Despite armor vehicle competition losses in the U.S., now being protested, and ongoing fraud investigations in the U.K., BAE Systems’ interim statement last week said trading in the first half of the financial year was in line with management expectations. According to the statement, the company “continues to anticipate a year of good growth for 2009 as a whole despite a lower volume of land vehicle sales than in 2008.”
At face value, last week’s annual Russo-Indian governmental commission on military cooperation—led by the countries defense ministers—was just an ordinary affair aimed at smoothing the often bumpy ride of bilateral defense collaboration. For Moscow, however, India is no longer an ordinary market.
Boeing, Honeywell’s UOP refining specialist and Mexico’s airports and auxiliary services agency will collaborate on research for markets for Mexican-sourced sustainable aviation biofuels. Halophytic plants, which thrive in arid land and can be irrigated with sea water, will be the first research target. Boeing, Yale University and UOP are contributing to a study led by the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi that focuses on the sustainability of halophytes and the carbon life cycle of biofuels.
A year after its launch, the science team for NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) will publish an all-sky map of neutral atoms that define the boundary between the solar wind and interstellar medium—the gas, dust and radiation environment between the stars. That medium reflects roughly 90% of cosmic radiation away from the inner Solar System. The findings are causing some rethinking of how the interstellar cosmic radiation buffer works, says lead investigator Stephen A. Fuselier of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
U.S. consultancy Forecast International predicts the market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be worth $38 billion or more worldwide over the next 10 years. “No matter how many UAVs are built, military agencies want more,” writes Larry Dickerson, Forecast’s senior unmanned-systems analyst. On top of $17.9 billion in procurement, research funding for UAVs could exceed $20 billion through 2018, he adds. The U.S. is the driving force behind this market, Dickerson notes, and U.S.-based companies will account for more than 60% of the market’s value.
Northrop Grumman is using a full-size mock-up of the James Webb Space Telescope’s backplane and sunshield to test integration and develop methods for handling the next-generation observatory as it works through the critical design review (CDR) for the telescope unit.
The South Korean government is likely to approve development soon of its second space launcher, the KSLV-2, which would take the country from experimentation to serious participation in the international launch services market. Korean Air Aerospace, the manufacturing division of the airline Korean Air, is studying a follow-up to the KSLV-2 with a company-developed rocket in the same class, or maybe a commercial version of the government launcher.
The NTSB on Oct. 14 determined that pilot mismanagement of an abnormal flight control situation, and failure to control airspeed and prioritize control of the aircraft are the probable causes of the June 4, 2007, crash of a Cessna Citation 550 that killed six people. The Marlin Air aircraft impacted Lake Michigan shortly after it departed Milwaukee in marginal visual meteorological conditions, to transport a human organ for a transplant.
Ukrainian carrier AeroSvit is outfitting its Boeing 767 and 737 aircraft with AD Aerospace’s CabinVu cockpit-door monitoring system. Cameras installed in the cabin are linked to cockpit monitors that are within reach of the flight crew, enabling the pilots to observe any activity outside the cockpit door and adjacent galleys. AD Aerospace FlightVu inflight surveillance equipment, which includes outside-aircraft monitoring systems, is installed on aircraft of other carriers, including Icelandair, British Airways, and JetBlue.
Industry officials caution that a proposal to dip into a planned French government bond issue to help finance technologies for future European civil aviation projects, including the next-generation narrow-body air transport, will have to beat out a bevy of other projects vying for the €10-billion ($14.8-billion) honey pot. Among them are undertakings from within the aerospace industry itself, including a follow-on Ariane 6 satellite launcher, a space-based CO2 monitoring system and more Ka-band broadband satellite capacity (AW&ST Oct. 12, pp. 24, 34).
Nov. 2-4—A&D Programs Conference. Phoenix. Nov. 4-5—Lean Six Sigma for MRO. Miami. Dec. 2-3—A&D Finance Conference. New York. Dec. 8-10—MRO Asia Conference & Exhibition. Hong Kong. You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only)
The Link Simulation and Training Air Traffic Control Academy is in the final phase of a 10-month course of instruction that will qualify 40 students for FAA control-tower certification when they graduate in November. Located at North Texas Regional Airport in Denison, the academy began operating in January and provides 510 hr. of on-the-job tower training, says David Williams, L-3 Link’s vice president of training services. The curriculum is approved under FAR Part 65, and the courses of instruction are taught by certified air traffic controllers.
Jeremiah Farmer suggests U.S. military forces undergo additional reductions because he wants to live in a society that inspires its children to be astronauts and explore space and not be fighter pilots. He also believes we should have the “. . . ability to instantly ramp up to wartime production levels.”
Much attention was focused on DigitalGlobe Inc. when the company successfully orbited its third imagery satellite on Oct. 8. But things have not been quiet at the other end of the high-resolution remote-sensing duopoly.
The passenger rights battle has taken another strange turn. Kate Hanni, a passenger rights crusader lobbying for federal legislation on ground delays and facing airline opposition, filed a lawsuit in a federal court last week alleging that Delta Air Lines illegally obtained access to e-mails hacked from her private accounts. Hanni and her group sued both Delta and Dulles, Va.-based Metron Aviation, which provides analytical, design and software development services for air traffic management.
Following last month’s first flight of an upgraded South African Air Force Pilatus Astra PC-7 Mk.II, Pilatus and its South African industrial partner are looking to undertake further modifications starting next month. The first of 35 PC-7s being upgraded with new avionics flew on Sept. 23 after the aircraft was modified in Switzerland. The work will now transition to South Africa.
Major changes are underway at the top of two of the aerospace and defense industry’s largest companies. United Technologies Corp. (UTC) Chairman George David will retire at the end of 2009, completing a leadership transition that has been underway for nearly four years at the parent company of Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand and Sikorsky Aircraft. Louis Chenevert, who was appointed president of UTC in 2006 and CEO two years later, will add the title of chairman on Jan. 1.
The Lehman Brothers collapse that set off the global economic crisis occurred on Sept. 15, 2008. But it is a date two months later—Nov. 19— that will live in infamy in the business aviation sector.
As the U.K. government ponders whether to create a space agency, following the end of a consultation period on the question, the minister responsible for space has spelled out the benefits he believes an agency would bring. The British science minister, Paul Drayson, who is responsible for space within the Business, Innovation and Skills Dept., indicates that the lack of an agency disadvantages the U.K. within the European Space Agency. Its absence also complicates funding and planning issues within government.
Honeywell will unveil this week—at the National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA) show—upgraded Primus Epic-based cockpits developed for Dassault Falcons as the EASy II and, as the newly approved Cert Foxtrot update, for Gulfstream’s PlaneView flightdeck. The EASy II and Foxtrot updates both center around Honeywell’s SmartView synthetic vision system, which projects a daytime, head-up display (HUD)-like view on the pilot’s primary flight display.
Bucking current market turbulence, EgyptAir is eyeing West Africa for its next round of route expansions as it focuses on growth. Whereas other airlines have been cutting capacity and deferring orders, Hussein Massoud, the new chairman of EgyptAir Holding Co., says the time is ripe to build up the fleet faster than forecast. The airline is taking advantage of open slots at Airbus, for example, to accelerate the fielding of A330-300s. The first aircraft is now due in August 2010, a year ahead of schedule.
After scoring a bull’s-eye Oct. 9, the science team here at NASA Ames Research Center for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Lcross) says it is confident the myriad data from satellite and ground observatories will show whether water or other useful substances were present in the lunar dirt kicked up by the satellite’s impact. The task now is to look for the clues. That is likely to take weeks or months. An early report of the results may come in December at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
The third Boeing Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-3) spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force’s military communications network was shipped last week to Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., in anticipation of a Nov. 18 launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV. When placed in a geostationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean, WGS-3 will complete USAF’s initial constellation and bring with it nearly global satellite coverage. Boeing has been tasked to build three WG spacecraft, all of which are under development at its El Segundo, Calif., factory.
Carriers face losing passenger confidence and doling out millions in FAA proposed penalties—such as the $9.2 million slapped on United Airlines and US Airways—if they continue to operate aircraft that are not fully compliant with airworthiness directives. The FAA last week proposed a $5.4-million civil penalty against US Airways for operating eight aircraft that were not in compliance with directives and for violating its maintenance guidelines, and a $3.8-million penalty against United for violating its engine maintenance procedures.
Struggling business aviation manufacturers will be facing more pain in the near term, but the industry will eventually recover and even thrive, albeit not as spectacularly as was predicted last year. Moreover, the recovery will begin in Europe.
