Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee has granted final certification approval for the Embraer 145 regional jet family. The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer forecasts Russia/CIS will require 510 30-120-seat jet aircraft in the next two decades; 77% are earmarked to replace the aging fleet of Eastern-built aircraft, which has average age of 23 years. The remaining 23% are to support aviation growth. The manufacturer says the market has an “urgent need” to replace smaller-capacity aircraft. The Embraer 145 family comprises the 37-seat 135, 44-seat 140 and 50-seat 145.
Kevin Perris (see photos) has been named supplemental type certification program director for the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A unit of Standard Aero , Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has been director of engineering services. Michael Moore has been named senior vice president of Standard’s Associated Air Center in Dallas. He was vice president-production, planning and supply chain.
The Rolls-Royce Trent 970, used on the Airbus A380, is one of a new generation of powerplants designed from the outset with “environmental” performance as a criterion. The engine manufacturer is a member of the U.K.’s Sustainable Aviation initiative—an effort intended to begin to address the tarnished image of the sector when it comes to dealing with “green” issues. Stories beginning on p. 60 examine the progress of the project and the sizable challenges that lie ahead. Aviation-images.com photo.
Danny Bernstein is the chairman of the U.K.’s Sustainable Aviation Council, an initiative launched in 2005 to help the British sector put its environmental house in order and to develop and deliver a collective strategy for securing the future health of commercial aerospace in the U.K. Bernstein, formerly a managing director of Monarch Airlines and currently its non-executive chairman, spoke recently with Aviation Week & Space Technology London Bureau Chief Douglas Barrie about the development of Sustainable Aviation and what it’s achieved so far.
Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airline System are scrapping their joint shuttle ticketing between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in response to liberalization of the route.
I have worked in Defense Dept. procurement for more than 25 years. On most projects, the military has limited or incomplete product requirements. The military doesn’t know how much each product will cost and wants it tomorrow. After the purchase contract is placed, if the military doesn’t like what it bought, it changes the requirements. Congress makes a symbolic grumble about the increased cost and then writes a blank check because it means additional jobs (and votes) at prevailing wages.
Boeing is gaining confidence daily that the worst of its final assembly problems are behind it for the 787, but concerns about its power systems and electric brake monitoring controls are potential obstacles to “power-on” and first flight.
The first warning signs are emerging that the business aviation sales “bubble” may be about to burst, but large swaths of the market remain unfazed, raising questions about whether a bubble even exists. Amid an economic slowdown in the U.S. and high fuel prices worldwide, industry officials have been scanning for indications that the business aviation market will be impacted. “We do see signs of softening in Western Europe and North America. There has been a small increase in the used aircraft inventory,” says Dassault Aviation CEO Charles Edelstenne.
Antonio De Palmas has been named Brussels-based president of European Union and NATO relations for Boeing . He was the company’s communications director in Italy, and succeeds Joris Vos, who is retiring.
Aviation fuel experts will soon debate the merits of easing approval standards for synthetic fuels to hasten their introduction into airline operations. Airbus recently completed its first flight with synthetic fuel using a gas-to-liquid (GTL) blend, and Boeing has tested a biomass-to-liquid fuel. As a result, there’s a growing push to streamline the approval process to ensure that airlines can exploit alternative fuels. Today’s regulatory standards require lengthy procedures to OK these fuels, which can slow their service entry.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. is risking a legal battle over its market-based proposal to combat congestion in New York airspace. Its call for flight caps at the three major New York-area airports has the airline industry up in arms.
There has been an interest from some Asia-Pacific and Middle East countries in Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III, which is designed to fulfill military and humanitarian airlift, according to Michael. J. Marshall, senior manager for international business development at Boeing’s Global Mobility Systems. He notes that the C-17 could fulfill the Indian air force requirement for a multimission aerial refueling aircraft. The Seattle-based company has already briefed the air force, and officers flew the plane at Aero India last year.
USAF Maj. Nicole Malachowski (see photo) was among four recent inductees into Women in Aviation International ’s Pioneer Hall of Fame. She is the first woman to serve as a U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds pilot and first to fly on any U.S. military flight demonstration team. Another inductee was Nancy Harkness Love, who was one of three women pilots chosen to work for the Airmarking Program in 1935. In 1942, she was named director of the Army’s civilian Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. She led a total of 404 women ferry pilots during World War II.
