Two key military tests of technology for future space and hypersonic vehicles were launched on April 22 from sites on the U.S. East and West coasts following weather-related delays at both sites.
The Lebanese air force has taken delivery of the first four of 10 used IAR 330 Puma helicopters it has on order. The remaining six are to follow in the next two months. The United Arab Emirates has donated the rotorcraft to strengthen Lebanon’s helicopter fleet.
The European Union’s Risk-sharing Finance Facility (RFF), a debt-based investment fund created in 2007 by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to back high-risk innovative technology undertakings, will provide a €225-million loan to help finance construction and launch of the Alphasat high-power telecom satellite mission. The European Space Agency (ESA) mission is intended to demonstrate an onboard processed digital payload for Inmarsat, dubbed I-XL, using a new 12-18-kw. satcom bus developed by ESA and French space agency CNES.
Bombardier’s expansion of its regional support offices (RSO) continues with its recent inauguration of an RSO in Mumbai, India. This first facility to serve the Canada-based manufacturer’s business and commercial aircraft operators in the region is a tiny shop near Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. It is the company’s fifth RSO to be established outside North America in the last five years. There are plans to open similar facilities for business aircraft in Dubai and Shanghai by year-end.
The Philippine government is refusing to bail out Philippine Airlines as the company scrambles to avoid corporate failure via the offloading of non-core operations by the end of May. Financial losses reduced equity to only $1.1 million in February, the airline says.
Conductive Technology’s FlightStats flight tracking service says its review of 2009 airline performance data shows Japan Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, KLM Cityhopper and JAL Express had the industry’s best on-time performance in 2009 in the following categories, respectively: global carrier, major North American carrier, regional North American carrier, European carrier and Asian carrier.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says its Hayabusa asteroid mission will touch down on June 13 in the Woomera test range in South Australia. Four course-correction maneuvers are set to align the 510-kg. spacecraft for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and a subsequent parachute landing at Woomera. The first maneuver is scheduled to come on May 5, 39 days before reentry. Launched on May 9, 2003, Hayabusa (or Muses-C) reached the asteroid Itokawa in September 2005 and performed three touchdown maneuvers the following November.
A $200-million test failure but the Ground-Based Interceptor performed nominally! I guess that is to be expected. Nominal performance probably means failure to destroy the target. Why are we funding this program? A potential enemy would not be deterred by this kind of nominal action. We are better off buying more bombs and airplanes to act as deterrents and delivering what the administration labels our “devastating conventional military response.” That really scares Iran and North Korea, almost as much as sanctions and United Nations actions.
Some Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee are saying NASA may have violated the law, specifically Fiscal 2010 appropriation language, by moving to stop work early on elements of the Constellation program. Bob Bennett of Utah, which is home to Alliant Techsystems’ aerospace division, says ATK received a notice from NASA stating that no more funding for the company’s work on the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) would be forthcoming after April 30.
Qatar is the latest customer for MBDA’s Exocet MM40 Block 3 anti-ship missile. The Qatari navy is buying the missile for its four Vita-class patrol vessels. The Block 3 version—an upgraded Block 2—is already on order for the French navy. The first firing of a Block 3 from a Horizon-class frigate was carried out in March. The Block 3 is fitted with a turbojet engine, considerably increasing the weapon’s engagement range. A number of other MBDA export customers have ordered the Block 3 standard.
Garuda Indonesia, which has launched an aggressive fleet expansion plan, on April 19 received delivery of its 75th aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 with blended winglets. This year, the state-owned carrier plans to add 23 737-800s from Boeing and leasing companies, and by year-end expects to be operating 42 737-800s. The airline aims to increase its fleet to 116 aircraft by 2014, according to CEO Emirsyah Satar.
The location in the radar satellite cover image for the April 12 issue was misidentified, in the Table of Contents (p. 4). The city depicted is Port Hedland, Australia.
