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.
Thailand has grounded budget carrier One-Two-Go Airlines for a month for a range of serious safety violations, including false claims of experience from its pilots, and says it will prosecute the airline, its parent company and the crewmembers involved. The country’s civil aviation department says the carrier violated safety regulations, lacked proper management and had shortcomings in its operations and maintenance. Flight schedules didn’t allow pilots enough rest, it adds.
Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems will spend another year packing payloads for the International Space Station under a $42-million extension to its integration services contract with NASA. This is the first of two options under the company’s original contract, and brings the total contract value to $338 million. Lockheed Martin will pack pressurized and unpressurized science and logistics carriers for delivery to the ISS, identifying the best approach for various payloads and providing sustaining engineering for payload carriers.
The Pentagon’s assessment of operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan remains grim. “The enemy in Afghanistan has grown bolder, more sophisticated and more diverse,” says Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We’re seeing a greater number of insurgents and foreign fighters flowing across the border with Pakistan unmolested and unhindered. [NATO, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S.] either find ways to work better together or we fail,” he says.
MTU Aero Engines has tapped Unison Engine Components (formerly Smiths Aerospace Components) to provide flash-butt welded rings for legacy engine programs. Deliveries from Unison’s Mountaintop, Pa., facility are to begin next year and run through 2015. Unison specializes in close-tolerance, complex, rotating, thin-wall aeroengine components, particularly flash-welded rings, precision rolling, machining and fabrication.
Infotech Enterprises of India has concluded a preliminary agreement with Dassault Aviation to collaborate on activities related to India’s 126 aircraft Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program. The agreement, which runs for five years and could involve engineering, defense and IT services, would be part of Dassault’s offset obligations with respect to the MMRCA, for which it is offering the Rafale.
The Defense Dept. is trying to figure out how to extend the Cold War-era concept of strategic deterrence into space and cyberspace. Early results from the strategy review, which analysts are racing to complete before the Bush White House closes up shop, entail using all aspects of U.S. power, from military force to diplomacy, to deter attacks against space assets, while similarly trying to dissuade attacks on cyber interests. One idea: Sharing space assets with U.S. allies so that an attack against them would be an international event with wider consequences.
The BAE Systems Herti has been demonstrated recently in an exercise involving the Gulf Cooperation Council states with the unmanned aerial vehicle being operated at a range of 800 km. (500 mi.) from the command center. The UAV was used for targeting and battle damage indication. The UAV can be operated at a range of up to 1,200 km., with an endurance of up to 4 hr.
International Aero Engines is delivering the first shipset of V2500 SelectOne upgraded engines to Airbus in preparation for their upcoming certification on the A320, which is expected in the first week of August. The first aircraft fitted with the SelectOne-equipped engines is due for delivery in September to Indian-based launch customer Indigo. IAE finished the Farnborough show with record orders for engines and services worth $7 billion, more than double its previous mark, at last year’s Paris show, and equivalent to around one year of production.
He’s in a quiet period and can’t discuss details, but Goodrich Corp. President/CEO Marshall O. Larsen isn’t expecting a warm reaction from Wall Street when his company reports earnings on July 24. He watched as Rockwell Collins’s 19% increase in net income was rewarded with an 8% decline in its share price because of investor fears that soaring oil prices will trigger a sharp downturn in demand for commercial aircraft (see p. 36). “The market has made its decision on the cycle,” Larsen says.
Stars of the upcoming EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., are likely to be a growing coterie of single engine personal light jets (PLJs) including Diamond’s D-jet, the Cirrus Vision SJ50 and the prototype Eclipse 400, all of them now flying. Piper will also be promoting its PiperJet. First flight of that aircraft was likely to occur this month in Vero Beach, Fla., but it was doubtful the aircraft would have logged enough hours by July 28, the gathering’s opening day, for the FAA to grant permission for a cross-country flight.
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.
