Northrop Grumman strongly defended its X-47B naval unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator late last week as the U.S. Navy threatened to remove funding for the program from its Fiscal 2010 budget. The program, which calls for the first autonomous carrier landings in 2011, “is on plan, on schedule and on cost,” the company says, adding, “and more than $1 billion has been invested in this program after many stops and starts during J-UCAS.” Navy UCAS is intended as a carrier-based persistent, reconnaissance and strike platform that could enter service around 2025.
Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Society of Japanese Aerospace Cos. and Boeing will participate in a radio frequency identification workshop this week to validate the value proposition of the technology.
The FAA is providing Military Airport Program (MAP) funding to seven facilities that are scheduled for conversion to civilian or joint use. New to the MAP initiative is Roosevelt Roads International Airport in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. It joins six airports previously selected: Griffiss Airpark, Oneida County, N.Y.; Okaloosa Regional Airport, Valparaiso, Fla.; Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, Mesa, Ariz.; Chippewa County International, Sault St. Marie, Minn.; March Inland Port, Riverside, Calif., and A.B. Won Pat International, Agana, Guam.
A small air-to-surface missile developed as a private venture by Raytheon has been deployed on the Predator UAV by an unidentified U.S. customer. The Griffin munition is a 45-lb., 42-in.-long, tube-launched missile with semi-active laser guidance and provides the Predator with an organic, self-targeted direct attack capability and the potential to reduce collateral damage. Up to three of the low-cost missiles can be loaded for every Hellfire the Predator now carries.
Development of Israel’s anti-rocket air defense umbrella is getting ready to kick into high gear, and already program officials have designs for expanded employment of the system with an eye on the international market.
Boeing’s decision to abandon the narrow-body aircraft replacement study, due to insufficient technology developments to gain a 20% improvement in efficiency, raises some interesting questions. We are talking about 20-plus-year-old aircraft built mostly of aluminum, with somewhat antiquated engines. A 10-15% improvement in weight/efficiency could be made with composite structures alone. Another 20% or more could be achieved with a blended-wing body design (sooner or later Boeing and the airlines will be forced to give up some of their precious windows).
David Ryan, head of Bombardier Flight Operations, has resigned as confirmed by Bombardier Business Aircraft. The departure comes three months after Robert Agostino, the previous head of the flight unit, left to join LJ Aviation in Latrobe, Pa. Agostino and Ryan produced the Bombardier Safety Standdown for more than a decade.
ITT will begin grinding and polishing the blank glass telescope mirror for GeoEye’s next-generation Earth imaging satellite later this summer, after receiving the blank for the 1.1-meter mirror last month. The companies also are working on sensor electronics for the spacecraft’s camera, which GeoEye has contracted ITT to build. GeoEye-2 is expected to launch by 2012, and selection of a satellite builder is expected later this year.
Congressional auditors say the beleaguered U.S. civil/military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) could see its price tag rise another $1 billion, to $13.5 billion. The original budget was $6.5 billion.
Space shuttle orbiter Discovery, piloted by STS-124 astronauts Navy Cdr. Mark E. Kelly and Ken Ham, assisted by flight engineer Ron Garan, flares for touchdown at 190 kt. about 2,600 ft. along Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center on June 14. Mission specialist Karen Nyberg was also on the flight deck for the end of the Japanese Kibo delivery mission to the International Space Station. Mike Fossum and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, along with original STS-123 crewmember Garrett Reisman, was in the middeck.
The swollen Cedar River has not hurt avionics maker Rockwell Collins at its home base in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, nor have inundated roads prevented shipping, the company reports. Collins, which employs 8,600 people, is centered in a hilly area north of the city’s flooded downtown. But while the company was spared, many employees were impacted, a spokeswoman said. Only one company building is downtown and had to be evacuated. The company ships most of its avionics products by air. The Cedar Rapids airport has not been damaged.
Given the amount of tracking of aircraft life—hours, cycles—it seems odd for aviation expert Edmund S. Greenslet (AW&ST May 19, p. 19) to generalize and apply the “dog years” standard to airliners, in this case multiplying calendar years by three to get an idea on life stage. Venerable DC-3s and B-52s are 150-180 years old, according to his standard, and are dead by most biological standards. As any of us past Greenslet’s “prime of life” standard of 36 can tell you, it’s not the years that tell the story. It’s the mileage and maintenance.
