Ever wonder just how many personnel it takes to operate an unmanned aircraft? “It takes a lot, . . . and that has become part of our challenge,” says Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the Air Force’s senior military deputy for acquisition. Other Air Force officials say it takes 120 people to support a single Predator on a combat mission. Shackelford wants more orbits of remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs). “We’re targeting 50 combat air patrols by 2011 and 65 by 2013.
General Electric is marshaling its newly acquired flight management, flight deck upgrades, operations services and engine improvement programs to develop an integrated fuel-services initiative aimed at potentially cutting airline fuel costs by 20% or more.
Defense Minister Herve Morin says France will send 80 more instructors to bolster its Afghan training corps and may consider additional reinforcements. The announcement followed a joint statement by President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the two countries will study ways to use the 5,000-person Franco-German Brigade in theaters outside of Europe, including possibly in Afghanistan. Both countries are being pressured to increase contributions to NATO’s Afghan force.
Boeing’s first production 747-8 Freighter has left the final assembly line in Everett, Wash., and is undergoing “change incorporation” modifications specific to launch customer Cargolux’s order. The air craft is the fourth 747-8F built. The first three are involved in the flight certification program , but will be refurbished for commercial deliveries once it has ended. Meanwhile, Boeing has begun building wing spars for the first 747-8 Intercontinental passenger aircraft that is to be delivered to launch customer Lufthansa in 2011.
Garuda Indonesia will defer until the third quarter a planned initial public offering of its shares intended to raise about $300 million to finance expansion. Global economic weakness is pushing the carrier to defer the offering, which was planned for June, says the minister for state-owned enterprises, Mustafa Abubakar. Garuda is working on operational as well as financial restructuring. It proposes to create hubs in the secondary cities of the sprawling archipelago of 230 million people, rather than directing traffic mainly through Jakarta and Denpasar, on Bali.
French armaments agency DGA has contracted with Thales Alenia Space, on behalf of France and Italy, for construction of a dual-use Ka-band satellite intended to meet sharply rising demand for near-real-time imagery from UAVs , as well as to support low-security-level traffic needs of French and Italian forces and government agencies. Arianespace was chosen to launch the 3-metric-ton satellite, which will be capable of transmitting data at better than 1 Gbps. and is slated to be orbited in 2013.
The Southwest Research Institute is ready to spend more than $1 million to buy its researchers—including a former NASA associate administrator—tickets on private suborbital human spacecraft so they can tend experiments at the edge of space. And NASA-sponsored researchers may not be far behind. Alan Stern, who was associate administrator for science in 2007-08, plans to fly on one of the space tourism vehicles in development “over the next three years,” along with his co-investigator, Daniel Durda.
France has ordered 380 Sagem AASM laser-guided precision weapon kits, enabling this version to enter series production. The kits are intended for air force and navy Rafale fighters, which are already qualified to carry GPS and infrared-guided variants of the AASM. The order will enable program managers to begin qualification trials and start production engineering. Delivery of the weapons is to start in 2012.
Milestones: Dassault Falcon Jet is scheduled to deliver three Falcon 7X business jets to private operators in China in March, doubling the number of Falcons in that country . . . . . Pilatus Aircraft delivered 100 PC-12NG single-engine turboprops in 2009, a record for the Swiss planemaker . . . . . The 100th Bombardier Challenger 605 entered service in February; more than 800 aircraft in the 600 series of business jets have been delivered by the Montreal manufacturer . . . . .
The smallest NASA stimulus-package award for commercial spaceflight development in dollar terms may have the greatest potential for profits in the long run.
The U.K. Defense Ministry has awarded the VT Group a £35-million contract to support the RAF Tucano trainer aircraft for at least the next four years, pending the purchase of a successor. The contract is intended to guarantee the availability of the Tucano fleet to provide 12,000-14,500 flight training hours a year.
President Barack Obama says his “commitment to NASA is unwavering.” But in his first public comments on the subject, he makes clear that change must come at the space agency still reeling from his decision to cancel the Constellation program and hand transport to low Earth orbit over to the private sector. “If we want to get to Mars, if we want to get beyond that, what kinds of technologies are going to be necessary?” he asked space station and shuttle crews during a student call-in Feb. 17.
Denise E. Harvill has been appointed vice president-Western U.S. sales and James Hartnett vice president-alliance sales for the Americas for Etihad Airways , based in Chicago. Harvill was federal security director at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Hartnett was director of worldwide alliances and strategic partnerships for United Airlines.
Italian air force Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis (see photo) has been promoted to chief of staff from deputy chief of staff. He succeeds Gen. Daniele Tei, who has retired.
In an unusual move to bolster the prospects of its own narrow-body ambitions, Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) is proposing to ease market access to Western aircraft.
With the first flight of a fourth aircraft, Boeing has completed its transport fleet for 787 fuselage assemblies. The flight last week returned tools used to transport the Section 41 nose assembly that Spirit AeroSystems makes in Wichita, Kan., back home from Boeing’s final assembly line in Everett, Wash.
Owen Busch, who is vice president-supply and business development of the Michigan-based Avfuel Corp., has been named chairman of the Environmental Committee of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Assn.
Sierra Nevada Corp. has $20 million in federal stimulus funds for its Dream Chaser commercial crew launch vehicle, but the company has already applied many times that amount in NASA funding for its high-stakes effort to build a private route to space for the agency’s astronauts.
Bill Koch has become CEO of Wayfarer Aviation , Rye Brook, N.Y. He was president/CEO of Imaginaire Private Jet Charter. Capt. Dan Walsh has been named chief pilot for Wayfarer in Weymouth, Mass. He flew for major and regional airlines and in corporate aviation.
Finnair, with its passenger arm already heavily focused on Asia, is exploring expansion of its cargo services in the market (see p. 43). The initiative, unveiled last week , would call for a ramp-up of flights before summer. Finnair Cargo currently relies on belly cargo to meet Asian demand, although in the past it has worked with partners such as Cargolux to serve the market. Finnair’s fleet includes the Airbus A330-300 (see photo), Boeing 757 and MD-11. By early April, Finnair Cargo plans to fully define its Asian strategy, according to Managing Director Antero J.
A difficult market environment, disappointment in the land systems sector and the cost of embarrassing admissions on two investigations pushed BAE Systems into the red for 2009, but only just. The company recorded a £45-million ($69-million) loss for the financial year, compared to a £1.7-billion profit in 2008. Sales were up 21% to £22.4 billion, with the order book at a record £46.9 billion. The company booked impairment charges of £973 million for the year, compared to £177 million for the previous 12-month period.
The federal government and 10 former Transportation secretaries are supporting US Airways in its appeal of a court decision that let New Mexico forbid the carrier from selling booze onboard flights that arrive in or depart from the state —and perhaps while flying over it. In friend-of-the-court briefs, they argue that alcohol sales are an airline “service” that states cannot regulate because Congress gave the FAA the sole authority over airline safety.
Competition safeguards proposed by U.S. regulators are unlikely to prevent American Airlines and British Airways from finally sealing the transatlantic partnership they have been pursuing for more than a decade. While the two airlines still need further approvals, their biggest obstacle appears to be behind them.
