NASA and the European Space Agency have agreed to set up a Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) to define a road map for a string of cooperative lander and orbiter missions to Mars in 2016, 2018 and 2020 intended to lead to a sample return mission in the ensuing decade. The agencies also established a joint architecture review team to determine the most viable joint mission architectures for the initiative, which was driven by the need to redefine ESA’s ExoMars project, set for 2016, and the delay of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory from 2009 to 2011.
A LAN Airlines Boeing 767-300ER takes off from Paine Field Airport, Everett, Wash. LAN is one of the standouts in AVIATION WEEK’s annual Top-Performing Companies study of global airlines (coverage begins on p. 44). It is ranked sixth overall on the mainline carrier list, and is one of only two that saw their total score increase compared to last year. LAN also scores highest in the earnings performance and asset utilization categories—two of the five metrics that contribute to total score.
A letter to the editor (AW&ST June 29, p. 8) tries to convince readers that the wheels-up landing of a C-17 was other than 100% pilot error. Regardless of the position of the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) switches or the actual operation or non-operation of the system, the crew of any airplane equipped with retractable landing gear is expected to lower this gear prior to landing. There are no exceptions. Landing usually puts one in close proximity to the ground.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has flown an upgraded version of the Lynx II synthetic aperture radar on an MQ-1C Sky Warrior Block 1 unmanned aircraft. The company is under contract to upgrade eight Lynx IIs already delivered to the Block 30 standard. These aircraft will equip pre-production Warriors the U.S. Army plans to deploy soon as a quick-reaction asset. Delayed deliveries of Northrop Grumman’s STARlite replacement radar are scheduled to begin in October.
Obituary: Harry J. Gray, who built United Technologies from a $2-billion aerospace firm to a $17-billion diversified industrial company, died July 8 in Hartford, Conn. He was 89. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Morley Blouke, a staff consultant at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., and a fellow of the Society of Photographic Instrument Engineers (SPIE) , has been named the society’s 2009 Electronic Imaging Scientist of the Year. Jim Oschmann, who is Ball’s vice president/general manager of antenna and video technologies, has been inducted into the SPIE Fellows Society.
Many believe that there needs to be additional consolidation in the U.S. airline industry. There are still five major legacy carriers with domestic route systems of national scope, plus Alaska, and “low-cost” carriers Southwest and AirTran, as well as smaller “niche” carriers.
In just seven weeks, airlines operating within the European Union will face a critical deadline for complying with the region’s Emissions Trading Scheme, but industry officials are worried about whether governments are ready to do their part to meet the aggressive compliance schedule. At the moment, airlines and regulators are mainly confronting a mountain of paperwork; nevertheless, there are potentially large financial implications associated with the raft of data the carriers have to submit and governments are vowing to process.
Dirk Baber has been named materials and warehouse manager for Gulfstream Aerospace ’s European parts distribution center at Madrid Barajas Airport. He was head of materials and procurement for the manufacturing engineering group.
Boeing’s decision to spend $1 billion to bring Vought Aircraft Industries’ 787 work back in house could signal the start of a new round of consolidation of Tier 1 and Tier 2 aerostructure and subsystem suppliers. Moreover, the deal to buy Vought’s aft fuselage plant in South Carolina underscores the limits of suppliers who have taken on risk-sharing roles in advanced aircraft development programs—and the caution that original equipment manufacturers need to take in signing them up.
EADS officials say they have demonstrated nighttime operations of their refueling boom, which is being flown on an Airbus A310 testbed, during a series of contacts with a Portuguese F-16 fighter. The boom features an enhanced vision system as well as laser infrared lighting and high-definition stereoscopic viewing. This boom is on the A330-based Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). Australia, the first MRTT customer, expects to reach initial operational capability with its KC-30s late next year, says Air Marshal Mark Binskin, chief of the RAAF. Saudi Arabia, the U.K.
Carolyn Corvi, retired vice president/general manager of airplane production for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Goodrich Corp. , Charlotte, N.C.
A U.S. Navy plan to test a high-power laser against the small-boat threat to its warships provides the first real opportunity to transition electric lasers from the laboratory to the field, says Northrop Grumman, which has won a $98-million contract for the Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD).
Brian Phillipson has been named engineering director of Marshall Aerospace , Cambridge, England. He was project director for development transformation for the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Tassili Airlines is buying four Boeing 737-800s, but a deal to acquire three Embraer 190s has faltered. After announcing the two aircraft purchases, Embraer says it was approached to make changes to bid and refused; as a result it is no longer in contract. Tassili company is a joint venture of Sonatrach, which holds 51%, and Air Algérie, controlling the rest of the capital.
It is hard to believe that the world’s largest aerospace manufacturing base, serving the world’s largest aerospace marketplace, could be struggling to maintain its industrial capability in areas critical to U.S. national security. But it’s true, and it’s getting worse. Most troubling is that the erosion is most advanced in those areas of technological superiority that have historically underpinned U.S. defense strategy.
Aerojet has completed assembly of a 5,500-lb.-thrust liquid oxygen/liquid methane rocket engine—a propulsion technology under consideration as the way off the Moon for human explorers—and will begin testing it soon.
Canada’s Field Aviation has delivered a highly modified Bombardier Aerospace Dash 8 Q300 Maritime Surveillance Aircraft to the Icelandic coast guard. The airplane is equipped with long-range fuel tanks that provide an endurance of more than 8 hr., an auxiliary power unit, maritime search radar, side-looking airborne radar and an electro-optical infrared Flir pod. L-3 Communications supplied the sensor suite and its integrated data-handling system. The Icelandic airplane’s overall configuration is similar to Dash 8 Q300s delivered to the Swedish coast guard in 2008.
Unanticipated work supporting the recent Bush adminstration’s Vision for Space Exploration required NASA’s Langley Research Center to add almost $20 million to an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract for support in structures and materials and in aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics and acoustics technology. Originally capped at $39 million through February 2010, the contract with Analytical Services & Materials, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman stands at $59.75 million.
The observed schedule challenges cited in Michael Mecham’s “Starts and Fits” (AW&ST June 29, p. 24) merits a comment. Previous articles in your publication have noted weight growth. Schedule and weight growth experienced by Airbus and Boeing are consistent with historical development programs. Civil and military airframes experience growth for similar reasons: challenging technology, new manufacturing processes, new industrial teams, changing requirements and optimistic vehicle performance.
Ed Buckley (see photos) has become manager of strategic planning and support and Ariel Landau e-learning operations manager for New York-based FlightSafety International . Buckley was senior director for shared services and corporate real estate at Capital One, while Landau was FSI’s e-learning marketing manager. Gil Schnabel has been appointed manager of the company’s Learning Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was manager of the Detroit Metro/Toledo Learning Center.
Industrial partners in the A400M military transport face a difficult balancing act as they try to reenergize the much-beleaguered program, in hopes of regaining at least some of the more than two years of schedule slippage caused by several development problems.
The fuselage, wings, fin and engines of the first G650 have come together in Savannah, Ga., at the new 308,000-sq. ft. Nicholas Chabraja Manufacturing Center, recently named in honor of the chairman of General Dynamics, Gulfstream’s parent The company says the aircraft is on schedule to fly by year’s end. Gulfstream plans to use five aircraft in the flight trials and expects to begin deliveries of certified units in the latter half of 2012.
