Airbus is revamping its single-aisle program, even beyond the challenge of setting up a final assembly line in China. At the same time, production rates are increasing, lean initiatives are being implemented to reduce cycle times, and assembly of A320s is being added in Hamburg.
The tightening launcher market has satellite makers wondering when they will be able to launch their spacecraft. Astrium says it currently has four finished telecom spacecraft on the shop floor waiting for a shipment authorization. Inmarsat 4 F3 and Telesat’s Nimiq 4 have been sidelined by the idle Proton. Arabsat’s Badr 6 and the U.K.’s Skynet 5c are waiting for a spot on the Ariane 5, which is feeling the pressure from the Proton shutdown. Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 9 will join the line when it finishes final tests at the end of June.
European transport ministers have decided to limit a new airport charges directive to facilities with more than 5 million passengers a year or the largest airport in a country. The European Commission initially wanted the charges rules to apply to airports with more than 1 million passengers, but the European Parliament intervened in its first reading of the legislation that is now getting backing from the ministers. The directive will not go to parliament for a second reading. Lobby groups for regional airports were battling the broader application.
In regard to Steven Udvar-Hazy’s comments to Boeing (AW&ST Mar. 24, p. 36) that any new 787-10 “will require a new center section, a wing redesign, higher thrust engines and a new set of landing gear,” I sense a business opportunity for Boeing. If Udvar-Hazy’s comments are valid, why not set a new baseline for growth and size a new derivative line with the -10 as the lower-capacity aircraft for a new 10/20/30 line? This way, Boeing can outflank Airbus in the A350XWB size, while incurring perhaps a third of the R&D expense for a new aircraft.
The Royal Air Force recently took delivery of its fifth Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the first it actually owns outright. The initial four airlifters are operational under a lease arrangement that will end this year; the aircraft will be transitioned to fully owned status. The RAF is due to receive its sixth C-17—the last currently on order—by mid-year.
When an airline applies for certification as a U.S. carrier, one of the Transportation Dept.’s tests is whether the applicant demonstrates a disposition to comply with government regulations. Compliance disposition is often taken for granted once a carrier has its certificate, but it has been much in the news recently, with good reason. It is at the core of some recent and deeply disturbing testimony taken by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: The FAA looked the other way as Southwest Airlines operated aircraft that didn’t comply with regulations.
It will be another year before the first flight of even a partial version of NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle, but the companies working on the next-generation human-rated rocket are pondering other uses for it. ATK, which is building the Ares I first stage by upgrading the solid-fuel booster it produces for the space shuttle fleet, sees the reliability that goes with human rating as a selling point for customers with “high-value” payloads, including the Defense Dept. and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
Improvements to Indian air safety are basically on hold, despite an audit report 18 months ago from the International Civil Aviation Organization that called for urgent action.
The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center has granted Zolo Technologies $1 million for the development of inflight combustion measurement of scramjets. This technology will provide tracking of engine efficiency and enable the reduction of harmful emissions during flight. Zolo Technologies will build and support the two series of wavelength-multiplexed tunable diode laser sensors designed to measure inside the scramjet engine in action. Temperature, density and velocity as well as O2, CO, CO2, and H2O will be measured simultaneously.
Citigroup analyst George Shapiro believes the roughly 25% drop in Boeing Co.’s share price during the last six months is about more than just delays in the company’s new 787 jet (p. 60) and its surprise loss of the U.S. Air Force’s tanker contract to an EADS-Northrop Grumman Corp. team. The primary reason for the swoon, he contends, is a weakening of demand for commercial aircraft.
Lawrence Metal Products’ pedestrian guidance system helps increase passenger safety and airport efficiency, according to the company. The system comprises heavy-duty posts with patented Tensabarrier retractable belt cassettes and can be useful at regional airports that have no Jetways. Self-contained on a portable trolley, the unit can be rolled into place, deployed and disassembled in a matter of minutes. The compact system is easy to store: the 41-in.-high trolley is about 40 in. deep and 30 in. wide. Total weight for a trolley with four posts is 150 lb.
