EADS North America expects to keep the two Turbomecca Arriel 1E2 engines used on its Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) for its Armed Scout Helicopter proposal for the U.S. Army. But to meet the rigorous high-and-hot requirement, largely for Afghanistan, the company plans a slight software upgrade to add almost 10% power. CEO Lutz Bertling says the company expects to conduct an endurance test to verify the engine’s performance.
Donley also said he is worried that some of the Fiscal 2010 budget cuts could adversely affect some elements of the U.S. military industrial base. He cited the protected satellite communications area, which was dampened by the proposed termination of the Transformational Satellite program. Donley also said the bomber industrial base is at risk, especially after the Pentagon opted to sideline work on a next-generation system. He says he’s looking at how much money would be needed to bridge work by competing teams at Northrop Grumman and Boeing/Lockheed Martin.
A longtime goal of EADS NV CEO Louis Gallois has been to lessen the company’s reliance on Airbus by expanding its defense business. While he has made progress—more than one-third of the European aerospace giant’s earnings before interest and taxes came from outside Airbus last year—Gallois wants EADS to be more like chief rival Boeing Co., which is able to rely on its military unit for more than 50% of revenues when the commercial aircraft industry hits hard times.
Japanese startup Fuji Dream Airlines last week confirmed its buy of an Embraer 175, according to the manufacturer. In November 2007, the Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport-based carrier placed a firm order for two Embraer 170s that included purchase rights for another aircraft—in this case, the 175. The 170 can seat 70-80 passengers and the 175, 78-88. The carrier’s two Embraer 170s have already been delivered and are scheduled to enter revenue service in July. The 175, which will be configured in an 84-seat, single-class layout, is scheduled for delivery in 2010.
As a crewmember on SP-2H, P-3A and P-3C aircraft, I strongly echo Capt. Mark E. Wisniewski’s positive comments about the P-3 flight engineer (FE) community (AW&ST May 11, p. 11). The concept of balancing crew experience by using junior plane commanders with senior FEs and vice versa is one reason that the patrol community enjoyed the incredible safety record amassed over decades of operations in all types of weather. It remains to be seen if the P-8A will be as successful.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) says it is time for Congress to reassert oversight of the Pentagon. And the House Armed Services Committee did just that last week, voting to use $369 million from a military environmental cleanup fund to keep the F-22 Raptor line going beyond Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s end goal of 187 stealth fighters. Abercrombie believes it’s “highly likely that there’s going to be an [additional] F-22 buy” although “the exact number, and where the money’s coming from, is a work in progress.” For one thing, the funds Rep.
United Launch Alliance sent this Atlas V carrying NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and its piggyback Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) to the Moon June 18, dodging thunderstorms to get off the pad at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., at 5:32 p.m. EDT on the final launch window of the day.
Even as airlines are calling on manufacturers to get started on the next-generation of narrow-body jetliners, the first of those projects is already more than a year into development. With propulsion, structural and systems technologies at least a generation ahead of those in the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family, the aircraft should offer a leap in efficiency.
Safran is taking advantage of a new European funding scheme aimed at financing projects with environmental benefits, to bolster its engine research and development. The European Investment Bank has granted Safran a €300-million ($414-million) loan for more fuel-efficient engines. Safran says the money will support development of a successor for the CFM International CFM56 it builds in a joint venture with General Electric.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) says it is time for Congress to reassert oversight of the Pentagon. And the House Armed Services Committee did just that last week, voting to use $369 million from a military environmental cleanup fund to keep the F-22 Raptor line going beyond Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s end goal of 187 stealth fighters. Abercrombie believes it’s “highly likely that there’s going to be an [additional] F-22 buy” although “the exact number, and where the money’s coming from, is a work in progress.” For one thing, the funds Rep.
Robert Wall (Le Bourget), Graham Warwick (Le Bourget), Michael A. Taverna (Le Bourget)
Western helicopter makers are bracing for a turbulent decade that could significantly reshape the rotorcraft marketplace. Beyond the near-term decline in commercial business stemming from the global economic downturn, rotorcraft manufacturers also face a dearth of mid-term development programs and a long list of new competitors likely to emerge around 2020.
Amy Butler (Washington), Bettina H. Chavanne (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
While the U.S. Navy is preparing for a ship-based deployment of its new Fire Scout this fall, the manufacturer plans to propose the unmanned rotorcraft as a cargo resupply system for the Marine Corps.
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.
