Mike Alvis (see photos) has been named vice president-strategy and business development and Dave Smith vice president-program management for the ITT Corp. ’s Night Vision Div., Roanoke, Va. Alvis was vice president-programs and Smith director of program management.
The price of EU emission allowances (EUAs) under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme found tentative support in early November on the back of utility and financial buying, following a dramatic collapse in October. December 2008 EUAs traded around the €18 ($23.40) per metric ton mark in late October on the over-the-counter market, and the price held broadly steady during the first few days of November. The brief period of stability followed a collapse from as high as €23.62 on Oct. 14, and as high as €25.35 on Sept. 22.
The aggregate U.S. intelligence budget for Fiscal 2008 was $47.5 billion, up $4 billion from the previous year, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The congressionally mandated announcement covers the aggregate amount of funds appropriated by Congress to the National Intelligence Program for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. But true to the craft, the DNI will not discuss it any further.
A plasma rocket engine that may one day get a test on the International Space Station has reached a power milestone in one of the radio-frequency (RF) systems used to heat the electrically charged fluid that serves as a propellant. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr), under development by Houston-based Ad Astra Rocket Co., reached its target rating of 30 kw. in a test of the RF device that generates the core plasma. The Oct. 22 test, which used argon as the propellant, sets the stage for integration of the 170-kw.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
BAE Systems and Boeing have joined ranks to move quickly into the Pentagon’s effort to slow investment in new projects and concentrate on upgrading existing programs, particularly in the fields of electronic attack and cyberwarfare. This is part of a Defense Dept. attempt to better rationalize its investments, reuse technology it has already paid for and ensure that programs are not duplicated by the military services and other agencies (AW&ST Oct. 27, p. 40).
France is trimming some aerospace projects in its long-term spending plan, but has decided to support a range of military space projects to maintain its European leadership role in that area.
A recent correspondent suggested using “linear motors” built into airplanes and airstrips to move aircraft without burning jet fuel (AW&ST Oct. 13, p. 10). Follow the KISS principle! If you want to move an airplane without burning fuel, just use a tractor. They are all over any airport. An electric tractor can be recharged between pulls and be a lot simpler than a linear motor.
USAF Maj. Gen. Frederick F. Roggero has been appointed chief of safety at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon and commander of the Air Force Safety Center, Kirtland AFB, N.M. He was director of air, space and information operations at Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Schmidt has been named commander of the NATO Airborne Early Warning Force, Casteau, Belgium. He has been commander of its E-3A Component, Geilenkirchen AB, Germany. Brig. Gen. Robert H.
The International Air Transport Assn.’s effort to push greater liberalization of the commercial aviation sector will get another airing early next year. The debate began late last month in Istanbul in a session at which 14 countries and the European Union were represented. By early next year IATA is to devise a multilateral policy statement on liberalization, while governments have agreed to share best practices in this area. One of the issues being debated is how change might be implemented.
EADS has begun air-to-air refueling clearance work on the Eurofighter Typhoon from the Airbus A310 Multi-Role Tanker Transport. The aim is to have the aircraft certificated by year-end, during a nine-flight program. Two Eurofighter aircraft—instrumented production aircraft—have been used for the flight trials, from the EADS Military Air Systems site in Manching, Germany.
Dassault has made design refinements to its Rafale small satellite launcher concept, which is under development with the help of the French space agency, CNES.
The Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2) on the Hubble Space Telescope is back on line, as illustrated by this Oct. 27-28 image of the aftermath following an intergalactic collision.
Following the Pentagon’s Oct. 16 cancellation of the U.S. Army’s ARH-70A Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter program, Bell Helicopter has cut 500 jobs, mostly at its main plant in Fort Worth. The layoffs go beyond those people working directly on the ARH program, which was canceled after serious cost and schedule overruns. Only a few jobs are being cut at Bell’s production plant in Amarillo, Tex., and none at its Montreal commercial helicopter facility.
European satellite operators say demand for high-definition television is accelerating, underscoring the buoyant market for consumer electronics despite the ongoing global financial crisis. SES Astra reports that it has added 13 HDTV channels since August—a 30% increase—and now has 55 overall. The total number of high-definition channels in the SES group, which includes Americom and New Skies as well as Astra, has risen to 137. Eutelsat has added 12 HTDV channels of its own since June, and now transmits 61, compared with 17 in June 2007.
Final assembly of the PW810C engine for Cessna’s Citation Columbus business jet and the PW1524G geared turbofan for Bombardier’s CSeries airliner will be at a new Pratt & Whitney Canada facility to be established at Montreal’s Mirabel airport. More than C$575 million ($477 million) will be invested in the center and Pratt’s other Montreal-area facilities, with the Quebec government to invest almost C$142 million in infrastructure and equipment. The center will also house Pratt’s integrated flight-test operations, including two Boeing 747SP engine testbeds.
Sukhoi is nearing a critical stage of flight trials for its Superjet 100 regional jet, but faces an ambitious schedule to meet its target of first customer deliveries set for next year. In the first phase of flight trials, initial engineering data indicate that the aircraft is meeting such key design parameters as fuel burn, and that inflight performance is matching what the models predicted. The only flight-test aircraft operating so far has accumulated 120 flight-test hours.
Aurora Flight Sciences is preparing to fly a prototype vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft with hybrid turbine-electric propulsion, an approach the company believes could find wider application in aviation. A subscale aircraft designed to prove the principle behind Aurora’s Excalibur concept for a small high-speed armed unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) is nearing completion and is expected to begin hover tests in December.
Honeywell’s Runway Awareness and Advisory System now has an additional type of warning to alert pilots that an aircraft’s approach is outside the safe envelope for speed and glidepath. Aircraft that are too high or too fast on an approach are in a situation that can result in a hard landing or a runway overrun. Honeywell decided to add this warning to its voice advisory system after reviewing data that suggest runway excursions account for 96% of all runway accidents.
ATR is holding talks with engine makers about a 90-seat turboprop, and early indications are some of the stretch performance targets can be met. Those include the ability to climb to 20,000 ft. within 13 min., 8 min. faster than the existing model and a cruise at 320-330 kt., while reducing specific fuel consumption by around 20% from current aircraft. At least one engine supplier has indicated it can deliver that the required performance around 2013-14. ATR also sees composite content on the aircraft growing to 30%.
The conviction of a University of Tennessee professor on charges that he passed military technical data on UAVs to China was one of more than 100 export-related cases handled by the Justice Dept. in a two-year period. China was involved in 23, Iran in 29.
A consolidating airline customer base, mounting pressure to cut fees, and increasing capital and information technology costs are driving two of Europe’s biggest airport authorities—Aeroports de Paris and the Schiphol Group—to create a long-term partnership to keep pace.
Myles D. Crandall has been appointed president of Lockheed Martin subsidiary Savi Group , Mountain View, Calif. He was vice president-strategic planning at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.
Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral), James Ott (Cincinnati)
The FBI, in conjunction with other U.S. counter-espionage and weapons-proliferation enforcement agencies, in a nationwide coordinated effort, is sweeping up dozens of managers and engineers allegedly involved with clandestine aerospace technology transfer and weapons proliferation with Iran and China. Nearly 150 people and companies have been tagged in the sweep, with some charges directly related to benefiting China’s surging space program and Iran’s ballistic missile buildup.
