I was stunned when reading Robert Wall’s article relating to Europe’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the financial and administrative burden it is to air carriers (AW&ST May 3, p. 60). In light of the Climategate and Chicago Carbon Exchangescandals, why do the Europeans continue to perpetuate such a system, which only harms prospects for European Union operators? Although no one denies that aviation adds to the atmospheric levels of CO2, the hypothesis that this impacts global temperatures is far from proven.
Engine manufacturers are set to make unprecedented use of flying testbeds despite the increased availability of ground-based simulation, modeling and testing capabilities.
Honeywell is starting full-engine tests of the first HTF7500E for Embraer’s Legacy midsize and midlight jets and parallel tests of the low-emissions Saber combustor technology with which it will enter service.
Mango and Tango, the two orbiting technology testbeds in Sweden’s Prisma mission, are set for launch from Yasny, in southern Russia, on a June 15 Dnepr flight. Once in orbit, the Prisma spacecraft will test techniques for formation-flying and rendezvous, including the sensors and guidance, navigation and control systems. Also on the agenda are tests of the High Performance Green Propellant developed by Sweden’s Ecaps.
Microtecnica, the highly specialized Italian aerospace company that provides actuation, hydraulics and thermal control systems to engine and airframe prime contractors, is for sale. The British private equity company Stirling Square Capital Partners, which acquired Microtecnica in 2008 in an institutional management buyout, has tasked a merchant bank to find a suitable buyer for the company, which is valued at around €350 million (considering its €200 million annual revenues and a positive gross operating result of more than €30 million).
George T. Whitesides, who stepped down as NASA chief of staff May 11, will rejoin Virgin Galactic as CEO. Whitesides, 36, was a senior adviser to the startup space tourism company owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Will Whitehorn will continue as Virgin Galactic’s president.
Globalstar says an upgrade of its satellite ground control center and approval of the dispenser for its second-generation satellite fleet have been completed, clearing the way to open the launch window for the first six-satellite batch of the new low-Earth-orbit spacecraft. The window will open on July 5 but launch, from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazhakhstan, is likely to wait until September or early October, as indicated early this year (AW&ST Feb. 1, p. 44).
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
The growing overlap of electronic warfare and cyber-invasion is generating excitement around the U.S. Navy’s competition for the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) and the U.S. Air Force’s reentry into the world of airborne electronic attack. A key enabling technology is a six-sided active, electronically scanned array (AESA) that more than doubles the field of view of today’s electronically scanned antennas on advanced aircraft such as the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
Comac plans to use carbon-fiber composite for the center wingbox of its 156-seat C919 narrowbody airliner but stick to aluminum for the outer wing to limit technical risk. The manufacturer aims to develop a completely composite wing for later versions of the aircraft, says an industry source closely involved in the effort. The company’s other project, the ARJ21, is suffering more serious delays.
For several weeks, U.S. airlines have been operating under the threat of fines of up to $27,000 per passenger for any flight delayed on the ground for more than 3 hr. It is hard to disagree with the motivation for this new rule. The airlines need to be held accountable, and some of the most egregious delays have clearly been the result of poor judgment.
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The National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) of the Netherlands has delivered a 1:5-scale model of the Enhanced Rotorcraft Innovative Concept Achievement (Erica) hybrid tiltrotor/tiltwing aircraft to German aerospace facility DLR for initial testing. Part of the European Union’s €35.5-million ($43.8-million) NiceTrip project, the model is intended to mitigate risk associated with tiltrotor technology, particularly aerodynamic interaction, rotor performance and whirl stability.
The first of two new presidential Tupolev Tu-214PU aircraft for the Russian government logged its first flight on May 19. The Tu-214, built by the Kazan Aircraft Manufacturing Association (KAPO), is to serve as an airborne command center and presidential transport in cases where the existing heavy four-engine widebody Ilyushin Il-96-300PU cannot land. The aircraft will be assigned to the aviation detachment of the presidential administration and deliver a range of more than 6,250 mi.
