Pieces of NASA’s Ares I-X prototype crew launch vehicle are piling up in one of the high bays in the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) originally erected here for the Saturn V Moon rocket, awaiting the upcoming final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope before workers can start stacking them up for launch later this year.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has ordered East Star Airlines to cease operations because it failed to make an aircraft-lease payment to General Electric Commercial Aviation Service. The carrier, based in Wuhan, operates 10 leased Airbus A320-family aircraft. Regulators took action because a lease default indicates poor management and financial weakness. China’s aviation officials, keen on protecting the country’s safety record, in December grounded another carrier, Okay Airways, over management and financial difficulties. Okay is back in operation.
Three U.S. science teams will start work on instruments for the European Space Agency’s planned Solar Orbiter mission under Phase A contracts that could lead to a total of $81 million in funding from NASA’s Living With A Star program.
Robert Pleming, Chief Executive Vulcan to the Sky Trust (Lutterworth, England)
David Nixon cited the Avro Vulcan in his letter about the stagnation of aeronautical research (AW&ST Feb. 9, p. 10). The frenetic post-World War II period of aircraft development produced many advanced designs. Though designed in the late 1940s, the stirringly beautiful and immensely strong Vulcan pointed the way toward today’s blended-wing body (BWB)/hybrid-wing body.
The number of first- and business-class passengers decreased by 16.7% in January—a further drop from the 13.3% decline in December 2008, according to the International Air Transport Assn. The downturn in premium passengers started in September with the onset of a recession and the start of the collapse of the banking sector, which is key to business travel. The Asian region was weakest, with the number of premium travelers decreasing 23.4% on routes within Asia and 24.7% on transpacific travel.
Jonathan Penn in his letter “Jets We Don’t Need” (AW&ST Mar. 2, p. 8) applies some simplistic math to underpin his conclusion: Enough F-22s already. I can’t really say whether his conclusion is flawed but his argument certainly is. First, accepting a 30:1 kill ratio from Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force, both eager to promote the F-22, may be naive. Aircrew and network efficiency are key and not 100% insurable. Stealth is difficult to maintain in the field, especially in combat, so aircraft are more vulnerable than usual to enemy defenses.
India has put out a request for information (RFI) for advanced jet trainer to several manufacturers as it appears to consider an alternative to ordering a follow-on batch of 57 BAE Systems’ Hawk Mk 132s from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. India has so far ordered 66 Mk 132 aircraft, the final 42 of which are to be built in country by HAL. The Indian manufacturer, however, has fallen well behind on the schedule for build of the in-country aircraft.
In the mid-1990s, Boothroyd Dewhurst introduced a life-cycle analysis software that considered the environmental effects of various decisions in the design of new products. But it didn’t catch on, partly because the infrastructure for industrial recycling wasn’t ready. Now, legislation in Europe concerning the use of environmentally friendly processes in developing everything from electronics and electrical equipment to cars and engines makes the Wakefield, R.I., company think the time has come.
ZA006, Boeing’s sixth and final flight test 787, and the second powered by General Electric GEnx-1B engines, has entered final assembly in the Everett, Wash., factory. Boeing has given no schedule of when ZA007, the first production aircraft, is to enter the factory. ZA001, the first flight test aircraft, was getting paint touchups last week before finishing factory testing in preparation for first flight by the end of the second quarter. ZA002 is undergoing build verification testing.
The European Space Agency’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite was launched Mar. 17, following a 24-hr. hold, using a Russian Rockot launch vehicle from Plesetsk. The hold on the previous day—with 7 sec. left on the clock—was due to an issue with the launch platform.
President Barack Obama has pledged to restore science to its rightful place and transform our schools, colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. He can do both starting with a revitalization of space exploration, which for nearly a decade has been under the dark cloud of ITAR—International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
SES has contracted three additional launches with International Launch services under a multi-launch agreement signed in mid-2007. Two of them, scheduled for late 2010 and 2011, will carry aloft NSS-14 and Sirius 5, respectively. The third, set for early 2010, is earmarked for OS-1, one of a batch of spacecraft ordered from Orbital Sciences Corp. that will serve the U.S. domestic arc. The contracts bring to five the number of awards ILS has landed this year (see p. 47).
All space exploration efforts seem trivial in light of the recent “surprise” asteroid near-miss. This one wasn’t advertised as a planet killer, but that would hardly have mattered to people unless it had impacted near them. And of course, there are lots of real planet killers. These things are hard to spot, especially if they come out of the Sun, and impossible to deflect on short notice.
Armed with an unsolicited offer to meet Canada’s need for new search-and-rescue aircraft by putting the DHC-5 Buffalo back in production, a small British Columbia company is briefing potential export customers on the rugged short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) transport.
Service difficulties with the Sikorsky S-92A main gear box lubrication system has prompted Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. to publish a safety advisory informing operators of impending changes in the rotorcraft flight manual (RFM) procedures. The move was prompted by the Mar. 12 crash of a S-92A (C-GZCH) operated by Cougar Helicopters. The aircraft was transporting workers from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to an oil platform in the Hibernia field. Shortly after departure, the crew reported mechanical problems and requested a return to St. Johns.
Australia’s need to replace its ancient de Havilland Canada Caribous is offering an opportunity to rebalance and simplify the country’s complex transport aircraft fleet. Planners are considering wider options than simply ordering a suitable number of direct replacements for the Caribous—ether C-27J Spartans from L-3 and Alenia or C-295s from EADS.
In-year funding for the Russian air force’s fifth-generation fighter, known as PAK FA, may be cut by 940 million rubles ($28.2 million) as part of proposed cuts by the government to the country’s 2009 defense budget (see p. 37). First flight of the prototype is expected by the end of 2009, with state acceptance of the type completed by 2015. Budget documents also include increased expenditure for building a naval aviation training center at Eisk in the Krasnodar region, to replace the Saki facility in the Ukraine.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
France may be forced to cut A400M numbers and is exploring the option of leasing Boeing C-17s as it tries to craft a rescue package for the struggling Airbus Military program and sustain its airlift capacity. A revised A400M contract is unlikely before the end of 2009. “We have to take an in-depth look at how the present contract might be modified under acceptable conditions,” Laurent Collet-Billon, Director General of armaments agency DGA, told reporters here last week.
Superjet International, the Alenia Aeronautica-Sukhoi venture responsible for marketing, sales and support for the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional 100, has appointed Lufthansa Technik Logistik as its spares management and distribution partner, moving another step forward in completing the aftermarket service network (AW&ST Mar. 9, p. 41). LHT beat out Air France Industries for the deal.
Jay L. Haberland has been appointed to the board of directors of Ducommun Inc. of Los Angeles. He is retired as vice president-business controls for the United Technologies Corp. and had been vice president/chief financial officer of UTC subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
Aziz Erdinc (see photo) has become vice president-business development and marketing for Asco Industries Management of Brussels. He was a sales contract lead negotiator for Airbus.
Aerospace and defense companies are beginning to disclose their executive compensation for 2008, and though the industry’s investors have lost a lot of money some of its top executives aren’t faring too poorly.
