U.S. major airlines are launching yet another round of cuts to their fleets and domestic networks, as the industry hunkers down into survival mode in the face of spiraling oil prices and an economic recession.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is preparing for tests of the newly assembled flight clearance engine SJX61-2 that is destined to power Boeing’s X-51A hypersonic WaveRider demonstrator in 2009. The SJX61-2, also known as the X-2, is a hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine designed to power the X-51A to speeds between Mach 4.5 and Mach 6 plus. Four test firings will be attempted in 2009, with each vehicle being dropped from a B-52 mothership before being boosted by a rocket to scramjet operating conditions.
I guess the USAF reviewers of the Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS proposals are yielding to the so-called European fairness. While I have seen the justifications for why the Airbus tanker will provide more value, I am of the old school that believes “more is better.” The Airbus A330 derivative may carry a bigger load, but there is a penalty for the extra weight and limited landing places when the plane is “overkill” for many of the missions. If bigger is better, then why not a C-17 tanker or a 747 tanker?
Further flights trials of the Raytheon Paveway IV dual-mode precision-guided bomb are to be carried out in June, and are intended to clear the way for the weapon to be introduced into service with the British Royal Air Force in the second half of 2008. Initial problems with accuracy, and more demanding issues with the fuze, have slowed development of the weapon. Sled tests at the end of February to examine “fuze survivability and post-impact functionality” were satisfactory, according to Raytheon.
“Broadband Beaming” (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 55) is one of many recent articles about promising new “killer applications” from the next generation of spacecraft operating at Ka-band frequencies. None of these articles discusses the new problems we will encounter when operating above the atmospheric water vapor absorption peak in K band around 25 GHz.
Australia has formally wound up its SH-2G(A) Super Seasprite naval helicopter program in an agreement under which prime contractor Kaman will take back the aircraft, training equipment and spares for resale. Australia will get half of the proceeds, or a minimum of A$39.5 million ($35.5 million). The government also will retain A$30 million of spares that can be used for its Sikorsky H-60s.
A British Royal Navy Merlin HM1 maritime helicopter has completed a circumnavigation of the globe while embarked on HMS Monmouth, a Type 23 frigate. The deployment, which lasted for most of 2007, included 30 ports of call and participation in numerous maritime and security exercises with a variety of host nations. Lt. Cdr. Ian Varley, the 829 Naval Air Sqdn. flight commander on the voyage, says the Merlin needed “very little additional support” for the deployment.
By Mar. 28, FAA principal maintenance inspectors expect to complete their initial review of airline airworthiness directive-compliance programs. The evaluation, ordered Mar. 18 by acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell, aims at confirming that carriers operating within the U.S. are in full compliance with ADs. The move was prompted by “one recent failure to comply with one such directive,” says Sturgell. The inspectors’ initial findings are to come days before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Apr. 3 hearing on FAA lapses in safety oversight.
A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket lifts off from Sea Launch’s oceangoing Odyssey launch platform carrying DirecTV 11, a Boeing-built direct-to-home broadcast satellite. Liftoff from the equatorial launch position at 154 deg. W. Long. came at 6:48 p.m. EDT Mar. 19, and the mission proceeded nominally. The launch vehicle’s Block DM-SL upper stage placed the satellite in the proper geosynchronous transfer orbit, which will be raised to a final geosynchronous orbital slot at 99.2 deg. W. Long.
Lockheed Martin has received approval for full-rate production of the Safety Enhanced Re-entry Vehicle (SERV) for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The company will deliver 120 production kits as part of a $23.9-million contract by 2010; more than 100 have been delivered.
As an American, I want to see Boeing dominate the international marketplace. I want to see it maintain the hegemony it deserves almost by divine right.
Serial production of the MiG-35 and key technologies for manufacturing its electronically scanned array radar would be transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., if the Russian jet wins India’s Multi-Role Combat Aircraft competition. The Russians would like to build on the $964-million contract recently won by RAC MiG to upgrade about 70 MiG-29s flown by the Indian air force. Improvements include new Zhuk-M radars, glass cockpits, Klimov RD-33-3 engines and an air refueling system (AW&ST Mar. 17, p. 26).
