The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied a protest by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) o f NASA’s choice to orbit the company’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) spacecraft using Orbital Sciences’ Minotaur V rocket. The five-stage Minotaur V uses refurbished components from Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles in three of its stages. SpaceX’s protest hinged on the Space Act, which requires the U.S. government to use commercial launch vehicles unless such a move would not be cost-effective.
The end of June is the deadline for a decision on whether to restructure the Bell/Agusta Aerospace partnership and allow AgustaWestland to take the lead in developing the BA609 civil tiltrotor, says Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of the European helicopter manufacturer, which is now the minority partner in the program. Two BA609 prototypes are in flight test, with two more to join the program in 2011-12. Certification is targeted for 2013.
Helicopters are complicated, helicopters are noisy, but helicopters are invaluable. That is the message we have heard for years from both makers and users of these machines. But with public concern over the environment escalating, the value of rotorcraft in their varied roles is being questioned.
Upcoming 747-8F development and certification tests will focus on a myriad of flight-deck and system improvements designed to sustain both the freighter and passenger models well into the 21st century.
CAE has launched a line of rotorcraft flight simulators designed to cost less than training in a single-turbine helicopter, in a move to improve safety by cutting the large amount of pilot training still performed in the aircraft. Prices for the CAE 3000 Series will range from less than $4 million to around $10 million. A fixed-base version meeting Level 7 flight-training device standards features a three-axis vibration platform and CAE Tropos-6000 visual system with direct-projection dome display providing up to 200-deg. horizontal X 80-deg.
Air Force planners are not keen on banning social networking among the rank and file because those capabilities are proving to be good digital aids in combat. “Internet Relay Chat is a good example,” says Lt. Gen. William Lord, the service’s chief information officer. “You have an intelligence analyst in the U.S. who is looking at a live picture of the battlefield while chatting online with a Predator operator that can point [the aircraft’s] sensors.
Boeing hopes to minimize the impact of job cuts on the C-17 line following its decision to slow the airlifter production rate by a third, but acknowledges that some losses are inevitable.
Concerning “MALE Bonding” (AW&ST Feb. 15, p. 30), European nations once more are poised for the last war if they are not taking advantage of developments in the U.S. and Israel in the field of (medium-altitude, long-endurance) MALE unmanned aerial vehicles. Reinventing the wheel has never been advantageous for the taxpayer or the defense establishment. Why not jump-start cooperative agreements with others? There is still plenty of development work to be completed to alleviate concerns about loss of R&D capability.
New details of proposed changes in U.S. space policy show a dramatic shift away from the technology “pull” of a human return to the Moon to a much broader search for new technical approaches to exploring farther afield.
USAF Maj. Gen. Maurice H. Forsyth has been named commander of the Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education/vice commander of the Air University of Air Education and Training Command, Maxwell AFB, Ala. He was commander of the Spaatz Center for Officer Education/commandant of the Air War College. He has been succeeded by Maj. Gen. Robert C. Kane, who was commanding general of the Coalition Air Force Transition Team, Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq in Baghdad. Kane, in turn, will be followed by Brig. Gen. Scott M.
Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace expect to beat NASA’s expectations of 2016 for a commercial crew launch capability to the International Space Station outlined in President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget. The partnership that pairs Boeing’s experience with Bigelow’s zeal for private spaceflight was among five competitors awarded a total of $50 million in contracts by NASA under the Space Act to accelerate development of a U.S. commercial space taxi to replace the Constellation program’s Ares I rocket and the Orion crew exploration vehicle.
Leo Windecker, whose Eagle I was the first all-composite aircraft awarded type and production certificates by the FAA, died Feb. 13 in Cedar Park, Tex. He was 88. Windecker and his wife, Fairfax, both dentists, worked with Dow Chemical Co. to develop lightweight fiberglass-reinforced plastic structures for aviation use. Windecker’s four-place, single-engine, retractable-gear aircraft earned certification in December 1969. Only nine aircraft, including prototypes, were built before the Windecker company failed. The U.S.
The pace of two military helicopter programs is set to speed up as Germany tries to modernize its rotorcraft inventory while also pursuing a major effort to keep the CH-53G—the heart of the nation’s troop transport fleet— viable for another two decades. There is much at stake for the government, but also for Eurocopter and other industry players. Berlin is expected to issue a request for proposals to fill its need for a naval helicopter as early as March.
