:Boeing has brought more fuel-efficient engines, a stretched fuselage, a higher-lift wing and new systems to the 747-8 to extend the brand into its fifth decade. But Boeing is keeping the new airplane’s handling and flight deck close to those of its predecessor -400 so pilots can make an easy transition. While the first flight of the 747-8F provided a spectacular view over Washington state’s Mount Rainier, the test program will quickly shift to Palmdale, Calif. Our coverage begins on p. 42. Photo by Leo Dejillas .
Release of the final request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X tanker could lead to a contracting conundrum. If the Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team follows through on its threat not to bid, the Pentagon’s strategy designed to elicit low, fixed-price offers from competitors could backfire. With only Boeing in the running, the Pentagon’s plan could lead to insufficient insight and auditability into the contractor’s pricing.
Defense ministers from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands have formally approved establishment of the European Air Transport Command (ETAC). It is expected to commence operations in September from its home in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with personnel starting to arrive in July help build the organization. The European partners are hoping to attract other nations to join the effort aimed at pooling and more efficiently employing scarce airlifters and tankers. Spain already is acting as an observer.
The long, turbulent A400M saga continues, as the French Cour des comptes—an oversight agency similar to the U.S. Government Accountability Office—questions the military airlifter’s raison d’etre. Although it is far too late to engage in existential debate about the program’s justification, such negative publicity will likely cause a breach of confidence while a new funding arrangement is being finalized.
U.S. Army Brig. Gens. Genaro J. Dellarocco, Brian A. Keller and Francis G. Mahon have been promoted to major general. Dellarocco is program executive officer for missiles and space at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Keller is military executive for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Bethesda, Md., and Mahon deputy for test and assessment at the Missile Defense Agency in Washington.
Lawmakers are riled about the Obama administration’s new space plan, and particularly its cancellation of the Constellation Program of shuttle follow-on vehicles after NASA spent $9 billion on it (see p. 24). But Republicans in both houses go beyond that bipartisan upset to launch rare personal attacks on a couple of top political appointees at the agency. Sen.
NASA is set to loft the third and final Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) in the GOES-N series on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., on Mar. 2. Liftoff is set for a window that opens at 6:19 p.m. EST and closes an hour later. Designated GOES-P until its checkout in orbit by manufacturer Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems in El Segundo Calif., the geostationary weather satellite will be stored in orbit as GOES-15 until one of the operational spacecraft fails.
Boeing is set to begin assembly of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K/L spacecraft it is building for NASA following completion of system critical design review and production readiness review. Approval came Feb. 19 after a three-day review by NASA . Launches are set in 2012 and 2013.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) engineers will use results from this final ground test of a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) to continue work on the five-segment version of the powerplant they are developing as the first stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle.
Astrium says it has completed the test campaign intended to qualify a new dispenser for Globalstar’s second-generation satphone and data constellation. Qualification of the dispenser, which will permit the Soyuz rocket to accommodate six Globalstar 2 spacecraft, clears the way for delivery of flight units. The first batch of the 24 satellites under contract is to be launched in July-September, the second in December and the final two in March and June 2011 (AW&ST Feb. 1, p. 44).
Mar. 8-12—Applied Technology Institutes’ Space-Based Radar. Holiday Inn, Laurel, Md. Call +1 (410) 956-8805 or see www.aticourses.com Mar. 10-11—American Astronautical Society’s 48th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium: “Earth and Beyond: The Next Decades.” Greenbelt (Md.) Marriott. Call +1 (703) 866-0020 or see www.astronautical.org
Jonathan Byrne has become chief operating officer of the London-based Royal Aeronautical Society . He was commercial director of the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center.
The proposed merger between Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air is receiving an initial positive reaction, although the putative partners have yet to fully spell out the cost savings and revenue benefits they expect to realize.
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices were upbeat in the first half of February, but came under selling pressure during the second half of the month, holding within the previous month’s trading range.
With approval from the Korea Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services will be able to conduct heavy maintenance on 737’s operating in South Korea. The Koreans acted two months after the FAA expanded the scope of the facility into heavy maintenance. Boeing, China’s Shanghai Airlines and authorities at the city’s Pudong International Airport opened the maintenance and overhaul operation in June 2006 .
In your article on future rotorcraft you report on studies by NASA to enable the development of a regional jet-size vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft to operate between city centers (AW&ST Feb. 15, p. 46).
Bob Klein (see photos) has been named vice president-engineering for the Battle Management and Engagement Systems Div./deputy for engineering for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Aerospace Systems Sector, Bethpage, N.Y. He was vice president of the Maritime and Tactical Systems business area and had been vice president-engineering, logistics and technology for the Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare unit. Klein has been succeeded by Daniel W. Chang, who was an executive of the Airborne Early Warning/Battle Management Command and Control business.
French aerospace contractors Thales and Safran are presenting sharply contrasting outlooks on how they expect to develop. Both companies showed anemic growth in revenues last year as other activities failed to compensate for weak civil aerospace sales. Thales’s revenues rose 2% to €12.88 billion ($17.5 billion), although without the impact of an earthquake last April that destroyed a key Italian component plant operated by affiliate Thales Alenia Space, the figure would have been somewhat higher.
Brussels Airlines is adding four African destinations to its network, in the hope of drawing transfer traffic from France through its Brussels hub. The new locations are Accra, Ghana; Cotonou, Benin; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and Lome, Togo. To help support the transfer traffic, the airline plans to boost its Paris-Brussels connectivity starting Mar. 28. Brussels hopes to start service to Africa in July with Airbus A330s. Accra flights will be operated four times weekly and services to other destinations, twice weekly.
Thales Chief Executive Luc Vigernon and Safran boss Jean-Paul Herteman say their companies—both flush with cash and debt-free—are discussing mergers and sales that could make some of their holdings more competitive. However, the precise activities have not yet been identified, Herteman says. One idea said to be on the table is swapping Thales’s money-losing avionics business for Safran’s niche defense activities. Another is combining their inertial navigation systems activities; Safran admits it is struggling to ramp up INS output, which it is seeking to double .
The European Commission is investigating a loan provided to Czech Airlines by a government institution over concerns that it violates state aid rules. After the loan was approved, the government freed up the assets securing the loan, which Brussels believes may have turned the transaction into a violation of state aid rules.
Seekers of airline pilot employment are finding a volatile feast-or-famine job market, where the disparity between pilot furloughs and pilot hiring is glaring, according to FltOps.com, a Web-based aviation career specialist. Since the industry depression started, United Airlines has furloughed 1,437 flight crewmembers. As of mid-February, American Airlines had 1,891 pilots on furlough and is planning another 175 layoffs in first-half 2010, says FltOps. Smaller cargo carriers have been particularly hard-hit, with nearly 19% of their flight crews furloughed.
Boeing’s manufacturing plan for the 747-8 is based on skills honed while building more than 1,400 of the big widebodies over the past four decades. Still, a stretch of its fuselage and a redesign of its wing have prompted the introduction of new tools and procedures .
