While Moscow has determined who will build the Sukhoi Su-35 engine, a bigger prize still looms. The Ufa Engine Production Plant (UMPO) is to manufacture 96 Lyulka-Saturn AL-41F-1S thrust-vector-controlled turbofans for the 48 Su-35 fighters on order for the Russian air force. Previously known as “Izdeliye 117S,” the engine will likely mark the last major upgrade of the basic AL-31F.
The first signs of strengthening passenger demand are giving U.S. airlines hope that they have turned the corner toward financial recovery, and that the winter season may not be a struggle for survival after all. The level of optimism varies widely from one carrier to another, but all are seeing encouraging trends. This is particularly true for premium demand, which will be the key to boosting yields back to viable levels. And a round of big financing deals has given the major airlines enough breathing space to stave off the threat of bankruptcy for now.
Chinese jetliner builder Comac is following compatriot manufacturer Avic in providing equity capital to support an operator of its own aircraft. Comac says United Eagle Airlines has ordered 30 of its ARJ21-700 regional jets. Chinese media report that the carrier placed the order on the same day as the manufacturer agreed to take part in a capital injection of 7 billion yuan ($1 billion), a figure that may correspond roughly with the value of the aircraft.
With European airlines still suffering from weak traffic, discussions between carriers and the European Union are intensifying to find remedies to cost burdens in what is expected to be a difficult winter season. The sense of urgency has increased as the early hopes that traffic would start to recover in the fall are fading.
In cost-cutting moves, both Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft did not exhibit in the NBAA convention center. They did have a major presence at the static display area at Orlando Executive Airport, where Cessna had 12 aircraft, and Hawker four.
Controllers are checking out a military weather satellite launched Oct. 18 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-18, the third in the Block 5D-3 series for the Lockheed Martin spacecraft, lifted off in dense fog from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-3 at 12:12 p.m. EDT, under the authority of the U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing.
Lockheed Martin Chief Technology Officer Ray Johnson is careful to differentiate between innovation and invention when talking about the company’s approach to research and technology. “Invention is the creation of ideas; innovation is the application of ideas to products and services,” he says.
A Boeing 777-300 ER was delivered this month to Singapore-based BOC Aviation leasing company for Oneworld member Cathay Pacific Airways. The aircraft is painted in livery to mark Oneworld’s 10th anniversary. The latest delivery increases Cathay’s 777 fleet to 29 aircraft. The twin-engine aircraft can seat up to 365 passengers in three classes and has a maximum range of 7,930 naut. mi.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is once again deploying the BAE Systems Herti unmanned aerial vehicle in Afghanistan, and the latest operational trials could lead to a purchase of the tactical system. Counter-improvised explosive device (IED) operations, and better distribution and use of imagery and data, are driving U.K. Defense Ministry UAV-related efforts, with near-term use sharply focused on global hot spots.
Perry Moore (see photo) has become general manager of Boeing Fabrication ’s Gresham, Ore., manufacturing site and the company’s site executive within Oregon. He was director of manufacturing for the P-8A Poseidon program. Moore succeeds Jenette Ramos, who is now director of the Program Management Office for Boeing Fabrication.
A year and a half after headline-grabbing sabotage on a production line, Boeing and United Aerospace Workers Local 1069 announced Oct. 18 that the 1,789 UAW-represented employees at the Boeing Rotorcraft Systems facility near Philadelphia ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement.
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) has received the Wings of Liberty Award from the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. in recognition of his longtime support of the aerospace and defense industry. Inouye, the No. 2 member of the Senate in seniority, has been a member of the Senate Commerce Committee for 40 years and a member of the Appropriations Committee for 38 years.
Douglas Baldwin is a familiar presence at conferences, explaining and promoting his Mono Tiltrotor (MTR) concept for a vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft. Persistence is paying off—Baldwin Technology has just won a significant contract from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) to advance the design of a ship-based cargo UAV.
