Japanese investigators identified a maintenance error by Bombardier as the probable cause of an All Nippon Airways DHC-8-400 nose gear-up landing at Kochi (Shikoku Island) airport in March 2007. None on board Flight 1603 were injured (AW&ST Mar. 19, 2007, p. 38). The findings were contained in the final accident report released last week by the Japanese Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (Jaraic).
With an eye on several high-profile competitions, European fighter aircraft manufacturers are jockeying for position while also trying to overcome challenges to their core activities.
Ireland’s High Court threw out Ryanair’s lawsuit over price caps at Dublin Airport, but scolded the country’s Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) for its “ambiguity” in determining the caps. Ryanair originally sued CAR over fees it wanted to charge airlines to fund the new $838.4-million Terminal 2 at Dublin. But the court ruled that the carrier had not “suffered from legal flaws or a lack of process or any of the other claimed defects,” states Commissioner of Aviation Regulation Cathal Guiomard.
The German defense procurement agency (BWB) has awarded a €24-million contract to Eurocopter to upgrade six CH-53Gs and get them ready for combat operations in Afghanistan by November 2009. The program adds auxiliary fuel tanks and electronic warfare equipment to the heavy lift helo. The rotorcraft also will receive a life-extension program, to add 4,000 flight hours to their service period.
British Airways plans to vacate Terminal 4 entirely by late October. After the start-up debacle at Terminal 5, the airline slowed the pace at which it would move flights from T4 to T5. A further set of moves is due this week, with another shift due on Sept. 17 and T4 activities to be completed in October. BA insists Terminal 5 is now operating well.
While nuclear deterrence is not front and center in the headlines today as it was during the Cold War, Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe argues it remains relevant in today’s threat environment. As vice commander of the Air Force Space Command, he says the Minuteman III fleet needs upgrades to keep the missile system viable through 2030, a 10-year extension from earlier plans. A new guidance system that can be repaired or replaced through a side access panel is needed.
Grob Aerospace is trying to boost its workforce quickly to overcome a personnel shortage that is hampering not just development of the aircraft maker’s newest product, the spn composite utility jet, but also possibly other expansion efforts. Grob is pushing hard to achieve the certification of the spn business jet by year-end, although company CEO Niall Olver concedes that a lack of flight-testing and development engineers may prevent it. The crash of a prototype and slower-than-planned flight trials have set certification back several times already.
Aviation Week’s statement that “clearly a new day is dawning [with respect to] the greening of commercial air transportation” (AW&ST Jan. 21, p. 3) needs to be engraved on the collective foreheads of the industry’s leaders. As the magazine further states, “The transition could be painful.”
An article on NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) in the May 19 edition (p. 72) stated that the 747-based configuration includes a Raytheon-designed pressure bulkhead. The unit of Raytheon that designed the bulkhead was acquired by L-3 Integrated Systems in 2003.
Though the Missile Defense Agency has focused its Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) program around readily available technologies, one crucial element has yet to be proven—a large infrared focal plane array (FPA). This 512 X 512-pixel mercury cadmium telluride FPA is a linchpin for the success of Lockheed Martin’s MKV-L design, calling for a central carrier vehicle that will deploy many smaller kill vehicles to attack targets in space.
China’s two main aircraft-making groups will merge back together as a step toward simplifying and rationalizing the industry, especially in the military subsector. The re-merger of Avic 1 and Avic 2 is expected to happen this year, nine years after they were separated. It may be a prelude to pulling the industry apart again to create a range of national champions focused on different parts of the aircraft-making business.
Antonio Pensa, assistant director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT Lincoln Laboratory, has been named an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus by Pennsylvania State University’s College of Engineering .
The cost of active, electronically scanned array radars could be on the verge of plunging by a factor of 10. As a result, experts are exploring new applications that could draw on AESA technology. Since 2001, when the U.S. Defense secretary’s office declared the future development of radar technology to be dead, ranges have tripled and very small, perhaps stealthy targets can now be located, specialists point out. Many more frequencies are being exploited and imaging is close to photographs.
