FlightSafety International will offer training to customers on the full range of Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) engine products, under an agreement signed with the engine manufacturer this month. P&WC, a United Technologies Corp. company, will oversee the global customer training program, while FlightSafety will manage daily operations, develop and produce courseware material and provide Learning Management System capabilities. Flight Safety’s Learning Center in Montreal will lead the support of Pratt customers and employees.
GE Aviation and the U.S. Navy have driven down costs, cut back orders and improved material availability and repair turnaround times using performance-based logistics (PBL) on the F404 and F414 engine programs. GE undertook its first F404 PBL contract in 2003 and its first F414 PBL contract in 2006, both for five years, to support Boeing F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets. They are firm fixed-price contracts aimed at controlling costs and incentivizing reductions in demand. The Navy’s goal is for GE to meet or exceed performance metrics.
Boeing is preparing to demonstrate a high-power and lightweight solar electric array developed under the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Fast Access Space Testbed program, which it says could offer unprecedented power density for space vehicles. Delivering up to six times the power capability per cubic inch than current power systems, the array consists of a louvered set of solar electric array elements that can be packaged in relatively small fairings for launch. The “wings” extend to 23.1 meters (76 ft.) on either side of the vehicle.
Arianespace and its Ariane 5 partners will conduct a quality audit and set up a special task force to determine the underlying reasons for an anomaly that occurred during an April 9 countdown. The flaw in the launch vehicle pressurization system forced a flight postponement for the German military telecom satellite Comsat Bw-2 and SES’s Astra 3B for the second time in as many weeks. The task force, whose investigation is to be conducted concurrently and independently of the quality audit, was slated to report back with initial findings by April 16.
Russia is offering a version of the Club family of cruise missiles that can be packed in a standard cargo container and transported by ship, train or on roadways. Versions of Club are already fitted on the Kilo-class submarine and the Project 1135.6 frigate. The Moscow-based Morinformsystema-AGAT, the designer of Club’s control system, is developing the Club-K container modification. The system would be capable of being used against naval and land targets, depending on which versions of the Novator 3M-54 and 3M-14 missiles were included.
The European Commission has given the regulatory nod for French aerospace providers Daher-Socata and Sogerma to receive aid to develop composite components for the Airbus A350. Both companies are benefitting from French government support, which was decided on last September. Daher-Socata will receive €12.3 million ($16.7 million) toward its €30.9-million main landing-gear-door effort; Sogerma will receive €22.8 million to help underwrite the €57 million needed to develop the A350’s main landing gear bay. These loans are to be repaid via royalty payments
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Norman R. Hayes has become director of intelligence for the U.S. European Command, Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany. He was director of the National Security Operations Center of the National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, Md. Rear Adm. (lower half) William E. Leigher has been named deputy commander of the Fleet Cyber Command/deputy commander of the Tenth Fleet at Ft. Meade. He was director of information operations/deputy director of naval intelligence for cryptology in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.
Pratt & Whitney is facing its most critical period since the early 1990s, with key developments looming in commercial and military propulsion that will affect its destiny for the next decade or beyond.
The U.S. Air Force says the first Space-Based Space Surveillance spacecraft, made by a Boeing/Ball Aerospace team, is ready for launch July 8 on a Minotaur IV from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. A clone of the first satellite is likely to be bought to add more capacity in orbit and improve the revisit rate in surveiling objects in geosyncrhonous orbit. The satellite will boost into low Earth orbit.
The Pentagon is conducting basic cyberwarfare courses for lawmakers as they struggle with the confirmation of Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander as the first chief of U.S. Cyber Command. At the heart of congressional concerns is the confusion over restrictions (or more accurately, the lack of rules) governing cyber-attack.
General Electric Aviation has opened an Air Transport Authority Level 3 line maintenance training course at its headquarters in Evendale, Ohio, for M601E and H80 turboprop engines produced by GE Aviation Czech. Classes, which began last month, cover inspections, layout and operation of the engine and its airflow, oil and fuel systems as well as their components, power turbine section, combustion chambers, engine maintenance practices and general troubleshooting.
