An investment by the Virgin Group has lifted confidence in the future of Australian affiliate Virgin Blue, one of three airlines in a market that has repeatedly shown it will support only two. Virgin Blue is raising A$231 million ($191 million) in additional capital with an issue of new stock. The carrier, Australia’s second largest, says the issue is a prudent move amid the global economic downturn and will put it in a position to go shopping for cheap aircraft.
Long-haul, low-cost carrier AirAsia X plans to set up a hub somewhere in the Middle East, seeking the benefits of networked services but breaking the rule that budget airlines should fly only from point to point. New destinations could include Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Morocco. “This will open up completely new markets, and we won’t always have to have the planes based in Kuala Lumpur, which limits us to an 8-hr. radius [of AirAsia X’s A330s],” says CEO Azran Osman-Rani.
Satrec Initiative of South Korea is preparing to bring a second orbiting satellite into service as it ratchets up its challenge to market leader Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
An ultra-fuel-efficient transport with strut-braced, high aspect-ratio, wing airframe and integrated distributed multi-engine propulsion is among configurations being studied by Aurora Flight Sciences as it develops technology demonstration plans for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) with the target of reducing air mobility fleet fuel usage 90% by 2030-35.
The TerreStar-1 hybrid mobile telecom satellite has successfully completed its first end-to-end phone calls, certifying compliance with U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Industry Canada licensing milestones and marking a step forward toward introduction of revenue service later this year. TerreStar-1, launched on July 1, is the second of a new family of hybrid spacecraft that are expected to help boost growth of the mobile satellite service industry (AW&ST July 6, p. 23).
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices posted modest gains in July, largely on the back of speculative activity, traders say. December 2009 EUAs closed at €13.20 ($18.48) per metric ton of CO2 equivalent on July 1, having traded in a range of €12.45 to 13.50 for most of June. But prices began to make gains in the first few days of July and rallied as high as €14.62 by July 13.
The VXX program autopsy is just beginning, but already it seems like a red herring is in play. The only culprits are the unnamed Navy ogres who kept piling on vaguely referenced, high-impact requirements. “Repair the procurement process!” proclaim the “experts,” but what process was responsible for the F-117? SR-71? Apollo 11? Can a great process succeed without good people? Perhaps. Even the best process will crater if not applied by people who know the requirements.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
An early look at the U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) reveals major force and capability alterations that are being described as “high-g changes in direction, and high-g causes pain,” says a senior U.S. Air Force official. Moreover, the pared-down, reshaped, multifunctional forces under consideration are expected to cost $50-60 billion over five years above the planning target of no real growth in defense spending through Fiscal 2015.
I was surprised George W. Hamlin didn’t include the loss of airline revenue resulting from the government restrictions on what can be carried as freight on passenger aircraft. The successes of FedEx and UPS since 9/11 show the strength of that revenue stream. That also is a major reason why regional jets have replaced larger aircraft as there is no longer a need for large cargo capacity. As a 31-year employee of a legacy carrier, it is hard to watch the demise of airlines that started by carrying the mail.
Richard Branson is moving full steam ahead on his daring space tourism project, adding investors to the Virgin Galactic venture that will run the project, and planning to take the company to the market if additional cash is needed. At Oshkosh last week (see p. 36), Branson demonstrated the WhiteKnightTwo twin-hull composite aircraft, also known as VMS Eve, that will carry the company’s suborbital SpaceShipTwo to launch altitude.
Boeing has completed the $1-billion purchase of Vought Aircraft’s North Charleston, S.C., 787 factory, 23 days after announcing the deal. The factory, which has been renamed Boeing Charleston, builds composite Section 47 and 48 aft fuselages for the 787. It has been listed as a possible location for a second final assembly line for the long-range jet, although company officials say no decision has been reached on its location. The deal will require Boeing to use $580 million in cash outlays in the third quarter.
The House avoided locking horns with the Pentagon and White House over the KC-135 tanker program. The final version of the chamber’s defense appropriations bill does not mandate a proposal by Murtha and other lawmakers to split the tanker contract between Boeing and the competing EADS/Lockheed Martin team. Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously said earlier this year that he was “laying my body down across the tracks” to avoid a split buy.
The civilian panel reviewing U.S. human spaceflight plans believes the ultimate reason to fly humans into space is to expand human civilization across the solar system (see p. 28). But to remain a leader in that effort, says former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, the U.S. will have to change the way it thinks about spending money for space exploration.
