APT Satellite Holding says Thales Alenia Space will supply the Hong Kong-based operator with a new communications spacecraft to be launched in the second or third quarter of 2012 atop a Chinese Long March LM-3B launch vehicle. The $148.7-million deal, financed through China Satellite Communications, includes supply of a new ground station. The spacecraft, Apstar 7B, is intended to ensure service continuity in case of a failure of Apstar 7, which is due for launch on an LM-3B in the first half of 2012 to replace Apstar 2R.
World passenger and freight traffic showed steady improvement in March, according to Airports Council International (ACI). Compared with 2009, passenger traffic increased 7.6% for the month, with international traffic rising 10.1% and domestic, 5.6%. In the first quarter, total passenger traffic rose 6.1%. Freight traffic for March increased 25.6%, with domestic cargo reflecting 14.6% growth, and international freight—which appears on track to full recovery, notes ACI—shot up by 32.4%. In the first quarter, total cargo traffic grew 24.1%.
Ebace 2010, the 10th annual European Business Aviation Association Convention and Exposition, seemed destined to become among the event’s best showings even before the turnstiles began spinning. On May 3, association President and CEO Brian Humphries said the hall stands had sold out with 436 exhibitors, and the static display area was at capacity with 65 aircraft. Attendance by noon on May 4 had reached 10,485, almost even with last year’s total of 10,917, which was the third-best tally in the event’s history.
The upshot of closed-door talks between top NASA officials and various congressional and academic leaders will get a public airing this week in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on human spaceflight. But so far, it does not appear the Obama administration’s plan is winning many hearts and minds. A session with a range of space organizations produced a few tidbits, like word that NASA plans to issue a slew of “requests for information” in the next couple of weeks to get industry input as a Houston-based NASA study panel prepares road maps for human space exploration.
Looking over the next decade, the U.S. military maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market faces the greatest growth spurt ever experienced—and also the greatest change, including a fundamental reshaping of industry’s relationship with government.
ITT Defense & Information Systems is proposing to play the same systems integration role for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) radar in India that it is fulfilling in the U.S., but even as the Indians recognize ADS-B’s superior ability to track and control aircraft, they worry about its costs.
New products traditionally help stimulate the market, but a supersonic business jet will not be a contributor, at least not soon. Aerion, the project being funded by financier Robert Bass, remains stalled, still in search of an established manufacturer to help develop, certify and produce it. Unveiled in 2004, the concept aircraft is intended to bypass prohibitions to flying supersonic over the U.S. and many other countries by transiting those places at near Mach speeds, and accelerating to Mach 1.5 over the oceans and remote areas where permitted.
Malaysia’s budget carrier Air Asia is relentless in its pursuit of the Indian market. On April 28, it became the only carrier to fly the Chennai-Penang route. On May 6, its long-haul arm, AirAsia X, will start four-times-weekly service with an Airbus A330 to Mumbai and, beginning Aug. 1, will offer daily service to New Delhi. Meanwhile, the Indian government has cleared the Air Operators Certificate for AirAsia subsidiary Thai AirAsia.
Dassault and its Swiss partners are close to wrapping up an analysis of a potent human-rated suborbital vehicle, the so-called VSH. The study into VSH, a nominal six-passenger, 11-metric-ton (12.13-ton) air-launched vehicle have been underway since 2004. Two years ago Dassault partnered with Ruag, ETHZ and the Lausanne Polytechnic (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) to further refine the concept under the K-1000 project. Dassault now says the fact-finding report from that effort is nearing its conclusion.
The new Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 jets are spearheading Embraer’s bold push into the business aircraft market. But the Brazilian company’s position as the leading manufacturer of smaller passenger jets is facing challenges as competitors move to introduce next-generation technologies and a new group of passenger aircraft builders rises in China, Russia and Japan. Embraer knows it has to respond, but how? A report that begins on p. 52 looks at the strategies that Embraer is considering and how a chief competitor, Bombardier, already has made its bet on the future.
The FAA has begun operational use of wide-area multilateration (WAM) to track aircraft on approach at Alaska’s Juneau International Airport. The WAM system, made by Sensis Corp., uses a network of sensors that receive signals from aircraft transponders. The new system should improve safety and efficiency at Juneau, since the mountainous terrain makes radar coverage difficult.
