Boeing is rolling out its new F-15SG for the Republic of Singapore Air Force at its factory in St. Louis on Nov. 3. The new aircraft, based on the F-15K designed for South Korea, will include a Raytheon AESA radar. The first flight took place Sept. 16. Singapore has ordered 24 of the aircraft.
The future of Italy’s CosmoSkyMed Earth observation constellation is linked to ongoing planning for additional spacecraft aimed at maintaining Italian leadership in radar satellites. The third CosmoSkyMed military-civil Earth-observation radar satellite is entering a shakedown and commissioning phase, to be completed as early as December, after its successful injection into a Sun-synchronous, down-dusk, polar circular orbit at an altitude of 630 km. (391 mi.). It was launched here Oct. 24.
Beginning Dec. 4, Virgin Atlantic plans a second daily flight to Hong Kong from London Heathrow with an Airbus A340-600. From Oct. 28 to Dec. 3, Virgin will operate the new service three times a week. The airline’s chief executive, Steve Ridgway, says the popular route is the third busiest long-haul service out of Heathrow after New York John F. Kennedy International Airport and Dubai.
The first two of six revamped UH-3H Sea King helicopters delivered by the U.S. Navy to Argentina’s navy are now flying, and four more are expected by March. Argentina lost three Sea Kings during a fire in 2007 on board its icebreaker in the South Atlantic, sparking an urgent need for replacements. The U.S. Navy identified two recently retired Sea Kings in Pensacola, Fla., and four more at the Aerospace Maintenance Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. The first two arrived in Argentina in August and have been flown.
Pentagon acquisition chief John Young is irked with the Air Force’s difficulties in providing a coherent Fiscal 2010 budget proposal to the Defense secretary. “There are too many games being played,” he says, citing the Air Force’s proposal that its sister services—the Army and Navy—should help pick up the tab for building USAF satellites. Air Force officers argue that missile warning, communications and navigation services are provided to all of the services and the cost should be equally shared.
Robert B. Gowens has become CEO of the Mooney Airplane Co. , Kerrville, Tex., upon the resignation of Dennis E. Ferguson. Stan (Skip) Feher has been appointed sales director in the Northwest U.S. and Jennifer Mitchell in California.
Donald Hazelwood (see photo) has become vice president-unmanned systems at the Systems Engineering Group of QinetiQ North America , Huntsville, Ala. He was project manager for the U.S. Army’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
The British Defense Ministry has awarded Marshall Aerospace a £97-million ($160-million) support contract for logistics support for the Royal Air Force’s Tristar tanker/transport aircraft until 2015. The Tristar is due to be withdrawn from service that year, and replaced by the Airbus A330-based Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft.
Airport leaders want infrastructure upgrades for their industry included in any economic stimulus bill Congress considers if it holds a post-election “lame duck” session. William DeCota, aviation director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, asks the House Transportation Committee to consider including “at least $600 million” in a stimulus package and possibly as much as $1 billion. That could help create up to 35,000 airport-related jobs, he says.
The space shuttle Endeavour is cleared for launch to the International Space Station Nov. 14 at 7:55 p.m. EST following the STS-126 Flight Readiness Review (FRR) at the Kennedy Space Center Oct. 30. The mission’s astronaut crew, commanded by Navy Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson, also completed the flight’s countdown demonstration test with the Kennedy launch control team Oct. 29. The FRR was the first with former astronaut Bob Cabana as the center director. He succeeds William Parsons, who has retired from NASA to enter private industry.
Clarke Mouncher (see photo) has been named global program director for the Rolls-Royce 250 for Dallas-based BBA Aviation Engine Repair and Overhaul . He held a similar position at H+S Aviation.
Contrary to the “Let’s Make Everybody Happy” crowd (AW&ST Oct. 20, p. 8), splitting any tanker deal would be an expensive mistake. It would bring a bigger bill for the American taxpayer and for military over the life of the aircraft. As it is now, it looks like any tanker will be oversized based on the results of this year’s failed procurement effort. The U.S. Air Force allowed Northrop Grumman to go big, so they would stay in the competition. Now, after the selection mess, Boeing undoubtedly will offer a bigger plane the next time around.