Latecoere CFO Jean-Jacques Pigneres says the company has an “agreement in principle” for a French reimbursable loan to cover research and development costs for the Airbus A350XWB widebody twinjet. However, EADS CEO Louis Gallois says that, pending the resolution of political decisions on aircraft subsidies, A350 development continues to be funded entirely from cash flow.
Mark Bianchi has been named executive vice president-aircraft maintenance for NetJets Aviation , Columbus, Ohio. He was senior vice president. Eric Lampert has been promoted to vice president/director of operations from assistant director of the Flight Operations Dept.
Lufthansa Cargo plans to move its Asian hub from Astana, Kazakhstan, to Krasnoyarsk, Russia, after German and Russian negotiators settled their long-standing dispute on Siberian overflight charges. CEO Carsten Spohr expects the cargo carrier to operate into Krasnoyarsk starting in the summer of 2009. The airport needs to be upgraded to Category-2 capability and equipped with a heated maintenance hangar, among other improvements, before Lufthansa Cargo will make the move. The airline plans to operate its first test flights into Krasnoyarsk this coming June.
The Homeland Security Dept. has begun testing a marinized variant of the Predator UAV over the Gulf of Mexico. Two Homeland Security agencies, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Coast Guard began flight tests last week out of Tyndall AFB, Fla. The joint concept demonstration is flying an Air Force UAV equipped with a sensor package, including maritime radar, designed to resist corrosion in the ocean environment. The UAV will be controlled by Air Force pilots until it reaches altitude, about 19,000 ft. Then CBP Air personnel will take over for 8-10-hr.
The EADS/Northrop Grumman tanker bid was solicited by USAF after some of its officials and a few Boeing executives conspired in the previous attempt to contract for tankers. Competition was required and Northrop Grumman/EADS provided this. USAF was forbidden to consider “Buy American.” Congress and USAF accommodated the consolidation of aerospace, exempting merged companies from anti-trust laws, to cause the situation we now have of one large aircraft manufacturer in the U.S. Congress then required competition.
Spacecom says its Amos-3 spacecraft has arrived at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, for a launch next month. The mission will be the first for Land Launch, a Zenit-3SLB based derivative of Sea Launch developed for small telecom payloads.
Terry Vais has been appointed vice president-customer care, Lisa Walker vice president-operational support and Kevin Wade vice president-administration and resources for SkyWest Inc. subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines . Wade succeeds Sam Watts, who will be retiring. Vais was SkyWest Airlines’ hub director at Los Angeles International Airport.
Japan’s high-speed Internet satellite Kizuna, also known as Winds, has reached its geostationary orbit at 143 deg. E. Long., where controllers are continuing the checkout of all instruments in time for normal operations scheduled to begin late in June. JAXA says an electrical problem in the main Sun sensor was fixed on Mar. 8 by switching off a part of the backup attitude control system.
Iridium is lining up suppliers and funding for its second-generation system in a race to remain competitive with Inmarsat and a bevy of newcomers in the broadband era.
Finavia, the Finnish Air Traffic Service provider, has ordered a Thales MAGS1 transponder multilateration air/ground surveillance system for installation at Helsinki’s Vantaa Airport this year. The system will track all transponder equipped aircraft operating in Helsinki-Vantaa’s movement and apron areas.
Researchers at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center have completed a high-altitude afterburner test program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s F136 alternative engine. The GE/Rolls-Royce fighter engine team’s test also included common exhaust hardware. The engine configuration included a production-size fan and functional augmentor that allowed several run periods to full afterburner, say company officials. A second F136 engine is being tested at a GE facility to exercise both conventional and short takeoff/vertical landing controls technology.
Five U.S. companies will spend 210 days evaluating NASA’s concept for the planned Altair lunar lander under small contracts awarded last week. The lander-concept work puts the winners in the early running to build the vehicle, even though at this stage the work will fetch no more than $350,000 for each company. Selected to generate recommendations for increasing the NASA design’s technical maturity are Andrews Space, Seattle; Boeing’s Houston operation; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; Northrop Grumman, El Segundo, Calif.; and Odyssey Space Research, Houston.
Boeing will introduce weight-saving carbon brakes on the 737 later this year as part of an ongoing effort to enhance the twinjet ahead of a projected successor not expected to enter service before 2015.
