Textron Defense Systems has achieved average power exceeding 100 kw. in laboratory tests of its Joint High Power Solid-State Laser demonstrator. This completes Phase 3 of the $100-million U.S. Army-led program. Northrop Grumman exceeded the 100-kw. target last March , optically combining beams from seven 15-kw. parallel laser gain modules. Textron created a single beam in a chain of six 15-kw. slab-laser modules to exceed 100 kw., the power level needed to achieve lethality sufficient for use in a range of weapon systems.
The U.S. military’s demand for full-motion video in combat zones is being met by stepping up UAV patrols and fielding multi-camera surveillance systems on manned and unmanned aircraft. But a gigapixel sensor is being tested that can downlink as many video streams as 65 Predators and allow a single platform to track targets across an area the size of city.
The Swiss parliament has approved purchase of two additional PC-21 turboprop trainers to bring the fleet to eight . The aircraft were needed to meet pilot training needs and offload work from the F/A-18 fleet to the PC-21s, which have a lower flying-hour cost.
French defense officials say Russia has submitted a new request for four Mistral helicopter carriers, instead of one previously under discussion. The prospect of the assault ship sale has prompted protests in the Baltic countries, Georgia and U.S. Congress. French Defense Minister Herve Morin recently told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that as Russia is now considered a NATO partner, not a hostile power, there is no reason not to collaborate in arms procurement.
Victoria, Canada-based Viking Air Announced that delivery of its first Series 400 Twin Otter is imminent and that the company’s backlog is about $200 million. Viking, which recently opened a new 84,000-sq.‑ft. facility to support expansion, bought the type certificate for the out-of-production DHC-6 in 2007.
The Pakistani air force has formally inducted the JF-17 fighter into its inventory after the first locally built model was unveiled in November. During the inauguration ceremony at the Minhas air base in Kamra (where the Pakistani production line is located), Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman announced the JF-17 would participate in the upcoming Hi-Mark 2010 exercise. Pakistan is in talks with France’s ATE to “Westernize” the fighter.
High-power electric lasers are moving out of the laboratory, with a 100-kw.-class device to be test-fired against mortars and other targets at the U.S. Army’s High-Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. HELSTF has tested high-power chemical lasers, including the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), which shot down Katyusha rockets. Now the facility is to be upgraded with a Northrop Grumman electric laser that produced 105 kw. in Phase 3 of the Pentagon’s Joint High-Power Solid-State Laser program.
Let the competition games begin. Under the new U.S.-Japan open skies accord, which becomes effective later this year, U.S. carriers will gain access to Tokyo Haneda Airport for the first time in more than 30 years. Delta, Continental, United, Hawaiian and American airlines last week filed applications with the U.S. Transportation Dept. for the four daily flights that will become available. Pending approvals, Delta is seeking a Oct. 31 start for nonstop services from Seattle using the Airbus A330-300, and from Detroit, Los Angeles and Honolulu using the Boeing 747-400.
While helicopter manufacturers and operators turn to improved sensors and flying techniques to combat the dangers of poor visibility caused by “brownout” landings in desert conditions, novel testing methods are helping to pinpoint the fundamental causes of the problem.
Electronic warfare and maritime surveillance are among the new roles being eyed for Raytheon’s Astor aircraft, as designers look to exploit the inherent capability of the platform. Besides examining the aircraft’s potential for signals/ communications intelligence (sigint/comint) activities, the company is looking at fitting it with a surveillance radar designed specifically for long-range maritime operations.
British Airways plans to start using a blend of jet fuel and waste biomass-derived fuel starting in 2014, under a new agreement with the Solena Group. Solena will produce 16 million gal. of waste-derived biofuel using a facility expected to be set up in East London. Around 500,000 metric tons of waste will be converted first into biosyngas through a high-temperature gasifier, and then, through the Fischer-Tropsch process, further converted into the 16 million gal. of biojetfuel.
U.S. analysts say a Russian arms deal with Libya includes 12 Sukhoi Su-35 fighters and six Yakovlev Yak-130 trainer/light combat aircraft that amount to about $1 billion of the $1.8-billion package. “Libya has been looking for some time now,” says one Washington official. “It will be a very lucrative market for whoever gets the deal to help them modernize after their drought in the last decades after being blacklisted” by arms-exporting nations. “Earlier, there were similar reports of France inking a deal for Rafale as well, but nothing more came of it,” he says.
Concerns are mounting in New Zealand about delays to the C-130H life-extension and upgrade program, particularly with one of the main contractors announcing workforce reductions. The New Zealand Defense Ministry awarded the contract to modernize the 40-year-old aircraft to extend airframe life and install updated avionics. L-3 in turn signed up Air New Zealand affiliate Safe Air to help with the work. Safe Air has now announced it is trimming about 100 jobs, raising concerns with the government that the program may suffer further.
