Aviation Week & Space Technology

Iridium officials say a recent International Civil Aviation Organization stamp of approval for use of the company’s satellite communications system in flight safety situations could spur more airlines to install Iridium avionics. This type of equipment is used heavily by business jets, but is not widely employed in the airline market.

The opening paragraphs of “Moon Stuck” by Craig Covault (AW&ST Jan. 21, p. 24) create the misperception that the workshop we are organizing at Stanford University has already decided upon a new path for the human and robotic exploration of space. We wish to make it clear that the purpose of the workshop is to examine the Vision for Space Exploration critically in order to prepare for space policy considerations in a new administration and Congress.

The illegal use of middlemen, impending 2009 elections and regional geopolitical issues are all likely to slow India’s weapons acquisition process just as the world’s industry is gaining unprecedented access to what is expected to be a $40-billion market.

Dan White has become president of Com Dev USA , El Segundo, Calif. He was vice president-engineering of Datapath and had been director of satellite payload engineering for Lockheed Martin.

The outlook for the expendable launch vehicle (ELV) market is strong. Governments continue to be the prevailing customers, accounting for 66% of the total global launches in 2006, and this trend will continue in the decades to come.

Cessna Aircraft Co. has chosen three U.S.-based facilities to assemble and deliver its SkyCatcher light sport aircraft: Eagle Aviation near West Columbia, S.C.; longtime Cessna dealer Yingling Aviation in Wichita, Kan.; and Southwest Platinum Aviation in North Las Vegas, Nev. China’s Shenyang Aircraft Corp. will produce the two-seat, single-engine Model 162 as well as test flying, disassembling and shipping airplanes to the three authorized assembly sites. Cessna officials expect first flight of the SkyCatcher in the next few months.

The market for military fixed-wing trainers is becoming increasingly competitive, as a number of manufacturers introduce all-new designs, while others unveil improved variants of existing models.

DAE Capital, the aircraft leasing arm of Dubai Aircraft Enterprise, is making quite a splash. Nine months after American Bob Genise was tapped to start the business, it has accumulated assets worth $1.5 billion by acquiring more than two dozen airplanes from GE Commercial Aviation Services (Gecas) and Emirates. And that’s just the start: DAE has ordered new jets for $29 billion—100 from Airbus, 100 from Boeing (AW&ST Nov. 19, 2007, p. 33).

EADS’s Socata general aviation unit has received orders for 60 TBM 850 turboprop business aircraft this year—a record number for the TBM series, according to company officials. The orders drove sales of the single-engine airplane to more than 150 since it was introduced in December 2005. A majority of sales are from the U.S. market, with 20% from Europe and 10% spread across other markets including Brazil and Australia. Socata delivered 42 TBM 850s in 2006 and was scheduled to deliver 51 in 2007.

American Airlines has completed the first installation of an Aircell Internet broadband system on a Boeing 767-200. The carrier expects to complete installation on 15 767s this year that primarily serve transcontinental routes. American expects service to begin in the second half of 2008. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines has begun testing a WiFi system in its 737 fleet.

Aviation turbine engine production, which is being driven by the continuing strength of the global aviation market, will exceed 11,000 units in 2009 and remain on that path until 2013, after which a slow decline is expected.

Brazil’s accident investigation bureau has adopted an updated flight data and cockpit voice recorder analysis system. Investigators, using Flightscape’s Insight program, will now be able to analyze information from any recorder or aircraft type. The country’s civil aviation department has developed animations of the midair collision of an Embraer Legacy 600 and a Gol Airways 737-800 over the Amazon jungle in September 2006, and the runway overrun accident involving TAM Airlines Flight 3054 at Sao Paulo.

Everyone has experienced the frustration of a computer failure—booting, rebooting, calling tech support, re-rebooting and cursing the modern blessing of information technology. But imagine your computer crashing while piloting NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle on a mission to the Moon.

