Lufthansa Technik will open a training center at Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic on Mar. 27, as part of a broader effort to keep pace with the industry’s appetite for more workers. Executive Board Chairman August Wilhelm Henningsen says Lufthansa Technik trains 200-250 mechanics a year in Germany. The center it established at Tianjin, China, to train technicians for the Airbus A320 assembly line is likely to operate beyond its planned closing this year.
British Airways faces industrial action from its cockpit crew following a ballot for strike action. The problem is how BA is proposing to recruit crew for its Open Skies subsidiary. The British Airline Pilots Assn. says the 90% of the 3,000 BA pilots it represents took part, with 86% voting for strike action.
Teams in the U.S. and Italy will pursue an aggressive flight-test schedule this year aimed at expanding investigation of the BA609’s flight envelope as certification of the commercial tiltrotor moves toward completion by 2010.
Chengdu Aircraft may institute limited measures to reduce radar reflections from its FC-1 export fighter as the Chinese air force considers introducing the type into home service. The initial version will finish development late this year or early next year, according to Catic, China’s state company responsible for international sales of the aircraft, which Pakistan has helped to develop and will co-produce.
Robert Wall (Singapore), Michael Mecham (Singapore)
CFM International is stepping up its research efforts for a next-generation engine, with the addition of an open-rotor rig trial to complement ongoing work on future fan, turbine and compressor technologies. The activities are being carried out under the Leap56 (Leading-Edge Aviation Propulsion) program, which was launched more than two years ago. As airlines have upped their demands for greater fuel-burn improvements, CFMI— the General Electric/Snecma joint venture—has added open-rotor research and counterrotating fan technologies.
Don’t look for Orbital Sciences Corp. to spend a lot of the seed money it gets from NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to develop a way to retrieve cargo from the International Space Station. NASA is going to kick in about $170 million to help Orbital develop a new launcher and space tug (see p. 22). But the company doesn’t see much commercial potential in what is known as down mass from orbit.
Raytheon says it has won more than $100 million worth of contracts since January from Asia-Pacific countries for its Paveway family of precision-guided munitions. The company —which competes with Lockheed Martin for international Paveway business and even trademark issues—further proclaimed a record-setting $300 million worth of Paveway bookings for last year. Separately, Britain last week carried out further fuze trials for the Paveway IV. Introduction into service has been delayed in part by problems related to the fuze.
I continue to be amazed at the number of articles in Aviation Week & Space Technology by people who parrot the global warming party line on carbon, carbon caps, carbon trading, etc. That many of these folks are also decision makers is alarming, because foolish and expensive decisions are being predicated on tainted theories.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Lance Lord, R. Scott Nieboer, John A. Oliva and William F. Readdy have been named to the board of directors of Spacehab Inc. of Houston. Lord was commander of Air Force Space Command at Peterson AFB, Colo., while Nieboer is chief manager of Curtiswood Capital. Oliva is managing principal of Capital City Advisors Inc., and Readdy is a former astronaut and associate NASA administrator for space operations.
GE Aviation says it will begin to expand its GE Aviation Service Operation in Singapore by 20% in April, positioning the facility to double revenues over the next five years. It did $250 million in business last year.
Michael M. Hoeffler has been named vice president of the Raytheon Co. Evaluation Team. He succeeds Charles Franklin, who is retiring from the Waltham, Mass.-based company. Hoeffler was vice president-future naval capability for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
A new wave of Asian and European hybrid spectrum geostationary mobile service satellites are emerging just as the first North American GEO spacecraft are poised for launch, suggesting that heady days await the MSS segment.
Record high oil prices, the lingering effects of the U.S. housing crisis and the tightening of credit are combining to put a damper on consumer demand for air travel.Although economists still are hesitating to use the “R” word, most agree that the U.S. economy is either in or shortly will tip into a recession. Analysts and industry groups are continuing to reduce their full-year financial forecasts, and airline executives are prepared to enact further capacity cuts should passenger bookings decrease.
Orbital Sciences Corp. will build a new liquid-fueled medium-lift launch vehicle as part of its winning proposal in NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) recompetition, adding at least $150 million of its own money to $170 million in federal seed money NASA brings to the effort.
Every picture tells a story, and this view of the International Space Station from the space shuttle Atlantis at the end of the STS-122/1E mission speaks volumes. Europe’s new Columbus laboratory is jutting off the starboard side of the Harmony node. Also prominently displayed is the disabled starboard solar array wing that must be repaired before the station can accommodate the six-person crew needed to operate all of the science equipment that arrived on Columbus or is due at ISS this spring.
Passengers are required to provide biometric data to gain access to the international lounge at London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 1. A fingerprint and a photo are taken before passengers proceed through security. At the gate, the data are reconciled to confirm a passenger’s identity and ensure that U.K. border control regulations are met. Personal data are destroyed within 24 hr. of use.
A pair of big spacecraft projects may finally turn satellite broadband from a dream into a “killer application”—and in the process forge a fresh reshaping of the satcom landscape.
Dassault Falcon has opened a spares distribution center in Shanghai and signed an agreement for another center in Mumbai. The facilities are to be in place by the end of March and May, respectively.
Boeing has reacted strongly to reports that it is studying the possible cancellation of the shorter haul 787-3 variant as part of efforts to get the delayed 787-8 model back on track. “We have orders and are committed to the -3,” says the company, which so far has only taken orders for 43 787-3s (30 from All Nippon Airways and 13 from Japan Airlines) out of a total 787 orderbook of 857. Boeing does, however, acknowledge that engineering resources are being diverted from other development efforts, including the stretched 787-9, to help resolve the problems on the 787-8.
Embraer plans to wait until the second half of the next decade to introduce a next-generation jet, despite proposals by two competitors to technologically leapfrog the Brazilian aircraft builder within five years.
Airbus is in advanced talks with at least three new A380 customers—Asiana, Air India and All Nippon Airways—and is looking to broaden the appeal of its A350 twin-widebody with the likely introduction of a high-capacity configuration. The negotiations with Air India have been underway for some time, but Airbus chief operating officer for customers, John Leahy, says the deal could be completed this year.
Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Lippel (see photos) has been appointed vice president/chief financial officer at Israel Aerospace Industries Elta Systems. He was financial adviser to the IDF’s chief of staff/head of the Budget Section at the Ministry of Defense. Tal Sagee has been named Elta’s vice president/general counsel at Elta Systems. Israel air force Col. (ret.) Moshe Medina has become general manager of the Aircraft Div. of IAI’s Bedek Aviation Group. He was head of the Israeli delegation in Washington for the Joint Strike Fighter.
Wichita State University (WSU) ranks third among all universities in the U.S. in aerospace engineering research and development, behind Georgia Institute of Technology and the Johns Hopkins University, according to the National Science Foundation. WSU’s new ranking is chiefly due to activities at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) located on campus. In 2007, the university spent $19 million on research and development and had an operating budget of $35 million.
Serious development efforts on the Kongsberg/Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Missile for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are expected to begin this year, although a production decision on the stealthy cruise missile is still pending. Kongsberg has been working on concept refinement of JSM under the aegis of the defense ministries of Norway and Australia. The focus has been on adapting the ship-launched Naval Strike Missile in production for the Norwegian navy for internal carriage on the fighter.
The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. thinks it has found a better way to screen passenger baggage for liquid explosives—magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is now in test at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. The ultralow-level MRI can differentiate among “probably 200 different” liquids and gels, classifying them as hazardous, nonhazardous or uncharacterized, says Rear Adm. (ret.) Jay Cohen, Homeland Security undersecretary for science and technology. Uncharacterized liquids would be subject to secondary screening, he says.
