In response to Col. (ret.) Michael Gallagher, just because a 100-hr. fixed-wing military pilot can safely and consistently hit a low-key position at 1 mi. and 300 ft., which by the way he is either flying solo or with other crewmember(s), doesn’t mean a highly skilled airline crew can’t do it. We all can, plus other feats. But the 100-plus passengers deserve a better ride. It’s not cattle or packages that we are carrying. The courteous service and smooth ride, approaches and landings are the only free perks that are expected. At times, even they are hard to get.
The Pentagon’s Fiscal 2008 omnibus reprogramming request also includes $16 million for a technology demonstration to identify commercially available solutions for a “potential short term need” for an Overhead Non-imaging Infrared capability. The goal is to find a solution that provides infrared data similar to that provided by the aging Defense Support Program satellite constellation.
Germany has orbited the fifth and final satellite in its SARLupe X-band satellite constellation, providing the German armed forces and Europe with their first full space-based radar-imaging capability. Like the four preceding units, the new spacecraft was orbited from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia atop a Cosmos 3M launcher. The first contact with the German Aerospace Center control facility in Oberpfaffenhofen was established at 5:43 Central European Time on July 22, 1 hr., 3 min.
Washington’s digital revolution in military affairs still has fans in Japan. Masahiro Matsumura, professor of international politics at St. Andrew’s University in Osaka, says Japan’s defense transformation—which already includes AWACS aircraft, Aegis ships and C4ISR facilities like the new Air Defense Command headquarters at Yokota Air Base—is the core on which Japan is basing its military future. Despite the Iraq quagmire, which slowed down U.S. transformation, he says, Japan is preparing technology for guaranteed access to U.S. networks.
Boeing and Alliant Techsystems have joined the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works team bidding to build Darpa’s Blackswift hypersonic technology demonstrator. Under Darpa’s Falcon program, the Skunk Works has completed conceptual design of an unmanned, reusable, turbojet/scramjet-powered vehicle, the HTV-3X, which forms the basis for the Blackswift. The demonstrator is planned to fly in 2012, taking off and landing under turbojet power and accelerating to beyond Mach 6 on ramjet/scramjet power.
Germany will be the first export customer for Boeing’s laser sensor-equipped Joint Direct Attack Munition. Delivery of the guidance kits for 500-lb. bombs is to start next year. The weapon will be used on German Tornados.
The days of 3D air traffic management without thinking about the fourth dimension (time) are numbered. Richard Deakin, senior vice president of the Thales Air Systems Div., said at the Farnborough air show that the use of 4D trajectory (4DT) management from gate to gate is an up-and-coming concept key to both the U.S. NextGen air traffic control modernization program and the Single European Sky ATM Research Program (Sesar). The Thales unit has installed 260 of its Eurocat-X automated ATC systems in en route and terminal air traffic control centers in 55 nations.
A team comprising Spanish electronics company Indra, and Russia’s Samara-based Ekran joint stock company hope to begin flight trials this year of a laser-based infrared countermeasures system for fixed-wing aircraft. Flight trials are expected to take place using a EADS CASA CN-235 and Ilyushin IL-76. Ground tests are underway in preparation for flight trials. Those would last around eight months, says an Ekran representative. A launch customer is still being sought. The multi-band laser system is cued by ultraviolet missile warners.
USAF Capt. Shannon Lippert, an F-15E pilot from the 4th Fighter Wing and a member of the 336th Fighter Sqdn. at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., is the first woman to receive the American Fighter Aces Assn. ’s Francis S. Gabreski Award. She competed against pilots of all aircraft types Air Force-wide to be named the most outstanding performer of the year during a basic course in a formal training unit.
Lufthansa’s outstanding financial performance among Europe’s legacy carriers is seriously threatened by upcoming strikes and demands for big pay increases from pilots, ground staff and cabin crew.
As it zeroes in on the final design of its Ares I crew launch vehicle, NASA continues to make changes to the propulsion systems as it strives to balance cost and performance while meeting the deadline for initial operational capability by early Fiscal 2015. Cost and weight issues with composites have forced the agency back to a metal nozzle for the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) J-2X rocket engine that will power both the upper stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Earth departure stage of the heavy-lift Ares V.
A decision by General Electric Aviation and Safran to jointly develop and market a new engine nacelle could signal a broader move by the two companies to collaborate in areas in which they lack the economies of scale to be competitive in the global marketplace. The two companies agreed at the Farnborough air show to form a joint venture to develop and market a nacelle for new single-aisle transports and other applications. The venture will bring together Safran’s Aircelle unit and GE Aviation’s Middle River Aircraft Systems (MRAS) affiliate.
