The U.K. Defense Ministry and BAE Systems have signed a £574-million ($844-million) deal covering support of the Harrier GR9 until its planned out-of-service date in 2018. The Harrier Platform Availability Contract (HPAC) means BAE will oversee depth maintenance of the Harrier, with the work carried out with the Royal Air Force and Navy at RAF Cottesmore. BAE’s existing Joint Upgrade and Maintenance Program for the Harrier at Cottesmore will be included within the overall HPAC. The support package is intended to provide increased availability, at reduced costs.
The British government’s 2009 budget, unveiled last week, held little comfort for the aerospace and defense sectors. Finance Minister Alistair Darling is struggling with the economic down-turn coupled with increasing pressure on government spending. The budget “did not do enough to support the manufacturing success story that is the aerospace and defense sector,” says Ian Godden, chief executive of the Society of British Aerospace Cos.
Pratt & Whitney has expanded the reach of its engine maintenance health services in the Asia-Pacific region with a five-year service agreement covering 58 PW4000 and V2500 engines for Vietnam Airlines, marking the first engine management contract between the two. Pratt’s MRO business base serves more than 20 Asia-Pacific regional operators. Vietnam Airlines flies PW4000-powered Boeing 777-200ERs and Airbus A330s, plus a fleet of International Aero Engine V2500-powered A320s. Pratt is a manufacturing partner in IAE.
DHL is shifting its North American air and hub operation from DHL Air Park in Wilmington, Ohio, to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), where it served as an international package services gateway for 20 years. The carrier will reactivate a $220-million sorting facility completed in 2003 and rarely used since DHL moved to the Wilmington-based air park that it acquired that same year from Airborne Express. The state of Kentucky is providing a $1.87-million tax credit to defray startup costs at CVG and is reviewing several other incentive proposals.
FAA Administrator-Nominee Randy Babbitt will find his air traffic controllers in the midst of cultural change. They will be adapting to the new, open culture of the Air Traffic Safety Action Program (Atsap), the first voluntary safety reporting system for controllers. The FAA said last week that it is quickening the pace of training so that all 17,000 controllers will be fully versed in Atsap, which the agency hopes will be up and running by year-end. Since early summer of 2008, 4,000 controllers at 35 facilities have received training.
GE Aviation has named Volvo Aero Services as a preferred distributor of engine parts. Under a five-year agreement, Volvo will supply certain low-volume new and used components for the CF6, CFM56 and CF34 engines along with asset management, warehousing, marketing and other associated services. The arrangement will complement GE’s existing high-volume distribution network. Volvo’s parent company, Volvo Aero, already is a partner in various GE engine programs including the GEnx and F404.
SES Americom-New Skies has renewed an agreement to supply capacity in support of DRS Technologies’ Global Communications Network, which serves U.S. military and civilian agencies around the world. Under the accord, SES-New Skies will provide 160 MHz of C- and Ku-band bandwidth on four New Skies spacecraft, along with uplink and access services.
The FAA’s former acting administrator, Bobby Sturgell, will be grappling with a little culture adjustment of his own now that he’s joining Rockwell Collins as senior vice president of Washington operations. The former naval aviator, Top Gun instructor, United Airlines pilot and senior NTSB adviser became acting FAA administrator when Marion Blakey left the agency to head the Aerospace Industries Assn. But Senate Democrats, who didn’t want to see anyone appointed to the five-year administrator’s term with the election looming, derailed Sturgell’s confirmation.
The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center has completed initial evaluations of a dual-mode, combined ram/scramjet hypersonic engine in AEDC’s Aerodynamic and Propulsion Test Unit (APTU). The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-sponsored evaluations, centered on the Falcon Combined Cycle Engine Test (FaCET) program, are the first since the completion of a series of upgrades to the APTU.
The FAA is about to enter a critical phase in its transition to satellite-based airspace management, with the debut of a system that will for the first time allow controllers to separate traffic at major airports using satellite surveillance.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) General President James Hoffa has placed Local 747 in Houston in emergency trusteeship after numerous complaints about lack of representation were received. An investigation is now underway internally to determine if officers were engaged in financial improprieties. Local 747 represents 4,000 commercial and cargo pilots. It was decertified by the Great Lakes pilot group on Apr.
