Airbus has completed assembly of its second A350XWB fuselage demonstration barrel. The 18-meter (59-ft.-long), 6-meter-dia. test article was completed at the Hamburg, Germany, facility and is destined to serve a variety of functions, including determining how to produce and assemble the three-section element of the aircraft. The unit also will play a part in fatigue tests and be used to determine damage tolerance. It has a prominent role in the long-term A350 certification process, although the stand-in is not identical to the final configuration.
Lockheed Martin warns that fast-track plans to develop alternate commercial human-rated transport systems to the International Space Station could be costly in terms of time, money and even safety.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. is investigating a tarmac delay that kept nearly 50 passengers, including two infants, on a small jet for about 6 hr. overnight Aug. 7 after a Continental Express flight diverted to a Rochester, Minn., airport. The incident generated extensive media coverage and online discussion and again galvanized the airline passenger rights movement, which wants federal legislation that would force airlines to give passengers the option to get off the plane after 3 hr., with limited exceptions.
When the who’s who of missile defense mavens gathered for a gala in Washington last year, there was a palpable aura of triumph. Twenty-five years earlier, with much fanfare, President Ronald Reagan had announced the Strategic Defense Initiative. The political right embraced SDI as a heroic plan, akin to Apollo or the Manhattan Project, that could make nuclear warfare obsolete. The left ridiculed SDI as Star Wars and derided the endeavor as chimerical at best, wasteful and dangerous at worst.
A National Research Council panel is calling on NASA to reestablish an organization like the now-defunct NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) that would nurture “visionary, far-reaching” ideas with the potential to revolutionize how the space agency does business. The original NIAC was formed in 1998, and received $36.2 million in NASA funding until the agency terminated it in 2007. “The committee found the NIAC program to be effective in achieving its mission and accomplishing its stated goals,” the panel says in its report.
The first series production Yak-130 Mitten combat trainer for the Russian air force (left) will be on static display at the MAKS 2009 air show in Zhukovsky this week. Assembled at the Sokol plant in Nizhny Novgorod, it was flown for the first time in May and is the initial one of 12 Yak-130s ordered by the air force in 2005.
Air One may live on as a low-cost brand within the Alitalia Group. In early January, the plan was to shed the Air One brand name and absorb its operations, aircraft and personnel into the “new” Alitalia. But Alitalia Chairman Roberto Colaninno said last week that the company needs to think twice about the demise of Air One as “it’s too important a brand.” Alitalia is also considering setting up its own low-cost operation to face strong competition for domestic and international traffic.
The NTSB last week said it is investigating a turbulence incident that occurred Aug. 3 on board a Continental Airlines Boeing 767-200. Flight 128 was at 36,000 ft., en route from Rio de Janeiro to Houston Intercontinental Airport, when it encountered turbulence that resulted in minor injuries to 42 people. The crew declared an emergency and diverted the aircraft to Miami International Airport.
Among the more popular draws at AirVenture this year was Terrafugia, a company founded in 2006 by four Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained aeronautical engineers determined to produce a roadable aircraft. They displayed their prototype “Transition” two-seater, which had already flown 28 times, and by show’s end, Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich says total orders for the $194,000 auto/aircraft exceeded 60. Deliveries could begin by the end of 2011, says Dietrich.
The Italian government is reviewing its airlift plans and may increase the operational tempo for its C-130J fleet to reduce use of commercial transports. However, the government will continue to rely on commercial providers, in particular owing to increased commitments to Afghanistan. In that respect, the government has signed a contract with Alitalia to provide cargo services for 2010. Also under discussion is how to bolster strategic airlift capacity, with potential involvement in a European airlift transport fleet initiative by the European Defense Agency.
Greece and Italy are performing air policing duty for fellow NATO member Albania, as part of an alliance agreement to provide mutual aid. Albania is relying on NATO due to a lack of indigenous air-to-air combat capacity; NATO runs a similar operation for the Baltic states. Italy is using Eurofighter Typhoons, while Greece is using F-16s.