Keeping it conservative, simple and affordable were the design drivers with the Mantis unmanned air vehicle (UAV) demonstrator. Given the compressed development time frame and the program’s ambitions, even these would be challenge enough. BAE Systems drew on its UAV development experience in its approach to Mantis, allowing the program to go from “a clean sheet of paper to first flight in 19 months,” says Ian Muldowney, BAE Mantis program manager.
Gloria A. Flach (see photos) has been appointed vice president/general manager of the Targeting Systems Div. of the Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems Sector, Linthicum, Md. John C. Johnson has been named vice president/general manager of the Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Systems Div. Jeffrey Q. Palombo has become vice president/general manager of the Land and Self-Protection Systems Div., Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Gas Turbine Efficiency of Orlando, Fla., says a $1.6-million contract it has received to manufacture EcoPower engine wash systems for Pratt & Whitney shows demand is increasing for the fuel-saving service. Pratt recently signed a five-year contract with Nayak Aircraft Services GmbH., an independent aircraft maintenance operator in Europe, that will extend use of GTE’s engine-wash technology to more than 60 airlines there. Pratt says EcoPower can cut gas turbine engine fuel burn by as much as 1.2% by remobving grime.
Twenty A320s that the Chinese government ordered from Airbus two years ago will be allocated to Air China. The government buys aircraft centrally through the China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group Corp. It said in November 2007 that it would buy 110 A320-family aircraft and 50 A330s, and Airbus formally booked the order in 2008, awaiting notification of the users. The allocation to Air China has been widely but wrongly reported as an order.
Mar. 1-3—Speednews’ 24th Annual Commercial Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference. Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, Calif. See www.speednews.com Mar. 1-4—International Civil Aviation Organization’s Next Generation of Aviation Professionals Symposium. ICAO Headquarters, Montreal. See www.icao.int/ngap/ Mar. 1-5—Applied Technology Institutes’ Space Systems’ Conference on Subsystems Design. Also, Mar. 8-12—Space-Based Radar. Both at Holiday Inn, Laurel, Md. Call +1 (410) 956-8805 or see www.aticourses.com
The Russian air force’s combat training center at Lipetsk has taken delivery of its first production-standard Yak-130 Mitten advanced jet trainer aircraft. A first batch of 12 aircraft is being built by the Sokol plant in Nizhny Novgorod for the air force, with four already completed. Sokol intends to deliver all aircraft of the initial order this year.
Russia’s fifth-generation fighter prototype, the Sukhoi T-50, is continuing flight trials. Two more were conducted from Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Feb. 12-13. Prior to the second flight, the first T-50 prototype was painted in an air force white-grey-blue camouflage scheme similar to that of the second Su-35 prototype. The aircraft has also been given side-number (Bort) 51.
William A. Osborn has been appointed to the board of directors of the General Dynamics Corp. , Falls Chuch, Va. He is chairman of the Northern Trust Corp.
U.S. space policy, or rather lack of such a policy, is increasingly becoming more and more incomprehensible. First, there was the move to box the U.S. into a corner where , for at least a half decade or so, it will be dependant upon Moscow to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Russians will do the job, but on their conditions . The vulnerability of America will be total.
International Launch Services will conduct its first dual-launch mission with the SES-3 and KazSat-2 spacecraft. SES-3 is the third in a batch of four spacecraft being procured by SES from Orbital Sciences Corp., while KazSat-2 is a Ku-band satellite being built by Khrunichev for Kazakhstan. The awards are the first this year for ILS, which performed its premier launch of 2010, for Intelsat 16, on Feb. 12. The 3-metric-ton SES-3 and the 1.3-ton KazSat-2 will be orbited together in 2011 using a Yakhta SC bus.
U.S. Army Col. (ret.) Robert M. Furney (Pacific Grove, Calif. )
As for the new USAF tanker competition and threat that EADS will drop out of the contest unless the specifications are changed , let them drop out! Didn’t EADS turn down offers by Pratt & Whitney and other American companies to provide the turboprop engine for the Airbus Military A400M? Instead, EADS wanted to develop its own engine from scratch , one of the main reasons the aircraft is three years late. EADS and France are looking out for their own interests and industrial base, and the heck with playing with America on an even footing.
