Even though the industry has entered a down cycle, several major aviation-related construction projects are underway in preparation for the rebound. Cessna has begun building a 600,000-sq.-ft. design and assembly facility for its Citation Columbus super midsize jet at the Wichita, Kan., Mid-Continent Airport. The Columbus program is eventually expected to employ 1,000 people.
Aerospace industry layoffs are gathering pace, but so far there is no lemming-like rush to shed jobs. Nonetheless, the combination of the global financial crisis, Boeing strike aftermath and delays to military programs is being blamed for layoffs already into the thousands across the U.S. industry. Jobs are not being lost at the rate of the post-9/11 downturn because so far customers, rather than canceling orders, are deferring deliveries. But unless the financing drought eases, deferrals could turn into cancellations and layoffs could accelerate.
British Transport Minister Geoff Hoon reaffirmed to Parliament last week he hoped “to announce my decision on whether, and if so how, additional capacity might be added at Heathrow before the end of the year,” during a robust debate over the addition of a third runway at the airport. Even a go-ahead, however, would only mark the start of a tortuous approval process. The government and Conservative Party remain at odds over the need for a third runway.
Doug Cooke, a longtime NASA engineer, will become associate administrator for exploration systems with the departure of Rick Gilbrech later this month. Cooke will be in charge of developing the plans and hardware necessary to fulfill NASA’s goal of leaving Earth orbit to explore the Moon, Mars and beyond with humans and robotic pathfinders. Gilbrech, who has headed the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters, will leave government service for the private sector on Nov. 24.
Robert F. Weiss has been named executive vice president-global sustainment at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. of Fort Worth. He has been vice president-business development and succeeds Marillyn Hewson, who is now president of the Lockheed MartinSystems Integration Co., Owego, N.Y.
The Royal Air Force is working to accelerate integration of the Paveway IV precision-guided weapon on the Tornado GR4 so the aircraft can have the capability when it deploys to Afghanistan in the second quarter of 2009.
Besides housing and banking crises in U.S., make room for another. Nearly half of the aerospace and defense industry’s development programs may experience “a vicious cycle of budget overruns” that will strain a system already facing an end of robust growth, according to an analysis by consulting firm Deloitte LLP.
Cessna will begin cutting 655 jobs in January as it slows production of most Citation business jets and its piston singles. The company says it will cut 4% of its 12,000 employees in Wichita, Kan., and 35% of the 470-person workforce in Bend, Ore. Sister Textron company Bell Helicopter laid off 500 employees last month. Rival general-aviation manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft has announced 490 job cuts, Cirrus 205 and Mooney 230.
David Neufeld of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and two other astronomers have been selected by the Universities Space Research Assn. , acting on behalf of NASA, to participate in the first scientific observations to be conducted by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia). Neufeld has been picked to study the chemistry of warm interstellar gas, using data obtained by the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (Great).
Obama has a degree from Harvard Law School, but some in Washington think he needs a little more education. The Aerospace Industries Assn., the top U.S. aerospace and defense trade association, is quietly considering a media blitz, including ads in Washington-based newspapers. The plan: teach the incoming administration, as well as the new Congress, about issues facing the high-tech aerospace industry, according to officials close to the plan.
In the letter “New Realities With SpaceX” (AW&ST Oct. 27, p. 10), the writer shortsightedly expects the use of cheaper spacecraft components in light of an anticipated launch cost reduction. SpaceX will not drive down launch costs to $1,000 per pound. On its web site, flights for Falcon 1 and 1e are offered at $8,500 and $4,000 per pound. Falcon 9 numbers should not be seen as final before the first successful orbital flight.
Aerospace and defense companies already know they face a yawning talent gap that has been building for years. It’s a problem that is tough to solve, and easy to defer—but unless addressed soon, it will undermine industry growth.
Amid global economic gloom and doom, CAE is reporting continued positive financial results. For the quarter ending Sept. 30, the Montreal-based simulation and training provider reported a 15% revenue increase to C$407 million ($336 million) and a 25% increase in net earnings to C$49 million, compared to the same period last year. CAE had a C$43.2-million free cash flow at the end of the quarter. According to President and CEO Robert E. Brown, the company received C$390 million in new orders and ended the quarter with a C$2.7-billion backlog.
