Aviation Week & Space Technology

Harbin Aircraft Industry Group, part of China’s Avic 2, will set up a plant for making composite aircraft parts for A320s and A350s under a framework agreement with Airbus, which will own 20% of the joint business.

Northrop Grumman has completed testing to prove that sensors developed for the U.S. Air Force’s stealthy B-2 bomber’s radar modernization program can operate in all environmental conditions. An antenna, power supply and receiver/exciter module were tested under conditions of extreme temperature, altitude, humidity, shock and vibration. The low-probability-of-intercept radar is being designed to avoid compromising the bomber’s stealth signature while still giving it greater range and the ability to precisely locate and identify small ground targets.

Thales Alenia Space is poised to deliver the optical imager for the first of two high-resolution Pleiades Earth-observation satellites to be launched by France in early 2010. To be integrated by satellite prime contractor EADS Astrium, the imager features highly integrated avionics that permit a three-fold reduction in volume compared with previous generation designs, using a carbon-carbon structure and Zerodur mirrors that afford extra-high dimensional stability. A thermal focusing system will eliminate the need for complex mechanical hardware.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has accepted a consent decree for Flow International Corp., which makes high-pressure industrial waterjet cutting machines—some of Boeing’s 787 composite airframe suppliers are clients—to merge with Omax Corp., which makes abrasive jet systems for general machine shop and manufacturing uses. Both are located in Kent, Wash., a suburb of Seattle. The decree allows Flow to make available to other abrasive waterjet companies royalty-free licenses to specific Omax patents relating to the controllers used in waterjet cutting systems.

Astrium Services is counting on the acquisition of a majority stake in Spot Image to help propel it to the forefront of the international space imagery market, as it already is in military satellite communications.

At its Syracuse, N.Y., Radar Systems center, Lockheed Martin has broken ground on a 9,600-sq.-ft. radar test facility to provide it with measurements for large antenna systems. Due to open next summer, the 80-ft.-high structure is an add-on to the existing EP-6 building. It will house a high-precision, spherical near-field test and measurement system for designing, analyzing and characterizing radars in all sizes. including next-generation digital phased arrays.

Production of A380s will face another challenging period late next year, when output will start to ramp up significantly, suggests Tom Williams, Airbus executive vice president for programs. The availability of buyer- and supplier-furnished equipment could be a “major constraint” to meet output targets, he indicates. Airbus is working to recover from a series of delays, but doesn’t expect to meet its goal of building four aircraft per month for 2.5-3 years.

The British Royal Air Force will be able to deploy its Sentinel R1 operationally for the first time by year-end. Four of the five Raytheon airborne stand-off radar aircraft have been delivered, although two remain in the U.S., being brought up to a deployable standard.

Taking a lead from auto makers, Cessna Aircraft is offering to buy the gas for purchasers of new Model 182s. The company said it will pay for up to $15,000 worth of fuel through the end of 2009 for any Skylane purchased by Sept. 30, 2008. The offer also includes a free upgrade of the aircraft’s Garmin G1000 avionics system with synthetic vision.

After decades of the public believing low-priced air fares are a right, cheap airline tickets may soon become a thing of the past, says analyst Raymond E. Neidl of Calyon Securities. He recently told a group of executives from Boeing’s Commercial Div. that fuel costs represent 40% of airlines’ total operating expenses and, after labor costs are accounted for, Neidl says airline managements are at a loss about where to cut costs to remain profitable. The only recourse is to raise revenues, including fares.

BAE Systems has begun flight tests of its JetEye missile defense system on passenger airliners in revenue service. The first of three American Airlines Boeing 767-200s to be equipped with the directional infrared countermeasures system made a scheduled flight between New York and Los Angeles. JetEye was previously evaluated on an ABX Air 767 freighter. The laser-based system will be tested on cross-country flights until March 2009, says BAE, under the final phase of the Homeland Security Dept.’s Counter Man-Portable Air Defense System program.

While your editorial “Clean Up the Air Force” (AW&ST July 7, p. 74) points out some serious missteps your Air Force has made, it is inaccurate in many ways.

