Almost everything seems to be going right for Spirit AeroSystems. The aerostructures designer and manufacturer recently secured two new substantial contracts and a promising agreement, after gaining a stronger global grip on its main work by acquiring the aerostructures business of BAE Systems. Spirit also made a judicious decision, according to analyst Howard A. Rubel of Jefferies & Co., when it remained unemotional in negotiations for a piece of EADS’s aerostructures business and steered clear of acquiring it.
John C. Blanton, who is chief consulting engineer for heat transfer at GE Energy in Greenville, S.C., has been named to receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Distinguished Service Award. Other recipients will be: Goddard Astronautics Award, Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; International Cooperation Award, Peter M.
The U.S. national innovation system needs a makeover. The Cold War approach to science and technology dates to the mid-1940s and involved a federal commitment to fund basic research and create a strong science and technology workforce. Significant funding for defense and the Apollo program ensured robust programs in applied research and system development. Unfortunately, several trends have undone that approach.
The British government has dropped a plan to purchase a medium-size commercial jet—dubbed Blairforce One by critics after former Prime Minister Tony Blair—as an official transport aircraft. The recommendation was originally made in 2006 as part of the Gershon review, which proposed replacing transport services now provided to the government and the royal family by RAF 32 Squadron and through charters with dedicated capability. While the intent is still to purchase a business jet platform recommended by the review, the acquisition of a larger aircraft has been shelved.
Boeing is poised to attempt a brace of world record endurance flights with its A160T Hummingbird unmanned air vehicle after installing new safeguards to prevent a flight control system failure which led to the loss of a prototype last December. The accident put a three-month hold on an already aggressive test and demonstration schedule earmarked for the A160T through the rest of 2008. Yet Boeing remains confident it can meet its schedules, as well as set records for rotary UAV payload and endurance that it claims others will find difficult to match.
Theodore L. Weise and Carol B. Hallett have been named to the board of directors of Pogo Jet Inc. , Chicopee, Mass. Weise is retired as president/CEO of Federal Express. Hallett is counselor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She is a former president/CEO of the Air Transport Assn. of America and is on the boards of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co., Rolls-Royce-North America and Wackenhut Services Inc.
The fleet of 30 Boeing 747-400s operated by Qantas Airways will be monitored by Boeing’s Airplane Health Management (AHM) software system designed to improve management of unscheduled maintenance events. In real-time conditions, AHM collects data that can be accessed by airlines in flight to determine fuel consumption as well as identify potential systems problems so carriers can schedule repairs to eliminate or minimize delays. In addition, Qantas officials say AHM will be used for its future fleet of up to 65 Boeing 787s.
GE Honda Aero Engines is preparing for key blade-off tests of its HF120 business jet engine at Honda’s Wako research center near Tokyo. The 2,095.lb.-thrust rated engine is destined for Spectrum Aeronautical’s Freedom and Honda’s HondaJet business aircraft, and will begin formal certification later this year for entry into service in 2010.
G. David Low, a three-time space shuttle astronaut and the son of former NASA Administrator George M. Low, died Mar. 15 of colon cancer. He was 52. At the time of his death, Low was senior vice president and deputy general manager of the Advanced Programs Group at Orbital Sciences Corp. Selected as an astronaut in 1984 after a stint as a spacecraft systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Low flew as a mission specialist on STS-32 in January 1990, and on STS-42 in August 1991. He was payload commander on the STS-57 Spacehab mission in June 1993.
All Nippon Airways is adding a second, specially modified 737-700ER to its new all-business-class service operating between Tokyo and Mumbai, India. The airline is altering the 737 with auxiliary fuel tanks to fly the 6,700-km. (4,163-mi.) route, along with 56 special seats that are wider than those offered on ANA’s intercontinental premium economy service. ANA says the all-business-class service with the first 737-700ER has been well received and it is now offering the flight on a daily basis. Plans call for replacing the 737s with Boeing 767-300s.
High fuel prices are forcing Europe’s leading low-fare carrier, Ryanair, to investigate a rigorous cost-cutting program. The goal is to shave around €400 million from annual expenses, in large part because most of the airline’s fuel hedges are expiring. New fuel hedges would be about $12 per barrel higher.