Increased support from France and Germany—Europe’s two leading space powers—promises to provide a sharp boost in European space funding, provided budgets in other countries do not waver.
Harry A. Scott, Executive Vice President (Emeritus), Space Access (Hawthorne, Calif. )
In your Person of the Year article, “The Space Entrepreneur” (AW&ST Jan. 4, p. 46), comments by John Marshall of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) need to be corrected. He says “safety standards . . . haven’t been described” for human-rating requirements of space transportation vehicles . In the late 1990s, Space Access participated in several NASA contracts. In one contract, Space Access Program Manager Harry W. Scott and staff compiled a comprehensive set of “Aerospaceworthiness Standards” by working with the FAA, NASA and U.S. Air Force.
The International Air Transport Assn.’s 2009 safety performance data released Feb. 18 show the 2009 global accident rate—0.71 per 1 million flights or one accident in 1.4 million flights—is the second lowest in aviation history, following the 2006 rate of 0.65 . The report notes that 2009’s safety performance is a “significant improvement” over 2008’s rate of 0.81 rate, or one accident per 1.2 million flights. And IATA’s member airlines surpassed the industry average with a rate of 0.62 , or one accident per 1.6 million flights.
Alitalia’s strategy comes in response to Lufthansa’s attempt to add Malpensa as its fourth hub by 2013, with the offering of competitively priced domestic and regional services by its wholly owned subsidiary, Lufthansa Italia. Initial services would include flights to eight European and three domestic destinations, with four cities in Europe to be added this summer. Load factors are still far below expectations, which has forced the German airline to halt plans to launch intercontinental flights from Milan.
USAF Maj. Gen. Stephen Sargeant, commander of the Operational Test and Evaluation Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M., has received the 2009 Gen. Thomas D. White U.S. Air Force Space Trophy . It is awarded annually to a USAF employee for the most outstanding contribution to the nation’s progress in aerospace.
Bombardier Aerospace says 2009 deliveries in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, dropped to 302 aircraft from 349 for the year before. “While indicators of market stabilization have started to emerge, we remain cautious ,” says President and Chief Operating Officer Guy C. Hachey. Separately, Canada’s Jazz Air signed a letter of intent to finalize its firm order for 15 Q400 NextGen turboprop aircraft plus 15 options. Deliveries of the aircraft, configured to seat 74 passengers in one class , are expected to start in May 2011 , to replace 15 50-seat regional jets .
Delta Air Lines and US Airways say they will scrap their deal to swap slots at Reagan Washington National and New York LaGuardia airports if the FAA does not change the conditions it wants to attach to approval . Delta seeks the slots for its New York growth strategy while US Airways wants to focus on building its presence at Reagan. But the FAA last week said Delta would have to sell 14 of the 42 slot-pairs at Reagan that it was going to give to US Airways; US Airways would have to sell 20 of the 140 slot pairs at LaGuardia it was going to transfer or lease to Delta.
AeroVironment Inc.’s unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) campus northwest of Los Angeles is proof that innovation and entrepreneurship are still thriving in some corners of the aerospace and defense industry. The 700-employee company has fielded a line of small, remotely piloted aircraft—one weighs just 1 lb.—that easily fit into a soldier’s backpack. Switchblade, a new kamikaze UAS, is designed to dive into “soft targets,” such as a truck carrying enemy combatants, and blow up.
Clay McConnell Vice President-Communications Airbus Americas Inc. (Herndon, Va.)
In his letter, “A Lot More than Pitot Tubes,” Lee Gaillard asserts there is a history of “ systemic problems in A300-series aircraft” (AW&ST Feb. 1, p. 8). The letter presents a n example of defying logic—stringing together factual errors and unconnected events in an attempt to give the impression of a pattern that does not exist. If there were evidence to back up Gaillard’s claims, Airbus and regulatory authorities would have taken action years ago.
CNES Director General Yannick d’Escatha says a planned government bond issue is expected to provide €750 million ($1.02 billion) in additional funding for France’s national space program. One-third of this is likely to go for MegaSat, a broadband access satellite system with fiber-optic-like speed, and another third for definition of a new launcher, the Ariane 6.
Boeing is ramping up for 747-8 Freighter initial airworthiness testing following the first flight of the stretched freighter, which gave an early indication of good fuel economy, stable systems and the bonus of handling characteristics common to its predecessors.
Recessions are painful for virtually everyone touched by them, but they do serve at least one constructive purpose: As a general rule, they speed up the demise of badly managed businesses, freeing up resources and market space for healthier competitors. But this Darwinian process does not always work this way in commercial aviation.
