in space. Killing the current manned spaceflight programtells the world our best days are behind us.
The British Army has begun operating an upgraded variant of the AgustaWestland Lynx, the Mk9A, in Afghanistan. A total of 22 Lynx helicopters are being modified to the Mk9A standard, the main element of which is the more powerful LHTEC CTS800-4N engine providing better hot-and-high performance. The Mk9As now deployed were recently ferried into the country via a Royal Air Force Boeing C-17, which was flown from Brize Norton air base in southern England to Camp Bastion in the Helmand region of Afghanistan.
Boeing’s order book continues to give evidence of why the company is boosting 777 production rates. It posted two additional unidentified orders this week, bringing its total net 777 orders to 31 for the year. That is the highest level since 2007, when it had a whopping 58. At this time last year, the market was so sluggish—Boeing had only 10—that it pulled back on production rates, a decision recently reversed. Of this year’s orders, only FedEx’s decision to take four freighters has a customer’s name attached; 34 are for unidentified customers.