The British Defense Ministry is being criticized by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee for what it sees as efforts to try to obfuscate the real costs of defense procurement in its “Major Projects Report 2007.” Committe Chairman Edward Leigh says: “The Ministry of Defense is trying to persuade Parliament that the forecast costs of major defense equipment projects are under control—by moving expenditure from those projects to other defense budgets.” The committee noted that in 2006 and 2007, more than £1 billion ($1.98 billion) was “reallocated.” It argues “such tran
Buying and leasing aircraft in Russia is starting to look more like it does elsewhere. A 40-billion ruble ($1.7-billion) deal between Russia’s Ilyushin Finance Corp. (IFC), and United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), the entity consolidating Russia’s aerospace design and manufacturing business, is heralding the transition to more western-style business arrangements. The deal calls for delivery of 34 Antonov An-148-100s between 2008 and 2010. The lessor (IFC) also took an option for 30 more of the 80-seat, regional twinjets between 2011 and 2012.
Georgia Institute of Technology is to take over the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) heliplane high-speed rotorcraft program from Groen Brothers Aviation (GBA). Georgia Tech was a subcontractor to GBA in the first phase of the program to demonstrate a vertical-takeoff-and-landing gyrodyne capable of cruising at 400 mph. Technical challenges and financial difficulties had put the program in doubt, but now GBA is expected to be a subcontractor to Georgia Tech for subsequent phases.
Staggering fuel prices and a deteriorating economy pose serious threats to general aviation—but the Experimental Aircraft Assn. is optimistic that these will not halt the annual migration of Oshkoshers eager to embrace new technology and build GA’s future. Nowhere is the passion for aviation so palpable and eloquently expressed. Each year 500,000-650,000 people from around the world, 10,000 private aircraft, 2,500 show aircraft and 800 exhibitors descend on Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., for the joy of it all.
Air Force Special Operations Command (Afsoc) plans to buy a single C-27 by October for use as an AC-XX Gunship Lite prototype. The Pentagon wants $32 million in a $1.8-billion Fiscal 2008 reprogramming request to procure the aircraft. Another $11.5 million is expected for feasibility and engineering analysis of various sensors and armaments. The Army and Air Force are developing the C-27J with an L-3/Alenia North America team. The smaller gunship, if procured in numbers, would augment the massive firepower offered by the AC-130 fleet.
Mike Turner (see photo) has been appointed Tempe, Ariz.-based manager of communications for Standard Aero . He was head of marketing and communications strategy and tactics at the Hawker Beechcraft Corp., Wichita, Kan. Scott Taylor has been named business aviation business development leader. He was general manager for business and regional aviation marketing for General Electric Aviation.
Boeing booked 13% fewer orders for commercial aircraft in the first half of 2008 than it did in the same period last year but continues to sell jets at a faster rate than it can produce them. Backlog at the company’s Commercial Airplanes unit has reached a record $275 billion, or nearly eight times annual revenues, further cushioning the company against a downturn in the industry. Boeing booked 476 jet orders between Jan. 1 and June 30, compared with 549 orders during the first half of 2007.
By year-end, the TSA will have deployed about 600 advanced technology (AT) X-ray screening units that produce sharper images as well as 38 passenger whole-body imaging machines at airports around the country, says Hawley. TSA intends to deploy approximately 300 more AT X-ray machines and 80 passenger imagers, bringing the total to 900 ATX machines and 120 passenger imaging units nationwide in calendar 2009. The agency also plans a nationwide rollout of its new all-blue uniforms with metal badges for checkpoint screeners on Sept. 11.
RTM322 turboshaft has been tapped to power French, Belgian and New Zealand NH90 helicopters. The order for the Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca engine is for 12 tactical helicopters booked by the French army, eight Belgian search and rescue/transport rotorcaft and nine Royal New Zealand Air Force machines.
Emirates this week will take delivery of its first Airbus A380 and start service with the aircraft to New York. But the timing for these milestones is inauspicious, with the carrier undertaking a far-reaching review of its operations to deal with difficult economic times. For years, the biggest impediment to its growth has been the pace of fielding new widebodies. But fuel woes are now causing Emirates to rethink its strategy. While capacity will continue to grow, CEO Tim Clark notes that a major review of operations is underway.
Italian participation in several high-profile multinational efforts risks being axed in the face of budgets cuts expected to extend over the coming three years.
The political fight on Capitol Hill over how to tackle soaring gasoline prices is undermining chances for enacting separate Fiscal 2009 defense, NASA and transportation spending bills, which would force lawmakers to fund those and other government operations at previous lower spending levels.
It would be difficult to believe that considering Boeing’s and the U.S. Air Force’s track record on the KC-135 tanker replacement program that either had a strategy to delay the selection until the best airplane was in production: the Boeing 787. Now there is an aircraft that is the right size, with exceptional range and advanced technology, that will be supportable for 30-50 years, is at the beginning of its production cycle and has a multinational production team. Boeing should be bold and offer the best it has.
