Italy expects to further grow its armaments trade surplus this year, building on a trend that began in 2005. But industry is seeking changes in regulations that could accelerate growth even more.
French defense officials say there are no plans for additional helicopters to support the 700-man force that President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to shore up the NATO mission in eastern Afghanistan. The two rotorcraft in the central Kabul region will be needed to back France’s assumption of the rotating regional command this summer. The six-aircraft close-air-support fleet in Kandahar also will remain unchanged.
Bruce Gunter has been appointed vice president-domestic sales, Gary Black jet sales coordinator and Carroll LeBoeuf Eastern U.S. divisional director for the Cirrus Design Corp. , Duluth, Minn. Honors and Elections
After completing the first test of in-trail climb procedures over the North Atlantic using ADS-B, Airbus aims to certify the technique by 2010 so airlines can reap substantial fuel savings and cut emissions.
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The “Vulture” program, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency unmanned aircraft effort, has been awarded to Aurora Flight Sciences. The aircraft is being designed around the radical notion of staying aloft for five years—about the lifetime of a satellite—to provide communications, surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. The problems to be overcome encompass energy management, extremely high-reliability electronics and control systems and autonomous refueling.
The Japanese lunar probe Selene has collected images of the Earth equivalent to a full Moon: round and without a shadow. The Selene team says the high-definition video, shot on Apr. 6 with a camera supplied by the Japanese television network NHK, is notable because the orbits of the Moon, Earth, Sun and Selene itself had to be in a precisely straight line. Such an opportunity would come only twice during Selene’s year of scheduled observation. In an Earth-rise picture taken by the satellite on Nov. 7, the planet was partly in shadow (AW&ST Nov. 19, 2007, p. 17).
A convergence of demographic changes and short-term corporate policies is creating a crisis that threatens the very foundation of the U.S. aerospace industry.
Western European air forces are preparing to play a bigger role in multinational network-centric operations. Key tools to dynamically manage Link 16 tactical networks, and to train realistically with them, are being introduced into service and were used for the first time in a large-scale exercise this month. One tool involved was a Thales-supplied dynamic network management system. Another was a U.S.-developed system to inject simulated participants and threats into a live Link 16 network.
The Assn. of U.S. and European Aerospace Industry Representatives (Usaire) 2008 Award Competition is now open to graduate students worldwide. Sponsors are Airbus, Cathay Pacific, Air France and Aviation Week; Rolls-Royce is providing administrative support. The topic is “Energy and Environmental Context for the Aerospace and Defense Industry in 2030: [The] Consequences on Industry’s Ambitions [on] Innovation and Competitiveness.” Finalists will be selected on the basis of a one-page summary and a final document of not more than 10 pages.
Safran’s small-engine business, Microturbo, has added a 67-lb.-thrust model to its product line, the TR-3. The engine features a centrifugal compressor, straight-flow combustor and single-stage axial turbine. The 330-mm., 4-kg. (13-in., 8.8-lb.) powerplant is designed for unmanned aircraft, target drones or missiles and can operate at up to 30,000 ft. altitude at Mach 0.8.
Ambitions to upgrade the British Royal Air Force’s Boeing E-3D AWACS fleet continue to be stymied by funding pressures, with the next phase of Project Eagle now not expected to begin this year. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were selected by the British Defense Ministry in 2006 for a technology demonstrator program originally expected to start in the latter half of 2007. The program is intended to draw on the U.S. Block 40/45 standard and improve the battle management capability of the seven RAF E-3Ds (see p. 58).
Finmeccanica wants to bolster its industrial footprint in Japan and sees its helicopter business as one of the hottest prospects for near-term inroads. The company intends to open a permanent office in Japan next year with the goal, according to Chief Operating Officer Giorgio Zappa, of developing industrial and technological collaborations with local players.
British and French defense ministry officials and industry executives will use the remainder of this month to hammer out detailed requirements for a joint anti-ship missile program. Talks are already underway between defense officials and industry.
It’s fascinating that some people regard Boeing’s reaction to the U.S. Air Force tanker award as arrogance. Perhaps they need to do some soul-searching for themselves.
A bid by Delta and Northwest to form the world’s largest airline could soon be eclipsed by another giant merger proposal, but even consolidation of this magnitude may not streamline the U.S. industry enough to snap it out of a downward spiral.
Japan has begun retiring F-4EJ Phantoms from one of its three squadrons still operating the McDonnell Douglas fighters, and re-equipping the strike unit with Mitsubishi F-2s. Two interceptor squadrons will continue to operate Phantoms indefinitely while Tokyo searches for a replacement, preferably the Lockheed Martin F-22, which the U.S. is refusing to supply.
It is a shame that having written a fine tribute to Arthur C. Clarke’s vision, David Noland concluded with an ill-considered swipe at Wernher von Braun. In 1956, if in addition to science fiction, Noland had been reading Across the Space Frontier, Conquest of the Moon and The Exploration of Mars, I doubt he would have come to believe von Braun was “still thinking in terms of glorified V-2s.”
Orbital Sciences Corp. will sell the U.S. Air Force three more of its Minotaur launch vehicles under a $40-million contract, the first in support of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Operationally Responsive Space office. The contract calls for two of the new Minotaur IV vehicles and one Minotaur I to be launched in 2010-11. First flight of the Peacekeeper-based Minotaur IV is scheduled later this year.
MiG is in discussions with the Russian air force over a potential purchase of the MiG-35 derivative of the Fulcrum. The air force is also looking at a more extensive upgrade for some of its MiG-29s. The air force appears certain to take into its inventory as well the 15 MiG-29SMTs returned by the Algerian government, amidst claim and counter claim about Algeria’s reasons for rejecting them.
Paul Davies, a technical manager at the Leicester, England, facility of Thales Aerospace and head of its Innovation Group, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Institut Superieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace .
Only 2% of the estimated 2.25 billion pieces of checked baggage handled by the global air transport industry were lost in 2007, but those mishandled bags cost the industry $3.8 billion, according to SITA’s fourth annual baggage report, released at the Passenger Terminal Expo in Amsterdam. Figures from WorldTracer, SITA’s system for tracing lost and mishandled passenger baggage used by 400 airlines and ground handling companies, show that 42.4 million bags were mishandled or delayed in 2007—18.86 bags per 1,000 passengers.
Record oil prices and a shaky U.S. economy aren’t causing airlines to scale back their plans to purchase new aircraft in large numbers. Nearly 90% of major airlines surveyed globally by UBS Investment Research analyst David E. Strauss say they have not changed their ordering plans. Even in North America, where $114/bbl. oil prices have knocked many carriers back into red ink, 17% of respondents say they are in order discussions and another 50% plan to be within the next year.
The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) have begun testing Boeing Co.’s Smart Material Actuated Rotor Technology system in the 40 X 80-ft. wind tunnel at the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex at Moffett Field, Calif.