The Russian air force last week took its first delivery of the serial production standard of the Mil Mi-28N Havoc attack helicopter from manufacturer Rostvertol. Two of the type were handed over, and a further 13 are planned for delivery this year. The aim is to replace all of the air force’s Mi-24 Hinds with Havocs by 2015. Venezuela is reported to have asked recently if it might acquire the Mi-28N.

Reducing environmental impact and struggling with growth scenarios will be the chief agenda items for world airports this year. To cope with these possibly contradictory tasks, Airports Council International (ACI) estimates capital expenditures at world facilities will increase 5-10% over last year, reaching an all-time high of more than $40 billion.

All the Navy’s new F/A-18E and F Super Hornets and the EA-18G Growlers are coming off the assembly line with advanced radars that triple detection range, offer electronic-attack options and transmit huge imagery files. But 135 of the aircraft were built before the new active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar was ready. That problem is being addressed with an initial $33-million contract to Raytheon to provide the Navy with the first 19 APG-79 AESA radars to retrofit into older Super Hornets built with mechanically scanning radars.

The Alliant Integrated Flight Deck developed by Avidyne Corp. and S‑TEC Corp. has been issued an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate for retrofit into the Cessna Conquest II turboprop business aircraft. The system features Avidyne’s Envision avionics and S-TEC’s Intelliflight 2100 digital flight control system. The Alliant package also has been installed in the Hawker Beechcraft King Air 90 and 200 series airplanes.

Unmanned target drones were used to fool Iraq’s air defenses in 1991 and 2003 and Serb defenses in 1999. But so far, target drones used in combat have flown unarmed. That has changed with the test last week of a QF-4—an unmanned F-4 fighter—firing a new, Navy-developed, high-speed, anti-radiation missile that was designed to attack enemy radars and other air defense emitters and communications. Air Force officials with the 82nd Aerial Targets Sqdn. say the capability will increase the survivability of aircrews attacking surface-to-air missiles.

Lockheed Martin is installing the massive solar arrays on the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite at its Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. Once they are attached, the fully configured satellite will enter acoustic testing at the end of January. AEHF is the Pentagon’s next-generation protected-communications satellite, scheduled to launch this fall. It will provide high bandwidth and crosslinking in space. The AEHF constellation eventually will replace the Milstar series now in orbit.

Dennis Cassette has been named executive adviser for the U.S. Aircraft Corp. , Akron, Ohio. He is retired director of engineering for the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Plans to offer the next president an alternative to a lunar base draw a failing grade from Michael Griffin, the engineering professor-turned NASA administrator who’s executing President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration. That human spaceflight plan, approved by Congress in 2005, remains “the finest policy framework for U.S. civil space activities that I have seen in 40 years,” Griffin states. By contrast, he says, skipping the Moon and going on to an asteroid—a notion to be raised at a Stanford University conference next month (AW&ST Jan. 21, p.

The European Defense Agency is trying to rally support from member states to generate the backing and financial wherewithal needed to turn the projected Franco-German cooperation for a heavy-lift rotorcraft into a concrete program.

Bruce Harris has become CEO of the JM Group Inc. , Vista, Calif. He succeeds co-founder Mike Vos, who will be retiring. Harris was vice president-business development. Terry Udelhofen has been appointed chief financial officer of the JM Group and its subsidiaries, Mary Pulcini vice president-operations and quality assurance of the Airline Support Div. and Amber Sanders director of sales support and analysis at the Airline Support Div. and Pacific Aerospace.

ANA will scrap seven unprofitable domestic routes in its coming fiscal year, which begins in April, and reduce frequencies on five other routes.

South Africa will begin air-launched firing trials of its A-Darter imaging infrared-guided dogfight missile early in 2009, with the program emerging as a template for further collaborative weapons development. Securing the success of the Denel Dynamics missile is fundamental to the future of the country’s guided-weapons sector. Air-launched tests of the A-Darter, now a jointly funded program between South Africa and Brazil, will be carried out using a Cheetah C aircraft early next year, says a Denel Dynamics executive.