Very long endurance and the ability to hunt enemy air defenses are emerging areas of interest in EADS’s long-term unmanned air vehicle road map, although the company’s near-term focus remains on securing a future for the medium-altitude Talarion project.
Boeing increased the unidentified customers’ count for 737s on its 2009 net order list by two last week, raising it to 55 and the year’s total order count to 149 airplanes.
The decision by Northrop Grumman/EADS North America not to submit a bid for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 replacement competition is largely seen as continued posturing by the team, rather than an end to its ambitions to win back the $35-billion deal to rebuild aerial refuelers.
Passenger figures continue to sag for British Airways, but the airline is continuing to see signs of hope that its premium traffic is starting to recover. “Long-haul premium is showing signs of improvement with volumes above the levels of last year and yields improving,” the carrier says in reporting November traffic figures. Short-haul premium traffic was reported as stable. Business-class traffic was up 1.5% in November.
The first Geosynchronous (GEO-1) satellite in the Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) that Lockheed Martin Space Systems is building for the U.S. Air Force has completed thermal vacuum testing, setting it up for its last major trials before shipment next December to Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., for launch. While test data are analyzed, technicians will complete rework early next year on faulty spacecraft components identified prior to the beginning of thermal vac. Lockheed Martin says the components are not part of GEO-1’s early warning missile detection system.
The discussion in Washington Outlook (AW&ST Nov. 16, p. 24) concerning how thousands of fourth-generation Chinese fighters would wear down 187 F-22s, sounds rather like discussions in the 1930s concerning the outcome of a confrontation between the battleship fleets of the great powers. Both discussions were backward-looking.
France continues to reaffirm plans to modernize and expand its military space capability, despite budget constraints and the difficulty of enlisting other European nations in the effort, particularly for the next-generation Musis surveillance system.
Ecuadorian airline AeroGal this week plans to launch daily non-stop Boeing 767 service between New York JFK International Airport and Guayaquil Jose Joaquin de Olmedo Airport. The 767 will seat 210 passengers, 25 in business class and 185 in coach. It is the only Ecuadorian airline to operate to New York, according to President and CEO Gabriela Sommerfeld.
In the article “Ready to Play Host” this week’s issue, differences between Boeing’s 702B and 702 are misidentified on p. 68. The 702B will deploy antennas but will not use deployable radiators.
Jan. 4-7—48th Annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition. Orlando (Fla.) World Center Marriott. Also, Jan. 20-21—Strategic and Tactical Missile Systems Conference. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. Call +1 (703) 264-7500 or see www.aiaa.org Jan. 5-7 —AUSA’s Army Aviation Symposium and Exposition. Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel, Arlington, Virginia. Call +1 (703) 907-2672 or see www.ausa.org
The U.K. Defense Ministry and industry are trying to identify the cause of the failure of what was planned to be the last qualification test firing of the Royal Navy’s Sea Viper air defense missile system. The Sea Viper—the Royal Navy’s name for the MBDA Principal Anti-Air Missile System—is the primary anti-air armament of the navy’s Type 45 destroyer. The test is thought to have been a two-target engagement.
European mobile satellite service startup Solaris Mobile has inaugurated operating trials to demonstrate its ability to broadcast video and radio to phones, other hand-held devices and automobiles. Solaris, a joint venture of Eutelsat and SES Astra, is drawing on an S-band payload on Eutelsat’s W2A satellite and a ground network and cellular mobile technology provided by TowerCast and Alcatel-Lucent, respectively.
The tragedy of the Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 12, like so many other accidents, need not have happened. While we cannot bring back the victims, we can honor their lives by using the knowledge we gained during this investigation to revamp how we deal with fatigue management.
Boeing is busy bringing the first 787 back to life in preparation for flight tests, which, depending on preflight test progress, could be brought forward to the week starting Dec 14.
Pratt & Whitney and Malaysia Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding to open an engine nacelle repair facility in Kuala Lumpur within the next two years. The 50/50 joint venture would service nacelles on the airline’s fleet and those on third-party aircraft in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
The U.S. and France have completed interoperability tests of a new Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) interrogator/transponder that is intended to reduce fratricide on the ground during ground air strikes. The trials, held at the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command test center in Patuxent, Md., demonstrated that Thales’s New Generation Mode S/Mode 5 IFF could communicate effectively with U.S. equivalents using Mode 5 encryption keys.
The Air Force chief says he is concerned about maintaining the industrial base during these lean financial times. But he is not one to be pushed around. At the Credit Suisse/Aviation Week conference, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the C-17 production line at Long Beach, Calif., is a “national treasure,” the only facility suited to build large military aircraft left in the U.S. base. Boeing has lobbied hard to get funding for more C-17s from Congress each year despite the lack of a request from the Air Force.
Sea Launch Co. has won final U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval for debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to keep it going while it reorganizes under protection of Chapter 11. The Dec. 3 ruling follows interim approval gained last month. Under the recovery plan, $12.5 million in DIP financing will come through Space Launch Services—an entity led by aerospace consultant and former Sea Launch Vice President Bohdan Bejmuk, with Excalibur Almaz and PlanetSpace as principal partners, according to Sea Launch.
Small businesses form the backbone of the U.S. economy—and the aerospace and defense industry. But the small operations that originate tens of thousands of components that go into aircraft and weapons systems are much more vulnerable to the industry’s downturn and an evaporation of credit. With an eye on better days ahead, some are doing whatever it takes to hold onto skilled employees, even at the expense of profits.
Earle Rudolph (see photo) has become vice president-business development and Doug Denneny (see photo) vice president for government relations of Washington-based MDBA Inc. Rudolph was vice president business development for research strategy of Qinetiq Inc. Denneny was manager of the F/A-18 program for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. John Pranzatelli has been named vice president-strategy and business operations. He was vice president-finance and business management for the Northrop Grumman Corp.
Ian Whalley reports that saving 15,000 lb. on the space shuttle solid rocket boosters (SRB) by removing parachutes would permit the shuttle to deliver an additional 7,000 lb. of payload per flight to the International Space Station (AW&ST Nov. 23, p. 10). This is not possible. A “rule of thumb” we used when I was manager of shuttle systems engineering at the Johnson Space Center, was that a 10-lb. savings on the SRB is equivalent to about 1 lb. in additional payload on the shuttle orbiter.
The Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces (JASDF) wrapped up its annual training exercises at the U.S. Army’s Ft. Bliss, Tex., facility. Target engagement and test firing of the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System, were part of the agenda in which Patriot fire unit crews conducted missions against a wide range of targets during the course of the exercise, which ran from midsummer through late fall. Approximately 450 JASDF personnel participated.
The French military directorate, DGA, will use Schiebel’s unmanned aerial system Camcopter S-100 to run a series of comprehensive experimental trials by the French army during a military exercise, and to undergo a further two week of trials at a non-European location, these on behalf of the French navy. Slated to take place in the first half of next year, the tests will assess vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. Thales Aeronautical Systems has been subcontracted to assist Schiebel.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says its ballistic missile shootdown exercise for the Boeing 747-400F-based Airborne Laser (ABL) will not occur this year as planned. It is now slated for January or February, according to agency communications official Rick Lehner. This delay is slight compared to this program’s history. It was originally planned to conduct a flight shootdown test in 2002, and an early program schedule called for deployment of a fleet of seven of the aircraft outfitted with highly accurate oxygen-iodine lasers in 2008.
U.S. airlines took a beating during the recession, but they are emerging in better shape than many industry observers anticipated, with grim predictions of bankruptcies or liquidation all but dissipated for now.
