Flashing red lights in Boeing’s Everett plant on June 11 marked the start of long-delayed electrical systems tests for the first 787, ZA001. The tests represent the beginning of the “power-on” milestone, and the first major step toward the start of flight tests. Over a roughly three-month period from July to first flight, ZA001 is due to complete a series of gauntlet tests that are designed to evaluate the entire systems performance prior to airborne testing.
The earthquake in China is adding to Finnair’s travails. Like other carriers, Finnair is suffering from weakening demand due to global economic problems, and now the airline says the earthquake has contributed to depressed travel between Europe and China. Indian traffic has also grown more moderately than expected and is below capacity expansion. Overall, Finnair in May suffered an 8-percentage-point drop in passenger traffic compared with the same 2007 period, leaving it with a load factor of 62.4%.
Boeing is exploring discussions with its F-15E supply base to help define a far-reaching upgrade package for the U.S. Air Force strike fighter. The goal is to propose a modernization path to keep the long-range interdiction aircraft operationally viable for several more decades.
Earth scientists use a daily data dump from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) instrument on NASA’s Terra and Aqua Earth-observation satellites to track green-leaf coverage worldwide, one of the planet’s vital signs. In this image, created using Terra data for the month of April, tan represents little or no leaf cover; light green means there is a square meter of leaf area for each square meter of ground; and dark green represents deep forest where there is a multilayer vegetation canopy with at least 7 sq. meters (75.3 sq.
Air New Zealand, along with Boeing and Rolls-Royce, are planning a flight test of sustainable biofuel produced from jatrophia in the fourth quarter. The fuel will be run on one RB211 engine on an ANZ 747-400. The carrier is sourcing the oil for the flight test from plantations in southeastern Africa and India. ANZ expects to use at least 1 million barrels of sustainable fuel a year by 2013, or 10% of its annual requirement. The fast-growing, inedible shrub has high oil yield—200 gal. per acre compared with 55 gal. for soy.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is directing the U.S. Air Force to field six more Predator combat air patrols (CAPs) and is considering modifying additional Army C-12s to boost the amount of intelligence collected in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military sources. The decision came shortly after Gates’s first briefing from his newly established Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Task Force June 6. He formed it in April, explaining during a speech at Maxwell AFB, Ala., that getting support from the Air Force was “like pulling teeth.”
If Boeing gets the go-ahead to take the Airborne Laser beyond the initial demo aircraft, it would likely use a 747-8 passenger configuration as the future platform, says Mike Rinn, vice president and ABL program director. The mission system would be on the upper deck; the weapon system on the main. Like the current system, the operational version would feature six laser modules, but with improved efficiency. Engineers also are seeking to extend the system’s range to engage enhanced missiles.
Emirates plans to launch Airbus A380 commercial service to the U.S. on Aug. 1, from its base at Dubai to New York JFK. By Aug. 8, it expects to fly the A380 three times weekly on the route. The aircraft interiors will be revealed on July 28, when the carrier takes delivery of the first of 58 A380s on order. Emirates expects to receive five A380s this year, all of which will be in three-class, 489-seat configuration (399 in economy, 76 in business and 14 in first class).
Sparton Electronics, one of the world’s largest producers of sonobuoys, and Canada’s Advanced Subsonics have unveiled Waterstrider, an expendable flight kit that can deliver a sonobuoy from a surface ship to a search area as far as 100 naut. mi. away. Waterstrider is designed to be launched from a ship deck with a simple catapult. A demonstration airframe was launched in January, and a full test of a sonobuoy release is planned later this year.
Japan faces a quandary. The nation must deter aggression and intimidation by developing the potential to strike any foe. But it must also stay within constitutional rules that allow only defense of the homeland. The ban on preemptive planning extends even into the world of electronic and network attack. As a result, some critical questions remain unresolved.
David P. Baxt has become New York-based head of Jefferies Quarterdeck . He was a senior managing director/co-head of aerospace and defense investment banking at Bear Stearns.
Aerojet has completed 250 hot-fire tests of its venerable R-4D bipropellant engine, demonstrating performance of the Apollo-heritage propulsion system under conditions it is expected to encounter in NASA’s Orion service module. The test included more than 20,000 starts of the 100-lb.-thrust engine. Based on the service module engine for the Apollo vehicle, the engine has also been used on Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, and will be used on Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle as well.
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.