Naverus, the leading supplier of Required Navigation Performance procedures and services worldwide, is holding a seminar on performance-based navigation in Seattle on Nov. 10-11. Presentations are to be made by Southwest Airlines, Air China, Boeing, Airbus and by Avtech of Stockholm, a strategic partner with Naverus in the rollout of performance-based navigation procedures in Australia and other nations. Naverus’s headquarters are in the Seattle area. The seminar primarily features airlines and aircraft manufacturers but a National Business Aviation Assn.
A Rolls-Royce and British Airways request for proposals to alternative-fuel suppliers is expected to close in about two weeks. The two companies have offered to run tests of second-generation biofuels and compare them with the performance of kerosene. BA is providing the engine and Rolls the test cell and analysis. A team will select fuels, and the tests would be conducted next year. One of the biggest questions is whether suppliers can produce the 50,000 liters of biofuel considered necessary for testing.
When Vueling Airlines management decided to drastically curtail network growth and instead focus on profitability, there was some question as to whether the about-face would work. For now, the strategy seems to be paying off, as evidenced by third-quarter results. Gross revenue for the Spanish carrier was up by 30.7%, well ahead of the 9.3% increase in costs, which were largely associated with the fuel bill. Per-unit nonfuel costs reached a record low for the airline, management reports.
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Japan is moving ahead with preliminary plans to build an operational stealth fighter after the ATD-X Shinshin program demonstrates much of the necessary technology in the next decade. The operational aircraft would be larger and powered by engines in the 22,000-lb.-thrust class, double that of the IHI Corp. XF5-1 engines that will propel the ATD-X. Accordingly, it would be about the size of a Eurofighter Typhoon or Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet. The ATD-X is closer to the dimensions of the Saab Gripen.
Operators of the first Zeppelin in the U.S. since the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg are introducing commercial flights from historic Moffett Field, Calif., for aerial tours of San Francisco Bay and the wine-producing region of Napa and Sonoma counties north of the Bay Area.
U.K. participants in the Autonomous System Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment (Astraea) program want to leverage a recent autonomous technology demonstration to support the second phase of the project in early 2009. The Astraea program is looking at developing the ability to operate unmanned aerial vehicles in non-segregated airspace. Two UAV missions were flown in a synthetic environment. The first simulated a search-and-rescue mission, the second a flight from Wales to the north of Scotland.
NASA Ames Research Center will use its small-spacecraft technical expertise in collaboration with Odyssey Moon Ventures to develop lunar landing technology that may help Odyssey Moon’s pursuit of the $30-million Google Lunar X-Prize but isn’t restricted to it. Ames will be reimbursed for providing technical support, which will include data from its Common Spacecraft Bus, a modular design applicable for lunar landers or orbiters. Based in Henderson, Nev., Odyssey is a sister company with Odyssey Moon Ltd.
As elsewhere in Europe, France’s aerospace industry is approaching a risky crossroad. The global financial crisis will likely pummel the civil side, with potentially dire consequences for both Airbus’s backlog and Falcon business jet sales. Major space programs such as telecommunications satellites and the Ariane 5 heavy-lift booster could suffer, too, just as new competitors are appearing on the horizon.
Armadillo Aerospace is developing a suborbital space-tourism vehicle based on the vertical takeoff/landing techniques it used to win the $350,000 Level One prize in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The Rockwall, Tex.-based company is proposing a $100,000 flight to the edge of space for well-heeled adventurers. That would be half the $200,000 ticket price for a ride on Virgin Galactic’s air-launched SpaceShipTwo, under development at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif.
Qantas and British Airways have agreed to pay hefty fines to Australian authorities over alleged cargo price-fixing, with other carriers expected to follow. Qantas will pay A$20 million ($13.4 million), and BA A$5 million. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it’s continuing to “investigate other airlines, some of which are assisting voluntarily, while others are not.” It believes it can soon resolve investigations with other cooperating airlines.
Phil Boyer, who is president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. (AOPA), has received this year’s Donald D. Engen Aero Club Trophy for Aviation Excellence from the Washington Aero Club . The trophy is named after the late Admiral Engen and recognizes a lifetime of achievement in aviation, or a single event or series of events that reaffirms the Wright brothers’ standard of excellence in aviation. Boyer has led AOPA since 1990 and is only the third president since AOPA began in 1939.