Russian investors purchased bankrupt Adam Aircraft for $10 million last year with the intent of certifying the A700 very light jet, but, confronted with recession and a cratering of business aviation activity, they quietly divested Adam’s assets this spring for an undisclosed sum. The buyer, Thomas Hsueh, a 75-year-old composites entrepreneur and aeronautical engineer, trucked all equipment and tooling in 120 sealed containers from Denver to property he owns near his home in Anacortes, Wash.
When the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis lifted off to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, the shuttle Endeavour supposedly was poised on the launch pad for a rescue of the astronauts if needed. Little has been discussed on how it took a month to repair the helium leak discovered during the countdown to Endeavour’s mission to the International Space Station, and how the Atlantis astronauts would have been floating around their spacecraft lifelessly by the time a rescue mission could have begun. The costs to prepare Endeavour were wasted.
The fatal midair over the Hudson River involving a sightseeing helicopter and a single-engine aircraft could lead to restricted use of VFR corridors and tighter regulation of air tour operations.
“The days of nipping and tucking are coming to an end,” says Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments’ Jim Thomas of defense budget trimming. “We’re going to have to look at mission trades.” CSBA analysts describe a Defense Dept. continuously squeezed by de facto budget limitations and growing costs, the latter through personnel—and their health care and related force size—increases.
NASA will ship the first Orion crew module for launch abort tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., on Aug. 19 but confirms that the Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) flight test has slipped into early 2010. NASA originally hoped to deliver the vehicle last February, and scheduled the PA-1 for late April, having already postponed it several times from its first target date of last September.
Boeing and NASA have taken the wraps off the X-48C, a modified variant of the blended wing body sub-scale demonstrator aimed at proving ultra-low-noise targets for future aircraft, including airliners and military tanker-transports.
Flight trials of the British Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicle system have concluded in Israel, clearing the way for tests in the U.K. in the fourth quarter of this year. The Watcheeper UAV, based on the Elbit Hermes 450, will likely begin trials using the Parc Aberporth range in Wales in October or November. Thales is leading the development of the Watchkeeper. The system is planned to enter service with the British toward the end of 2010.
NASA Ames Research Center is seeking information from industry on possible thermal protection system (TPS) materials for missions to Mars. “The Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Technology Development Project is actively pursuing design, development and maturation of thermal protection system materials capable of withstanding the severe thermal heating loads associated with aerocapture and entry into the Mars environment,” NASA says in its request for information (RFI).
The German government is signaling that unmanned aviation is one of many areas likely to receive additional funding, but it also is urging structural changes throughout the country’s aerospace industry to ensure long-term competitiveness.
The Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopter is expected to finally begin trials with the Arbalet radar in place at the end of August following a redesign of the installation and the antenna. Initial government testing of the Ka-52—dubbed the Alligator—was concluded in 2008, but without the radar. The trials should be completed in 2010 if the latest timetable is kept, according to Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, chief of the Russian air force.
Inflight entertainment system developer Lumexis has received FAA Parts Manufacturer Approval for its fiber-optic based, Fiber-To-The-Screen (FTTS) seatback system. The FAA approval allows the company to make parts and equipment for installation on Airbus A320-200s under its Supplemental Type Certificate. Approval follows flight trials on a US Airways A320.
Austria’s Schiebel Industries and Boeing will team to market and support the European company’s Camcopter S-100. The autonomous helicopter is a compact unmanned aerial vehicle that provides a stabilized video system for surveillance and reconnaissance as one of its several payload possibilities.
Boeing’s second 787, ZA002, is poised to move under its own power for the first time. Taxi tests are expected to begin by Aug. 17 and will last several days before ZA002 goes into refurbishment for side-of-body structural modification. Taxi tests will complete onboard systems checks, and will likely mark the last movement of any of the 787 test fleet for several months until ZA001 re-emerges with the revised wing root changes.
Bombardier has formally canceled the orders it had on the books for regional jets from Italy-based MyAir, which has ceased operations. That includes 15 orders for the CRJ1000, for which the airline was the launch customer. Bombardier stresses that the program is going forward, with additional firm orders from other customers in hand. MyAir had taken delivery of four CRJ900s bought at the same time.