Multirole missile efforts are emerging as a potential future guarantor of the U.K.’s guided-weapons sector. The Defense Ministry is preparing to fund the next stage of the MBDA Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) concept, while Thales Air Systems Division has unveiled its Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) also aimed at a number of Defense Ministry requirements and the export arena.
General Electric and Rolls-Royce have completed design reviews for ultra-high-pressure ratio compressors to be tested for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s technology demonstration of its Highly Efficient Embedded Turbine Engine (Heete). The goal of Heete is to reduce fuel consumption by 25% for embedded engines powering future tanker, transport, surveillance and unmanned combat aircraft. GE is aiming for a 70:1 overall pressure ratio, compared with 43:1 for its GE90 engine.
Italian engine-maker Avio is gradually paying down the mountain of debt it incurred from two leveraged buyouts. Debt has been reduced to about €1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) from €1.8 billion a year ago. Management wants to further streamline Avio’s industrial footprint, reduce operating costs and offset the effect of the weak dollar. During the past 12 months, Avio has seen revenues climb 11%, to €1.55 billion, with an operating result of €303 million. Net profit was €35 million, compared with a loss the previous year.
The U.S. Air Force plans to select a contractor to design a demonstration payload for the Self-Awareness Space Situational Awareness (Sassa) program late this year. Lockheed Martin, Orbital/Northrop Grumman and Boeing are all proposing options for the $30-million effort. The Sassa payload is intended to demonstrate the ability to build a standardized threat-warning system and communicate information about whether satellites are being “painted” with radio-frequency or laser energy to operators on the ground.
Virgin Atlantic and British Airways last week once again raised fuel surcharges. Long-haul charges for Virgin Upper Class passengers are rising to £107.50 ($212.22), an increase of £28.50. BA long-haul charges will increase by £30 to £109 per flight. Virgin has introduced variable charge increases depending on which class of travel a passenger uses.
Lockheed Martin’s first short takeoff and vertical landing F-35B could fly for the first time this week. Aircraft BF-1 completed hover pit tests of the propulsion system on May 25, and test pilot Graham Tomlinson subsequently flew the first F-35, aircraft AA-1, twice to familiarize himself with the aircraft. Taxi tests were planned for the weekend. The F-35B will initially fly in conventional takeoff and landing mode, with Stovl tests now expected to begin early in 2009.
DHL Express’s pending $1-billion-a-year contract with UPS to provide air lift, replacing ABX Air and AStar Air Cargo, corroborates the failure of parent Deutsche Post World Net’s past strategy in the Americas, and underscores the strengths of UPS and rival FedEx in this vital $30-billion-a-year express market.
Scientists on France’s Corot planet-finding mission are checking data that may be the first evidence of a rocky Earthlike planet around another star. Corot has identified two more exoplanets and an unknown celestial object, mission managers tell the International Astronomical Union. It also detected extremely faint signals of another exo-planet that appears to be 1.7 times the radius of the Earth. If confirmed, it would be the first rocky exoplanet to be found. Discovery of Earthlike planets is the primary focus of the Corot mission, which was launched in December 2006.
June 9-10—Technology Training Corp.’s Cyber Security Conference. Hilton Arlington, Va. Also, June 25-26—Unmanned Aircraft System Payloads Conference. Westin Alexandria, Va. Call +1 (310) 563-1223, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com June 10-12—University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation/Air Line Pilots Assn. Aircraft Accident Investigation Course. Grand Forks. Call +1 (701) 777-4740 or see www.summer.und.edu
Getting to, from and across Africa could pose the most significant near-term logistics problem for U.S. Africa Command (Africom), says its deputy commander. “That’s probably the biggest need we anticipate in the years to come,” says Vice Adm. Robert Moeller. Created by President Bush in February 2007 to unify U.S. counterterrorism, military assistance and humanitarian aid functions in Africa, Africom is currently based at Kelly Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, and likely to remain there “for the foreseeable future,” says Moeller.