Canadian simulation specialist CAE plans to build on its expertise with digital databases to enter the avionics market with its Augmented Visionics System (AVS) designed to tackle the helicopter brownout landing issue. The AVS, which combines CAE’s common database (CDB) technology with a laser radar developed by Canadian company Neptec, is part of the five-year, C$714-million ($578-million) Project Falcon research and development program announced in March by CAE.
Space shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope managers are evaluating whether it will be possible to launch the shuttle Atlantis to the telescope on May 11, one day earlier than the targeted launch date. The Air Force has reserved the Atlantic range from May 14-19, and the space agency would like to have three opportunities to launch before then. A final decision is expected on Apr. 30. Crews started loading hardware for STS-125, the final Hubble-servicing mission, on Apr. 22.
Anita Antenucci, a managing director at investment bank Houlihan Lokey, has some sobering news for investors looking for signs of life in the credit markets. “The capital markets have actually worsened in the last couple of months,” she told a standing-room-only audience at one of her bank’s seminars last week in Tysons Corner, Va. “We’ve not seen a single underwritten deal in the last handful of months.”
Efforts by the Israeli imaging satellite industry to sell its high-resolution small satellite imagery know-how in the fast-growing international remote-sensing market—and in particular to the U.S. government—could be hindered by a legal battle affecting ImageSat International, operator of Israel’s Eros imaging satellites.
Japanese space agency JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have completed the second and final pressurization test of cryogenic tanks for the LE-7A first-stage engines on the H-IIB heavy launch vehicle. Besides verifying pressure characteristics of the liquid hydrogen/oxygen tanks, the 150-sec. test provided environmental data on the core vehicle, including vibration data from the two LE-7As firing. The H-IIB is designed to lift Japan’s HTV transfer supply vehicle to the International Space Station. The basic H-IIA has a single LE-7A powering its first stage.
Italy is overhauling a large swath of its air surveillance radar infrastructure so spectrum can be made available for commercial use. All three military services are affected by the requirement to vacate parts of the S-band spectrum to make room for commercial WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology, which operates at around 3.5 GHz. WiMax is designed to be a more powerful form of wireless data transfer.
AgustaWestland is renaming the Future Lynx as the AW159, while the helicopter is to be known as the Lynx Wildcat for the British Armed Forces. The Army and Navy will operate versions to meet battlefield utility and shipborne roles.
Engineers at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are working to resolve a suspected compatibility issue with the Malaysian ATSB-built RazakSAT satellite before rescheduling its launch on a Falcon 1 from its Omelek Island facility in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Central Pacific. The original launch window for what is to be the company’s first commercial launch mission was scheduled to open on midnight Apr. 19 EDT.
Cirrus Aircraft Co., following months of evaluation, last week suspended its light sport aircraft program dubbed the SRS (for SR Sport), which is considered the competitor to Cessna’s SkyCatcher. Challenging economic conditions in the market were among the factors leading to the decision.
Last fall, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress “the greatest threat to the homeland lies . . . in western Pakistan.” It appears official Washington thinks he was something more than prescient. News of an insurgent takeover in a region only 70 mi. from the capital, Islamabad, has policymakers concerned about what political collapse could mean for a nation with an estimated 100 nuclear weapons.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is charging that British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia have withheld vital information in their filing for antitrust immunity. In March, the Oneworld alliance partners answered U.S. government questions about their December 2008 application, but Virgin, the most vocal opponent, says data still is missing. If regulators demand more answers, a verdict on granting antitrust immunity could easily slide into next year.
Boeing has completed the first wingset for the 747-8 freighter on its Everett, Wash., assembly line. The 135-ft. 3-in. wings use a new supercritical airfoil to advance range and payload for the freighter, which is set for its first flight in the second half of this year.
Cathay Pacific Airways, determined to reduce its rate of cash burn, will cut passenger capacity by 8%, cargo capacity by 11% and ask its workforce to take unpaid leave. The Hong Kong-based airline is negotiating to sell five aircraft, will park two more Boeing 747-400BCF freighters and wet-lease another to subsidiary Air Hong Kong. Another subsidiary, Dragonair, will cut capacity by 13%.
Regarding Pierre Sparaco’s article “Prosecutorial Overreach” (AW&ST Apr. 13, p. 45), what is unfair and where is the injustice when someone is held accountable for 16 avoidable deaths in a commercial aviation accident? Did the passengers who died sign a waiver holding the airline harmless for any eventuality that could have resulted in their deaths? Does Sparaco propose to give flight crews “get-out-of-jail-free” cards with their last check flights?
