A battle between China Southern Airlines and a fast rail line will help reveal how badly high-speed trains will undercut Chinese carriers over the coming decade. The airlines are at least facing a few years of stunted growth as the railways ministry progressively commissions the world’s largest high-speed rail system, on which it will run the world’s fastest long-distance trains.
Major additional suppliers to China’s Comac ARJ21 regional jet have been rewarded with contracts to make equipment for the C919 156-seat narrowbody. Parker Aerospace will build the primary fly-by-wire flight control actuation system and—in association with a subsidiary of national aircraft-making conglomerate Avic—the hydraulic, fuel and inerting systems. Honeywell will supply the auxiliary power unit in cooperation with Avic Engine Co., and Goodrich will fit the C919 with external lighting, working with the Jiangsu Tongming Automobile Lamp Co.
In a move that threatens to reignite the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, Syria is being blamed for supplying Hezbollah with Scud-B short-range ballistic missiles. In response, Israel has been sending warnings to Syria through diplomatic back channels via the U.S., Qatar and Turkey that it might use force to stem the transfer of such weapons. But those calls seem to have been ignored, so far prompting no action however. In 2007, Israel showed its willingness to intervene when it attacked a presumed nuclear facility under construction in Syria.
A flurry of acquisition activity in recent weeks lends some credence to predictions that the commercial aviation aftermarket would ripen for acquisitions early this year.
Com Dev has begun detailed design (Phase C) for the Canadian Space Agency’s Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) under an authorization-to-proceed agreement from prime contractor MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates. The RCM—a fleet of synthetic aperture radar satellites intended to provide more timely and comprehensive data than current Radarsat spacecraft—are to be launched in 2014-15, pending negotiation of a final-build contract.
Stronger commercial aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul businesses are emerging from a market that has dipped in strength in the past year. As the aviation aftermarket rebounds in 2010, expect to see companies that have focused on leaning, restructuring or reinventing their organizations during the downtime to be stronger.
China’s human spaceflight program is developing a 13-ton cargo carrier to supply the space station it plans to orbit late this decade, but the program’s leader is ready to discuss using it for International Space Station logistics, as well. Wang Wenbao, head of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, says his agency is prepared to cooperate across the board on human spaceflight with NASA and other agencies, including joint human missions and unpiloted logistics with the 5.5-ton-payload-capacity cargo vehicle it plans to test after 2014-16.
Pratt & Whitney’s aftermarket services will reach seven engine centers this year with the start of overhaul work at its Turkish joint venture in Istanbul for CFM56 and V2500 powerplants. Meanwhile, the CFM56 overhaul center that Pratt opened last September in Shanghai, in a partnership with China Eastern Airlines, is now fully online and builds on the company’s 26-year presence in Singapore (AW&ST Jan. 7, 2008, p. 55). China Eastern operates its country’s largest CFM56-powered fleet.
Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems started its pulse production line for the GPS IIF spacecraft last week with Space Vehicle 4. Each satellite will take about 10 months to manufacture, including 14 pulse stations with different work. Twelve satellites are on order from USAF.
The Space Foundation’s Space Report 2010, released at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, paints a picture of positive global growth in the space business, but simultaneously reveals the continuing shrinkage of the U.S. launch industry. The report reveals it reached a value of $261.6 billion in 2009, representing close to 40% growth since the Space Foundation started tracking the state of the industry in 2005.
Michael Mecham says “the Delta IV Heavy’s 2-million-lb. liftoff thrust is the most of any expendable rocket since the Saturn V . . .” Didn’t the Titan IV have around 3? (The reader is correct. The Titan IV’s two solid rocket booster motors had a combined 3 million lb. thrust. Its two-stage liquid propellant core had 548,000 lb. in the first stage and 105,000 lb. in the second—Ed.)
