British Airways has signed agreements with CFM International and Thales for upgrades to its fleet. The deal with Thales calls for the French company to supply inflight entertainment equipment for Boeing 777-300ERs and 787s as well as Airbus A380s. The 777-300ER will be the first to enter into service, with a target date of 2010. The program is part of a broader BA effort to upgrade its cabin and include new and bigger screens, as well as in-seat laptop power throughout the cabin.
Unlike machinists, who ended the strike in a single day at the polls, the 21,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) vote by mail. Ballots are to be counted on Dec. 1 on a contract that will give them a 20% pay increase, wider choice in healthcare plans, a boost in pension benefits and Boeing’s pledge of consultation on outsourced work. The contract period is to begin Dec. 2 and extend to Oct. 6, 2012.
John Chapman, who is manager of the Space Shuttle External Tank Project Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center , Huntsville, Ala., has received a Presidential Rank Award, one of the highest honors given to career federal employees. The award is presented annually to senior federal executives who demonstrate strength, integrity and commitment to public service in their careers. Chapman manages an annual budget of more than $300 million and a workforce of more than 2,000 government and contractor technical and engineering experts.
Combat at sea is rapidly becoming much more complicated because of the proliferation of electronic warfare systems and the introduction of new and more complex types of signals. Other obstacles include the growing ease of establishing elusive, ad-hoc communications networks with commercial technology and the proliferation of hard-to-detect anti-ship cruise missiles.
The global economic crisis is choking off financing for some suppliers of aerospace and defense components, forcing original equipment manufacturers to step in to keep their supply chains running.
Christopher Jengo of ITT Visual Information Solutions, Boulder, Colo., has received the 2008 Geospatial Intelligence Award in Industry Achievement from the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) . Jengo was recognized for his work in the development of Spectral Processing Exploitation and Analysis Resource tools, which guide image analysts through image processing tasks common to defense and intelligence workflows.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) on NASA’s Aqua satellite continues to demonstrate its value as an aid to officials responding to natural disasters, as illustrated by this Nov. 16 image of the Los Angeles basin ringed by wildfires. Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Forest Service use Modis data from Aqua and NASA’s Terra satellite to develop operational information for battling fires.
The late U.S. Air Force Gen. Bernard Schriever, founding father of military space, would never have believed it: The keys to national security space now rest not with the military organizations tasked with the job, but with a quiet company of 4,000 engineers and scientists.
Boeing’s delayed 747-8F will not fly for the first time until around January 2010 under the latest development schedule, revised for the second time to include the effects of supply-chain delays, overstretched engineering resources and the recent Machinists’ strike.
Northrop Grumman has begun flight testing an active electronically scanned array (AESA) drop-in replacement for its mechanically scanned radars in the Lockheed Martin F-16. The Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) is being tested in a Sabreliner the company uses as an F16 surrogate. Flight tests in an F-16 are planned for next year.
The 2008 Kolcum News and Communications Award in honor of the late Harry Kolcum, Aviation Week & Space Technology’s managing editor and Cape Canaveral bureau chief, has been won by Justin Ray, the editor of Spaceflightnow.com, a Cape Canaveral-based web site that draws a global audience. Leigh Holt, the government relations manager and legislative delegation coordinator for Florida state legislators representing the Cape Canaveral region, was the other winner of the award, which is presented by the National Space Club’s Florida Committee.
Wanda Austin, who became CEO of The Aerospace Corp. at the beginning of this year, sits in its mission control room, otherwise known as the Spacelift Telemetry Acquisition and Reporting System (Stars) facility in El Segundo, Calif. Once a rocket makes it to the launch pad, U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Center employees work with The Aerospace Corp. team on real-time launch verification, data collection and analysis from Stars, which is linked in to Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (see p. 52). Cheryl Himmelstein photo.
Jay Hoffer has been appointed to senior director of the Sabreliner Corp. ’s maintenance, overhaul and repair facility in Perryville, Mo. He was president of BiltBest Products of Ste. Genevieve, Mo.