Airbus and Air France are contributing €1.5 million ($1.9 million) to extend the third search effort for Air France Flight 447 wreckage to May 25. The French air accident investigation office (BEA) says it will act on the request of French transport state secretary Dominique Bussereau to extend the third, and likely final, search, which otherwise would have concluded. Although months of scouring the ocean area where the Airbus A330 presumably crashed nearly a year ago failed to identify more wreckage, the BEA says it believes that a successful result is still possible.
After a strong month for widebody order intake in March, Airbus in April had to content itself with booking seven A320s from Cebu Pacific last month, to drive the 2010 order intake to 67 aircraft. Deliveries now stand at 159 through the first four months. They were down from March, in part owing to the Easter holiday and airspace closures in Europe due to volcanic ash.
The Comac C919 program is driving the formation of a series of partnerships between Chinese and Western companies that will lift the technology and competitiveness of Avic businesses seeking a stronger presence in the world market.
Hawaiian Airlines’ transition to a widebody fleet of at least 16 Airbus A330s and A350s is underway. The aircraft, which will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines, will replace the carrier’s Boeing 767s. The first of three A330s Hawaiian is leasing from CIT Aerospace was delivered late last month (see photo). Another is to arrive this month, and the third in November. Hawaiian has placed firm orders for seven A330-200s, the first of which is to be delivered in 2011; and six A350-800s, with first delivery expected in 2017.
An article in the May 3 issue (p. 34) stated that International Launch Services provided proprietary data to The Tauri Group for a study on satellite launch costs. ILS says it did not relay pricing or other proprietary data to Tauri.
In the aftermath of US Airways Flight 1549, the NTSB is determined to cultivate the belief that transport accidents are survivable. The successful Jan. 15, 2009, water landing was “the outcome of a perfect storm of circumstances,” NTSB Chairman Debbie Hersman noted at the board’s final hearing on the accident last week. The probe, she says, revealed that “the conditions that led to the ultimate success of the ditching were no less improbable than the conditions that caused the crash in the first place.”
Boeing has formed an Airlift and Tankers (A&T) operating division within its military aircraft business unit to assume program management responsibility for C-17s and its international and U.S. tanker programs. A&T will operate from the company’s St. Louis military headquarters. Military Aircraft President Chris Chadwick says creating the separate unit will “introduce efficiencies that will result in cost savings for taxpayers.” It will headed by Jean Chamberlin, who is in charge of Boeing’s drive to win the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X tanker replacement contract.
Gayle Berry’s letter contains confusion about variants of the AD/A-1 Skyraider. As he says, the AD-7 (A-1J)was a single-seater; and had four guns (two per side) mounted mid-wing and outboard of the propeller arc. I can’t speak to operational power restrictions but given the loads that ADs removed from aircraft carriers without catapulting, I’d be surprised if those takeoffs used less than full power.
“Reusable Boost” by Graham Warwick (AW&ST April 19, p. 30), contains a statement that the cost of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) is rapidly escalating “in part due to increased overhead resulting from the Obama administration’s decision to cancel development of NASA’s Ares 1 crew launch vehicle.” The Boeing Delta IV and Lockheed Martin Atlas V are mature, proven vehicles that have been in series production for years. They share no hardware with the Ares 1, which is still in detail design.
Boeing has added 20 unidentified 777 orders to this year’s total, but also reduced the year’s total by four. It says RwandAir will buy two 737-800s to broaden its network beyond regional jets. The changes bring the 777 net order book for the year to 27, the 737’s to 72 and the total for all models to 114.
Change is once again afoot within the U.S. Air Force. Very quietly over the last year, the new Air Force secretary and chief of staff have laid the foundation for the next significant and historic cultural shift toward tomorrow’s USAF. As it evolves to a new era, the final state remains undetermined. History, though, may provide some context to assess what lies ahead.
The shuttle Atlantis is poised for its final scheduled mission—the delivery of a compact Russian docking and laboratory module to the International Space Station. Liftoff from Kennedy Space Center is set for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT initiating a 12-day flight.
The central monitoring system of a Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A330 warned of control system faults with both Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines before one became stuck at high thrust, forcing the crew to land at 230 kt. (426 kph.) on April 13, Hong Kong investigators say in a preliminary report. The monitoring system also announced that the two engines had stalled. Early in the flight, the crew noticed fluctuations in engine pressure ratios, but decided, in consultation with the Cathay engineering department, to continue to Hong Kong.
