Efforts to equip U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J Harvest Hawks with precision munitions are taking another step forward. Northrop Grumman says it has received a contract from the Joint Attack Munition Systems project office for 65 Viper Strike glide weapons for use on the KC-130J. The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, in charge of the Harvest Hawk development, recently completed a first round of testing of the Marine Corps gunship.
Airbus has signed a sole-source deal with Korean Air Aerospace to build the winglets for its A320s. The aircraft maker announced in November a firm plan to install the devices on A320s due to enter service in late 2012. The winglets, which Airbus calls “sharklets,” will later be installed on the A321 and A319. The 2.5-meter-high (8.2-ft.) devices will require wingbox stiffening, adding about 200 kg. (440 lb.) to the weight of the aircraft. Even so, Airbus promises an improvement in fuel burn of up to 3.5% at long ranges. Air New Zealand is the launch customer.
Thales Alenia Space will supply a bi-frequency altimeter for the U.S. Navy’s Geosat Follow-on (GFO) mission, intended to characterize the global ocean and tactical battlespace and complement data from the U.S.-European Jason altimetry satellites. GFO-2 will be built by Ball Aerospace and launched in 2014. The altimeter will be derived from the Poseidon instruments used on Jason, which Thales Alenia supplies. The present phase covers definition, design and system compatibility; the final contract is expected to be signed toward year-end.
EADS Astrium has completed testing of Hylas-1, an advanced broadband satellite intended to bring high-speed Internet services to rural areas across Europe. Avanti Communications, which owns the spacecraft, says Hylas-1 is to be launched in the third quarter by Arianespace, probably on an Ariane 5. The unit was initially set to be orbited by a Soyuz 2.1 launcher from its new pad in Kourou, French Guiana, but the pad is not expected to be ready until the fourth quarter.
The first 3D aviation film produced in a 15/70-mm. Imax format is scheduled to premier on June 8, and focuses on a behind-the-scenes the look at the design and development of Boeing’s 787 to illustrate key aerospace milestones over the past century. Legends of Flight is the latest Giant Screen Films feature from Canadian filmmaker Stephen Low, whose credits include Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag and Titanica.
The Euro Hawk unmanned aircraft being designed to fill a gap in the German air force’s signals-intelligence capability is imminently due to commence flight trials, kicking off a test campaign that should see the high-altitude, long-endurance system transfer to Germany this year.
The Russian air force has received the first full training device for its Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft. The simulator is in use with the air force’s 4th combat employment and training center at Lipetsk. The training device was developed by the Zhukovsky-based CSTS Dinamika. The system completed government evaluation tests at the end of 2009, with approval for serial production following.
Telesat will be the latest satellite operator to deploy a hosted payload for government and military use. The X-band payload will be installed on Anik G1, ordered last week from sister company Space Systems/Loral. International Launch Services was signed up for the launch, set for the second half of 2012. To be located at 107.3 deg. W. Long., G1 will also carry 16 extended Ku-band transponders to be operated by Shaw Direct, a leading Canadian direct-to-home television provider, along with 12 Ku- and 24 C-band transponders to serve the hot South American market.
NASA has adjusted the launch window for its Mars Science Laboratory rover slightly to gain better conditions for entry and landing at the red planet. Doug McCuistion, Mars exploration director at agency headquarters, tells a Space Studies Board committee that the new launch date will come somewhere between the last week in November and mid-December 2011, and not in September-October as earlier planned. Meanwhile, Mars-science planners at NASA and the European Space Agency have decided to forgo an opportunity to launch a sample return mission in 2020.
When it arrived at the last ILA Berlin Air Show, OHB Technology was a relative unknown still trying to parlay a surprise victory in the German SARLupe radar satellite competition into a reputation as a global satellite supplier. During the show, the Bremen-based company—Germany’s second-largest space contractor after EADS Astrium—inked a preliminary agreement with Hispasat to build its first geostationary telecom satellite, based on an all-new bus of its own design. It has not looked back since.
Robert Wall (Ueberlingen and Schrobenhausen, Germany)
Even with today’s budget constraints, Germany is preparing to kick-start several air defense upgrade efforts, underscoring the importance of this arena in the nation’s military modernization strategy.
