A two-seat, amphibious sport aircraft with folding wings is being developed by ICON Aircraft, a California-based startup company comprised mostly of former Scaled Composites engineers. Made from composite materials, the ICON A5 has a similar configuration to the 1940s Republic Seabee with a high wing and pusher propeller powered by a 100-hp. Rotax 912 engine that runs on both auto and aviation gasoline to give a predicted top speed of 120 mph.
The multi-year procurement program the Pentagon has awarded Bell/Boeing to build 167 V-22 tiltrotors over five years (141 Marine Corps MV-22s and 26 Air Force Special Operations Command CV‑22) leaves no spare tooling capacity for foreign orders, leading some program officials to suggest a much sought foreign military sale could not be accommodated in the next five years.
Lockheed Martin is considering a balloon-borne launch for the Vulture ultra-long-endurance UAV project being conducted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). The company’s Skunk Works won one of three Phase 1 development contracts in April, along with Boeing and Aurora Flight Sciences. The Skunk Works plans a 300-ft.-span vehicle with strut-braced wings and tail surfaces that rotate so the solar cells face the Sun. Launching the vehicle by balloon would avoid the need to design it to withstand low-altitude turbulence, the company says.
Spirit AeroSystems is to ship the fourth 787 nose section to Boeing on June 19, putting all the major airframe assemblies in place except the mid-fuselage. Boeing’s Everett, Wash., final assembly line already has in place the complete tail assembly, aft fuselage and wings. For the first time, Spirit expects to ship the nose, which is the most complex composite structure to build and in which to install systems, 100% complete.
Hainan Airlines owner HNA Group will build up budget subsidiary Lucky Air as a provincial carrier for Yunnan, threatening the local business of struggling China Eastern Airlines. The provincial government will take a minority stake in the new Yunnan Airlines Co. Ltd., which will revive the name of the carrier that the local authorities ran from 1993-2002 and is to have 30 aircraft within three years.
NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (Glast) is embarking on roughly two months of on-orbit checkout following liftoff from Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral at about 12:05 p.m. EDT June 11. The $690-million spacecraft, built by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and General Dynamics, was orbited by a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7920 Heavy rocket. Weather was cooperative and the launch went off without a hitch, save for a brief extension of a launch hold at T-minus 4 min. prompted by a temporary radar outage at the Antigua tracking station.
Following participation in the U.S. Air Force’s Exercise Green Flag, the Royal Air Force is effectively declaring the Eurofighter Typhoon operational in the air-to-surface role. Seven aircraft from XI Squadron were deployed to Nellis AFB, Nev., for the exercise. Demonstrating the aircraft’s initial air-to-surface capability clears the way for a potential combat deployment. However, the immediate priority is likely to remain providing quick reaction alert for the U.K.
L-3 Communications CEO Michael Strianese has tasked a half-dozen divisions to collaborate on finding a way to combine the company’s combat vehicle technologies into a single box. Strianese says the modular box, which would be developed for a new generation of U.S. ground vehicles expected to be procured in the next decade, could combine functions such as radio comm, night vision, power generation, jamming and geolocation of threats. “If we could make a suite that is cost-effective and deals with space, power and weight constraints, we’d have a home run,” he says.
Lockheed Martin last week mated the spacecraft core structure with the Northrop Grumman communications payload for its second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite. The AEHF constellation is expected to provide jam-proof and secure military satellite communications. AEHF 1 is set to launch next year.
USAF Brig. Gen. Jay H. Lindell has been selected for promotion to major general and assignment as director of global power programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition at the Pentagon. He has been deputy commanding general of the Combined Air Power Transition Force, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan in Kabul. Lindell will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Walter D. Givhan, who has been chief of staff of the Air Force Executive Action Group at the Pentagon.
Singaporean budget carrier Tiger Airways is asking for rights to fly internationally from Australia, a privilege that even Canberra’s liberal approach to foreign airlines has not yet allowed. In arguing for the rights to fly to Malaysia, Tiger has pounced on the opportunity presented by the withdrawal of services to the country by Qantas Airways and its budget offshoot, Jetstar.
United Airlines and US Airways essentially have matched American Airlines’ new $15 fee for most economy-class travelers for their first checked bag if they are flying within the U.S. or to Canada, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, but US Airways also upped the ante on the fare unbundling. As of Aug. 1, it will start charging its domestic economy-class customers $2 for non-alcoholic beverages and said its new fees are part of its transformation to a new “pay-for-what-you-use” model.
