At a time when the U.S. and its leaders are focused on bailouts and other actions to rescue the most troubled sectors of our economy, please don’t neglect the industry that generates a trade surplus that supports the U.S. economy: aerospace. We cannot take the American aerospace industry and its jobs for granted. The Aerospace States Assn. (ASA) and its membership of lieutenant governors from around our nation congratulate you on becoming our 44th president. And from each state capital, we challenge you to invest in America’s future.
U.S. companies are likely to find themselves increasingly disadvantaged in competition for medium and heavy military aircraft programs because of a dearth of new models, a study from Forecast International warns. European manufacturers Eurocopter and AgustaWestland have invested heavily in new clean-sheet hardware for this segment, defined as 6.8 metric tons and above, while American airframers have focused on derivative designs, Forecast says. This could pose problems for U.S. firms at a time when the U.S.
Thales Alenia Space says it finished 2008 with 23% of the geostationary communications satellite market. The Thales-Finmeccanica joint venture landed five orders last year, out of 26 worldwide, along with four commercial communications payloads for other builders’ spacecraft and part of the payload for the Hispasat AG1 demonstration satellite, co-funded by the European Space Agency. It also won a contract to build a 15-satellite low Earth orbit constellation for O3b Networks.
The first of an international pair of spacecraft designed to analyze the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming is in checkout, following the Jan. 23 launch of the Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (Gosat) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Gosat and NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, due for launch Feb. 23, will map the real-time distribution of greenhouse gases worldwide. Gosat alone will be able to generate 56,000 real-time data points around the globe, updating every three days.
Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
The U.S. military services are rushing billions of dollars in new intelligence-collecting aircraft into service to support operations abroad, but questions remain about whether the Pentagon will eventually field a true, full-spectrum architecture of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and electronic-attack capabilities.
Lufthansa’s plan to take over SN Brussels Airlines is receiving close scrutiny from antitrust regulators. The European Commission intends to review the deal, which was announced last year. “Initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition could significantly impede effective competition and so raises serious doubts as to its compatibility with the single market, at least as regards passenger air transport on a number of routes between Belgium and Germany, and Belgium and Switzerland,” the EC says.
Countering improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan is providing an impetus to the further rapid deployment and operational use of the Royal Air Force’s Sentinel R1 airborne stand-off radar aircraft, along with unmanned aerial vehicles. France is also looking to bolster its UAV resources in theater. Two RAF Sentinel R1s were deployed for a short period to the Afghanistan theater in the fourth quarter of 2008, and a second deployment is likely soon. The Sentinel was due to enter service in 2006, but development issues led to a two-year delay.
As a business traveler, I want to salute the captain and crew of US Airways 1549 that ditched in New York’s Hudson River on Jan. 15. Brilliant job! But I am concerned about how the aircraft came to rest, with aft cabin doors partially submerged. The emergency procedures cards show a ditching with the aircraft floating level and escape slides/rafts deployed forward and aft. The Airbus A320 came to rest tail down, making the aft door slides/rafts unusable.
Air France will start A380 service in early 2010, according to Airbus. Air France is the next customer due to receive an A380. It was hoping to get the aircraft by August, but was bracing for delays. Airbus last month adjusted its 2009 A380 delivery target to 18 units, from 21—whch, in turn, is down from 26. Lufthansa no longer expects to take delivery of its first A380 this year, according to Senior Vice President-Corporate Fleet Nico Buchholz. The airline nevertheless plans to operate the first two of 15 A380s on firm order for the 2010 summer timetable.
Mission: STS-119 International Space Station (ISS) assembly flight 15A, the 127th launch of the space shuttle program. Orbiter: Discovery, NASA’s oldest remaining vehicle, flying its 36th mission. Launch date: Feb. 12 at 7:32 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center.
French space agency CNES says Italy has decided to reduce its contribution to Simbol-X, a high-energy X-ray mission led by France. Italy was supposed to contribute a 50% investment of €150 million, supplying the optical spacecraft for the two-satellite system (AW&ST Oct. 22, 2007, p. 35). CNES says it will seek other partners to build the system, which is intended for launch around 2012.
Alliant Techsystems engineers are analyzing the results of a Jan. 29 test of the separation sequence that will allow the parachutes on the upcoming Ares I-X light test to deploy so the casing for the solid-fuel first stage can be recovered. In the full-scale test at the company’s facility in Promontory, Utah, a linear-shaped charge was fired to ensure it creates a clean separation between the booster casing and the base of the forward skirt extension, and to characterize the shock produced by the charge.
