The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is investing $8.5 million in BAE Systems to develop a mobile communications network that will be intrinsically secure from cyber attacks. The package is to support all aspects of network communications and data. The project is part of the research agency’s Intrinsically Assurable Mobile Ad Hoc Network program, which has become a priority since mobile elements of integrated networks such as missile launchers and vehicle-mounted radars have become primary targets for network attack.
Siemens PLM Software’s launch of its Teamcenter for MRO suite was kicked off by a purchase from BAE Systems. The Teamcenter is an integrated logistics records management capability tool that takes logistics planning out of the niche world and puts it on a backbone platform. The goal is to overcome a major headache—structuring data to meet common industry/military standards. This addition inserts logistics planning into the product and processing databases that engineering, manufacturing and after-market services commonly share.
Lockheed Martin will not show targets at ranges greater than 80 naut. mi. to pilots visiting its F-35 simulator, but radar specialists say the fighter’s radar range is around 125 naut. mi. Raytheon is already testing variants of the AIM‑120 Amraam that can reach into space to kill ballistic missile warheads. Tactical scenarios show F-35 pairs flying in trail with a separation of 80-100 naut. mi. with the first aircraft keeping its radar passive while the second aircraft’s 140-deg.-field-of-view radar provides active jamming and false target generation to cover the leader.
Two years ago, we stood here questioning whether aviation’s environmental problems are perhaps bigger than just noise and emissions. I remember some of you were appalled when I hinted that our industry might be in danger of becoming a social outcast, a pariah, the next “tobacco industry.” At that time, I posed a difficult question: Were we—the aviation industry—confident we had permission from society to proceed with our growth strategies?
An automotive industry veteran will assume the top spot at Bombardier’s aerospace business. Guy C. Hachey will become president and chief operating officer of Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace on May 12. He succeeds Pierre Beaudoin, who was promoted to president and CEO of parent company Bombardier Inc. Hachey began his career 30 years ago at General Motors and most recently was a top executive at auto parts supplier Delphi.
A Russian MiG-29 took off from an air base in Georgia’s separatist Abkhaz territory, shot down a Georgian air force unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and then crossed into Russia, say Georgian air force officials. The attack was filmed by the UAV’s onboard camera which was recovered from the wreck and shown on television. The UAV is thought by analysts to have been an Israeli-made Hermes 450, which was struck by a Russian-made R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missile.
The General Accountability Office (GAO) revealed National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) strengths in support of its Fiscal 2009-11 reauthorization request for increased funding, staff and statutory changes. Continuing analyses of safety board responses to the watchdog office’s recommendations show nothing that would diminish NTSB’s position as the “gold standard” of accident investigations—so testified GAO Director-Physical Infrastructure Gerald L. Dillingham at last week’s House aviation subcommittee hearing.
During the hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee mentioned in your editorial “Trust But Verify” (AW&ST Apr. 14, p. 90), Herb Kelleher, Southwest’s executive chairman suggests compliance with airworthiness directives (AD) might be more effective if they were simplified. He was referring to 1,100 pages of six ADs covering Boeing 737 fuselage cracks. Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) thought that unwise, given the complexity of aircraft. The hearing was premised on the trusted validity of the ADs by all in attendance.
Russian investigators will review their conclusions about why Soyuz TMA-10 had an uncommanded ballistic reentry last fall after its follow-on—Soyuz TMA-11—went into the same steep trajectory Apr. 19 after six months at the International Space Station.
EADS is moving forward with plans to boost its U.S. footprint, with the acquisition of a California-based homeland security company for $350 million. Expanding in the U.S. through acquisitions is a central element of EADS’s corporate Vision 2020, which was unveiled this year, both to access the lucrative North American market and to put more of its industrial footprint in the dollar zone to insulate the company from currency swings. More deals to further grow EADS’s U.S. operations are expected.
The European Aviation Safety Agency and FAA last week granted Level D certification for the Airbus A380 full-flight simulator designed and built by CAE for the aircraft manufacturer. The FFS will be used to provide initial training to A380 customers.