Southwest Airlines has submitted a nonbinding bid of $113.6 million for Denver-based low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines, which will be sold at auction in bankruptcy court this month, and said it is prepared to increase its offer if necessary. Ron Ricks, Southwest’s executive vice president for corporate services and corporate secretary, said the airline’s offer was the minimum necessary to qualify for the auction, given the Republic Airways Holdings’ $108.8-million offer that set up the auction.
BAE Systems posted a loss for its first half-results last week, though the company remains bullish about its year-end figures. The first six months to June 30 saw the company record a loss of £70 million, ($115.5 million) rather than the £599-million profit for the same period in 2008. Sales for the period grew by 28%, to a total of £9.94 billion. On the air side, BAE is looking to the “expected . . . high-volume production” of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and “increasing near-term volumes on the Typhoon” to help drive growth.
Safety officials are looking into a 6-sec. incident when an Air France A320 flying from Rome to Paris on July 13 suffered pitot tube icing, leading to anomalous speed information. The incident occurred with a new standard of Thales pitot tubes, which Air France also has used to upgrade its A330/A340s. The upgrade was underway prior to the crash of AF447, but was expedited afterward.
NASA space shuttle Endeavour backs away from the International Space Station (ISS) on July 28 after completing almost all of its assigned tasks during 11 days docked to the orbiting outpost. A late inspection of the orbiter’s heat shield on July 29 turned up no evidence of damage from micrometeoroids or space debris, and the thermal protection system was cleared for reentry en route to a landing as early as 10:48 a.m. EDT July 31 back at Kennedy Space Center.
The Italian Isvesco group anticipates as much as $700 million from the involvement of its units in the Bombardier CSeries narrow-body aircraft, based on a sales projection of 1,700 units in a 20-year span. Two of its companies, Magnaghi and Salver, have been tapped to design and produce wing flaps, spoilers and landing gear doors for CS110s and CS130s. The flaps are to be built using co-curing technologies and carbon composite material; composite spoilers will have a sandwich structure.
Boeing added 11 737s to its order book from unidentified customer(s), bringing total net sales this year to 86 for the type and 40 for all models. The 737 and 777 are the only models with positive bookings in 2009 (see p. 14).
The European Investment Bank will lend €500 million ($701 million) to Finmeccanica to invest in engineering, research and production facilities in southern Italy for its Alenia Aeronautica affiliate. The funds, to be used to design and manufacture advanced aerospace components, are earmarked for plants near the economically hard-hit Naples and Puglia regions.
The evolving outlook for the U.S. defense market brings to mind Yogi Berra’s classic observation that “this is like deja vu all over again.” The last time this market declined significantly, after the Cold War, the industry that emerged looked very different than the one that went in. It should not surprise us if the industry again is fundamentally reshaped by the forthcoming downturn. But how? A dispassionate look at the emerging market, informed with first-hand experience from the last decline, suggests several “inconvenient truths” will drive the future U.S.
The U.S. Defense Dept.’s budget is expected to increase for the 13th consecutive year in fiscal 2010. The last time it went up 14 years in a row, Martin Van Buren had just succeeded Andrew Jackson as president, Samuel Morse patented the telegraph, and Abraham Lincoln was a 28-year-old state legislator in Illinois (it was 1837).
Checkout of the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-14, continues apace. The spacecraft sent its first visible-light full-disk image of Earth July 27. With a resolution of 1 km. (0.6 mi.), the image was produced with an ITT Industries imager mounted on an optical bench built by Boeing, the prime contractor for GOES-14. Boeing handed over engineering control of the satellite, launched June 27, to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) controllers in Suitland, Md., on July 18.
After three years of validating various requirements, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet’s certified flight ceiling has been lifted to 41,000 ft. from 29,000, say officials at Naval Air Systems Command. These altitudes are usually reserved by the FAA for commercial airliners as Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum airspace. All Super Hornets in Lots 22 and beyond, about 340 aircraft, were qualified. The aircraft will be able to conserve fuel at the higher flight levels at a rate of about $250,000 per year per squadron.
Pacific Air Forces planners are exploring how to mount a counterstrike while under cyber- and electronic attack. The problem becomes even more complicated as networks and weapons systems expand and overlap, exposing new and unexpected avenues for penetration that must be located and defended.
