Spain has emerged as the most likely candidate to take over Italy’s role in Simbol-X, a high-energy X-ray mission led by France, say officials at the French space agency CNES. A Spanish proposal to take a large stake in the €300-million ($384-million) twin-satellite undertaking is to be submitted for approval by the Center for Technological and Industrial Development this month. Italy recently decided to cut its participation in Simbol-X to € 50 million from €150 million, forcing France to delay the start of full-scale development, initially set for late last year.
Thales Alenia Space finalized a contract to build two large satellites, Yamal 401 and 402, for Russia’s Gazprom. It also won an order to supply Arabsat 5C and 6B satellites to be launched by Arianespace, in partnership with EADS Astrium.
The strong resurgence enjoyed by turboprop makers is ebbing as lower fuel prices and airline problems augur a difficult period ahead. But even if activity is slowing, aircraft makers aren’t giving up on their long-term plans. ATR is considering establishing a final assembly line in China to help drive demand. Meanwhile, Bombardier and ATR both are pressing ahead with new product developments.
Russia’s first space launch of 2009 is setting up a rare scientific mission for Moscow. Liftoff of the Tsyklon-3 rocket used to loft the 4,200-lb. Coronas-Photon spacecraft came at 8:30 a.m. EST Jan. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, sending the satellite toward a 342-mi.-high semi-Sun-synchronous polar orbit. Mission managers delayed the flight a day to correct a technical problem, according to Russian press reports.
The Euromed Aviation Project (EAP) and French BEA accident investigation bureau are working with Mediterranean/Middle Eastern countries to adopt the European Coordination Center for Accident and Incident Reporting System (Eccairs) as soon as possible. The move came out of a seminar held late last month in Amman, Jordan, on conducting competent accident investigations that are in accord with International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13 and Europe’s “94/56” directive.
The Pentagon’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force—created last year to get ISR systems into Iraq and Afghanistan quickly—is being criticized by some for being too diligent about time. The group is so focused on fielding systems within a 90-day requirement, it loses out on technologies that “could be ready on Day 91,” says one industry official. But the Army could have a remedy. Part of the problem has been the limited availability of test aircraft, says Tim Owings, the Army’s deputy project manager for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
Alexis C. Livanos, vice president of the Northrop Grumman Corp. and president of its Redondo Beach, Calif.-based Space Technology Sector, has been selected as the 2008 recipient of the IS Associates Executive Leadership Award. The award, given annually by the UCLA Anderson School of Management , recognizes senior executives in Southern California who drive information technology within their corporations.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad continues to add new destinations as it grows its fleet. This year, the airline expects to add five Airbus A320s, two A330-200s and one -300, two A340-600s and one Boeing 777 to its operations. On Sept. 2, Etihad plans to begin offering three flights a week to Chicago O’Hare, its second U.S. destination after New York JFK, and aims to make the service daily starting Oct. 1. The route will be operated with 240-seat Airbus A340-500s configured in a three-class layout.
Controllers are driving NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit once more, after a diagnostic test suggested the accelerometers that help the rover determine its orientation on the surface of Mars may be off by about 3 deg. Mission managers ordered the tests when the rover missed the Sun with its camera one day after it failed to respond to its daily driving commands (AW&ST Feb. 2, p. 13). Rover engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory continue to believe a cosmic-ray hit probably shut down Spirit’s flash memory temporarily, preventing it from storing the commands.
The Defense Dept. aims to drive a harder bargain with its contractors, and underperformers shouldn’t think they’re entitled to a profit, says Shay Assad, the Pentagon director of defense procurement and acquisition policy. Assad told investors at Cowen and Co.’s Aerospace/Defense conference in New York last week that contractors’ “first obligation is to the shareholder,” conceding “sometimes we lose sight of that.” But the Pentagon wants to better align profit with performance.
David Eshel (Tel Aviv), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Fighting in the Gaza Strip in December and January revealed widespread improvements in Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations since the flawed 2006 operation in Lebanon. Topping the list was the tighter coordination of air support and ground forces and graduated use of airborne capabilities that allowed air strikes by helicopter gunships to within 100 ft. of friendly troops.
