As Washington grapples with ways to reform an ailing Pentagon acquisition and contracting system, the knee-jerk response inside the Beltway is to study the issue and audit programs (see p. 24). But, several defense officials suggest auditors alone can’t fix the problem. Pentagon program managers acknowledge proper oversight is paramount, but say that more doesn’t mean better. The pace of contracting has slowed—some say to a glacial state—in part because of hurdles added to programs prior to contract release.
There is little fault in the business aviation community itself. The aircraft industry, which uses probably a minuscule percentage of the U.S.’s energy, is spending billions of dollars on reducing that number by less than a percentage point. The automobile industry, originator of the present storm, has spent the last 20 years or more promoting monster vehicles in defiance of the spirit and intention of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy legislation, wasting more fuel in a day than the aviation industry can save in a year.
Latecoere says it has landed €350 million worth of work for cabling racks and tooling on the Airbus A350XWB, and talks for additional work packages are underway. The company reported record revenues of €500 million in 2008, not counting exceptional items. However, earnings before interest and taxes declined to €31.9 million from €39.1 million in 2007, and the company finished the year with a €6.7-million net loss.
Boeing says the low-power microprocessors, microcontrollers, sensors and imaging systems it is developing for nanosatellites are exhibiting surprisingly long operational lives. Proof has come in the performance of a 900-gram (31.7-oz.) orbiting testbed called CubeSat TestBed 1 (CSTB1) from the company’s Advanced Network and Space Systems (ANSS) division of Phantom Works.
The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington was a fitting backdrop for Aviation Week’s 2009 Laureate Awards. Erected and opened during the worst days of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the gilded, temple-form auditorium is a reminder that great things can be achieved even in the worst of times. And for one evening on Mar. 3, more than 300 luminaries put aside worries of the deepening global economic crisis for a few hours to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of individuals and teams in aviation, aerospace and defense at the black-tie dinner gala.
Investigators and regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe are working in concert to prevent a recurrence of uncommanded engine rollbacks on Boeing 777s with Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. The NTSB on Mar. 11 issued urgent safety recommendations to the FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) calling for mandated installation of a redesigned Trent 800 Series engine fuel/oil heat exchanger (FOHE)—a component that Rolls expects to be certified and ready for use in July.
Eurocopter EC225 and Sikorsky S-92 helicopters will be pitched against each other for the U.K. Defense Ministry and Maritime Coastguard Agency’s Search and Rescue Helicopter program. AirKnight—comprising Lockheed Martin UK, VT Group and British International Helicopters—is proposing the EC225. Soteria—made up of CHC Helicopter Corp., Thales UK and the Royal Bank of Scotland—is offering the S-92. The aircraft is due to enter service in 2012.
Jonathan Penn has done some great number-crunching to show us the F-22, with a potential kill ratio of 30 to 1, is not needed in numbers over the 183 currently planned (AW&ST Mar. 2, p. 8). He tells us it’s a waste of money to buy what we will never need and cannot afford.
Boeing will lease 25 717s to MexicanaClick, a low-fare subsidiary of the Mexicana Group, with the first 16 aircraft coming from inventory once operated by Midwest Air Group of Milwaukee. Midwest will continue to operate nine 717s. They replace Mexicana Fokker 100s on an interim basis. The first 717 is due to arrive by the end of March; deliveries will continue through 2010. MexicanaClick will fly the 717 with 20 seats in first class and 84 in coach. Boeing Commercial Airplane Services will provide crew training.
The first two of eight Alenia Aermacchi MB-339CM trainers for the Malaysian air force have been delivered. The remaining six aircraft are to be delivered during the next year. They are to be used as lead-in fighter trainers. Malaysia has operated the MB-339A, which will now be phased out. The CM-configuration is based on the CD-standard in service in Italy.
Concern is growing among British companies that London will not support military space research for at least the coming financial year, a move apparently at odds with the Defense Ministry’s just-released Defense Technology Plan.
Defense ministers from the four Eurofighter partner nations met in Germany Mar. 12 to try to agree on the framework for a deal on the Tranche 3 production run of the aircraft. One option under consideration, according to defense industry executives, is to split the Tranche 3 production run into two batches to ease funding pressures. A decision on whether to proceed with the second element of Tranche 3 could come later. Any deal would then be subject to the national approvals process of the four partners: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Since acquiring Gulfstream Aerospace in 1999, General Dynamics has grown its aerospace segment to more than $5 billion in annual revenues via its expanding range of business aviation products and services.