Initial reports indicate success for the launch of Arabsat’s BADR-5 satellite by an International Launch Services Proton-1/Breese M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 3. The first three stages separated without event. Constructed by EADS Astrium, the spacecraft will provide digital television services to the Middle East and North Africa.
Robert Wall (Ueberlingen and Schrobenhausen, Germany)
The limited scope of Germany’s weapons procurements is forcing industry to look abroad to sustain production lines for several high- profile missile programs.
The U.S. and France last week agreed to implement the Immigration Advisory Program (IAP) to identify high-risk passengers before they board flights to the U.S., according to the U.S. Homeland Security Department. The formal signing is planned for August. Under the IAP, specialized U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel at foreign airports would examine passenger analysis information or travel documentation to make “no board” recommendations to airlines and host governments.
Russia’s Soyuz TMA-17 crew vehicle touches down in Kazakhstan with a flash of its cushioning retrorockets, ending Expedition 23 to the International Space Station. Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, the Expedition 23 commander, and flight engineers Timothy Creamer of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spent 163 days in space—a record for JAXA—before their safe return June 1. Kotov’s crew greeted three NASA space shuttle missions during its stay and built up facilities for the scientific research underway on the orbiting laboratory.
The rapid expansion of Ryanair and EasyJet, Europe’s two most dynamic airlines in recent years, is starting to ease with growth-for-growth’s-sake no longer the driving force in the airlines’ business plans.
Israel Aerospace Industries says it will display at next week’s Eurosatory exhibition an unmanned aircraft that can take off, hover in one place and land without any additional landing or recovery systems. The ETOP (Electric Tethered Observation Platform) can be deployed from a static or moving ground vehicle or station, from which it also derives its energy. The ETOP can carry a payload of up to 20 kg. to a maximum altitude of 100 meters (328 ft.), and hover at altitude for as long as its energy source on the ground lasts.
The first of 12 planned next-generation Global Positioning System satellites should enter service in three to six months after its May 27 launch from Cape Canaveral AFS on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket. The 206-ft.-tall launch vehicle, assisted by two strap-on solid rocket motors, soared off Launch Pad 37B at 11 p.m. EDT, ending a string of delays including a dramatic abort seconds before liftoff due to an anomalous reading from one of the strap-on motors’ steering systems.
One hundred years after the first German air show, the country’s aerospace industry is grappling with the fallout of two difficult years as it gathers for the ILA Berlin Air Show June 8-13 at Schoenefeld Airport. Military and commercial activities will be heavily represented, with the Airbus Military A400M marking its air show debut and Lufthansa and Emirates both showing off newly received Airbus A380s.
Eurocopter will introduce a new rotor blade shape into its inventory following completion of full-scale flight tests on board an EC155, an upgrade of the venerable Dauphin. The shape, dubbed Blue Edge Blade, features a double-swept configuration intended to sharply reduce noise—a major concern in urban operations. It was developed by Eurocopter and French defense research agency Onera based on a patented Erato configuration devised by Onera and German aerospace center DLR. The shape demonstrated a noise reduction of 4-7 dB. in wind-tunnel tests and 3-4 dB.
In publishing the final rule establishing the requirements for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), the FAA has stuck with its deadline for all aircraft in U.S. airspace to be equipped by 2020, but has reduced the performance specifications in a bid to minimize costs.
Brian Humphries, president/CEO of the European Business Aviation Association, has received the annual Business Aviation Meritorious Service Award from the Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Safety Foundation . This award is presented annually at the Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar by FSF to recognize an ability to improve the safety of business aviation.
Rolls-Royce has run a new core in the E3E (efficiency, environment, economy) two-shaft engine research program. The core, 3/2b, which has run 40 hr. at Stuttgart University in Germany, achieved good results, the engine maker says. Work on the core, funded by German federal and state governments, is to continue in the next two years with 1,200 cycles of endurance testing.
David A. Fulghum defines a “sixth-generation” aircraft as being optionally manned, stealthy and having advanced payloads such as an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar (AW&ST April 26, p. 50). He then cites the remotely piloted General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator C as an example. Predator C is not optionally manned or stealthy and does not carry an AESA radar. But it represents a huge generational leap.
