Launch service providers Arianespace and International Launch Services announced a bumper crop of contracts at the Paris air show, while struggling Sea Launch came up empty. Arianespace landed awards to launch ST-2 for Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. and Chunghwa, in 2011, and ABS-2 for Hong Kong-based startup Asia Broadcast Satellite, in 2012, giving it 10 Ariane orders for the first half of the year. Arianespace also won a pair of Soyuz launches for Europe’s Galileo navigation satellite constellation.
An article on the Air France Flight 447 accident misstated a comment made by Brazilian defense minister Nelson Jobim. He noted that fuel indicated the aircraft did not explode in flight (AW&ST June 8, p. 24).
The market for very small aircraft modified for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and/or weapons appears to be growing with the addition of two debuts here.
The price tag for the troubled National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) is projected to top $15 billion, while first launch continues to be pushed back. Now independent reviewers are calling on the White House to restructure management of the civil/military weather satellite program and redefine its scope once and for all.
July 6—Royal Aeronautical Society Seminar “Conquering the Atlantic: Alcock & Brown and the R34.” Also, July 9—“Human Factors in Design for Safety Systems.” And, July 14—Air Law Summer Reception. All in London. Call +44 (207) 670-4300 or see www.raes.org.uk
If we have another round of Tom Swift vehicles from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, I will have to ask: Will any of this help much for asymmetric warfare, for finding pirates off the shore of a failed state or terrorists within it? Will it achieve some greater level of target identification certainty so our video pilots will kill fewer civilians and disaffect the population less? Building must-have, space-age military systems that give us God-like powers is what America does best, but it may not be what is really needed.
South Korea will build its second launcher, the KSLV 2, without help from other countries. That includes Russia, which was the main source of technology for the country’s first space rocket. The key challenge is to develop domestic engines, since South Korea’s first rocket, the KSLV 1, uses Russian engines. South Korean engineers know how to build the rest of the rocket, and can integrate its systems and build launch pads and other infrastructure, says Lee Sang-mok, a deputy minister at the ministry of education, science and technology.
The FAA’s new en-route air traffic control system saw its operational debut on June 17 at the Salt Lake City center. The En Route Automation Modernization system is first being used on selected sectors during the late-night shifts. ERAM will replace the existing Host system at all FAA centers, after operational testing at Salt Lake City. This multibillion-dollar program is regarded as one of the most complex and expensive FAA has attempted.
At the beginning of June, Kazan Aviation Production Assn. delivered two modified Tupolev Tu-214SR VIP transports to the Special Air Detachment responsible for transporting the president of Russian Federation (State Transport Company Rossiya). The Tu-214SR is fitted with a new interior and specialized communications equipment—with a distinctive dorsal antenna fairing. The administration of the Russian president ordered six of the special-mission aircraft in 2005. The other two are scheduled for delivery in 2010-11.
Presidential science adviser John Holdren says Obama wants to receive “all of the reasonable options” for future human spaceflight activities from the expert panel that started reviewing them last week (see p. 40). “This is a president who gets it,” Holdren tells the panel headed by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, restating the president’s “commitment to continued U.S. leadership in space, to go back to the Moon and destinations beyond low Earth orbit.” That gives panelists an enormous amount of clout in setting space policy, says Sen.
Volcanic activity in Russia’s Far East is expected to cause flight diversions, delays and cancellations. The Sarychev Peak volcano in the Kuril Islands, near Japan’s Hokkaido Island, began belching ash plumes on June 12. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways reported the activity would cause international flights to be diverted, resulting in delays of 30-60 min. Air Canada issued a similar travel advisory for flights between Vancouver and Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Air Line Pilots Assn.
Schiebel’s Camcopter S-100 flew daily at Le Bourget as the first unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in the official flight display. The Austrian-designed aircraft’s certification, and flight tests in April at the CEV flight test center in Istres, France, helped it gain approval to perform at the show. The VTOL UAV’s capabilities include automatic launch, 6-hr. operation with a 55-lb. payload and landing on flight deck-equipped ships. Shipboard trials were held in April on a Pakistan Navy Type 21 frigate and a 51-meter-long Spanish Guardia Civil vessel.
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says one issue that worries him is how to satisfy the seemingly insatiable desire for unmanned aerial vehicle intelligence data. Though UAVs require fewer forward deployed forces, their long time on station demands a huge cadre of pilots for operation. During a short appearance at the Accenture chalet during last week’s Paris air show, Donley said the service must embrace the use of single pilot-sensor crews to operate multiple UAVs at once from the same ground station.
