Telesat Canada says it envisions procuring an X-band telecom hosted payload on the next spacecraft it plans to procure, to take advantage of hot X-band demand from military and government customers. Telesat is so confident in the strength of demand that it may install the payload without waiting for an anchor tenant, says CEO Dan Goldberg.
The need for a low-tech close air support/intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft is obvious, but the AT-6B may not be the best solution (AW&ST Feb. 8, p. 41).
The Cessna Citation CJ4, the newest iteration of the CE 525 family, has gained FAA type certification after a 22-month flight-test campaign involving three test aircraft flying 1,142 missions and 2,006 flight hours. Final analysis of CJ4 performance numbers resulted in use of a standard day 3,130-ft. takeoff field length, a 2,002-mi. National Business Aviation Association IFR range with two crew and five passengers at high-speed cruise, and lower than forecast fuel consumption. Cessna reports 150-plus orders for the aircraft. First delivery is slated for next month.
Royal Australian Air Force officials say they will bridge the widening gap until the arrival of the delayed Joint Strike Fighter by keeping the Boeing F/A-18F fleet in lockstep with U.S. Navy upgrades as well as continuing updates to its “classic” Hornet fleet.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will team with Dutch Space to develop and market a bus that will permit it to piggyback a geostationary payload under a launch vehicle fairing, to take advantage of excess lift capacity. Dubbed the GMP-CX, the bus will combine Dutch Space’s CX bus with avionics developed for SSTL’s new GMP small geostationary bus.
Gulf Air is searching for a global alliance membership to expand its presence, build its revenues and cut operating costs as it battles a 2009 loss of $1.3-billion. CEO Samar Majali says its Middle East network will be an asset to any of the major airline alliances. “We feel our network will be a strong factor strategically,” he says. “We are working to extend it without incurring costs.”
Citing “a change in market conditions,” Air Berlin has cut its Boeing 787 order by 10 airplanes with a list price value of $1.7 billion. It now holds 15 orders and five options. Germany’s second-largest carrier, Air Berlin has been in the red for two years. First delivery is set for November 2015. Boeing also reports losing four unidentified 737 orders. Its net orders for the year for all aircraft are 46.
An alleged maintenance violation prompted the FAA on Mar. 18 to propose a $300,000 civil penalty on American Airlines. The FAA alleges that mechanics deferred maintenance on an MD-82, noting that an annunciator panel light—“pitot/stall heater light-off”—was inoperative. However, workers later discovered the pitot probe heater, not the light, was out of order. Maintenance can be deferred for an inoperative heater but carries the restriction that flights are limited to daytime under visual meteorological conditions.
The British Defense Ministry is aiming to demonstrate target updating and redirection of an air-to-surface missile in flight, providing the ability to engage a moving target in a cluttered environment. Test shots will be carried out in 2011, with the trials feeding into the ministry’s future air-to-surface weapons program, the support of network-enabled weapons, and time-sensitive targeting needs.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is set to receive 30 Enstrom 480B training helicopters by 2014, with the first aircraft to be provided this year for evaluation tests. Michigan-based Enstrom Helicopter also is in final negotiations on a contract to supply 16 of the single-turbine 480Bs to the Royal Thai Army for rotary-wing training.
The German air force damaged a Heron-1 unmanned aircraft operating in Afghanistan on Mar. 17, at the end of the UAV’s first operational mission from Mazar-e-Sharif. The reconnaissance aircraft had landed and was returning to its parking spot when it collided with a parked aircraft. Both aircraft were damaged, and one person was slightly injured. German military officials are now investigating.
I’ve watched and advised two administrations and I’ve come to three conclusions—three principles—about the proper use of modern military forces. The first is that military power should not —maybe cannot—be the last resort of the state. Military forces are some of the most flexible and adaptable tools to policymakers. We can, merely by our presence, help alter certain behavior. Before a shot is even fired, we can bolster a diplomatic argument, support a friend or deter an enemy. We can assist rapidly in disaster-relief efforts.