There have now been three instances of inertial reference system unit faults on Boeing 777s and Airbus A330s flying near Perth, Australia. Three times for what is forecast to be a rare occurrence, and each one in the same region, begs the question of a possible ground-based cause. An Australian Transport Safety Board preliminary report issued in November about the first A330-300 incident suggested the possibility that transmissions from a nearby naval communications station interfered with onboard systems.
NASA is trying to diagnose the cause of the Mars Exploration rover Spirit’s recent erratic behavior. On Jan. 25—the 1,800th Martian day of what was originally baselined as a 90-day mission—Spirit failed to respond to its daily driving commands, and did not record its main activities for the day onto its hard drive. The next day, controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a command for Spirit to locate the Sun with its camera, on the hunch that the rover might be disoriented. Spirit found the Sun, but not in its expected location.
Austro Engine and Diamond Aircraft Industries have received European certification for the AE300 turbo-diesel after a development program lasting 42 months and costing €48 million. Approval of the AE300-powered DA42NG is imminent, says Diamond, and the DA40 and DA50 piston singles will follow, replacing diesel engines supplied by bankrupt Theilert. An AE300 retrofit will be developed and offered for the diesel-powered Diamond fleet, the company says.
In late April, Virgin America plans to start services to John Wayne Airport (JWA) in Orange County, Calif., from its San Francisco hub. The carrier will operate Airbus A320s five times daily to its ninth destination city. The airline completed A320 noise qualification tests on Jan. 28, as part of the formal approval process toward starting services there. Airport authorities see the addition of Virgin America as a welcome boost to JWA, which has been hit hard by the recession.
A unit of EADS Defense & Security Div., EADS Secure Networks, has been tapped by the Bulgarian finance ministry to deliver a Tetra radio communication system to that country’s National Fire Safety and Protection of Population Service. This arm of the interior ministry is responsible for fire control, firefighting and emergency rescue operations. The network is planned to be fully operational by year’s end.
Regarding the letter by Pedro L. Rustan on the expanded use of Darpa beyond “defense-related industries,” a similar organization could be beneficial to civilian technology development, but should not be a focus of Darpa. Having a civilian agency would allow for a singular, common focus and not dilute expertise. With separate agencies, there could be liaisons to facilitate information-sharing between Darpa and a civilian agency to minimize duplication.
Boeing is flight testing new engine and security features for Qatar Airways’ first ultra-long-haul 777-200LR, which will be used to inaugurate direct services from Doha to Houston in March. The “first-of-model” certification work includes clearance of an uprated version of General Electric’s GE90-115B engine as well as a flight deck entry video camera system. The carrier was originally due to start direct flights to Houston in December 2008, but production was delayed by the machinists’ strike at Boeing last fall.
Arianespace is in final preparations for the first Ariane 5 mission of 2009, a four-spacecraft launch set to go on Feb. 12. On Jan. 26, prime contractor EADS Astrium Space Transportation moved the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA from the Launcher Integration Building at the spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, to the Final Assembly Building to receive its payloads.
Airbus has named Goodrich Corp. to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul support as part of the Total Support Package for Singapore Airlines’ fleet of 19-leased A330s. The flight hour-based, five-year agreement includes management services and covers Goodrich evacuation, lighting, actuation, sensors, deicing and power products.
NASA has given prospective bidders until Feb. 27 to deliver proposals for conceptual design work on the Altair lunar lander the agency will use to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020. Johnson Space Center in Houston expects to make multiple awards in the spring. NASA will direct the contractors as they support the evaluation of Altair concepts, help mature the designs, and prepare the program for system requirements and definition reviews.
The Air Force’s Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ), which will shift passive electronic warfare into the arena of active electronic attack, is gaining traction after a hiatus owing to its high cost. The Pentagon is looking at developing the jammer, which would be used on the B-52, as a key component of a information warfare, electronic intelligence and computer attack architecture capable of injecting false information into enemy networks (see p. 32).
NASA’s oldest surviving space shuttle orbiter is in place for launch next week to deliver the fourth and final U.S. solar array to the International Space Station, a risky and complex mission designed to boost the station power grid so it can handle a full-time crew of six instead of three. In the process, astronauts will use Discovery as a testbed for the vehicles that will follow it into space after the shuttle fleet retires.
Stall behavior is considered the most critical control aspect of the unconventionally shaped blended wing/body, and Boeing and NASA are preparing to test the X-48B BWB research aircraft with revised flight control software that will enable more gradual approaches to the stall.