Your article “Corporate Casualties” (AW&ST May 4, p. 36) notes business aviation may be stabilizing, but not recovering. The article implies business aviation recovery is tied to economic recovery. The opposite is true.
A Persian Gulf area surveillance satellite project that had long been expected to emerge under a regional government framework now appears on the verge of kicking off with the aid of private financing.
Boeing said its total order book reached 10 net orders through June 16 with the sale of two 737-800s to MC Aviation Partners AP, a Mitsubishi subsidiary, and one to a Boeing Business Jet client. Boeing also reported that American Airlines is the buyer of eight 737s previously carried on its unidentified list. Boeing has 52 737 orders for the year, and nine 777s. But it has lost one 747, five 767 and 45 787 orders.
United Technologies Corp. (UTC) has spent very little on acquisitions this year, but President and CEO Louis Chenevert says that shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the aerospace and industrial conglomerate is hoarding cash—like EADS—to ride out hard times. UTC has spent only $120 million of the $2-billion war chest it stockpiled for acquisitions in 2009. Aerospace properties are a top priority, but Chenevert says many sellers have overestimated their companies’ worth (an assessment being echoed by aerospace financiers).
The F-22 isn’t the only point of disagreement between House Armed Services and President Barack Obama’s Defense Dept. team. In revising the Fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill, the panel directed the Pentagon to continue the alternate engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and buy more carrier-based aircraft to close a fighter jet shortfall.
Israel’s Urban Aeronautics has begun ground tests on its Mule ducted-rotor unmanned aircraft, with the first hover flight expected in two months. The VTOL Mule is being aimed initially at autonomous resupply missions. The vehicle is designed to carry a 500-lb. payload with 2-hr. endurance at 100 kt. Development is being funded privately by Urban, which is seeking manufacturing partners to put the vehicle into production for deliveries beginning in 2014.
Space Systems/Loral has landed awards to build a big new broadband spacecraft for Hughes Network Services and a pair of new telecom satellites for a big Intelsat expansion in the Asia-Pacific revealed earlier this month (AW&ST June 15, p. 42). Intelsat 19, to be orbited in 2011, will provide Ku- and C-band capacity to Australia and other Asia-Pacific areas for a range of applications, notably Intelsat’s fast-growing mobile maritime service. Intelsat 20, to be launched in 2012, will meet Ku- and C-band needs in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Russia’s MC-21 narrow-body airliner is to enter service in 2016, says Alexey Fedorov, CEO of United Aircraft Corp. The company’s Irkut division wants to select major partners for the A320/737-sized aircraft by year-end, when important design decisions are to be made. Fedorov says the project is “strongly supported” by the Russian government, which has allocated $3 billion in development funding. The MC-21 is to be available in three versions and is scheduled to make its first flight in 2014.
Lockheed Martin is three months into a funded study of an AC-130J gunship configuration for U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command. The aircraft would be based on the HC/MC-130J special operations tanker/transport the company is already developing for USAF. The HC/MC common-core configuration is based on the U.S. Marine Corps’ KC-130J tanker variant. The AC-130J study is focusing on the special interfaces and other changes required to adapt the platform to the gunship role.
It was unfortunate that “The Riddle of Flight 447” (AW&ST June 8, p. 26) described two flight control system failures in Airbus A330s, one of which resulted in “uncommanded climbs and descents and a rapid loss of altitude,” but overlooked an almost identical occurrence in a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 in 2005.
China Southern Airlines will build a base at Nanning in southern China for services to Southeast Asia, as part of an effort to increase its presence in Guangxi province. The local government will support this effort, as often occurs when Chinese airlines build up local operations. China Southern’s current base in the province, at Guilin, will become a major tourism hub airport, while Nanning would become an entry point for foreign services. China Southern will spend about $18 million on the Nanning base.
NASA’s Cassini Saturn probe has detected vertical structure in the rings of Saturn from a carefully timed imaging angle as the Sun approaches the planet’s equator. In this image, shadows cast by waves in the edges of the Keeler Gap, located in the outer A ring, stretch across the rings. The waves are generated by Daphnis, a tiny moon only 5 mi. across that perturbs the particles of ring material in the edges from its inclined orbit within the 26-mi.-wide gap.
