I have not read a single article saying Boeing has an issue with the global nature of the KC-135 tanker replacement competition (“It’s Global. Get Used to It,” AW&ST May 12, p. 66). The issues that Boeing and others have relate to the dissemination and interpretation of the requirements for the tanker proposal. USAF encouraged Boeing to propose a tanker that is the same size as the KC-135. Airbus on the other hand was told to propose a tanker based on the much larger A330.
Critical decisions face the U.S. Air Force before networking of F-22 stealth fighters can move from experimental to operational, including the looming choice of an advanced tactical data link and airborne network gateway to connect the Raptors to other forces. Linking the F-22 to the Pentagon’s global information grid (GIG) is essential if the Air Force is to realize its vision of Raptors collecting and disseminating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data inside defended airspace while performing their primary air dominance role.
Testing continues for the first of the U.S. Air Force’s new generation of missile-warning sensors. The Space-Based Infrared System Highly Elliptical Orbit (Sbirs HEO-1) payload, on a classified satellite, is designed to detect the heat plumes of ballistic missiles. In these images of the Kliuchevskoi volcano in eastern Russia—processed by the Air Force to mask the sensor’s resolution and sensitivity—heat from a volcanic ash cloud (above) is white. Plumes from oil fields in the Middle East (below) are also white, and the closely linked heat spots are an oil pipeline.
The aerospace industry’s growth depends on government policies. A shortage of skilled workers and poor environmental oversight have led industry, overall, to believe a turbulent future is ahead. In fact, the industry is now demanding changes in U.S. policy.
Alenia Aeronautica has decided to keep Alenia Aeronavali as a stand-alone MRO business, though much reduced in size. The maintenance business will retain its Venice site, but its Naples and Brindisi facilities and workers will be transferred to Alenia Aeronautica. This will leave the MRO unit with a staff of 300, instead of the current 1,300. In Venice, some of the Aeronavali employees will transfer to AgustaWestland, which is considering setting up an NH90 final assembly line there. Others will work for Superjet International.
All Nippon Airways has established a four-year “ecology plan” goal for reducing carbon dioxide emssions by 10% by 2011 in its overall operations—down 25% from 1990 levels. ANA says this 25% yardstick is cited in the Kyoto Protocol. The targeted reduction on domestic routes is to bring carbon dioxide emissions down to 4.7 million metric tons from 4.9 million metric tons in 2006. “The environment is one of the most pressing issues facing the airline industry today and at ANA we are committed to taking a leading role,” says President and CEO Mineo Yamamoto.
I agree that intercooled engines have higher specific power when compared with traditional engines (“Heart of the Matter,” AW&ST May 12, p. 46), but your assertion that it also has higher thermodynamic efficiency is less clear in my opinion. Intercooling induces unwanted pressure loss between the low- and high-pressure compressors and although a lower temperature charge would in theory demand less work from the HPC, it also demands higher fuel flow to achieve the same TET.
Air Force Gen. Arthur Lichte, the U.S. Air Mobility Command chief, wants to accelerate purchases of the new KC-45A tanker. He hopes to get funding approved for the Fiscal 2010 budget request now being put together at the Pentagon. The goal is to boost production to 26 per year from 15 per year. A faster infusion of the new aircraft into the fleet would allow faster retirement of maintenance-needy KC-135s; otherwise, some KC-135s will still be flying in 2040. A potential problem with the KC-135 fleet is “what keeps me awake at night,” Lichte says.
Garuda Indonesia hopes to regain permission to fly in the airspace of European Union member countries after passing an operational safety audit by the International Air Transport Assn. All Indonesian aircraft were banned from EU skies last year.
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.
