The article “Prosecutorial Overreach” reports that members of a Tuninter ATR 72 cockpit crew were sentenced to prison for executing an only partially successful ditching. Although we have been painfully aware since 9/11 that aircraft fly above a vulnerable quilt of innocents, the judges—with the hindsight benefit of extensive flight simulator testing of the feasibility—asserted the pilots failed to try and land on the nearest runway.
Disappointing results from a request for information (RFI) from industry have led the U.S. Army to head back to the drawing board for its canceled Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program. “Based on the results of the RFI, no manufacturer had an aircraft that exists today that met all the key performance parameters,” according to Col. Frank Tate, action officer for attack and reconnaissance aviation programs. Moreover, the Army has decided to launch an analysis of alternatives (AOA) to determine, among other things, the next step for ARH.
Chicago’s Midway Airport will remain in municipal ownership, at least for now. The $2.5-billion plan to lease the square-mile port on the South Side to the Midco consortium has died, a victim of the recession. The city and Midco closed the 99-year lease after agreeing earlier to a two-week extension of the Apr. 6 financing deadline. “The company was unable to finalize the transaction due to current global market conditions that have materially deteriorated since the bid award,” Midco states.
Arianespace has been selected to orbit JCSAT-13, a telecommunications satellite recently ordered by Japan’s SkyPerfectJSAT Corp. from Lockheed Martin. The launch, set for 2013 on an Ariane 5, is the seventh awarded to Arianespace this year.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) controllers are checking out a new 300-kg. (661-lb.) radar imaging satellite—Risat-2—built with Israeli technology in a hurry-up effort to improve India’s satellite reconnaissance capabilities over Pakistan in the wake of last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai. ISRO used a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C12) Apr. 20 to launch the spacecraft from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island on the Bay of Bengal.
Telespazio spacecraft operators at the Fucino Space Center in Italy will soon begin operations with the Sicral 1B communications satellite after it was sent into orbit by a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL Apr. 20. Liftoff from the Sea Launch Odyssey oceangoing platform came at 4:16 a.m. EDT, and operators at Fucino later acquired the spacecraft’s first signals from orbit and confirmed its health. Odyssey was positioned on the Equator at 154 deg. W. Long. The Zenit-3SL’s Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 6,697-lb.
SES Astra and Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. of Abu Dhabi will create a joint venture to offer direct-to-home TV services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Southwest Asia. Yahsat is investing more than $1.7 billion in a privately owned dual-use satcom company intended to serve commercial and government customers in the Persian Gulf and surrounding regions. The investment includes two large Ka-/Ku-/C-band spacecraft and an extensive ground network being supplied by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space.
The slowdown in civil aerostructures business is forcing Saab to restructure and lay off another 300 employees, with more terminations possible. CEO Ake Svensson says more focus will be put on aerosystems and the continued push to sell Gripen fighters. The 300 layoffs at Linkoping, Sweden, are to take effect this year, and come on top of 500 positions being eliminated over two years as part of a larger cost savings program.
Europe has been a leader in addressing aviation’s role in climate change. In both regulations and research, the European Union has sought ways to reduce airline pollution, particularly greenhouse gases.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed qualification of its 90-lb.-thrust Draco spacecraft thruster and propulsion tank at the company’s test site in McGregor, Tex. SpaceX says tests included 42 firings with more than 4,600 pulses of varying lengths and were performed in a vacuum test chamber to simulate the space environment. Some 18 Draco thrusters will be used on the Dragon spacecraft, which has been selected by NASA as part of its commercial resupply services contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station and return cargo to Earth.
Airpower advocates are criticizing Defense Secretary Gates for not taking into account the impact of his defense budget revisions on the aerospace industrial base. Retired Adm. John Nathman, former vice chief of Naval Operations, says Gates’s Apr. 6 procurement realignment plan provides stability for shipyards, despite delays for some amphibious ships and a halt to the next-generation destroyer program. But Gates wants to end further F-22 acquisition and put plans for a new bomber on hold, prompting Nathman to bemoan a dearth of work for tactical aircraft design teams.
Build it and they will come, the saying goes, and as the FAA deploys its ground infrastructure, the question being asked with increasing urgency is when will operators equip to use Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast?
NASA plans to roll out its Fiscal 2010 budget the first week in May, amid complaints that the White House staff is giving short shrift to the U.S. space program. The space agency is struggling to make ends meet during the difficult transition to the post-shuttle era.
When you have been underwater for as long as the U.S. major airlines, touching bottom can be a relief. Carriers are seeing signs that the steep demand drops of recent months are finally leveling off, although actual recovery still appears a distant prospect.
Plans for replacing the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which fell short of orbit when its Taurus XL payload fairing failed to separate following a Feb. 24 launch, should be ready by summer. Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Div.
A new agreement with Airbus underscores the growing interdependence of Western airframers and Russian raw materials suppliers. The Apr. 20 pact among Airbus and its parent company EADS and VSMPO-Avisma—which is part of the Russian Technologies State Corp.—is expected to ensure the supply of titanium and die-forged titanium parts for Airbus and other EADS divisions through 2020.
Pilatus sees its 2009 prospects as “satisfactory” despite the slowdown that has hit the business aviation community. Pilatus enters the downturn with no debt and bolstered by record sales last year of 661 million Swiss francs ($575 million), up from 656 million Swiss francs the year prior. But a declining exchange rate against the dollar meant that despite increased deliveries, operating profit fell to 55 million from 59 million Swiss francs in 2007. Pilatus also booked 1.2 billion Swiss francs in new orders in 2008.
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.