Boeing is on the way to logging its second airline customer for the 747-8 Intercontinental with the signing of a letter of intent by Nigeria’s Arik Airlines for three. Boeing has 105 orders for the third-generation 747, the majority of which are for freighters. Lufthansa is the only confirmed customer for the passenger (Intercontinental) version; the airline has opted for 20. There also have been seven VIP orders.
Expedition 17 crewmembers on the International Space Station are unloading more than 2.3 tons of supplies from a new Russian Progress cargo vehicle after a safe robotic docking. Progress M64/29P docked without incident to the nadir port on the Zarya module at 5:39 p.m. EDT May 16. Total weight of the cargo inside is 4,657 lb., according to NASA, including 2,850 lb. of food, clothing, hardware and other dry cargo; 925 lb. of water; 770 lb. of propellant; and more than 100 lb. of oxygen and air.
Vought Aircraft Industries will build wings and slats for the Model 850 Cessna Citation Columbus business jet, a deal worth a potential $1 billion to the Dallas-based company. The first test article is due in 2010 and the first production shipsets in 2011. Engineering and tool design will be conducted at the Dallas site; production is slated to take place in Nashville, Tenn., and marks the first new full-wing contract for that site in 20 years.
Chinese government agencies operating in earthquake-stricken Sichuan province are using unclassified U.S. government maps derived from satellite imagery to guide recovery efforts under an unprecedented data-sharing effort coordinated by the U.S. State Dept. The Chinese government requested the data on reservoirs and other infrastructure damaged in the Magnitude 8 earthquake, according to the Pentagon. A spokeswoman for the U.S. National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA) says it is the first time the U.S.
A British ambition to buy additional Chinook helicopters dedicated to the Special Forces role appears to have been thwarted by the need for savings, although increased availability of the U.K.’s present Chinook fleet is helping to close any gap.
The News Break “Woes Dog UAV Operations” points out an issue well worth serious consideration (AW&ST May 12, p. 18). Author Isaac Asimov coined the “Rules of Robotics” decades ago, describing why robots should be required to have basic fail-safe modes protecting human life hard-wired into their existence. What we now face are a number of UAVs (robots that fly) that are launched into our world lacking those fail-safe principles.
The FAA reports its adaptive compression software that scans airport slots and assigns ones that are unused when a flight is canceled, delayed or rerouted saved U.S. airlines 1.1 million delay minutes and $27 million in its first year of operation in 2007.
The biggest surprise about EADS NV’s decision not to challenge Finmeccanica SpA.’s deal to buy DRS Technologies Inc. may be that the company seriously considered the move at all. Officials in EADS’s North American operation had pushed hard to counter their Italian competitor’s $5.2-billion bid for DRS (AW&ST May 19, p. 38). But Chief Executive Louis Gallois said last week that EADS will take a pass.
Intelsat controllers are raising the new Galaxy 18 telecom spacecraft toward its geosynchronous orbital slot following a flawless launch from the Sea Launch Odyssey floating platform early May 21. Liftoff of the Zenit-3SL launch vehicle came at 5:43 a.m. EDT from a position on the equator at 154 deg. W. Long., and the rocket’s Block DM-SL upper stage placed the spacecraft in its geosynchronous transfer orbit an hour later.
Even as European airlines fret over their eventual inclusion in an emissions trading scheme, ETS is already a reality for other parts of the aerospace industry. One example is Bombardier’s Belfast production site, which has to balance its carbon dioxide output with the cap-and-trade plan covering industrial activities that Europe has been using since 2005. A second phase of the ETS has just begun, and early in the next decade, more stringent CO2 limits loom when a third phase is introduced.
Loral Space & Communications recorded a net loss of $71 million in the first quarter of the year, on revenues of $386 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $99 million. Results included a first-time contribution from Telesat of Canada, in which Loral acquired a 64% stake on Oct. 31, 2007. Backlog of the Space Systems/Loral satellite manufacturing arm rose to $1.2 billion from $1 billion at the end of December.
