Gulfstream’s planned output of 83 G650 business jets in the first 2.5 years of production is oversubscribed by a factor of six to seven, says parent company General Dynamics. Gulfstream began accepting $500,000 refundable deposits on the new $58.5-million ultra-long-range jet on Apr. 15, signing time-stamped letters of intent with customers that it is now working through in sequence to convert to orders. GE CEO Nicholas Chabraja says Gulfstream and its suppliers are revising the initial production plan. The wide-body G650 is to enter service in 2012.
Screaming babies, cramped seating next to obese people that is so tight I can’t open my laptop, canceled flights, delayed flights, lost luggage and long security lines help combine to make air travel a worse than miserable experience. Add to it the prospect of some 13-year-old yapping into a cell phone or an egomaniac big shot who is conducting business at 35,000 ft. while subjecting the rest of us to the din, and flying becomes terrifying, with the potential for a complete nervous breakdown.
Darryl K. McDonald and David Mason have been appointed aviation principal architects and Edward Hyatt a project manager at the HNTB Companies , Kansas City, Mo. McDonald and Mason have been managers of major airport terminal projects, while Hyatt was an FAA executive.
Anne Lambert has been appointed director of government and European affairs for U.K.-based NATS . She was the U.K.’s deputy permanent representative to the European Union.
China’s civil aviation administration has withdrawn a range of service rights held by China Eastern Airlines as punishment for bad management of a labor dispute that culminated in pilots turning back flights last month. The airline has lost two routes to competitors and must cut back services on others.
A Boeing/Ball Aerospace team has completed testing of the payload electronics and high-speed gimbal for the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) Block 10 satellite’s sensor. With the completion of the gimbal tests, about 85% of the system’s flight hardware is complete. The two-axis gimbal will be used to quickly slew the sensor from target to target in space, and it will allow operators to track targets as they are launched and thrust into orbit. SBSS will be launched in 2009 into a polar low Earth orbit and will provide imagery of satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
Bolstered by strong backlogs for airliners, aircraft makers and interior-furnishing suppliers are planning to piggyback on the looming wave of deliveries with a range of new cabin offerings. Airbus is experimenting with a wholesale overhaul of the familiar galley concept. The idea is still in its final refinement stage, but within the next year Airbus will decide on a formal industrial offering, says Bob Lange, Airbus head of cabin strategy.
In February, the U.S. shot down one of its own satellites over the Pacific ocean using an SM-3 missile. The sole, stated reason for doing so was to prevent a 1,000-lb. tank of hydrazine, a toxic rocket fuel contained in the satellite, from bursting if it hit a populated area.
Pilots love new airplanes, so it’s no surprise that cockpit crews at All Nippon Airways are eager to get their hands on the 787. They’ll be first in the industry because ANA is the launch airline. But they’ll have to wait. Instead of meeting the original arrival date of next month, their first 787 won’t arrive in Tokyo until the third quarter of 2009, at best. One ripple effect from the airplane’s development delay is a push-back in pilot and mechanic training. Nonetheless, ANA’s crews have already gotten a taste of what is in store for them.
High-level efforts are underway to solve two of the air transport industry’s most vexing environmental challenges—achieving a global deal on emissions trading and reducing the sector’s carbon footprint.
John Sepulveda (see photos) has been named executive vice president/general manager and Brian Holt senior vice president-sales and marketing of Milwaukee-based Derco Aerospace Inc. Sepulveda was chief financial officer and has been succeeded by Peter Winkler, who was assistant controller. Holt was vice president-international sales. Markus Heinrich has become vice president-U.S. sales.
Satellite navigation system planners are beginning to move forward in their efforts to address compatibility and interoperability issues, say program officials.
Malaysian Airline System is looking for a merger partner, says Chief Executive Idris Jala, while stressing that the company is not yet negotiating with anyone. A preferred partner would be one that is dissimilar to Malaysian, says Idris.
Space Systems/Loral will build an eighth EchoStar satellite for Dish Network’s direct broadcast constellation under a new contract. SS/L already has a string of Dish contracts in the works, including the pending summer liftoff of EchoStar XI on a Sea Launch Zenit rocket. CMBStar and EchoStar XIV are under development at the company’s Palo Alto, Calif., factory. All the Dish spacecraft are based on the SS/L 1300 platform. A launcher for EchoStar XV has not been selected, but launch is scheduled for 2010.
Michael A. Taverna (Noordwijk, Netherlands, and Paris)
The European Space Agency is poised to launch the second test spacecraft for the Galileo satellite navigation system, in the last major step before the program transitions to its new all publicly funded organizational framework.
The Turna target drone powered by a Turkish Engine Industries turboprop engine completed its first flight this month. The effort to fit a turboprop on the Turna was undertaken by drone prime contractor Turkish Aerospace Industries and the engine company, and ensures the system no longer requires technology from overseas. The engine delivers 90 lb. thrust and a maximum propeller speed of 6,000 rpm.
The U.S. Air Force will better be able to predict communication outages caused by ionospheric scintillation following the Apr. 16 launch of its Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket. The Pegasus’ L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands before air-launching the 870-lb. satellite into its targeted elliptical orbit of 205 X 385-naut.-mi. 8 min. later.
Eric Hofer has become senior vice president-sales and customer service for Virgin Charter , Santa Monica, Calif. He was vice president-North American sales for Travelocity Business.
Amy Butler (Springfield, Va.), Douglas Barrie (London)
The Royal Air Force is on the brink of securing funding for key air-to-surface weapon projects against the backdrop of a difficult Defense Ministry spending round. The RAF has submitted a funding request covering study work for the Spear (Selectable Precision Effect at Range) program, the MBDA Storm Shadow enhancement project and the Future Anti-Ship Guided Weapon. However, Spear’s timescale continues to shift.
Speaking of airworthiness, in the wake of the B-2 crash in Guam, a technical order has been issued for inspection of a component or an area of the aircraft. It is believed to be associated with the flight control system. “If everything is OK, the aircraft is OK’d for flight,” says an Air Combat Command official. At least some of the B-2s are now flying again.
NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker warned against complacency with the U.S.’s safety record, which has been “admirable” in recent years, when the NTSB released 2007 preliminary accident data last week. General aviation, which has long held a bad safety reputation, last year recorded its lowest number of fatalities in more than 40 years—491 people—although the sector was involved in 1,631 accidents, 113 more than in 2006. Meanwhile, Part 121 scheduled carriers were involved in 24 accidents—non-fatal—in 2007.
Chinese airlines’ battle against pilot attrition and wage increases has escalated, with Shanghai Airlines suing nine pilots for $5 million in compensation because they want to leave the company. China Eastern, another Shanghai-based carrier, has suffered from pilots turning around aircraft and returning to their departure points on dubious grounds of bad weather.
The process that allows the formation of sea shell interiors and pearls is being examined for use to deposit nacre-like coatings onto metal surfaces. Scientists at the University of Dayton Research Institute, working under an Air Force contract, are looking for biological ceramic coatings that are naturally derived and that don’t involve high-temperature, high-pressure procedures now required for building ceramic coatings.
