As Aeroflot integrates six smaller airlines—GTK Rossiya, Kavminvodyavia, Orenburg Airlines, Saratov Airlines, Sakhalin Airways and Vladivostok Airlines—under a consolidation plan drawn up by the Russian government, it may use one of the entities to venture into the low-fare airline business, says CEO Vitaly Saveliev. While he shrugs off competition from low-fare startups such as SkyExpress and Avianova as niche businesses, he acknowledges that consolidation provides the opportunity to convert one of the airlines to the low-cost model.
France’s military became the second to take delivery of an NFH90 maritime helicopter, on April 23, following the Netherlands. The French government will conduct operational testing, before it declares the system ready for use, probably in late 2011. French armaments agency DGA has ordered 27 of the helicopters, 13 for support tasks and 14 for combat.
General Electric and Rolls-Royce are pinning hopes of saving the F136 from cancellation on an extended offer of fixed prices on early production engines. The proposal bids to offset projected costs to complete development used by the Pentagon to justify canceling the second engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Robert T. Hastings, Jr., has been appointed senior vice president-communications and Larry D. Roberts senior vice president-commercial business of Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth. Hastings was vice president-communications for the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Information Systems Sector. Roberts was vice president-sales, marketing and customer support at American Eurocopter.
Laura Schreibeis has been named customer support director for business and general aviation for GE Aviation , Evendale, Ohio. She was customer support manager for European operators.
When the National Academies make their recommendations on what planetary science missions NASA should fund over the next decade, expect the search for life or evidence of past life in the Solar System to be an overarching theme.
Aviation training companies are looking for effective ways to meet increasing demand—including maintenance and helicopter instruction—in the business aviation sector as it continues to break free of the confines of North America and expands into a global market. Underscoring the international expansion of business aviation is the fact that in 2009, business jet deliveries in North America fell below 50% of the market for the first time—specifically, 49.4%—according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
L-3 Platform Integration is preparing to start ground and flight testing the U.S. Navy’s first Spiral 3-configured Lockheed Martin EP-3E aircraft, following installation of the upgraded intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission avionics suite at its Waco, Texas, facility. Spiral 3, which was added to the upgrade program in Fiscal 2006 following delays to the Aerial Common Sensor, is designed to extend the EP-3E mission system viability until a new platform can be fielded in the 2021-23 timeframe.
The French government has formally taken in-orbit delivery of the Helios IIB remote-sensing spacecraft. The Astrium-developed spacecraft was launched on Dec. 18, 2009, and has since undergone checkout in orbit. With the handover to French space agency CNES on behalf of French armaments agency DGA, Helios IIB is now formally in operational military service. The spacecraft adds capacity supplied by Helios IIA, launched in 2004, and Helios IA, orbited in 1995.
A special government bond issue planned by France as part of its economic stimulus package could influence how soon Dassault Aviation brings its planned new super-midsize aircraft to market, and what the aircraft will look like.
The Australian government on April 28 formally opened the competition for an unspecified number of new maritime helicopters; a decision is due by next year. In February 2009 it was announced that the bidding would be limited to the NH90 and MH-60R. Australian Aerospace will be the Eurocopter subsidiary lead for the NH90 bid in-country, and the U.S. Navy will head the foreign military sales offer of the Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky MH-60. The rotorcraft are to fill a gap caused by cancellation of the Kaman SH-2G Seasprite program, which was beset with development problems.
Richard R. Yuse (see photos) has been appointed president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems , El Segundo, Calif. He succeeds the late Jon C. Jones. Yuse was president of Raytheon Technical Services Co., Reston, Va. He has been succeeded by John D. Harris, 2nd, who was vice president of Raytheon Contracts and Supply Chain. He has been followed by David Wilkins, who was vice president-contracts for Raytheon Network Centric Systems, McKinney, Texas.
FAA is advising airlines to establish guidance and requirements aimed at controlling “distractions”—including use of personal electronic devices (PEDs)—on the flight deck. The sterile-cockpit rule already prohibits pilots from engaging in tasks unrelated to safe operation of an aircraft during critical phases of flight, notes the FAA. And in an Information for Operators (InFO 10003) advisory issued last week, the agency recognizes that PEDs and laptops, such as electronic flight bags, can be valuable tools in aviation.
CFM International is challenging Pratt & Whitney’s claimed maintenance cost savings for the geared turbofan (GTF) as the war of words over next-generation powerplants heats up in advance of crucial reengining decisions by Airbus and Boeing. CFMI, a joint General Electric/Snecma company, is offering a variant of its advanced Leap-X turbofan and disputes the veracity of the projected claims made for the competing PW1000G family.
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices rallied to an eight-month high in April, following the release of partial data showing CO2 emissions from installations across the EU in 2009. EUAs for delivery in December 2010 closed at €15.20 ($20.07) per metric ton of CO2 equivalent on April 27, compared with €13.02 on April 1, an increase of 16.7%.
Preliminary tests of CFM International’s CFM56-7BE Evolution upgrade for the Boeing 737 indicate greater fuel-burn savings than estimated, the engine company says. “We anticipate going into service with a 2.5% improvement, which is a big deal for us,” says CFM Executive Vice President Chaker Chahrour. Details of the initial performance results, which were 0.5% better overall than expected, emerge as flight tests of the CFM56-7BE get underway on General Electric’s Boeing 747 flying testbed in Victorville, Calif.
To reduce the cost of space launches, has anyone considered the use of a cluster of 115,000-lb.-thrust GE90-115 turbofans around a central core as a flyback first stage? After release, the use of differential thrust and possibly reversers on some engines would allow the first stage to be steered away from the upper stages before ignition. Even a vehicle as large as a Delta IV Heavy could be boosted by an array of 20 such engines, in two parallel rows of five on each side.
I am baffled by Bombardier’s emphasis on the CSeries and lack of interest in a replacement for the 50-seat jet. There are many markets for which a 90-120-seat and larger jet is an inappropriate size. Do the major airlines think they will abandon those 50-seat markets and assume people will drive 100 mi. to fly out of a bigger airport? Do they think no entrepreneur will see this hole in the market and exploit it with a new design that produces an aircraft with 15-20% better economics than current 50-seaters?
U.S. private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts is to acquire 49.9% of Grupo Inaer in a deal that values the Spanish helicopter operator at $700 million. European investment companny Investindustrial will retain 50.1% of Inaer, which operates more than 280 helicopters and provides medical transport, firefighting, search and rescue, civil protection and customs surveillance services for governments and regional authorities. Headquartered in Alicante, Inaer has more than 240 bases in Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, the U.K. and Chile.
The Viewpoint, “Killing Ares Will Kill the Dream,” is a full-page advertisement for ATK (AW&ST April 19, p. 66). Ares is a rocket designed by politicians, not engineers. In the same issue, the U.S. Air Force X-37B is shown being prepared for an orbital launch test. This former NASA project proves we have viable options to “Apollo on steroids” and that visionaries in the Air Force have moved beyond capsules and parachutes.
Mark Carreau (Johnson Space Center), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
The resurrection of NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle as a space station lifeboat is injecting a new disruption into the agency’s already challenging transition from the in-house human-spaceflight plan it started under former President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama’s commercial space transportation and technology-investment agenda.