The Air Force is flying F-16s at three times the planned rate due to commitments in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and protecting the U.S. “There will be a price to pay for that sometime in the future,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the military deputy to the Air Force acquisition chief, who spoke at the A&D conference. This could fuel the service’s hopes to accelerate production of the F-35 in order to avoid costly life extensions for F-16s.
Sikorsky has begun flight testing of the CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter for the Canadian Forces. The first flight on Nov. 15 at the company’s development test center in West Palm Beach, Fla., explored handling at speeds up to 30 kt. The CH-148 is a development of the commercial S-92 for shipborne anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, search-and-rescue and transport missions. The helicopter has digital fly-by-wire flight controls, automatic blade and tail fold, deck lock and anti-icing features.
A new automated flow-control system will be fully online in the U.S. next year to help airlines, airports and controllers collaborate more effectively. The Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) now being deployed replaces the Enhanced Traffic Management System of the 1990s. ETMS emerged as the backbone of a new discipline called collaborative decision-making (CDM)—a process that has grown by leaps and bounds to become a vital part of how air traffic is handled.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral), Michael A. Taverna (Turin)
The combined crews of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour are well along in their two-week orbiting home-improvement project, getting the outpost ready to handle six full-time residents and starting a complex repair that will not be finished until 2010.
Air France-KLM is cutting around €1.6 billion ($2 billion) in capital expenditures through the end of its 2010-11 fiscal year, largely by slowing the fielding of new aircraft. Air France will not exercise some planned options on Boeing 777F freighters and keep 747-400s flying longer in its cargo operations. Air France expects to receive its first 777F in February, and is waiting for compensation for the almost five-month delay in the program. At the same time, KLM will slow fielding of 777-300ERs, leaving 747-400s in passenger operations.
The Pentagon is planning to boost the number of contract overseers in the Defense Contract Management Agency in the coming budget. The agency’s ranks at one point totaled about 25,000 personnel, who manage performance on Pentagon contracts. However, after the Cold War, the number dwindled to 9,000. Finley says an 8% boost is expected in the coming years.
Oron Oriol (see photo) has been named president/CEO of Rafael USA Inc. of Washington. He succeeds Yigal Ben-Hanan. Oriol was director of the Air-to-Air and Air Defense Directorate. USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Charles E. Smith has become program executive officer for enterprise information systems in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. He was vice commander of Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Norfolk, Va.
The first airframe for the EC175 helicopter has been delivered to Eurocopter by China’s Harbin Aviation Co., a subsidiary of Avicopter, which was formed this month by merging rotary-wing units of national aircraft conglomerate Avic. The two companies are developing the EC175/Z15—a medium-weight, twin-engine aircraft capable of carrying up to 16 people—based on an initial cooperation agreement signed in 2005. Preliminary design review was completed in 2006 and critical design review in 2007.
Analyst Edmund Greenslet is concerned that airlines have only begun to witness negative traffic from lower consumer spending, and that plans “to shrink their way to profitability” represent a doubtful strategy. Airlines have cut costs, reduced their fleets and are recording increases in yield, helped by the declining fuel bill, says Greenslet, president of ESG Aviation Services of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The airlines believe that steps being taken will more than offset reduced traffic and result in profits.
Rolls-Royce expects to cut 1,500-2,000 jobs worldwide in 2009, beginning with 140 at its assembly and test facility in Derby, England. The engine manufacturer blames the economic uncertainty and delays to the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787. Rolls says it eliminated 2,300 jobs in 2008 to improve efficiency. BAE Systems is to cut 200 jobs in its U.K. land systems business, while in the U.S. Boeing is to lay off 800 workers in 2009 at its military-aircraft modification plant in Wichita, Kan. Factors include the delay to USAF’s KC-X replacement tanker program.
For years, the European Union has been pushing for a greater role on the world stage. But the EU needs to confront the reality that it lacks the strategic airlift needed to fulfill that vision and may not yet be headed down a path to remedy that shortcoming.