David F. Stafford (see photo) has been appointed Washington-based corporate vice president-federal agencies for the Northrop Grumman Corp. He was vice president-maritime and tactical systems for the company’s Integrated Systems Sector.
Airline industry analyst Edmund Greenslet says carriers can cope with the rising cost of fuel if they adopt a variation of Dow Chemical Co.’s solution—raise prices by 20%. Greenslet’s point: “There is nothing new under the Sun, and the airline industry will survive by doing what it had to do in earlier times.” He reviewed historical information to make comparisons. In 2007, the top eight airlines in his ranking paid about 30% ($27.3 billion) of their total costs for fuel. This year they can expect to pay 60% more ($16 billion) if consumption remains steady.
The resurrected China Aviation Industry Corp., to be created by re-merging Avic 1 and Avic 2, will be inaugurated next month. Having two separate companies has resulted in redundant projects and is an obstacle to integrating resources, the government says.
If anything, astronomy teaches us about perspective. With the success of the Phoenix Mars lander, and multiple devices on and around Mars, the International Space Station coming together, Cassini and the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, these are exciting times for astronomy and space technology. I also am excited about the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission—probably the last space shuttle voyage not for station assembly or repair. Of course the elephant in the room is the retirement of the shuttle and the transition to the new Orion systems.
Korean Air budget carrier Jin Air will begin flying on domestic routes next month, with the aim of breaking even by 2010. The company says it expects to fly internationally by September 2009.
Australia’s N24 Nomad 17-seat utility twin-turboprop is set to return to production after a quarter-century gap. Gippsland Aeronautics purchased the type certificate from Boeing Australia. Gippsland makes the eight-seat GA-8 Airvan and plans to deliver the first new Nomad in late 2010. Two Australian operators have signed letters of intent, Airfreight Solutions and tour operator Grant Kelly Aviation. Gippsland is in an “advanced stage of negotiation with a partner on the project” to restart production, eyeing a projected market for more than 200 aircraft over 10 years.
The problem with being on the peak of a wave is that the only way to go is into a trough. Just how deep that could be will permeate this year’s Farnborough International air show like water through sand. Figures for this year’s show, scheduled July 14-20, could portend a bumper exhibition, but figures alone can be deceptive.
The FAA is investigating how the combination of super large-size jet transports with multiple decks, massive fuel loads and composite airframes will affect the ability of airport firefighters to extinguish flames and rescue passengers. The agency’s current procedures do not address these and other considerations, necessitating a fresh look at what will be required for airport firefighting teams in terms of technologies and strategies to respond effectively to a post-crash conflagration.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are to compete to build a subscale stratospheric surveillance airship demonstrator in the third phase of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS) program. In an operational system, the autonomous solar-powered airship would keep station in the stratosphere and operate unattended for 10 years, carrying a massive UHF/X-band active electronically scanned array radar capable of tracking air targets out to 600 km. and ground targets out to 300 km.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) has taken delivery of the first of seven 767-300 Boeing Converted Freighters (BCFs). The former ANA passenger aircraft is equipped with a new main deck surround structure and side cargo door, new floor structures, a 9g rigid cargo barrier and cargo-handling system. Delivery took place June 16 at the Singapore hangar of ST Aviation Services Co., an ST Aerospace subsidiary, which completed the conversion in eight months. The 50-ton-capacity freighter joins ANA’s fleet of six 767Fs including two leased from ABX Air.
The rapidly expanding Chinese market is a major focus of Air New Zealand’s growth plans, with the airline looking to quickly build on the services it has already introduced. Air NZ began Shanghai flights in 2006, and an Auckland-Beijing route will launch next month in time for the Olympics. The carrier is interested in adding flights to Guangzhou as soon as it can gain new access rights, says CEO Rob Fyfe.
The insolvency administrator for Thielert Aircraft Engines is starting talks with around 50 prospective investors who have expressed interest in trying to save the aircraft engine provider. The administrator also notes that thanks to agreements with banks and suppliers, production has resumed with a potential output of 80 engines per month.
NASA Ares I project officials have not been briefed on potential impacts to their development effort from the damage to Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center during the May 31 launch of the space shuttle Discovery, but it probably won’t be a problem. The shuttle program believes it can repair the pad in time to launch its next mission—in October—without switching to 39B, which will be modified for use during Ares I launches.
