Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
Iran is expected to use the technical prowess it demonstrated with the launch of a relatively simple satellite of its own design on a basic two-stage rocket to strengthen its hand as it begins to engage with the Obama administration.
Eumetsat appears set to approve a funding plan that will ensure continuity of a key U.S.-European altimetry program as it transitions from scientific to routine operational use.
Boeing’s first contract under the U.S. Air Force Future Flexible Acquisition and Sustainment Tool (F2AST) program has been announced. The $19.1-million Air Force Special Operations Command award covers AC-130U Gunship operational flight and simulation software sustainment/maintenance; field service support; configuration, data and obsolescence management; and intermediate-level repairs.
British Airways plans to offer inflight mobile phone service and Internet access to passengers on executive shuttle flights planned between London City Airport and New York JFK. Service on the twice-daily flights, set to begin in the autumn, will be provided by Sita/Airbus joint venture OnAir using satellite capacity supplied by Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband network. It will include voice, text and e-mail messaging and Internet access, either by mobile phone, BlackBerry-type devices or via laptops fitted with GSM cards.
Douglas Barrie (London), Neelam Mathews (New Delhi)
An EADS-India contract worth a relatively small $20 million poses fundamental questions for the new U.S. administration regarding a multibillion-dollar fighter competition. Europe’s EADS is near closing the deal with India to support the flight-test program for New Delhi’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), usurping Boeing. The U.S. manufacturer was tapped last year to provide support to India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) on the LCA—but an inability to overcome U.S. technology transfer and regulatory issues has forced the company to withdraw.
The Pentagon’s unmanned aircraft system (UAS) fleet is growing and providing new capabilities for war efforts as planners weigh options for the next generation of systems to be fielded in the coming decade.
Sikorsky is preparing to take the next step in its X2 Technology high-speed helicopter program, having tested the coaxial-rotor demonstrator for the first time with the tail-mounted pusher propeller turning.
Pierre Chao, a Wall Street insider turned Inside-the-Beltway guru, looks at the diminished valuations of large defense companies and sees parallels with 1992-93. Back then, the Cold War had just ended, Bill Clinton was elected president, and U.S. defense spending began a precipitous six-year decline. But when Chao takes measure of today’s threat environment—Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia—he’s jolted back to the present. “It just doesn’t feel like 1992-93,” he says.
Boeing has shipped the second Wideband Global Satcom satellite to Cape Canaveral in preparation for launch on an Atlas V now set for Mar. 9. WGS-2 is the second of six Boeing 702 satellites built for the new WGS network, which is replacing the Defense Satellite Communications System.
Problems in integrating urgent operational requirements on the British Tornado GR4 strike aircraft may mean revising its planned deployment date to Afghanistan. The British Defense Ministry and BAE Systems are trying to determine whether there is need to reschedule deployment of the Tornado GR4. A detachment of the aircraft had been due at the beginning of April to replace the Harrier GR9 force now stationed at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
NASA engineers are calculating the long-term effects of a software error that sent out-of-spec vibrations through the International Space Station structure during reboosting last month.
China Eastern Airlines will seek to defer or cancel half of the aircraft it has contracted to receive this year. Announcing a turnaround plan that largely matched earlier reports, the debt-ridden carrier says it will sell stakes in subsidiaries and aim to cut costs by 15%.
A Rheinmetall-Rafael team has been tapped to supply a light multirole missile for Germany’s Mells program, intended to allow the country’s new fleet of Puma fighting vehicles to be outfitted to defeat tanks, helicopters and bunkers. The German federal procurement agency last week placed a €68-million ($87-million) contract with the team to integrate the long-range version of the Israeli Spike on the Puma. A production contract is expected to follow.
Kevin Breeden has been named senior manager of Western U.S. sales and service for corporate aircraft for the St. Louis-based Sabreliner Corp. He was regional sales manager for Standard Aero. Tracy L. Ogle has been promoted to director of helicopter programs from rotary-wing program manager.
Last week’s “Aerospace & Defense Earnings Snapshot 2008” (AW&ST Feb. 2, p. 13) listed an incorrect figure for Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems unit. Operating income was $3.2 billion in 2008, down 6% from 2007.
It all started at a living room table in a group house on Washington’s bohemian U Street in 1998. Walter Holemans was a 33-year-old engineer who had quit his job at Orbital Sciences Corp. to pursue a dream of designing oceanographic equipment. But Holemans quickly discovered there was little money to be made in oceanography. On the advice of friends and former colleagues, he switched his focus to separation rings.
Corporate flight department leadership and pilot decision-making skills emerge among critical factors that resulted in two fatal general aviation accidents. At a Jan. 28 hearing here, the NTSB revealed its findings related to two crashes in July 2007—one involving a Cessna 310R, “an accident [that was] made even more tragic because it could have been so easily avoided,” according to NTSB acting Chairman Mark Rosenker. The other involved a midair collision between two electronic news-gathering (ENG) helicopters in Phoenix.
Feb. 19-20Aerial Firefighting Conference & Exhibition 2009, Incorporating Fixed & Rotary Wing Aircraft and Unmanned Air Vehicles. Crowne Plaza Hotel, Anaheim, Calif. See www.tangentlink.com/event.php?ekey=AFF%20California Mar. 3-4Technology Training Corp.’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Conference. San Diego Sheraton Hotel & Marina. Also, Mar. 26-27—Maritime Security & Domain Awareness Conference. Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Alexandria, Va. Call +1 (310) 563-1210, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com
USAF Brig. Gen. Joseph A. Lanni has become commander of the Air Force Security Assistance Center of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He was director of air, space and information operations at the AFMC headquarters. Lanni will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. David W. Eidsaune, who was commander of AFMC’s Air Armament Center/program executive officer for weapons at Eglin AFB, Fla. He, in turn, will be followed by Maj. Gen. Charles R.
Adding to the list of Israeli tactical and operational innovations during the Gaza incursion were new collectors for both ground and airborne intelligence.
Regarding the blended-wing body (BWB) and its bureaucratic relation—the hybrid-wing body (AW&ST Feb. 2, pp. 50 & 58)—while technically the BWB is the best approach given today’s technology, it is still a rerun of design decisions of 60 years ago when the Avro Vulcan was being developed to fulfill much the same requirement as the Boeing B-47. That aircraft was the progenitor of the now-conventional “tube and wing” designs. Aeronautical innovation seems to have stagnated in the intervening decades.
A new auditing system is being instituted to cover air charter and fractional ownership operations, but some question its necessity. The Air Charter Safety Foundation, an offshoot of the National Air Transportation Assn. (NATA), has launched its Industry Audit Standard, which is to be used in evaluating the safety processes and policies of operators, including safety management systems, regulatory compliance and best practices.
EADS’s newly created subsidiary in Germany, Premium Aerotec, plans heavy investment in technology and infrastructure to help it become an independent Tier 1 aerospace supplier in the next three years.