Delta Air Lines will be closing nine of its Crown Room Clubs by the end of the month in response to rising fuel prices. The carrier will also convert BusinessElite lounges at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson and New York JFK airports into Crown Room Clubs. Cities losing one club each are Boston, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Seattle, San Juan, Phoenix, Denver and Honolulu; London Gatwick’s will close as well.
French transatlantic all-business-class airline L’Avion is trying to defy the problems some of its rivals have encountered. The carrier that flies twice daily between Paris Orly and Newark (N.J.) airports, says load factor reached 71% in the first quarter, with passenger volume 2.5 times over last year’s level. The airline notes its bookings are 55% from France and 45% from the U.S.
Ashortage of controllers could hamper Europe’s efforts to create a modern air traffic management system. A particular worry is that inadequate staffing levels could impact safety and undermine the promised benefits of airspace capacity improvements. Another concern is that during the fielding of new equipment, the already stretched workforce could be stressed further as controllers undergo more training.
Vietnam will begin operating its own communications satellite following launch on an Ariane 5 booster of a pair of telecom satellites—Vinasat-1 and Star One C2—on Apr. 11. Vinasat-1 is the first satellite to be owned by Vietnam, and represents a growing trend among smaller nations to operate their own domestic telecom satellite systems. The 2,600-kg. (5,732-lb.) Vinasat-1, built by Lockeed Martin Commercial Space Systems, is equipped with 12 Ku- and 8 C-band transponders. It will occupy an orbital slot at 132 deg. E. Long.
A rupture in the duct linking the gas generator and the turbomachinery in its main engine caused the Proton/Breeze M upper stage to shut down 2 min. early, stranding the AMC 14 satellite in a useless orbit following its Mar. 15 launch. A Russian state commission ordered Khrunichev, manufacturer of both the Proton and the Breeze M upper stage, to make improvements in the stage’s RD-2000 engine before it returns to flight.
U.K. competition authorities believe the BAA’s ownership of seven airports in the country is hurting consumers, signaling it may call for changes in the airport authority’s structure. But regulators will wait until August until stating more clearly if they want BAA to be broken up over concerns that the organization’s hold on key markets is stifling the development of the airports and service quality for travelers.
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a €2-billion funding plan for the Galileo satellite navigation system that will allow construction and deployment of the 30-spacecraft network to be financed entirely with public money. The plan, recommended by the European Commission last June when it became clear the previous public-private partership scheme for this phase of the program was unworkable, has already been approved by the European Council and the EC Transport Directorate.
Arnie Reiner writes that essentially the U.S. military services should reconsider their planned purchases of V-22s, and instead buy aircraft built around the X-2 concept (AW&ST Mar. 24, p. 10). The X-2 has yet to fly and is only a small demonstrator. To count on that technology at this early juncture to replace aging CH-46s and CH-53s is a real stretch. The X-2 “advancing blade” concept, with and without J-60 turbojets, was tried unsuccessfully many years ago with the XH-59A.
German researchers expect to achieve major advances this year in using fuel cells on commercial aircraft and are optimistic that industrial development of the technology will kick off next year.
Among industry’s first tasks under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vulture program will be to identify the services and agencies that could be candidate customers for an unmanned aerial vehicle able to stay aloft for at least five years.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
A game plan is emerging as top Pentagon officials maneuver to meet the growing demand for airborne surveillance and intelligence-gathering generated by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s also an unanswered question about whether efforts to increase intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) spending may conflict with plans for advanced technologies needed to confront sophisticated foes of the future.
With Europe’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (Marsis) declared a success, planetary scientists around the world are eagerly anticipating other targets for the technology. Riding on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, the radar sounder has produced valuable data on the distribution of liquid and solid water in the Martian crust to depths of several kilometers.
The U.S. Air Force is eager to secure a long-term purchase contract for coal-to-liquid or bio-alternative fuels to supplement JP-8 petroleum, Secretary Michael Wynne said Apr. 22 at an Aviation & Environment Summit in Geneva. This would provide an incentive for investors to finance refinery capacity secure in the knowledge that a steady revenue stream was forthcoming, he said, noting that there are other benefits from synthetic fuel.
