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.
Boeing has delivered its first Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition kits to USAF. The precision laser guidance sets are to fill an urgent USAF and Navy requirement for engagement of fast-moving (up to 70 mph.) land targets. The initial $28-million contract adds 600 laser seekers for 500-lb. bombs.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will test a modified RL10 engine aimed at improving combustion stability at low thrust settings as part of a NASA contract supporting future lunar lander technology.
Boeing’s recent troubles are more cultural than technical. In 2000, I joined a project group subcontracted to Boeing to develop ground control software for the GPS Block IIF satellite series. As a systems engineer, I was assigned to develop requirements for a segment of the ground system. I found gaps and problems in Boeing’s A-level requirements and schedules that impacted my work.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
A worldwide drive is underway to recruit astronauts for the post-shuttle world of long-duration missions to the International Space Station and, perhaps, the first flights to the Moon. The European Space Agency will start an astronaut-recruiting drive next month, and NASA already has one underway. The remaining ISS partners also are said to be planning or considering searches for new spacefarers.
The Society of British Aerospace Companies is cautioning that there remain “significant” challenges to developing an environmentally less damaging fuel to aviation kerosene. Its latest briefing paper “Alternative Aviation Fuels” examines both the drivers for and hurdles facing development.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to buy and deploy an additional 580 advanced technology X-ray machines for airport security checkpoints. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley tells the House Homeland Security transportation and infrastructure subcommittee that the agency has already installed 250 of the multi-view X-ray machines, which give TSA screeners a clearer look at what’s in carry-on bags.
The first Sky Warrior unmanned surveillance and attack aircraft, the latest product from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, has made its first flight from the company’s flight facility at the El Mirage, Calif., airfield. The Sky Warrior block one is being built for the U.S. Army’s extended range/multipurpose unmanned air system program. The UAS is designed to provide surveillance, targeting and precision strike at the division level and below. Its weapons payload is to be twice that of the Predator A.
U.S. airlines are doing a respectable job of raising fares to compensate for higher fuel prices, but the efforts are still not good enough, says Edmund S. Greenslet, president of ESG Aviation Services. The rapid rise of fuel prices since October easily outran the short-term ability of the carriers to hike fares. The average yield per revenue passenger mile for all carriers except Southwest increased to more than 13.47 cents in November, from October’s 12.94 cents, and remained above 13 cents through February.
Russia’s second-largest international carrier, Transaero, is revamping its long-haul fleet this year, but it will curtail a much-delayed acquisition of the Tupolev Tu-214 and meet pressure to buy domestic aircraft through the Sukhoi Superjet regional aircraft instead. Transaero has on order 10 Tu-214 aircraft, a variant of the Tu-204. Delivery should have been completed in December 2007, but the airline has so far received just one aircraft.
David Dohnalek (see photos) has been appointed corporate treasurer of Chicago-based Boeing . He succeeds Paul Kinscherff, who has been named Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based president of Boeing Middle East. Dohnalek was vice president-financial planning and analysis.
Prof. Orval A. Mamer of McGill University writes that the composites in aircraft will face disposal problems similar to those of the Trabant, the East German auto that was also made of composites (AW&ST Mar. 24, p. 8). I believe Mamer is wrong. The issue with composites, especially the advanced epoxy and carbon fiber versions used in aerospace, is not whether they are recyclable, but if they can be reclaimed economically and with enough properties to create viable applications. Research indicates they can.