The Pentagon and intelligence agencies are at loggerheads about the rules that will control the unleashing of cyber-counterattack, a mission that could, with more investment, be conducted from aircraft against targets a half-world away. But before airborne cyber-attack becomes a tactical weapon, resolution must be reached on the relationship between warfighters and intelligence and the authority to decide what is a valid target and what is not.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has released to Congress a National Broadband Plan intended to ensure that every part of the nation can have access to affordable, robust Internet service. The plan, ordered from the FCC in February 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, proposes to ensure 100-Mbps. service to 100 million households that lack access to the Internet and 1-Gbps. service to every community in the U.S. through local schools, hospitals or other public institutions. Other proposals would make 500 MHz.
Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines last week put the first of four new Airbus A320s slated for delivery this year into daily service between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Washington. The 178-seat A320s will enable the carrier to offer new service and increase frequencies to certain destinations. On May 1, Spirit plans to offer new service between Atlanta and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and on May 20 between Detroit and Atlantic City, N.J.
Unlike Pierre Sparaco, I think criticism of the Airbus Military A400M airlifter by the French government oversight office is right on (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 54). In the formative years of this program, France and Germany were seeking a replacement for their Transall C160s, and Britain for its C-130 Hercules. The former is a 47-metric-ton aircraft, while the Herc grosses 70 metric tons. The “replacement” was allowed to grow into a 136-metric-ton monster!
The Obama administration is amplifying its effort to sell the change in direction it hopes to implement for NASA, even as opponents begin to cast about for an alternative. President Barack Obama will travel to Kennedy Space Center next month to make a personal, public pitch for the new U.S. space policy still being hammered out behind closed doors at agency headquarters here. Obama’s appearance at a to-be-determined location near KSC will mark the start of serious government debate on the future direction of the U.S. space program that could last all year.
Commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye has selected Lockheed Martin to build its next-generation GeoEye-2 Earth-imaging satellite in support of the company’s bid for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s EnhancedView program. General Dynamics’ space sector, which was bought this month by Orbital Sciences, produced the GeoEye-1 spacecraft. Like GeoEye-1, the new GeoEye-2 spacecraft will feature an ITT electro-optical camera capable of 0.25-meter ground resolution for U.S. government customers. GeoEye has already spent about $70 million developing the camera.
The convulsed, multiyear saga of the U.S. Air Force’s attempt to field a modern fleet of refueling tankers seems to have come full circle. It started in 2002 with Boeing winning an agreement to lease aircraft to the Air Force without having to compete for business valued at billions of dollars, then losing the contract, followed by a competition in which a team of Northrop Grumman and rival Airbus’s parent EADS won it—only to lose it following Boeing’s successful protest.
Airbus’s decision to boost narrow-body production signals the beginning of the end of the commercial air transport downturn, but company officials and industry analysts warn there will be a lag before order activity rebounds significantly.
Although it suffered a record $712-million loss in 2009, Hawker Beechcraft is now better positioned to weather economic storms, says Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture. “Last year, we took $200 million out of our manufacturing costs,” Boisture says. “We wrote down hundreds of millions in obsolete stock, aluminum” and unusable parts. He says demand is strong for his company’s new AT-6 light-attack variant of its T-6 Texan II trainer and MC-12 surveillance aircraft.
There was a brief show of bipartisan unity earlier this year on Capitol Hill, but it was hardly uplifting. Democrats and Republicans joined forces in the Senate to shoot down a bill that would have created a task force to draw up options for reducing the federal budget deficit. The proposal would have put lawmakers on the spot by requiring them to vote for both spending cuts and tax increases. A few days later, President Barack Obama unveiled a Fiscal 2011 budget request that envisions another $1.3 trillion in red ink, raising the federal debt above $15 trillion.
The Indian government has finalized the contract with AgustaWestland to buy 12 AW101 helicopters for government VIP transport. The helicopters, being bought under a contract valued at $760 million that includes support, will be operated by the Indian air force. Deliveries of the Yeovil, England-built rotorcraft are expected between 2012-15. India is buying the helos to replace its Mil Mi-8s. The modernization program gained a sense of urgency following the Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008 and last year’s crash of an Mi-8.