Southwest Airlines has renewed a contract with Pratt & Whitney for its EcoPower engine wash services on the airline industry’s largest fleet of CFM56‑7B powerplants. Pratt, which began washing Southwest’s engines in 2007, performed 1,200 cleanings for it last year, saving $12.5 million in fuel because cleaner engines run more efficiently than dirty ones. The engine maker calculates that the fuel savings cut carbon dioxide emissions by 160 million lb. Southwest’s engines are washed at its Oakland, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., service centers.
The Pentagon can no longer afford to build specialized weapons on unique platforms for each kind of war it fights—irregular, conventional or cyber. The military has instead launched an effort to mold already converging technologies into sensors that may also be weapons—weapons that can inflict invisible effects, and effects that may be temporary or permanent, blatant or authorless, tactical or strategic in range.
MTN Communications and satellite equipment specialist Erzia have opened a satellite teleport in Spain to serve as a gateway for VSAT communications. The teleport will be one of the first capable of handling C- and Ku- commercial service as well as X-band government traffic. MTN is establishing a global Ku-band maritime mobile satellite network to compete with Inmarsat.
Even though the disruption of European air traffic is expected to trigger a full-court press to better understand the impact of volcanic ash on aircraft, the aviation industry has to face the reality that there is a dearth of scientific data on the subject.
The Missile Defense Agency plans to redo the Jan. 31 Ground-Based Midcourse Defense intercept attempt that failed, MDA’s director, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, told senators last week. MDA still hasn’t publicly released the cause of the failure, though solid-rocket motor “chuffing” from the target apparently overwhelmed the primary sea-based X-band sensor with more than 2,000 objects. In testimony, O’Reilly simply said SBX “stopped transmitting.”
Inmarsat has unveiled the specifications for a handheld phone that could allow it to go head to head with Iridium and other global satphone operators (AW&ST March 15, p. 37). To be rolled out in June, the handheld, dubbed IsatPhone Pro, will be resistant to dust, splash and shock; will work in temperatures from -20 to 55C; and will have an 8-hr. talk time, with up to 100 hr. of standby battery life. It will be introduced at $699—or as little as $500-600 through special promotions—and calls will cost around $1 a minute.
The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is looking to improve the self-protection system on the CV-22 Osprey to bolster the tiltrotor’s defenses against surface-to-air missiles, even as the small community has to confront the first operational loss of one of the aircraft. Although the Bell-Boeing V-22 has a history of accidents and technical mishaps, this one marks the first operational crash.
President Barack Obama has taken ownership of the turnabout space-exploration policy embodied in his Fiscal 2011 NASA budget request, opening up a potentially game-changing debate on the U.S. role in space that is likely to encompass much more than the civilian space agency before it is over.
Emilio Romano has been named to the board of directors of Brazil-based TAM . He is president/CEO of Mexican real estate development company Grupo Puerta Alameda and was CEO of Grupo Mexicana de Aviacion. Romano succeeds Flavia Turci, who has resigned.
The European Space Agency has contracted with Eurockot for the launch of two Earth-observation missions—Swarm, a constellation of three satellites to be lofted in mid-2012 to study the Earth’s magnetic field, and another mission to be named later. Both will be orbited from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia using the Astrium-Khrunichev venture’s Rockot vehicle. Swarm will be the fourth mission in ESA’s Earth Explorer series.
France is unlikely to release a request for proposals for air tankers this year, but hopes to lay the groundwork for a purchase in 2011, French government officials say.
Jeff Jonas, Stephen S. Oswald and Peggy Agouris have been elected to the board of directors of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation , Herndon, Va. Jonas is distinguished engineer/chief scientist of the IBM Software Group’s Entity Analytic Solutions, while Oswald is vice president/general manager of the Intelligence and Security Systems Div. of Boeing Network and Space Systems.
MTU Aero Engines has completed assembly of the first high-speed, low-pressure turbine (LPT) for the Pratt & Whitney PW1524G engine that will power Bombardier’s CSeries regional jet. The LPT will be sent from MTU’s Munich factory to Pratt & Whitney’s West Palm Beach, Fla., facility for testing on the development engine. The program is on schedule toward certification in 2012. Bombardier expects to certify the airplane and make the first delivery to Lufthansa in 2013.