Return visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s (EAA) annual fly-in this summer in Oshkosh, Wis., will likely welcome some changes now underway. The association is investing $3-4 million in a variety of infrastructure improvements including new pedestrian-only thoroughfares, larger exhibit areas and relocation of the “Fly Market” to more accessible space. Also, four buildings that house shower facilities are being fitted with flush toilets, “and for many that will be huge,” said EAA representative Dick Knapinski.
Shelley A. Hession has been appointed associate in the aviation group in the Washington office of law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellotts . She was an attorney adviser at the U.S. Transportation Dept.’s Office of Hearings.
Four new science teams are joining the official list of observers for the Lcross lunar-battering-ram experiment. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite is a companion to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that is due for launch in late April. The Northrop Grumman-built Lcross and its Centaur upper stage will be fired from lunar orbit into a polar lunar crater that’s in permanent shadow, in the hope observers on the ground will be able to spot water ice or other volatiles that may lurk there in the resulting debris plume.
Virgin Galactic’s Scaled Composite WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft resumed flight tests at Mojave, Calif. on Feb 5. The flight, which lasted 1.5 hr., comes 47 days after the unconventional aircraft’s maiden flight in late December. Flight testing originally was due to resume in early January and although Scaled Composites does not comment on development programs, it is thought the prolonged break was due to flight control surface modifications aimed at improving directional stability. Initial space tourism flights are planned to start in 2011.
The exact configuration of Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan for its first two in-service applications should emerge this year, as the engine maker completes final design choices and data analysis on an extensive round of flight trials completed last year.
China will move deeper into the Airbus production system with the go-ahead for an advanced composites venture to make A350 parts and another factory that will equip outer wings for the Tianjin A320 assembly line. The development and management arrangements for these and other Airbus facilities show how the European manufacturer is engaged in a wary dance with its Chinese partners—greatly building up its presence in the country while minimizing the transfer of know-how.
Precision Castparts is counting on the planned debut of Boeing’s 787 next year to help offset weakening demand for commercial aircraft. The specialty metals company’s content on each 787 equals that on five narrowbodies, Chairman and CEO Mark Donegan said in an address last week at Cowen and Co.’s annual finance conference in New York. Until recently, Portland, Ore.-based Precision Castparts had been forecasting robust growth in its aerospace sales in 2009.
Before unmanned aerial systems (UAS) begin to share airspace with commercial airliners, the Air Line Pilots Assn. wants design and operational safety requirements imposed on the aircraft. Because UAS can range in size from a small bird to a Boeing 737, they require a “well-trained pilot” at the controls, ALPA Executive Air Safety Chairman Rory Kay said during a media briefing in Washington last week.
Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is worried about the increasing size of international carrier alliances and their effect on transatlantic competition. So the Minnesota Democrat has introduced legislation that would require a congressional study of Transportation Dept. policies that grant alliances immunity from antitrust regulations. Oberstar says the international market between the U.S.
Airbus has been quietly testing models of a potential A320 replacement, even though a formal program launch is years away. The wind-tunnel efforts signal that, behind the scenes, Airbus is busy advancing the configuration for what it internally calls the A30X. The work parallels engine makers’ activities: They are now stepping up efforts to validate the technologies required to power the next-generation short-haul products for both Airbus and Boeing.
Degradation in the performance of the eight thrusters that have handled attitude control on NASA’s Cassini Saturn probe for the past 11 years has led mission managers to order a switch to the redundant system. Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have noticed degraded performance in two of the thrusters beginning in October 2008. After reviewing the system, program engineers will make the switch to the backup “B branch” of eight identical thrusters during a seven-day period in mid-March when no navigation maneuvers are required.
The Alliance for Aviation Across America, a two-year-old coalition dedicated to small and rural communities that depend on general aviation, has signed its 4,000th member: the National Farmers Organization. The coalition was founded by NBAA, AOPA, the National Assn. of State Aviation Officials, Air Care Alliance and the League of Rural Voters, in the hope of winning grassroots support for general aviation in Washington. Its members include the National Grange, American Corn Growers Assn., and the Independent Cattlemen of Texas, among others.
Return visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s (EAA) annual fly-in this summer in Oshkosh, Wis., will likely welcome some changes now underway. The association is investing $3-4 million in a variety of infrastructure improvements including new pedestrian-only thoroughfares, larger exhibit areas and relocation of the “Fly Market” to more accessible space. Also, four buildings that house shower facilities are being fitted with flush toilets, “and for many that will be huge,” said EAA representative Dick Knapinski.
