Lufthansa’s acquisition ambitions are still not satisfied, even after securing Austrian Airlines (see p. 37). Lufthansa has expressed an interest in resuming takeover talks with Iberia, should its planned merger with British Airways not be realized. Lufthansa Chairman/CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber says the top priority is to “execute the strategy” at BMI in which it will have a share of 80%. Virgin Atlantic confirmed last week it is in talks with Lufthansa about potential cooperation with BMI.
A Rolls-Royce Trent 700 recently powered the first scheduled flight of Aeroflot’s Airbus A330-200, which marks the engine’s debut into service in Russia.
The F-16 nailed an autonomous landing as partners Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School demonstrated the capability this month at Edwards AFB, Calif., marking the first time an F-16 has landed entirely under computer control. The demo lays the groundwork for consistent, repeatable and controlled automatic landings of the aircraft in various wind conditions and airfield situations, according to the manufacturer. The autoland sequence is initiated during flight by an onboard safety pilot.
Using $4.4 million in funding provided by Congress, Proxy Aviation Systems plans to demonstrate the ability for one operator to control four unmanned air vehicles, two small Tier II-class tactical UAVs and two of Proxy’s larger SkyRaider vehicles. The demonstration for the U.S. Air Force next year is expected to involve the company’s rule-based expert system software, which allows multiple dissimilar UAVs to cooperate autonomously. Using the software, the vehicles will be managed by one commander, but via existing UAV ground stations and communications links.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress about a number of weapons sales to Iraq. Baghdad has been approved to buy 36 Hawker Beechcraft T-6B Texan II turboprop trainers worth $520 million. Twenty T-6A Texans will be purchased in a separate deal worth $210 million. A $336-million sale of 26 Bell 407 helicopters rounds out the buy.
The rapid growth of large, long-haul carriers such as Emirates could put the squeeze on midsize airlines in the region. Now, Gulf Air and Royal Jordanian are exploring more expansive cooperation—not just to counter the bigger players, but also to strengthen their own growth agendas.
There may be an unsuspected upside for aerospace in the billions the government is committing to rescue Wall Street and Detroit, according to Aerospace Industries Assn. President and CEO Marion Blakey. When the budget deficit is tomorrow’s problem, she says, it may be easier for President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to increase NASA’s budget to close the gap in human spaceflight capability between retirement of the shuttle and introduction of the Orion vehicle. Obama has said he wants to close the gap. “When the focus is on the deficit, it’s hard to add funding.
I would like to expand on the first point of the Viewpoint “How To Ease Engineering Gap” (AW&ST Nov. 17, p. 62): increase engineering utilization by “not burdening engineers with administrative responsibilities and other tasks that distract them from higher-value design work.” Much valuable engineering time is wasted on searching for technical data, including “surfing” the Internet, which contains much unverified information.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines will participate voluntarily in a trial of a Japanese emissions trading scheme. JAL plans to cut its 2010-12 CO2 emissions per seat to 84% of its 1990 level.
The Eumetsat Council agreed to extend cooperation with India to cover polar and ocean altimetry spacecraft—to permit wider sharing of Indian weather data—and not just geostationary satellites; authorized the agency to begin working on ocean services based on the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Sentinel 3 spacecraft, which will provide altimetry data complementary to Jason’s; and OK’d talks to discuss a second-generation polar weather satellite system with the U.S. National Ocanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Continental Airlines has scheduled the first biofuel demonstration flight to include algae in the mix of fuel sources. A Boeing 737-800 will take off on the non-revenue flight from Houston Jan. 7. The 737’s No. 2 (right) CFM56-7B engine will burn a blend of 50% jet fuel and 50% biofuel produced from algae and jatropha oil, which are both regarded as sustainable, second-generation fuel sources that do not affect food or water and do not contribute to deforestation. The fuel has been produced using processing technology developed by Honeywell company UOP.
Subodh Karnik has been named executive vice president-commercial services and Howard Hall senior vice president/chief financial officer of Air Jamaica .
Chaker Chahrour has been appointed executive vice president of CFM International , Evendale, Ohio, effective Feb. 1. He will succeed Bill Clapper, who will be retiring. Chahrour has been Asia-Pacific sales executive for GE Aviation.
Fielding of the rocket/ramjet-powered Meteor air-to-air missile on the Eurofighter Typhoon is being pushed back two years. The move is part of a wider rescoping of weapon-integration plans.
Intelsat is forming a joint venture with partners in South Africa to meet hot demand in the region for broadcast, broadband and wireless backhaul services. The venture, known as New Dawn, will employ local financing and market savvy to add new capacity for African users without forcing Intelsat to fork out much cash or debt. “[This] represents a solution for Africa by Africa,” said Andile Ngcaba, chairman of Convergence Partners, a South African-based investment company specialized in telecommunications and media that will partner with Intelsat.
Aerojet has demonstrated its Advanced Materials Bipropellant Rocket engine at 150 lb. thrust and a specific impulse of 333.5 sec., setting the stage for the engine to reach Technology Readiness Level 6 when it completes environmental testing. Using an iridium-lined rhenium combustion chamber in a 100-lb.-thrust engine design, the hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide powerplant was built and tested with NASA funds under a program that aims to reduce cost, mass and travel times of space science missions.
Spanair has to at least break even in 2010 after winning approval from Spanish authorities to reduce its workforce. As part of a restructuring plan, 517 jobs will be eliminated and 185 switched to part-time status, to cut €90 million.
Software for the F-35 has entered flight testing six months ahead of the initial flight of a Joint Strike Fighter equipped with mission system. Lockheed Martin’s CATBird avionics testbed, a highly modified Boeing 737-300, has begun testing the “flight candidate release” (FCR) software load that will be on the first mission-system test F-35, aircraft BF-4, when it flies in mid-2009.
French armaments agency DGA says urgent operational requirement (UOR) spending could double next year as part of an ongoing effort to bolster the protection, projection and combat readiness of forces in Afghanistan and other foreign theaters. Although the list of new equipment is not yet decided, it is likely to include jammers, optical/radar sensors, Rover tactical data links and SIDM medium-altitude UAVs. A study to assess the possibility of accelerating qualification of the Tiger attack helicopter so it can be fielded in 2009 is also underway.
The British Defense Ministry’s short-term equipment study is proving a holding operation, probably heralding a full-blown overhaul in the next 24 months. The ministry announced Dec. 11 that it would—again—delay the introduction into service of its two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers. The first of class may not now enter service until 2016, rather than 2012 as first envisaged.
French BEA accident investigators have concluded improper procedures during a pre-delivery ground test at Airbus led to the Nov. 15, 2007, accident that destroyed an Airbus A340-600. According to BEA, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair because power to all four engines was applied without wheel chocks, overcoming the brake capacity.
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps accident investigators continue looking into why both engines failed on a Marine F/A-18D, causing it to crash into a residential area near MCAS Miramar, Calif., on Dec. 8. A Miramar official says no new information on what caused the engine failure has surfaced yet, but analysis is ongoing. The Boeing fighter was returning from aircraft carrier qualification landings on the USS Abraham Lincoln when the accident occurred.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) William G.T. Tuttle, Jr., has been appointed to the advisory board of Odin Technologies , Ashburn, Va. He is a trustee and former president/CEO of the Logistics Management Institute.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. (ret.) Nolen Bivens has become vice president of General Dynamics C4 Systems Washington operations. He was chief of staff of Miami-based U.S. Southern Command. Honors and Elections