Prof. Sir Martin Sweeting, chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., has won the 2008 Sir Arthur Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 U.K. Space Conference. The “Arthurs” honor those who have worked for the advancement of space exploration. Sweeting was cited for his pioneering development of small satellites that use low-cost engineering techniques.
The FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency have granted Pilatus type certification for the latest model of the PC-12, called the PC12NG (Next Generation). Deliveries will now commence. The NG features Honeywell Primus Apex avionics and a redesigned cockpit, with a configuration developed by BMW DesignworksUSA. The PT6A engine also has been upgraded to deliver more power.
ZC&R Coatings for Optics and Abrisa Industrial Glass have joined to produce display glass, LCD glass plates, overlay and bus bar printing production solutions for a variety of glass substrates. Precision-coated indium tin oxide (ITO) and index-matched ITO transparent thin films offer high transmittance and low resistance, according to the companies. The display glass coating capabilities include precision patterning of durable epoxy-based bus bars and thermoset or ceramic-based inks with 15 micron print-to-print accuracy in sizes up to 460 X 460 mm.
Boeing has begun final assembly on the first 777 Freighter at its Everett, Wash., wide-body headquarters and expects a rollout in mid-May. Based on the 777-200LR, the freighter is due to enter flight test this summer with delivery to launch customer Air France in the fourth quarter.
Frank Jackman (Washington), Lee Ann Tegtmeier (Washington)
The big will get bigger in the commercial aviation MRO market as aftermarket service companies spread their wings globally through partnerships, joint ventures and acquisitions. Consolidation clearly will continue, partly because “the market is still highly fragmented,” says August Henningsen, chairman of Hamburg-based Lufthansa Technik (LHT).
The British Airline Pilots Assn., locked in an increasingly bitter industrial dispute with British Airways, last week wrote an open letter to the government and financial institutions criticizing airline management for the mess at Heathrow Terminal 5. The association and BA are in dispute over how the airline plans to provide flight crew for its proposed OpenSkies subsidiary.
British Airways and BAA officials have so far agreed to share the blame for the mess surrounding the opening of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, but Balpa, the airline’s pilot union, isn’t being so unequivocal. Against the backdrop of a dispute over pilot pay related to the airline’s transatlantic startup venture, OpenSkies, Balpa squarely blames British Airways’ management.
Lockheed Martin has received its 12th and final annual production contract from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to manufacture components for Japan’s F-2 close air support fighter. The $250-million contract covers the last eight of the 94 aircraft ordered by Japan’s air force. Lockheed Martin, MHI’s principal partner in the program, is to provide aft fuselages, wing leading-edge flaps and stores management systems. It also will provide 80% of all lift wing boxes, avionics and avionics support equipment.
For “a couple of billion dollars” more, NASA might be able to cut the gap in its human spaceflight capability by almost two years—or eliminate it altogether in a longshot scheme to keep one shuttle flying every six months or so.
Worldwide commercial jet transport MRO spending is expected to jump to $45.13 billion in 2008 because of rising wage rates and other inflationary pressures, but that figure could shrink modestly if U.S. carriers follow through with plans to park older, more-maintenance intensive aircraft as a way to limit capacity growth.
Are you familiar with Latecoere? Perhaps not, unless you are intrigued by French aviation’s roots or are monitoring Airbus’s divestment scheme. But in a new growth initiative, Latecoere is acquiring two Airbus facilities that build aircraft nose and fuselage barrels. Looking beyond this domestic move, the Toulouse-based company is implementing a genuine globalization model while expanding at an unprecedented pace. It’s doing so to elude the expensive euro and Europe’s high labor costs, a strategy that’s setting new standards.
The British High Court ruled Apr. 10 that the Serious Fraud Office acted “unlawfully” when it halted an investigation into elements of the U.K.-Saudi Arabian Al Yamamah arms program involving corruption allegations related to BAE Systems. The inquiry was halted in December 2006, amid sensitive discussions to secure the sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
