The FAA and India are expected to reach a bilateral safety agreement by mid-2011 that will allow both countries to accept each other’s certification of aviation products. The pending agreement includes a technical assessment and a simultaneous evaluation of the country’s regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). It is expected to lead to broader cooperation between the two nations.
Flying out of Boeing’s Moses Lake, Wash., facility, the first 747-8 Freighter test aircraft has completed its initial airworthiness test. The milestone, set by Boeing, means test engineers can be onboard flights and it allows Boeing to begin flights with RC521 and RC522, the two remaining test aircraft in the program. They are expected to begin flying this week. Vice President and 747 General Manager Mo Yahyavi says the first aircraft, RC501, had completed 13 flights covering 33 hr. as of Mar. 11. It has reached 30,000 ft.
Government stimulus plans and new partnership agreements are helping accelerate demand for broadband satellite services, spreading their impact to the four corners of the world. In its latest forecast, Paris-based Euroconsult predicts that consumer satellite broadband demand alone will exceed 10 million subscribers by 2018, compared with barely 1 million now. Moreover, subscribers will be downloading media-rich content, which requires significantly more bandwidth.
China Great Wall Industry Corp. has contracted to supply and launch a telecommunications satellite for Laos. Laosat-1 will be built by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology and launched by an LM-3B from Xichang. The launch date was not given. It was the fifth in-orbit delivery award for China Great Wall.
U.S. Senate Democrats are urging speedy confirmation of intelligence specialist Robert A. Harding to lead the Transportation Security Administration—a crucial post that has been vacant for more than a year and during one of the most serious aviation security breaches since 9/11.
Chinese ground controllers are monitoring the new Yaogan 9 Earth remote-sensing satellite after its launch from the Jiuquan satellite launch center Mar. 5. An announcement from the launch facility in northwest China says the spacecraft will survey land resources, forecast grain output and help manage disasters—the same tasks mentioned for earlier satellites in the Yaogan series. However, the U.S. Defense Dept. lists the satellites among Chinese military assets.
Separately, Kehler wants his cadre of satellite experts to be involved in the upfront planning for the Missile Defense Agency’s Precision Tracking and Surveillance System (PTSS). Typically, MDA develops missile defense technology and tests it. Then it is then handed off to a military service for operation. “What I have asked the director of the MDA is if PTSS is going to be ours [to operate eventually], we want to be part of it now . . .
David F. Toomey, 3rd, has become senior vice president for cyber-operations for the Mission Solutions Group of Qinetiq North America , Fairfax, Va. He was commander of the U.S. Air Force Information Operations Center, Lackland AFB, Tex.
Martin Sweeting, founder of U.K.-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and director of the Surrey Space Center, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Elektra Electronics Industry Awards 2009 . He was cited for challenging conventional space engineering by using commercially available electronics and parts to build small satellites. His vision has been to change the economics of space, developing a market for small satellites, and providing cost-effective solutions for established space giants.
Members of the International Space Station partnership are all set to use their same approach to cooperation if and when humankind ever ventures beyond low Earth orbit, but for now some partners would be happy just to get off the ground. Meeting in Tokyo, Administrator Charles Bolden and the heads of the Canadian, European, Japanese and Russian space agencies agree that the U.S.
Iran is continuing to build its tactical missile capability on the basis of Chinese technology with the claimed entry into series production of the Nasr 1 anti-ship missile. The Nasr family may also include air-launched derivatives.
Pratt & Whitney reached another milestone on its F135 engine, achieving an initial service release for the conventional takeoff and landing/carrier version, which clears it for operational use in the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter. This variant of the F135 has been certified for low-rate initial production and flight operations.
Photo taken during first-flight ceremonies for the T-50 (left)—Sukhoi’s stealth fighter prototype—shows the size and design differences between the sole Su-35UB two-seat trainer version of the Flanker multi-role fighter and the T-50 with its low-observable design. The 72-ft.-long, 48-ft.-wingspan Su-35UB has a rear-facing, tailcone-mounted radar and can carry a combat load of 3,276 gal. of fuel. The T-50 is 66.9 ft. long with a 48.2-ft. wingspan. It is 17.4 ft. high.
SuperJet International has received formal approval from Aeroflot to provide line maintenance for the carrier’s aircraft. Work at SuperJet International’s Venice, Italy, facility will start on Airbus A320s as the partners wait for arrival of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet.
The U.S. Air Force has upped its buy of Focused Lethality Munitions to 250 from 150. The FLM is a variant of the Small Diameter Bomb, designed with a composite casing and dense explosive fill for low collateral damage. It is a 250-lb.-class weapon made by Boeing.
Engineers at Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) are reviewing data after an automatic abort of its nine-engine Falcon 9 launch vehicle on the pad at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., Mar. 9. The company says the abort went nominally after an unspecified problem with the spin start system 2 sec. before ignition. The engines did not ignite for the planned 3.5-sec. static test, although flames appeared briefly beneath the rocket on the pad at Launch Complex 40, and a cloud of black smoke drifted away from the kerosene-fueled launch vehicle.
The Winter Olympics showcased the progress Nav Canada is making in multilateration surveillance, with two projects in Vancouver demonstrating the potential of this technology.
After 53 months of cutting, polishing and testing, the first flightworthy primary mirror segment for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has passed a critical mission-readiness review of its cryogenic performance. The test showed that a contracting team spread across five states knows how to convert powdered beryllium into a mirror polished to a tolerance of just 20 nanometers (a piece of typing paper is 100,000 nanometers thick).
A move by EchoStar to acquire troubled Satellite Mexicanos will boost its ambition to become a major player in the fixed-satellite service sector, provided noteholders do not scuttle the deal.
Finmeccanica delivered 2009 financial results at the upper end of its already revised financial guidance, with revenue of €18.2 billion ($24.6 billion) or €3 billion more than the prior year. Net profit jumped 16% to €718 million. The backlog, at year-end, stood at €45.1 billion owing to €21 billion in new order s in 2009. The Italian aerospace and defense giant reduced its debt 9% during the year , to €3 billion .
The International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading was well on track to its mid-March launch of a complete program to coordinate air transport needs in the event of a humanitarian crisis when an event of monumental proportion intervened. The Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti dictated a ready-or-not early start to the program, with Istat volunteers handling most of the coordination needed for eight flights to Haiti, starting the first week after the disaster.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts last week, Boeing Vice President Mike Bair said the company is targeting a 10-15% fuel burn advantage from any reengining of the 737 and expects to make a go-ahead decision by the end of the year. His comments were in line with what analysts such as Macquarie Equities Research’s Rob Stallard expected. But Bair’s words fudge the line a bit on when the company will act; other officials have indicated a decision by mid-year (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 40).
This month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will receive a report, which will remain unpublished, addressing how the government can better support the aerospace and defense sector. A key area is the export arena, which is gaining in importance as the U.K.’s own medium- to long-term procurement program wanes in several traditionally strong sectors .
Additional security costs and a decline in airline customers are expected to keep pressure on European airports for several years, but looming capacity bottlenecks mean capital-intensive infrastructure projects must proceed.