Proponents of missile defense are concerned that President-elect Barack Obama’s national security team and the Democrat-controlled Congress will demand funding cuts to the burgeoning system. The program costs about $10 billion per year. Despite advances in fielding elements of the system, doubt remains about its ability to protect the U.S. and allies from attack. The Missile Defense Agency, however, defends the system’s maturity and is hoping to make its case to the new defense team.
Britain is considering redeploying its Merlin helicopter fleet to support combat operations in Afghanistan. The shift would be part of an anticipated drawdown of the nation’s military commitment in Iraq during the first half of 2009. John Hutton, secretary of state for defense, says: “Next year we will see a very significant change in our mission in Iraq, that I hope will produce some relaxation in the tempo at which our forces are operating.”
Having entered the elite club of nations capable of developing active radar-guided air-to-air missiles, China is now looking for additional integration platforms for its PL-12 missile, both at home and abroad.
I had a good laugh while reading the commentary by Air Transport Assn. CEO James C. May (AW&ST Oct. 27, p. 51). He keeps telling us we have to completely deregulate the airlines, it is misplaced nostalgia that is driving a new call for reregulation, it is only because of deregulation that we have loyalty programs, calls for reregulation fail to recognize the realities of the global aviation marketplace, and on and on.
Regarding airline deregulation/reregulation, call me elitist, but as a longtime air traveler, I have concluded that one big reason air travel was more pleasant in “the good ol’ days” was the absence of a certain type of traveler. These folks drop off their manners and brains along with their bags when they reach the airport. They have a heightened sense of entitlement, are arrogant and bristle at the slightest hint of imagined inconvenience. They bring new and unpleasant meaning to the word bus, as in air bus.
TDA, a Thales affiliate specialized in combat systems and munitions, has test-fired a laser-guided rocket as part of a French evaluation aimed at fielding a metric-precision 68-mm. rocket by 2013. Sized to be fired from the same launcher as unguided air-to-ground rockets of the same caliber now used on the Franco-German Tiger attack helicopter, the rocket is intended to defeat lightly armored fixed and mobile targets at lower cost than guided missiles. Thales has already test-fired 68- and 70-mm. GPS-guided rockets. A laser-guided 70-mm.
French armaments agency DGA has successfully test-fired the new M51 ballistic nuclear missile for the third time from an underwater silo at the ballistic test range in southwestern France. The missile, built by the EADS Astrium and Snecma/SNCPE joint venture G2P, is to be deployed on board the nuclear-powered submarine Terrible in 2010, replacing aging M45s.
Malaysia’s Measat 3A satellite, damaged in a crane accident at its Russian launch site in August, is back in the U.S. for repairs at Orbital Sciences Corp.’s facility in Dulles, Va. The satellite’s return from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was delayed until a facility needed for the removal of toxic hydrazine propellant became available. After a stop in a New Mexico facility for a final hydrazine cleanup, the spacecraft will go to Dulles. Engineers aren’t sure how long the repair will take, or when a new launch date will be set.
Japanese precision instrument manufacturer Shimadzu Corp. is developing a flat-panel helmet-mounted display (FP-HMD) based on a liquid crystal display (LCD) instead of a cathode ray tube. Using a commercially available LCD reduces weight, power consumption and the cost of production and maintenance while improving reliability, says Yoshihiro Goda, deputy general manager. The key challenge in development centers on the optics because the image from the flat LCD must be projected precisely onto a curved visor, he says. The display adds about 1.3 lb.
Manchester and London City airport workers will be the first to test new National Identity Cards under an 18-month pilot program being promoted by the U.K. Home Office. Groups including the British Air Transport Assn. and labor union Unite are opposed to the new cards, saying that airport workers are already properly vetted. But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says her office will move ahead with the plan, noting that the cards will “bring increased protection against identity fraud, and help protect our communities against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism.”
Sweeping changes to the Bush administration’s vision for space exploration—including the replacement of manned lunar flights with human missions to asteroids—are being proposed to the new Obama administration by a large group of former NASA managers, astronauts and top planetary scientists.
The Army is studying development of an optionally piloted Cessna 208B Caravan for utility transport in routine, but sometimes dangerous, battlefield and area-of-interest reconnaissance and patrol missions.