William F. Kiczuk (see photo) has been named vice president/chief technology officer of the Raytheon Co. , Waltham, Mass. He is a Raytheon senior principal engineering fellow and was technical director and director of the Strategic Architectures unit of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.
Former U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab has been appointed to the board of directors of Chicago-based Boeing . She is now a member of the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. George C. Roman has become Washington-based vice president-state and local government operations. He was vice president-government operations and St. Louis regional executive for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.
Airbus has wrapped up the Airbus A330-200F freighter flight-test campaign and on April 9 received type certification for the aircraft from the European Aviation Safety Agency. The FAA’s target date for completing the freighter certification amendment is late May. The 200-hr. flight-test program launched in November 2009 involved two aircraft, the first powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 turbofans (above) and the second by Rolls-Royce Trent 700s. The EASA certification includes both engine types.
Boeing recorded 12 unidentified customers for the 777 last week, which pulls the airplane into the black for the year with nine net orders. It previously had lost three orders. The company also lost a 737 order from an unidentiifed customer, giving it a net 70 for the year. In all, Boeing has 94 net orders, including 15 previously recorded for the 787.
Dorothy Arbiter (see photos) has been promoted to principal director of the Systems Engineering and Ground Div. within the National Systems Group from systems director for the Systems Architecture, Engineering and Cost Department in the Systems Engineering Div. of The Aerospace Corp. , El Segundo, Calif. Chris Dunbar has been promoted to associate principal director of the Guidance and Control Subdivision of the Vehicle Systems Div.
NASA has decided that a problem with the International Space Station’s thermal control system can wait at least a month before astronauts will have to perform a spacewalk to fix it.
Sikorsky has offered the high-speed, coaxial-rotor X2 Technology Light Tactical Helicopter as part of its response to the U.S. Army’s request for information on candidates for its Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement to replace the Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and its canceled successor, the Bell ARH-70A Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. EADS North America and teammates American Eurocopter and Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, are to fund three demonstrators for its AAS contender, an armed derivative of the Army’s UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopter.
It is only a matter of time, say experts in U.S. military parts procurement, before a fake component in a major piece of Pentagon equipment leads to catastrophe because the Pentagon lacks the ability to track or identify the counterfeits. “One of these days, we’ll have a real problem,” says Mark Snider, founder and president of ERAI, formerly known as the Electronic Resellers Association, which operates a global database of counterfeit parts and vendors. “Something is going to cost lives that’s going to be traced back to a counterfeit component.”
It appears from the love fest at the Senate Armed Forces Committee that Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander will be confirmed as a four-star general and the first commander of U.S. Cyber Command. But all his concerns and those of Congress about a lack of policy for cyberwar remain. The ability to operate in cyberspace—in particular to attack networks—has “outpaced the development of policy, law and precedent to guide and control those operations,” says Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Boeing’s long-promised GoldCare life-cycle management services system for 787s will soon come to life with a launch order from U.K. leisure group, TUI Travel.
If military sustainment spending follows the laws of gravity, what goes up must come down. In the case of the U.S., however, while overall military budgets are flat, sustainment spending is still inching slightly upward. That is mostly due to aircraft acquisitions taking a bigger hit in budgets than sustainment, as well as flight hours that are not decreasing.
As Britons prepare to go to the polls in two weeks, clashing policies on defense and aerospace are emerging among the three main political parties. While all three are signed up to a strategic defense review and support operations in Afghanistan, positions vary on nuclear deterrence, defense collaboration and elements of equipment procurement. In the commercial arena, airport expansion is contentious.
In the next 15-20 years, we will see commercial suborbital hops from west to east. Virgin Galactic is gearing up to launch SpaceShipTwo on short trips into space, but they will be for the novelty and just go straight up and return to base. It would make more business sense to launch on a suborbital trajectory to the East Coast to get from California to the East Coast in 20 min. versus the 5 hr. it takes today. Going east to west would require a lot more fuel and take more like 60 min., but would still be possible using today’s technology.
