An incorrect caption accompanied the photo on p. 33 of the June 29 issue. The photo shows an SM-3 Block IA missile being launched by the Japanese destroyer JDS Chokai, which acquired a track of the ballistic missile target in November 2008 but failed in the endgame to intercept.
Meanwhile, the Navy is turning to Darpa for an atypical request: provide the surface fleet with an anti-ship missile that can be fielded as soon as possible. It is an unusual step because Darpa’s role typically is to advance technologies not readily available for operational use in the short term. But Navy officials in the Pacific Command region are worried about the development of a Chinese anti-ship missile that combines range and speed. The Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program’s first of two Phase 1 awards went to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices fell in the first half of June, as four-month highs achieved in May began to attract profit-taking. December 2009 EUAs closed above €15 ($21.20) per metric ton of CO2 equivalent several times in May, helped higher by rising crude oil prices.
Extending the F-22 Raptor and mandating a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter seem to be about the only points of contention Defense Secretary Robert Gates has with Congress, now that the House and the Senate Armed Services Committees have laid down their Fiscal 2010 defense authorization frameworks.
Behold an all-too-common story: A commercial cash flow lender awash in billions of federal dollars tightens the credit available for the cash-strapped owner of a small aerospace manufacturing company, insisting on personal guarantees and collateral. Forced to deal with less working capital and unexpected collection delays from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers, the owner falls behind on his credit card payments. His personal credit rating, on which the business loan relies, gets a black mark.
A team led by Boeing Satellite Systems has won a $13.8-million contract for Phase 2 of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed (FAST) program to ground-demonstrate a solar-concentrator power generation system that, when combined with electric propulsion, will enable lightweight, high-power, highly mobile spacecraft. The goal is to generate 50-80 kw. at high specific-power levels of 130 watts/kg. or more.
The major assemblies for the first Boeing 747-8 Freighter are now fully on display at the company’s large-airplane factory in Everett, Wash., where aircraft passed the fuselage-wing join milestone last week.
Controllers for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are checking out a spare Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-O) orbited June 27 and likely to come into service next year over the Western Hemisphere. Built by Boeing on its 601 spacecraft bus, GOES-O was sending strong signals after its launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV from Cape Canaveral.
A push by Brazilian regional jet builder Embraer into executive jets has collided with the worst downturn the business aviation sector has ever seen. At the Paris air show, President and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado discussed with Aviation Week & Space Technology Editor-in-Chief Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., Senior Editor-Technology Graham Warwick and Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo how the global economic downturn could alter the business jet landscape and why he believes Embraer will be one of the survivors.
Boeing’s second-quarter delivery rates are on a par with last year’s, but are up slightly for the year. The company said it delivered 125 aircraft in the second quarter versus 126 last year. This year’s deliveries included 99 737s, 2 747s, 3 767s and 21 777s. Total deliveries as of June 30 were 246 compared to 241 in 2008.
Will the economic downturn end as early as 2010, and can we expect airlines to rapidly stanch their abyssal losses and take delivery of much-needed next-generation transports? These are the dominant, post-Paris air show questions. From the hospitality chalets to exhibitors’ booths, signs of overconfidence were visible everywhere. It seemed obvious that happy days will return soon. This surreal attitude was probably a subtle form of autosuggestion, with every party involved in the ephemeral debate trying self-persuasion.
Prof. A.U. Krishnamurthy Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (New York, N.Y.)
Your article “The Riddle of Flight 447” (AW&ST June 8, p. 24) raised a lot of questions for the aviation community. Though the A330 has been in use for some time, it is facing both software and hardware problems.
First flight for a pre-production version of Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle has slipped six months to allow company officials to fold suggestions from prospective customers into the development, they say. Boeing officials say first flight will be in the third quarter of Fiscal 2010, rather than the first quarter as planned in the March unveiling.
A huge factory on the south bank of the Tennessee River, built from the ground up to produce large expendable space launch vehicles, is available to manufacture human-rated Delta IV heavy launch vehicles if the Obama administration decides to change NASA’s direction in human spaceflight.
Smiths Detection, under contracts valued at more than $20 million, will install automatic explosives-detection equipment and checkpoint X-ray security systems at Qatar’s New Doha International Airport, now under construction. More than 12 Smiths Heimann Hi-Scan explosives-detection X-ray screening systems are expected to be integrated into the airport’s baggage handling system by late 2011. They will be used to scan check-in and transfer bags.
BAE Systems Australia is to integrate improvements in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies into an unmanned aircraft under a capability demonstration contract from Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Organization.
NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) squared off at the first public meeting of the Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, pitting the Ares I against a human-rated Delta IV heavy as the rocket to put U.S. astronauts back in space after the space shuttle fleet retires.
Alternately celebrated and vilified over its 25-year history, the V-22 Osprey is under attack again from U.S. lawmakers concerned about reports of reliability and maintenance issues. But the U.S. Marine Corps is not going to let its tiltrotor go down without a fight.
In the run-up to its summer recess, the Italian parliament is clearing a raft of defense procurement and development efforts, including guided weapons, strategic reconnaissance and defensive countermeasures projects.
Sea Launch is taking its first steps to reorganize following a late June decision to file for protection from creditors, as competitors circle around to pick up the pieces.
Aurora Flight Sciences has demonstrated fully autonomous takeoff and landing (ATOL) of a general aviation aircraft as it develops control technology for conventional takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft. The tests involve a company-owned Cessna 337 configured as an optionally piloted testbed and designated “Chiron.” The aircraft is capable of autonomous flight but carries a test engineer and a safety pilot, who can take back manual control at any time. An ATOL capability is also being developed for the Orion high-altitude long-endurance UAV now under construction.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ended the George W. Bush administration’s National Applications Office (NAO) program on June 23. DHS opened the office in February 2008 to coordinate sharing classified satellite imagery with non-federal law enforcement agencies. But Democrats, who controlled Congress, increasingly cited unresolved legal and policy issues in opposing the effort.
Michel de Rosen, who has been chairman/CEO of SGD, will succeed Giuliano Berretta as chief executive of Paris-based Eutelsat on July 1. Berretta will remain chairman.
In the dog days of the present U.K. administration, the British space industry has fulfilled a long-term ambition to secure a government study on space strategy for the next 20 years. The Space Innovation and Growth Team (IGT) study was launched June 25 by Paul Drayson, the minister of state for science and innovation, to identify critical areas for support in the U.K. space sector to secure its future, during the coming two decades.
South Korea is in a race to modernize and strengthen its air force. A marker looming large in that contest is the takeover of operational control (Opcon) of all military forces on the Korean peninsula by 2012.