The European Commission has approved the proposed purchase of a 26.56% share in Thales by Dassault Aviation. The EC inquiry focused on space, civil/military aviation and military flight simulators, where the two companies cooperate or have client-supplier relationships. The French government owns 38% of the voting rights in Thales and it jointly controls Dassault Aviation with the Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault through TSA, a state holding company. The Dassault bid is awaiting approval by authorities in key nations in which Thales operates, including the U.K.
Michael Bruno (Washington), John M. Doyle (Washington), Bettina H. Chavanne (Washington), Amy Butler (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.)
The U.S. defense acquisition system is broken, and the time may have finally come to fix it. Those sentiments are consuming Washington now as the aerospace and defense landscape reacts to—and tries to influence the outcome of—a virtual earthquake triggered by the global economic recession and the rise of the Obama administration.
Ball Aerospace is preparing the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite for launch Apr. 30 on a Minotaur IV from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The satellite, built by Boeing and integrated by Ball, includes a Ball-designed gimbaled telescope and sensor package that will provide rapid looks at other satellites in space. The spacecraft is expected to survey the highly populated geostationary belt, and to provide added space surveillance to the ground-based systems managed by Air Force Space Command.
LOT Polish Airlines is appointing new executives to its supervisory and management boards to cope with large losses. The group has named Sebastian Mikosz, formerly a director at global consultancy Deloitte, to preside over the management board, replacing CEO Dariusz Nowak, who stepped down to avoid dismissal, it is widely believed. The supervisory board is now headed by Jacek Krawczyk, replacing Jacek Ksen, whom the board ousted.
The costly two-year launch delay for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will offer a few fringe benefits for the mission’s science objectives. All of the MSL instruments are due to arrive at JPL by year-end, says Joy Crisp of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Hardware readiness reviews have been held for six of the rover’s 10 instruments, and “we have plenty of schedule for this now,” she says. The extra time also will allow the team to ensure that the actuators on the mission’s rover, which is the size of a small car, will be able to function properly in the deep cold of Mars.
Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan (GTF) is in development at a time of spiraling costs, uncertain oil prices and growing environmental pressures for airlines. Although studied by Pratt for more than 20 years, the GTF concept came to the fore three years ago when the project was launched to spearhead the revitalization of the company’s commercial engines business. Renamed the PW1000G in mid-2008, the engine is in firm design for initial application on Mitsubishi’s MRJ and Bombardier’s CSeries small-airliner projects.
Beyond the short-term certainty of a grim first quarter, big questions loom for U.S. airlines: When will demand bottom out? Has the industry hit the trough of this down cycle, or is the slide only starting? The answers will determine whether predictions of a profitable 2009 are realistic or merely wishful thinking.
The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) is testing Stage III rocket motors used in the Minuteman ICBM series. The latest , conducted at the center’s J-6 Large Rocket Motor Test Facility, was the 100th since the complex was completed early in the 1990s. The test is aimed at discovering age-related problems with this series of motors. The latest engine tested was built in 2000. AEDC and Northrop Grumman engineers are looking for degradation in ballistic performance and any structural problems.
Strikes and delays on Boeing’s 787 program were major contributors to Vought Aircraft finishing the fourth quarter 2008 with a $29.9-million loss in net income, although it finished the year with a $93.7-million gain on revenues of $1.8 billion. “Our 2008 results were tempered by several factors: the 787 program delay, the Boeing [International Assn. of Machinists] strike, the IAM strike at our Nashville facility and ongoing pension funding requirements, said President and CEO Elmer Doty.
U.S. Special Operations Command is likely to propose starting work on a new fixed-wing gunship in the Fiscal 2010 budget, but Pentagon approval is not assured.
Aerospace and defense acquisition activity declined 57% in 2008 to $14.3 billion, virtually drying up in the fourth quarter as the global economic crisis intensified and companies moved to conserve cash, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports. Private equity deals sank to 17% of the total, down from 49% in 2007, but European companies’ purchases of North American properties hit a record high as they moved to take advantage of a weak U.S. dollar. The year’s biggest deal was Finmeccanica’s $5.6-billion purchase of DRS Technologies.
When the wayward, classified USA-193 intelligence satellite was reentering Earth’s atmosphere last year, the Operation Burnt Frost team tackled the challenge of downing it with a ship-launched interceptor. For this unprecedented feat, they have won the 2009 Operations Laureate.