John Miyamoto, a vice president in the U.S. Air Force Advanced Extremely High Frequency program, led by the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., has received an Asian American Executive of the Year Award, presented by the Chinese Institute of Engineers/USA . Winners of Asian American Engineer of the Year Awards are Northrop Grumman Corp. employees Roger Fujii, F. Dong Tan and Melissa Sandlin.
Don Osmundson has been promoted to vice president from director of flight operations for Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings and Kathy Wooldridge to vice president from director of human resources. Daniel Shurz has been named vice president-planning and strategy, Greg Aretakis vice president-revenue production for branded airline operations, Jan Fogelberg vice president-customer experience and technology and Aaron Workman vice president-information technology.
Thrust from a Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine of a Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 was stuck at 70% during approach to the Hong Kong airport on April 13, forcing the crew to land at far beyond the normal speed, deflating main-gear tires. The other engine was idling, but the reason for that has not been stated. That engine’s thrust had fluctuated earlier in the flight, when the aircraft reached cruising altitude after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia. The No. 1 engine developed its fault 20 min. before landing.
As space shuttle program ends, Lockheed Martin Michaud delivers its last tank, and other business fades, expertise in leadership, production and research risk being lost forever. NASA could bid for the Air Force’s aerial tanker, and like Northrop’s Tigershark vs. Falcon, save billions in negotiating prices.
Runaway entitlement spending has propelled America toward the moral abyss of forfeiting our children’s future prosperity. However, the road to solvency will not just be forged through essential budget cuts. It will also be created through the prudent investment in initiatives designed to create a new intellectual renaissance—an awakening where our children will again be inspired to learn the intricacies of math, engineering, medicine and physics.
After a string of delays stretching back to 2008, Italy’s reusable launch vehicle research program is finally back on track. The Unmanned Space Vehicle (USV) program, part of a wider European effort to prepare future launch vehicle technologies, is intended to investigate hypersonic reentry and transatmospheric flight. The latest test vehicle in the program, Pollux, underwent a successful balloon-drop and test flight off the Sardinian coast last week.
A raft of regulatory and legislative initiatives pending in Brussels is raising anxiety among airlines that their ability to effectively compete will suffer long-term damage. The airline industry’s relationship with European Union representatives has often been tense, but there is growing concern that as a new European Parliament and Commission look to make their mark in the coming months, airlines may be a target, or at least a victim, of the process.
The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam will forbid the country’s airlines from using foreign brands, a policy that undercuts the franchising strategy of two outside carriers with local affiliates, Jetstar and AirAsia. The deputy head of the administration, Lai Xuan Thanh, stresses that foreigners cannot directly control business plans, revenues or profits of Vietnamese airlines.
The European Space Agency is preparing to order two additional cargo carriers to support the International Space Station for five more years, provided the extension is confirmed.
USAF Brig. Gen. (ret.) Donald Lustig has become vice president and general manager of AAR Brown International , Wood Dale, Ill. He was inspector general at Air Mobility Command Headquarters, Scott AFB, Ill., and vice commander of the Tanker Airlift Control Center.
Further consolidation of the Russian aero-engine manufacturing sector is moving a step closer with a key management appointment. Yuri Eliseev, the CEO of Moscow-based Salut on April 14 became the deputy head of the United Engine Corp. (UEC). CEO Andrey Reus says the appointment will help clear the way for the merger of the two engine producers. UEC now controls all Russian aero-engine-making facilities, except Salut.
Macquarie Equities Research says its survey of 67 airlines and leasing companies worldwide, including 80% of Airbus and Boeing’s top narrowbody customers, shows that airplane manufacturers are justified in modest increases in 2011-12 production growth. Macquarie is only “cautiously optimistic” that carriers can absorb the number of widebodies being built, however. Results for narrowbodies could hinge on deliveries to top customers. The top 25 customers will account for 53% of narrowbodies for Airbus and 72% for Boeing over the next three years.
