On the eve of a House-Senate budget conference that will decide the future of the F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the General Electric/Rolls-Royce fighter engine team submitted a formal fixed-price proposal for the initial batch of 21 engines to power Lot 5 low-rate initial production F-35s delivered in 2012-13.
South Africa’s Denel Dynamics delivered a captive-carry integration round of its A-Darter imaging infrared-guided short-range air-to-air missile to Saab at the end of last month, according to South African journal Engineering News. The system’s avionics test missile will be used for functional interface tests between the A-Darter and the Saab Gripen, which is being delivered to the South African Air Force (SAAF). Live firings of the A-Darter are anticipated to be carried out from the Gripen in 2010.
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Assns. on Oct. 1 again urged the Indian government not to enact legislation that would punish and penalize individuals who violate the country’s aviation rules. IFALPA, which represents more than 100,000 pilots in 100 countries, notes that it sent a letter on Aug. 31 to India’s minister for civil aviation, Praful Patel, detailing its concerns about “the draconian approach” chosen for enforcement.
Russian national space agency Roscosmos has shifted the launch date for a new batch of three Glonass-M navigation satellites by at least a month because of a malfunction on an identical spacecraft launched on Sept. 25, 2008. The launch, on board a Proton M booster, had been set for Sept. 25, 2009. Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov says the agency has ordered all Glonass-M spacecraft to be inspected to ensure the malfunction is not due to a systemic problem.
Giove A, the first Galileo test satellite, has been repositioned to a parking orbit after completing its planned mission. Built by Surrey Satellite Technology and launched in December 2005, Galileo A performed far beyond its two-year design life, securing international frequency filings, collecting data to characterize Galileo’s medium Earth orbit, and demonstrating atomic clocks and other key system technologies. The spacecraft remains operational and will continue broadcasting test signals from its new position, 113 km.
The Japanese government has headed off rising worries over a cash crunch at Japan Airlines with a promise to support the airline. A government task force of corporate turnaround experts will help the airline draw up a restructuring plan to be finalized by the end of November. Separately, Japan will consider abolishing a special budget account for building airports, because the account has led to the building of unneeded airports. Those airports, in turn, demand services from the country’s airlines, contributing to the financial weakness of Japan Airlines.
The final draft of the Augustine panel’s report on the future of U.S. human spaceflight will not be ready until mid-month, and it could take two or three additional weeks before the Obama administration’s way forward is set. Don’t expect the final results to change from what was discussed in public over the summer (AW&ST Sept. 14, p. 36). A bigger hang-up may lie within NASA itself. Two competing camps have developed over which Augustine option to recommend to President Barack Obama.
The final draft of the Augustine panel’s report on the future of U.S. human spaceflight will not be ready until mid-month, and it could take two or three additional weeks before the Obama administration’s way forward is set. Don’t expect the final results to change from what was discussed in public over the summer (AW&ST Sept. 14, p. 36). A bigger hang-up may lie within NASA itself. Two competing camps have developed over which Augustine option to recommend to President Barack Obama.
Sea trials of the MiG-29K/KUB Fulcrum carrier-borne fighter are underway on board the Russian navy’s Admiral Kuznetsov, prior to delivery of the first batch of aircraft to India. Russian military and company test pilots performed landings and take-offs from the carrier on Sept. 28-29 in the Barents Sea. The single-seat MiG-29K and two-seat MiG-29KUB took part in the demonstration; Indian navy representatives observed.
The Iridium mobile satellite venture is a case study on how innovative technology can be confused with market innovation. The network of 66 interconnected low-orbit satellites was a marvel in the 1990s, enabling phone calls to be placed from any point on the globe. But Iridium’s backers did not foresee the explosion in the use of low-cost terrestrial cellular telephones that occurred while their satellites were being built and orbited.
I disagree with the assertion of superior engineering efficiency of the Boeing 747 relative to the 777 and 787 that Manfred A. Runkel touted (AW&ST Aug. 10, p. 8). The claim that faster is necessarily better is clearly not true. The original 777 was vastly superior to the 747 in several ways:
Reflecting on an amazing accomplishment that took place 40 years ago, one has to wonder how much more could have been achieved in space in the intervening four decades. After being held back for so long, just a few years ago NASA was given a meaningful direction, the Vision for Space Exploration, a mission to reach out to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The task was placed into the hands of competent, capable engineers like Wernher von Braun, rather than being disastrously micromanaged by politicians.
Douglas Barrie (London), Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Robert Wall (Paris)
Afghanistan is proving to be a harsh crucible for the NATO alliance. For the European partners, one of the many lessons is the initial and, some argue, continuing, lack of rotary capability.
U.S. government officials have been assured the delayed National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) civil/military weather satellite constellation is finally on the path to recovery.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
Talks with the U.S. and five other concerned countries are replacing Iran’s broadside of missiles and defiant words that followed discovery of its new uranium enrichment facility near the north-central holy city of Qom. The missile firings last week, part of the Great Prophet 4 exercise, included a Shahab 3 variant, a Tondar surface-to-surface design derived from the SA-2 surface-to-air missile and Zelzal short-range missiles fired from a new dual launcher.
The NTSB’s preliminary statistics on 2008 U.S. transportation fatalities indicate aviation deaths increased slightly to 572 in 2008 from 550 in the previous year, with almost 87% or 495 occurring in general aviation accidents. The resulting GA fatal accident rate is 1.25 per 100,000 flight hours.
David A. Fulghum (China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Calif.)
A series of air corridors radiating from China Lake gives researchers here access to most of the key UAV-friendly facilities, training ranges and weapon test sites in the western U.S.
The International Space Station (ISS) is welcoming two new crewmembers and preparing to transition to Expedition 21 following the launch of Soyuz TMA-14 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
North Korea has avoided large-scale combat since 1954, but portions of its capabilities are now being updated with techniques, technology and tactics gleaned from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the top threats to the government in Seoul are North Korea’s 80,000 soldiers trained in special operations and recently schooled in the employment of enhanced improvised explosive devices (IEDs) whose use was refined in the Middle East.
Airbus will likely deliver 13 A380s this year after Singapore Airlines asked for its last handover to slide into 2010. That means the A380 delivery level will be the same as last year, and short of the 14-aircraft target Airbus had set this year—the second downward revision. The aircraft maker still plans to deliver more than 20 A380s next year, although a firm number hasn’t been established. Many of its customers are deferring some A380 deliveries to preserve cash.
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A leading Australian defense official reiterated his nation’s interest in the Joint Strike Fighter after touring prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s production line in Fort Worth this week. “The visit has reinforced my confidence that the JSF is the right aircraft to meet Australia’s future air combat needs and represents value for money for the Australian taxpayer,” says Greg Combet, minister for defense personnel, materiel and science. While the 2009 Defense White Paper confirmed Australia will buy about 100 JSFs, Combet also noted Sept.
While the missile-defense spotlight is still on Obama’s decision to cancel plans for 10 silo-based interceptors in Poland in favor of a mobile, SM-3-based architecture, a less prominent European ballistic missile defense effort is having its own problems. And, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not helping Lockheed Martin’s effort to push forward with the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), a missile- and air-defense system that incorporates a 360-deg. radar and new, more-capable missile than today’s Patriot systems. Marine Corps Gen.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the U.N. General Assembly last month that London is studying whether it could cut its fleet of next-generation ballistic missile submarines to three from four. The potential cut is being portrayed by the U.K. as a move toward encouraging other nuclear states to consider reducing their nuclear capabilities, while also offering an incentive to non-nuclear states.