The U.S. and Japanese military will soon see eye-to-eye, literally, on air defense. In a seismic shift in cooperation and integration, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force is moving its Air Defense Command (ADC) headquarters 8 mi. from Fuchu Air Base to the U.S.-staffed Yokota Air Base in the northern suburbs of Tokyo. ADC is comparable to the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command but includes maritime and ground forces.
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. Raytheon was awarded a $9.3-million contract to supply the weapons in early May. Up to three of the low-cost missiles can be loaded for every Hellfire the Predator now carries. Raytheon also will demonstrate a guided firing of the U.S.
Italy’s Finmeccanica is pursuing a dual-track approach to financing the purchase of U.S. defense electronics company DRS Technologies: re-capitalization, and the flotation of its energy subsidiary. Talks are already underway with the Italian treasury, and with its private shareholders, over raising funds. DRS has a price tag of €3.4 billion euros ($5.27 billion). The Finmeccanica board approved recapitalization proposals to raise up to €800 million in 2007, as needed when an appropriate acquisition target was identified.
Astronomers plan to use a new array of radiotelescopes to scan the ecliptic plane of our galaxy for signs from extraterrestrial life, on the theory that if anyone is there, they could have detected Earth just as we detect extra-solar planets and might be signaling their presence. “If those civilizations are out there, [they] will surely have detected our annual transit across the face of the Sun, telling them that Earth lies in a habitable zone, where liquid water is stable,” says astronomer Richard Conn Henry of Johns Hopkins University.
Michael A. Taverna (Toulouse), Alexey Komarov (Moscow)
Airbus may develop a high-density version of its A350XWB as it wrestles with airline concerns about surging oil prices and a looming A350 weight problem.
Obituary: Tom Hudspeth, a pivotal engineer for Syncom, the world’s first geosychronous commercial communications satellite, died May 27 after years of declining health. He was 89. Hudspeth developed Syncom with colleagues Harold Rosen and Donald Williams at Hughes Aircraft Co., which he joined in 1946. The Syncom project began in 1959 and was challenging. The first launch failed, but on July 26, 1963, Syncom II achieved orbit, providing the first television pictures from space.
With regard to your article “Silence Linked to B-2 Crash” (AW&ST June 9, p. 19), similar lessons come to mind. Failure of air data sensors due to icing resulted in the losses of a B-58 Hustler and an X-31A research airplane. The automatic flight control gain-changing features interpreted the iced sensor readings as low airspeed signals, requiring higher gain settings. Hence, the robustness of modern reconfiguring flight control systems against sensor failures seems still to be also a technical issue.
Hawker Beechcraft Corp. will operate a new maintenance and service facility at the Phoenix-Mesa (Ariz.) Gateway Airport in Mesa. The complex, to be operated by Hawker Beechcraft Services, is estimated at $14 million. It will be equipped to service Hawker Beechcraft’s entire piston- and jet-powered aircraft product line. The company has acquired a new, 26,000-sq.-ft. hangar and plans to build a 20,000-sq.-ft. hangar and a 22,000-sq.-ft. administration building. The facility is anticipated to generate 110 more jobs in the next five years.
Gary Kelly, who has been CEO of Southwest Airlines , now also will be chairman succeeding Herb Kelleher. Additionally, Kelly will become president on July 15, succeeding Colleen Barrett. Executive Vice President Ron Ricks will succeed Barrett as corporate secretary.
Lockheed Martin has been tapped to produce 24 Advanced F-16 Block 52s for Morocco. The country will acquire a Block 52 configuration of the F-16C/D to meet requirements of the Royal Moroccan Air Force. The $233.6-million contract covers production and associated support and alternate mission equipment. Powering the F-16s will be Pratt & Whitney’s F100-PW-229 under a $170-million contract. Delivery is slated for 2010-11.
The U.S. has rescheduled launch of the Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission until June 20 because of an issue with backup flight batteries on the Delta II launcher.
Congress has never learned to love the new nuclear bombs that the Bush administration has proposed throughout its tenure, and indications are that the cold shoulder on Capitol Hill will continue until Bush leaves office. Strategic forces advocates Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) chide the administration for not pushing the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) hard enough on the Hill again this year. Last year, lawmakers appropriated just $15 million, not the $128 million Bush requested, to fund a study effort. Meanwhile, who’s bragging? The Quakers.