Philip A. Teel (see photo) has been named Northrop Grumman Corp. corporate vice president/president of the Mission Systems Sector. He has been corporate vice president/president of Ship Systems. Teel will succeed Jerry B. Agee, who is retiring in August. John Clay has become vice president/general manager of the corporation’s missiles business. Honors and Elections
Lockheed Martin is gearing up to start engine tests on the first F-35 short-takeoff-and-vertical landing version but confirms that the tentative first flight has slid from May to June in the wake of engine issues earlier this year.
German missile and defense system manufacturer Diehl BGT Defense, teamed with Saab Microwave Systems, demonstrated the new IRIS-T SLS short-range air defense system during a live firing at the South African OTB Test Range early in March, Diehl said on Mar. 26. The SLS system vertically launches IRIS-T missiles from a lightweight all-terrain truck. During the test in South Africa, the lock-on-after-launch missile received target cues from a Saab Microwave Systems Giraffe AMB air defense radar, which is designed to provide air surveillance out to more than 100 km.
All Nippon Airways will be a launch operator for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), committing itself to another pioneering role in an airliner despite its unhappy experience with Boeing 787 delays. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has taken an order from the airline for 15 of the 90-seat version of the advanced regional jet, which will boast a composite wing and Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines. All Nippon has options on 10 more.
Construction of a new Beijing airport will begin before the end of 2009, as China moves to support rampant aviation growth only weeks after opening the world’s largest terminal at the current airport. The new facility will open in 2015 and handle domestic flights, officials say, defining its role for the first time.
Arthur C. Clarke’s visionary prediction of communications satellite is well-known. But few people realize that he nailed the space shuttle as well. Upon reading of his death last week, I began paging through Clarke’s Islands in the Sky, which I virtually memorized as a starstruck 10-year-old in 1956. I came across a description of the freighter rocket that Roy Malcom, the teenage hero of the story, flew on a visit to a space station. Named Sirius, it was a vertically launched reusable delta-wing craft with huge external fuel tanks plus solid-fuel booster rockets.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has renewed an offer made by former President Jacques Chirac to make France’s nuclear strike capability available for European security. He also said the country intends to reduce its stockpile of nuclear warheads to 300 units, half the number it had during the Cold War. Independent sources put the current number at 348.
Maintenance, repair and overhaul provider Ameco Beijing has opened a massive hangar designed to perform heavy maintenance on Airbus A380 transports. Located across the runway from Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport, the building is part of the company’s plan to double hangar capacity by year-end. The structure, 1,150 ft. wide with 760,000 sq. ft. of floor area, can accommodate up to four A380s (with smaller jets squeezed in between) and will be able to accept stretched versions of the A380 in the future. The facility cost $100 million to construct.
Montana is probing for investor interest in the U.S. Air Force’s proposal to lease land at Malmstrom AFB near Great Falls for construction of a coal-to-liquid synthetic-fuel factory. A series of meetings have followed a community forum held late in January but no commitments are known to have been made. Gov. Brian Schweitzer supports the use of the state’s massive resources of coal to develop synthetic fuel through the Fischer-Tropsch process developed in Germany during the 1920s.
Finnair believes traffic growth, fuel hedging and a weak dollar will allow it to withstand the recent surge in fuel prices and deliver at least a flat operating result for the first six months of the year.
Skybus Airlines will stay the course of its budget-carrier business plan in the wake of a top executive change and tweaking of its operating plan. On Mar. 24, Mike Hodge, chief financial officer, succeeded Bill Diffenderffer as CEO only a week after the airline eliminated seven flights from its schedule (AW&ST Aug. 20/27, 2007, p. 96). Skybus, based in Columbus, Ohio, did not lose any destinations but reduced frequencies on routes from Columbus and Greensboro, N.C., chiefly because of high fuel prices. New service was added from Chicopee, Mass., and Richmond, Va.
The tennis-court-sized sunshield developed by Northrop Grumman to keep NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope cool has completed its preliminary design review (PDR). The sunshield is a five-layer structure composed of extremely thin, specially coated reflective membranes and a support structure that is critical to keeping solar heat from cooking the telescope’s infrared-science package, which includes instruments operating at cryogenic temperatures.
London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 opened on schedule, on Mar. 27, and promptly suffered the kind of technical glitches that almost inevitably come with such large infrastructure projects. British Airways, which has sole use of the terminal, was forced to cancel some operations, while later in the day flights were departing with hand luggage only, following suspension of luggage check-in. Baggage delays, the bane of many passengers at Heathrow’s other four terminals, were a problem for some arriving flights.