Teams led by Raytheon and Sensis have been awarded 18-month, $6-million NASA contracts to evaluate the impact that new aircraft types, from very-light jets to supersonic transports, might have on the next-generation air transportation system (NextGen). The two teams will use modeling and simulation to evaluate how the new classes of aircraft could impact air traffic management efficiency, aviation safety and the environment. The studies will provide NASA and its NextGen partners with research and design recommendations.

And in Arizona, Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control Arizona Support Center opened this month in Gilbert. The facility supports special electron-optical repair, modification and testing for legacy and modernized target acquisition designation sight/pilot night-vision sensors known as Arrowhead.

Britain’s Mantis long-endurance ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) and strike UAV program will provide BAE Systems with a candidate platform to address upcoming U.S. requirements, and not only U.K. national needs. Mantis was unveiled on the opening day of the Farnborough air show, and is a key element of company work in the sector. BAE Systems and the Defense Ministry have been keeping Mantis related work under wraps for the past 18 months, although limited details began to emerge recently (see AW&ST July 7, p. 24).

The outlook for Airbus and Boeing in the coming months seems to be increasingly bleak, with airlines pausing to fully assess the slowdown in traffic.

Exploration Systems & Technology (EST), a joint venture of Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover, has formally protested NASA’s award of the $745.9-million Constellation Spacesuit contract to a team headed by Oceaneering International Inc. (OII). Hamilton Sundstrand, which has been supplying spacesuits to the U.S. space agency since the 1960s, is dissatisfied with NASA’s post-award explanation of its decision. “During the meeting between NASA and EST, we feel the debriefing did not provide us adequate information as to how the decision was made,” the company states.

Midwest Airlines will reduce employment by 1,200 people—40% of its workforce—by mid-September. A majority of the cuts are related to removal of 12 MD-80s from the fleet as well as schedule changes yet to be announced. Management is talking with the Air Line Pilots Assn. and the Assn. of Flight Attendants about concessions.

Why has it taken so long to call USAF on the carpet for its deeply rooted incompetence and blunders? The Northrop Grumman/EADS tanker fiasco is nothing new. Remember the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition? Our pilots were provided with the less capable aircraft (F-22 Raptor) as the YF-23 won all but one of the stated competition criteria. Where was the outrage?

Air surveillance to protect France’s space launch activities in Kourou, French Guiana, will be provided by a new Thales Ground Master 400 air defense radar under a pending contract from the French defense procurement agency, DGA. The order will follow early sales to Malaysia (one) and Slovenia (two) of the new radar type, launched in June 2007 at the Paris air show.

Lars Kobberstad has been appointed president of Wideroe Flyveselskap , a subsidiary of the SAS Group, effective Aug. 1. He has been chief financial officer/deputy CEO.

Faced with strong neighbors and regional competitors, China is attempting to build a military that is agile, capable of technological surprises and strong enough to force a political end to hostilities before a foe can claim a military victory.

EADS is quietly talking with U.S. companies to find a suitable production partner in its quest to offer the A400M transport to the Pentagon. Executives from EADS North America have held discussions with both Northrop Grumman, its partner on the U.S. Air Force KC-45A refueling tanker offering, and Lockheed Martin—the Pentagon’s largest contractor—about assembling the A400M in the U.S. if the aircraft can find a place in that country’s fleet. It is part of EADS’s broader strategy to penetrate the U.S. market and increase its defense sales.

Ed Criner, who has been president of American Eagle ’s San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Executive Airlines, now will be head of Eagle’s Chicago O’Hare International Airport operations. He will be succeeded by Pedro Fabregas, who has been Executive’s vice president-finance and planning.

Embraer says it has boosted its business jet order book by 50 units, to 800 aircraft, since the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in late May. The firm backlog for bizjets rose to $6 billion, from $4.5 billion at the end of the first quarter. Orders for a Lineage 1000 from Al Habtoor Group of the UAE and two Legacy 600s from K2 SmartJets of Greece were announced at Farnborough.