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (Ifalpa) is condemning Australia’s plan to amend aviation security regulations governing flight deck access. Ifalpa President Carlos Limon last week detailed two concerns with Aviation Transport Security Amendment 2010/80, which was introduced in early May. First, its structure shifts the legal responsibility for regulatory compliance from the airline to the pilot-in-command, which is counter to international conventions.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood names a new “Future of Aviation Advisory Committee,” and the general aviation community has mixed feelings. The panel is to meet for the first time May 25. One of the appointees is Cessna Aircraft mogul Jack Pelton. That is seen as a plus by the GA crowd, since Pelton is an active pilot, aircraft owner and staunch, respected advocate for the segment. But almost all the other 17 members of the panel are closely affiliated with the airline industry, including four airline presidents and three employee union representatives.
Japan launched its Akatsuki Venus orbiter May 21, sending the probe, also known as Planet-C, and the Venus Climate Orbiter to study the planet’s dense atmosphere. Liftoff from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tannegashima Island launch site came after a five-day delay because of weather. The mission also carries the Ikaros solar-sail experiment.
Two still unidentified voices not belonging to the four flight-deck personnel were heard in the cockpit of the Polish air force Tupolev Tu‑154 before it crashed on April 10 on approach to the Smolensk Airport in Russia, the country’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said on May 19. The crash killed all 96 on the aircraft including Poland’s president and much of the military high command.
Launch of Russia’s Rassvet research and docking mini-module on the space shuttle Atlantis (see p. 19) has NASA Administrator Charles Bolden thinking about other cooperative ventures with the Russian space agency. Under the Fiscal 2011 budget request, Bolden hopes to reverse his agency’s thrust from a destination-driven technology effort to one that aims to develop technologies that will enable reaching distant destinations, with Mars the ultimate goal. That will include in-space propulsion work designed to cut the dangerously long transit time for a human Mars crew.
The Defense Department has turned to Franwell, Inc.—a company that focuses on supply chain solutions and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology—the University of Florida and Georgia Tech Research Institute to develop RFID systems that can improve the quality, safety and security of combat rations. Using wireless temperature sensors, remote monitoring algorithms and diagnostics, the shelf life of semi-perishable foods can be calculated in real time using web-based computer models, according to VertMarket’s IT Group for RFID Technologies.
Results from the first test phase on the common high-pressure core for the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofan (GTF) and PW800 business jet engines have validated performance goals and shown “excellent starting and operability characteristics,” the company says. The 100-hr. test phase at Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Longueuil, Quebec, facilityvalidated the aerodynamic efficiencies and operability characteristics for the high-pressure compressor, combustor and the high-pressure turbine.
Finmeccanica CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini is laying out an ambitious five-year roadmap, re-directing the company’s strategy toward a greater emphasis on international sales and a renewed focus on aerospace and defense. The intent is to craft a truly international company, with the CEO suggesting that by 2016 Finmeccanica could generate 50% of its revenue from outside its three “domestic markets”—Italy, the U.K. and, increasingly, the U.S. The aim is for the global market to become the source of half of the company’s orders within the next five years.
The U.S. government continues to wrestle with how to provide satellite-based weather-monitoring data after the recent collapse of a tri-agency spacecraft program, and major design decisions are expected this summer. During the transition, Northrop Grumman, the satellite bus prime contractor, is now pitted against another key supplier on the program, Ball Aerospace, which is designing a risk-reduction pathfinder satellite.
Boeing’s 787 flight-test program is retiring risk ahead of schedule and probably will conclude in October to meet an FAA certification schedule that would allow delivery of “the first couple of airplanes” to launch customer All Nippon Airways this year, says Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh.
The FAA has set March 31, 2013, as the deadline for holders of FAA certificates other than pilots to convert their paper certificates into a plastic format. The requirement initially affected only pilots, who had to convert their licenses as of March 31, 2010. The next phase affects aviation personnel other than pilots and includes air traffic controllers, airframe and powerplant mechanics, aircraft dispatchers, repairmen and parachute riggers.
German researchers are continuing work on advanced thermal protection systems (TPS) for returning spacecraft. This hypersonic wind tunnel model of the upcoming Sharp-Edged Flight Experiment (Shefex II) uses actively cooled ceramic tiles to dissipate the heat of reentry. At the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Gottingen, a scale model of the Shefex II flight article is subjected to blasts of air at 12,000 kph. (7,456 mph.).
