The Republic of Singapore Air Force has deployed a fifth KC-135 tanker to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. RSAF also has sent C-130 transports to the Persian Gulf region.
Russia’s cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr has joined a working group to assess the potential of creating an air cargo hub at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. The group includes Cuba’s flag carrier Cubana de Aviacion and cargo operator AeroVaradero.
Austrian Airlines is edging toward a major strategy shift following last week’s tumultuous shareholder meeting and ongoing uncertainty about attracting a major investor. CEO Alfred Oetsch for the first time admitted that “a stand-alone solution is not sustainable” for the company without Sheikh Mohammed bin Issa al-Jaber’s investing €150 million ($231 million) in return for 20% equity.
Gene Kranz, the NASA flight director who led the heroic effort to bring the crew of Apollo 13 home alive, says the loss of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 continues to afflict the U.S. space program. “The Challenger accident set us back where we no longer could support the [Defense Dept.], we no longer could deploy the satellites, we became our own customer,” he tells the Senate space subcommittee. “We started to run from the risks of our business and we started to cede the high ground.” That effect continues to be felt, to the detriment of U.S.
The International Air Transport Assn. reports the global accident rate in 2007 was 0.75 hull losses for every million flights by Western-built jet aircraft—slightly higher than the 0.65 rate recorded in 2006. This was largely the result of accidents in Africa, Indonesia and Brazil. Fatalities fell 19% to 692 from 855 even as passenger numbers increased 6% to more than 2.2 billion in 2007. There were 57 jet and 43 turboprop accidents last year, compared to a total of 77 in 2006.
Croatia Airlines has chosen Lufthansa Technik (LT) to support components used in the carrier’s fleet of Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s. The airplanes will be serviced at the airline’s base at Zagreb, but component repairs will be done at LT’s facilities in Hamburg, Germany. The carrier operates four Q400s, and plans call for adding another two this year.
The next two years will determine whether a single aircraft can replace U.S. Air Force C-130 tactical transports and airlift U.S. Army combat vehicles directly to the fight. The services are working together following the high-level decision to merge their requirements into the Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL) concept.
General Electric and Rolls-Royce have kicked off short takeoff and vertical landing (Stovl) testing of a prototype F136 engine, with the lift fan engaged, for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, at GE’s test site in Peebles, Ohio. The engine is running with lift fan and roll-posts activated, but with the three-bearing swivel duct in the axial position. Full-up Stovl mode tests with the aft duct are set to begin “in a few months,” says the team.
The FAA is evaluating a series of automated systems designed to detect and report foreign object debris on airport surfaces, leading to development and publication of performance standards for these emerging technologies as early as 2009.
The Russians are no closer to solving the continuing dangerous problems with their spacecraft (off target, double deceleration, smoke in cockpit, etc.) than they were five years ago after the first botched Soyuz landing (AW&ST Apr. 28, p. 34). The U.S. dilemma of relying on the Soyuz, coupled with the termination of space shuttle flights two years from now, leaves the world with no safe and reliable options for human spaceflight, unless the Chinese surprise us. Maybe the U.S.
A former Qantas executive could spend eight months in jail for his involvement in an airfreight pricing cartel. In a deal with the U.S. Justice Dept., Barry McCaffrey, who was vice president-freight for the Americas, will plead guilty to manipulating cargo rates from 2000-06. British Airways, Japan Airlines, Korean Air and Qantas already have been fined.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Phillip M. Balisle has been named executive vice president/head of Washington operations for DRS Technologies Inc. He was senior vice president-maritime strategic plans and programs. Durwood W. (Skip) Ringo, Jr., has become senior vice president-government relations and Heather C. Sears vice president-trade compliance, both also in the Washington office. Ringo was government programs executive for GE Aircraft Engines, while Sears was a director and counsel on U.S. compliance for U.K.-based Cogham plc.
In response to Timothy E. Rea’s letter “Boeing Blew It Again” (AW&ST Apr. 14, p. 12), the 737-300 first flew three years before the A320. This second-generation 737 had new engines but retained the old wing. The new, and long overdue, wing had to wait until the third-generation 737-700 first flew in 1997.
A round of cold soak tests on Embraer’s fourth Phenom 100 jet were concluded on Apr. 14 at a climate laboratory at Eglin AFB, Fla., and now the aircraft is off to Brazil for the next leg on the road to maturity. The round at Eglin tested the aircraft’s strength and the functioning of its components under extreme conditions. The Phenom 100 remained in a cold chamber for more than 12 hr., subjected to a temperature of -40F. Engines, systems, batteries, doors and internal temperature marks all weathered the ordeal positively.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
China’s leaders miscalculated the international reaction to the country’s antisatellite (Asat) weapon test last year, and likely regret that they let their research-and-development bureaucracy carry it out, says a top U.S. expert on the Chinese space program. “The Chinese took very careful aim and shot themselves in the foot with that test,” says Joan Johnson-Freese, chairman of the National Security Decision-Making Dept. at the U.S. Naval War College. “I think they now are now recognizing that the international condemnation due them was actually moderated.”
Cessna has flown its first production Model 162 SkyCatcher light sport aircraft, two months after flying the prototype. Next to fly will be a test article to demonstrate that the aircraft meets the American Society for Testing and Materials standards for LSAs.
Airbus is struggling to regain its competitive footing to take on Boeing, with signs of new A380 problems and the failure to negotiate a sale of key industrial facilities in France. A similar deal in Germany had already fallen through. The site sale and A380 recovery program were integral to efforts Airbus spelled out in late 2006 to overcome financial and programmatic problems that had shaken it to the core.
Gary Shell has been promoted to senior vice president-finance/chief financial officer/treasurer from vice president-finance/chief accounting officer of EMS Technologies Inc. of Atlanta. He succeeds Don T. Scartz, who is retiring.
Ray Goforth’s argument that complex aerospace products cannot be outsourced is not supported by experience (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 70). Aircraft manufacturers have outsourced the initial design and manufacture of thrust reversers, engines, flight control systems, avionics and many other complex aircraft components. The 787 sections that Boeing is outsourcing are not any more complex than those it has outsourced for other aircraft.
At a joint conference with NASA in Washington on May 15, the FAA will kick off its Continuous, Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (Cleen) program. The market research conference will solicit industry input on the multi-year, multi-million-dollar effort to develop and demonstrate certifiable aircraft and engine technologies to reduce fuel burn by 33% compared with a CFM56-powered 737; nitrogen oxide emissions by 70% from CAEP 2 standards; and noise levels by a cumulative 32 dB. below Stage 4.
Impatient with the progress of advanced rotorcraft development in the U.S., Karem Aircraft has unveiled its concept for a 120-seat tiltrotor airliner, the TR53 AeroTrain. The all-composite vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft would be based on the 71%-scale demonstrator Karem proposed under the U.S. Army-led Joint Heavy-Lift program.
Finmeccanica is in advanced discussions with DRS Technologies about purchasing the New Jersey-based defense electronics company at a substantial premium, according to merger-and-acquisition specialists. As of late last week, however, “accounting issues” were holding up further progress. If the two companies reach an agreement, the proposed transaction almost certainly will come under intense scrutiny by regulators concerned about the transfer of sensitive technologies, including new infrared detector systems for the Missile Defense Agency’s future kill vehicle.
Longtime NASA manager Edward Weiler will remain in place as NASA’s associate administrator for science, a job he has held on an interim basis since March. Administrator Michael Griffin made the appointment May 7.
Airspace users and air navigation service providers will meet with top government officials this week in an attempt to hammer out a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) road map for Europe more attuned to the needs of the aviation community.