Jos Oude Egberink (see photo) has been appointed general manager of U.S.-based Chromalloy ’s Netherlands operation. He was a unit manager for the IBN Group. Honors and Elections
Dr. A. J. Parmet International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine (Kansas City, Mo. )
Reader Chris Barr proposes tricking a body in space by mechanical longitudinal compression (AW&ST Aug. 24, p. 8). The Russians tested this idea in 1971 as did U.S. astronauts in 2000. Basically it does not work, because gravity creates a gradient of work for muscles, bones, the heart and blood vessels. The distance from heart to eye causes blood pressure to drop from 120/80 at the level of the heart to 90/50 at the brain. External compression does not reproduce this change, and there is no loss in pressure gradient.
To go from white paper to fielded system in just four years is unusual in the defense business, but then it is not often an aerospace innovation has its roots in the making of a Star Wars movie. Hampton Roads, Va.-based EchoStorm Worldwide develops software to archive and disseminate video from unmanned aircraft. Formed by brothers David and Jason Barton in 2003, the company has grown to 65 employees and $15 million in sales on the back of military demand for tools to manage the flow of video and data from UAVs.
The U.S. would install land-based SM-3 interceptors in Poland starting around 2018, U.S. officials indicated last week during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Poland. Poland previously had agreed to host ground-based interceptors under the Bush administration’s missile defense system, before Washington recently changed course. The U.S. also had indicated it would meet Poland’s long-standing request for Patriot PAC-3 short-range missile defense systems.
Attendance was off sharply at the National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA) convention last week in Orlando, Fla. But the mood in an industry that has been hammered by the global recession may have rounded a corner, and several new products and upgrades were announced (see p. 28). NBAA drew about 23,000 attendees, and 100 aircraft were on display. Attendance was down from the more than 30,000 in 2008. While 91% of exhibitors returned this year, some key aircraft manufacturers chose not to exhibit on the convention floor.
The Italian defense ministry is performing a high-wire act to protect major defense modernization projects in the face of a new defense spending plan that barely meets the minimum sustainment level.
Regarding a recent U.S. House of Representatives hearing on efforts to improve flight safety, the politicians and bureaucrats delivered their typical responses to an accident: Their previous bazillion rules and regulations actually were ineffective (AW&ST Sept. 28, p. 46). But now they will enact the proper new ones. “Sorry our old regs and rules didn’t work, but pay us to fix it. Trust us (we need the work). Listen to us. Heed us.”
European aviation leaders should perhaps take heed of the Muppet character Kermit the Frog’s tuneful lament, “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” and be careful to avoid making promises in vain or of sounding an excessively optimistic tone when discussing research efforts for a more environmentally friendly airline industry. Recent presentations of green initiatives have been rife with overblown hopes and objectives in terms of meeting a logical time frame.
Boeing reports that RC501, the first test aircraft for the 747-8 Freighter program, is more than 90% complete; the second is past the 80% mark and the third is at 75%. Power-on has been achieved for the first two. For its 787 program, the Everett, Wash., factory complex is assembling the 11th airplane—the fifth destined for customers—and shipments of the 12th are starting to arrive.
New Jersey officials and FAA representatives broke ground Oct. 19 for a proposed Next-Generation Aviation Research and Technology Park near Atlantic City International Airport. Plans call for the 55-acre complex to include seven buildings with 408,000 sq. ft. of research facilities. The project is a joint effort by the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, the South Jersey Economic Development District and Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
Lee E. Rhyant, who is executive vice president/general manager of the Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Marietta, Ga., facility, has been named 2009 Executive of the Year by the Dayton, Ohio-based National Management Assn. The award recognizes a senior executive for managerial and leadership accomplishments, the conduct of personal and business affairs in accordance with NMA’s Code of Ethics, and contributions to preserving and advancing the free enterprise system. He also was vice president-production operations at Rolls-Royce Aerospace in Indianapolis.
