Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Rolls-Royce Deutschland and the University of Illinois Aerospace Engineering Dept. have agreed to cooperate on research related to the potential development of a supersonic business jet. The university will be chiefly involved in work aimed at mitigating sonic boom and will focus on the airplane’s engine intake and exhaust systems, in particular the bypass airflow that travels around the outside of the engine core.
Chinese aircraft conglomerate Avic 2 delivered 132 aircraft in 2007, 30 more than the year before. Its “industrial revenue” for the year rose 30.1% to 10.32 billion yuan ($1.42 billion).
Boeing is gearing up to attempt the first flight of the X-48B blended wing body (BWB) scaled demonstrator without fixed leading-edge slats after resuming flights following a four-month hiatus.
Modifications to correct a potentially deadly vibration from the solid-fuel first-stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle could range from tweaking the geometry of the propellant inside the rocket motor to unlocking seat shock absorbers in the Orion capsule so they protect astronauts on launch as well as landing.
Raytheon is getting in on the oil boom. The defense electronics company has sold a radio frequency (RF) technology to multinational oil services giant Schlumberger Ltd., which hopes to use it to extract hard-to-reach oil deposits. The technology, developed jointly by Raytheon and CF Technologies, uses RF waves to heat shale to cause it to release deposits of thick oil. Critical fluids are then employed to act as a solvent to help transport the oil to the surface.
V Australia, the new long-haul carrier launched by Virgin Blue, will equip all 13 of its Boeing 777-300ERs (seven under firm order and six under option) with Rockwell Collins avionics. In addition to navigation and communications systems, the order covers transponders, traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems and Rockwell Collins multi-scan weather radar. Deliveries begin in September.
Changes are coming to airport security checkpoints around the world in 2008. In the U.S., because of evolving terrorist threats, congressional frustration with airport screeners’ performance and improvements in technology, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to acquire and deploy equipment that can screen bottles for explosives and provide more revealing images of what airline passengers are carrying on their persons and in their bags.
Gulf Air of Bahrain has completed negotiations for 16 Boeing 787s with options for another eight. At list prices, the combined order would be worth $3.9 billion. In the interim, the airline is seeking to lease 787s to replace its Boeing 767s until deliveries begin. The airline’s chief executive, Bjorn Naf, says the 787 will be the cornerstone of the carrier’s fleet and should help “reestablish Gulf Air’s predominance” within the region. The airline also is discussing a potential purchase of A320s with Airbus.
What a difference a year makes. Early in 2007, when Aviation Week & Space Technology published its annual Source Book industry analyses and specification tables, the world economic outlook envisioned stability and growth, excellent conditions for the continued prosperity of the global aerospace industry. Recession was no more than a highly unlikely worst-case scenario that never happened.
John S. Edwards/Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com
The development of reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) by a select few aerospace companies continues, mostly due to the promise of lower launch costs versus those associated with expendable vehicles. Theoretically, not throwing away hardware saves the cost of reproducing expensive components. However, it’s doubtful RLVs ever will prove cheaper than their expendable cousins.
As part of its strategic planning, the Pentagon is beginning to consider how —if at all—environmental trends could manifest security problems in the U.S. or abroad. During a speech last week in Washington, Ryan Henry, principal deputy Defense undersecretary for policy, gave the example of rising ocean levels creating a crisis in Asia due to a shrinking coastline in Bangladesh alone. Pentagon officials will begin to “war-game” various scenarios and responses.
The Pentagon does not expect to add to U.S. bases in Africa when it establishes its new command for the continent. Rather, Africom, as it will be called, will consist of five distributed regional teams and up to 30 defense cooperative offices operating out of embassies. The bulk of staff support will reside in Europe or the U.S. The command is not being designed for combat, says Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for policy. It is designed to be integrated with the State Dept.
China Airlines has committed to buying 14 A350-900s and also taken options for six more aircraft. Additionally, TAM says it will take 22 of the new Airbus twin-widebodies, as well as four A330-200s and 20 A320 family narrowbodies.
Edward T. Alexander (see photo) has been appointed corporate lead executive for Northrop Grumman Corp. business with the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles.
Boeing Satellite Systems has landed a contract to supply a 601HP bus for ProtoStar, a Bermuda-based startup that is forming a constellation to supply direct TV and broadband access throughout Asia. ProtoStar-2, slated for launch in 2009, will provide Ku-band beams over southeast and southern Asia, plus an S-band beam over Indonesia. The spacecraft will join a first satellite under construction at Space Systems/Loral.
John S. Edwards/Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com
The global satellite communications industry is strengthening, with fixed-satellite services showing continued growth in North America and Europe and signs of a rebound in Asia and South America.
The European Space Agency has inaugurated operations with a new tracking station on Santa Maria Island in the Azores that will further expand Europe’s Estrack network. The station’s 5.5-meter (18-ft.) antenna will provide a large footprint over the Atlantic Ocean, improving ESA’s ability to track launches from its Kourou, French Guiana, space center of new types of hardware—the Automated Transfer Vehicle, Soyuz and Vega—as well as the existing Ariane 5 booster and the agency’s expanding Earth observation satellite system.
Europe and Japan are preparing a joint mission to Mercury that will build on data from NASA’s Messenger probe and greatly expand scientists’ scant knowledge of this strange planet.
Robert V. Dahl/Project Director, Air Cargo Management Group
The global fleet of freighter aircraft continues to expand, based on expectations of increasing demand for airfreight services due to globalization and the accompanying expansion of world trade. There is a well-documented link between economic growth and the demand for airfreight services. During the past three decades, airfreight traffic grew at a rate about twice as fast as the growth of the world’s aggregate gross domestic product (GDP). Thus, predictions of 3% annual growth in global GDP translate into 6% growth in annual demand for airfreight.
The Italian air force is making a bid to perform expanded Eurofighter trials and is refining its own combat tactics following intensive flight evaluations using the Typhoon in mock air-to-air combat.
Runway status lights constitute a “viable technology” that would provide timely collision warnings directly to flight crews, but key technical issues must be resolved. The U.S. Transportation Dept.’s Inspector General Office presents this and other findings in a report on its review of the FAA’s technology implementation plan.
Gil Schnabel (see photo) has been promoted to manager of FlightSafety International ’s Detroit Metro/Toledo Learning Center from assistant manager of the Dallas/Fort Worth Learning Center. He succeeds Blaine Little, who has become FSI’s manager of airline marketing. Brenda Seaman (see photo) has been named assistant director of market research. She was assistant manager of the Atlanta Learning Center and has been succeeded by Christopher Frye (see photo).
OBITUARY: Valery Menitsky, a former chief test pilot at Russia’s Mikoyan Design Bureau, died Jan. 15 from cancer. He was 63. Following graduation from the Soviet air force’s Tambov Higher Military Aviation School in 1965, Menitsky completed the defense industry’s test pilot school and graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute. He joined Mikoyan’s flight test group in 1969 where he flew the MiG-21 Fishbed, MiG-23/27 Flogger, MiG-25 Foxbat, MiG-29 Fulcrum and MiG-31 Foxhound.
Boeing revealed that eight orders for 787-8s on its unidentified customer list belong to Spanish carrier Air Europa, which also acquired purchase rights for eight more. They are to be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.
