Crews on the International Space Station (ISS) may one day include members from agencies beyond the five current partners, says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden after meeting his counterparts in Tokyo. That does not mean expanding the partnership, but it could mean inviting other spacefaring nations—China and India come to mind—to use the facility. “Opening up the partnership is very difficult because now you’re talking about treaties and agreements,” Bolden says.
Delta Air Lines plans to start a new Delta Shuttle service June 10 between New York LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare International Airports, mounting a challenge to O’Hare hub denizens American Airlines and United Airlines for the route’s high-revenue business travelers. The new route, with 11 daily round trips departing between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., will replace existing service between LaGuardia and Chicago Midway Airport that is offered nine times a day over the same time period.
U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) is planning to base its future AC-130J gunship on the modular “Precision Strike Package” that it is quietly and quickly fielding on the MC-130W. This is a major departure from today’s AC-130H/U configuration, which wields the characteristic side-mounted 105-mm. howitzer and a 40-mm. gun. The decision also reflects a shift in the command’s approach to purchasing new weapons, indicating a bent toward a rapidly achievable, low-cost program using a joint task force for purchasing.
International Launch Services received three new orders and assignments last week. It contracted to orbit Telesat’s Nimiq 6, in assembly at Space Systems/Loral, in mid-2012 and was assigned a pair of Intelsat spacecraft—Intelsat 21 and 23—under a multilaunch agreement. Intelsat 23, under construction at Orbital Sciences Corp., is to be orbited in late 2011, and Intelsat 21, being built by Boeing, in late 2012.
Indonesia’s Lion Air has purchased three CAE 7000 Series full-flight simulators in a deal valued at C$38 million ($37.7 million). The Montreal-based manufacturer expects to deliver the two Boeing 737-900ER simulators to the airline’s training center at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport next year. An ATR 72-500 simulator will be delivered at a later date. The simulators incorporate Tropos-6000 visual systems, including liquid crystal-on-silicon projectors and 200 X 40-deg. field-of-view displays.
When Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. changed its outsourcing strategy on the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter, it decided to design and manufacture five of the most complicated rotor parts and gearbox housings in-house. But an aircraft of that size needs space—a lot of space. So Sikorsky carved out a high-tech area in the factory to welcome the newest member of the fleet.
After seeing a surprisingly steady upturn in traffic since December, which led many airline analysts to believe cargo traffic—and passenger traffic along with it—would increase at a rapid pace this year, the airfreight market is now expected to need more time to fully recover. The industry is now looking to 2011 for real progress in yields (see p. 48). Boeing and Airbus, however, are enjoying backlogs of orders for the 777 and A330-200 freighters, following a spate of retirements.
The latest weapons sales data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show a 22% increase in the transfer of conventional weapons in 2005-09, compared to the previous five years. Combat aircraft sales were 27% of the overall figure. The institute identified the U.S. as the largest exporter, with 30% of the market. Russia, Germany, France and the U.K. were the other Top 5 countries. China, India, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Greece were the five biggest recipients.
SimCom Training Centers, under an agreement with Eclipse Aerospace Inc., expects to provide initial and recurrent training for Eclipse 500 jet owners and operators starting in the third quarter. Training will be on two Eclipse 500 Level D simulators that are to be transported from Eclipse’s Albuquerque, N.M., facility to SimCom’s training center at Orlando, Fla. Eclipse Aerospace now supports 260 Eclipse 500s.
The Flight Safety Foundation says there is an “urgent need” to form a multidisciplinary task force to address criminalization of aviation accidents. The group would include legal experts from the aviation industry, law enforcement, judiciary authorities and the public. Its aim: “To support blameless reporting and sharing of aviation safety information and the proper administration of justice.” FSF is calling upon the International Civil Aviation Organization—which has scheduled a high-level safety conference Mar. 29-Apr.
Northrop Grumman has licensed Australian composites technology company Quickstep to make parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35, taking a step toward issuing a contract for the supplier to build the components. Quickstep, which has developed a non-autoclave process for curing composites, will receive technical information for making the parts. It values the planned manufacturing contract for 21 F-35 parts at up to A$700 million ($644 million).
Mar. 29-Apr. 1—White Eagle Aerospace’s Short Course: “Aerospace Vehicle Performance.” Wingate by Wyndham Hotel, Oro Valley, Ariz. See www.whiteeagleaerospace.com Mar. 29-Apr. 1—2010 Aviation Maintenance Conference and Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee Joint Meeting. Hyatt Regency, Phoenix. Call +1 (410) 266-2008, +1 (410) 266-4119 or see www.aviation-ia.com/aeec
Could cost concerns with Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system give International Launch Services an entree into Europe’s government launch market?
The primary advantage of the Ares I is that it is the safest low-Earth-orbit launcher ever designed. It is not difficult to recognize that a launcher requiring only one turbopump (Ares I) is safer than one using 10 (Falcon 9). Most people riding in a vehicle containing many tons of highly explosive rocket fuel would prefer fewer moving parts. No matter how safe Elon Musk tries to make his rocket, he cannot escape unsafe factors inherent in the design, such as an extravagance of high-speed moving parts over the Ares I.
Florida will develop two more pads at Cape Canaveral AFS for commercial users, after winning permission from the U.S. Air Force to clear another hurdle to commercial development on previously military sites as political winds shift toward greater use of private vehicles to launch public payloads—including astronauts. The USAF 45th Space Wing granted Space Florida, the state’s aerospace development organization, real property licenses to develop Space Launch Complexes 46 and 36 for commercial users.
Japan Airlines should be profitable by fall, under the plans of the chairman appointed to restructure the carrier. The carrier will not drop its international services, says Chairman Kazuo Inamori, despite suggestions from government officials that it become domestic-only as JAL slid toward its Jan. 19 bankruptcy. Inamori, the founder of electronics manufacturer Kyocera, publicly belittled JAL managers, saying at a news conference that he had told them that they were unfit to run a green grocery.
EADS North Americas’ Fairchild Controls Corp. will team with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to evaluate cooling system technologies for avionics and mission systems on military aircraft. The cooperative research and development agreement is geared toward joint development and operation of a multiple-evaporator vapor-cycle system prototype at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
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.
