Computer network security is likely to become a bigger issue when the next generation of commercial aircraft is designed, according to Joe Wlad, director of product management for LynuxWorks, a company that provides embedded operating systems for commercial and military aircraft. The challenge will be to make the computer networks “hack-proof.” The time will likely come, says Wlad, when aircraft control functions and inflight entertainment will be running on the same server on a passenger jet.
Pentagon brass may revamp the Joint Theater and Missile Defense Organization. JTAMDO is responsible for organizing the operational concepts for air and missile defenses. JTAMDO probably won’t, as some expect, be integrated into the Missile Defense Agency, which develops technologies to counter ballistic missile attacks. Instead, the organization could get a new name and charter. Rechristened the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization (JIAMDO), its role would expand beyond theater defenses to include a globally integrated solution for U.S. forces.
U.S. astronauts could be launched in 2025 on an Ares V booster for a month-long stay on an asteroid designated “99-A010.” The landing proposal will be made by planetary scientist Robert Farquhar in a paper to be published in the journal of The Planetary Society. The five-month flight time would include 30 days on the surface in a Bigelow commercial pressurized module that would be used, along with the Crew Exploration Vehicle-type command ship, to house the crew for asteroid surface-science operations.
The sale of 13 million units of Jazz Air Income Fund by ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. is expected to close Jan. 24, netting the Air Canada parent C$96.85 million ($93.9 million). The sale to West Face Capital Inc. and Sunrise Partners will reduce ACE’s holdings in its Jazz feeder to 9.5%.
Jeffrey Davis has been named director of development for aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University , Daytona Beach, Fla. He was development director for the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.
Lennart Sindahl has become head of the aeronautics business segment of Saab . He will succeed Ian McNamee, who will be leaving in the spring. Sindahl has been unit manager of Saab Aerosystems. Gunilla Fransson has been named managing director of Saab Communication, effective Feb. 1. She was a product and development manager at Ericsson Enterprise. Fransson will succceed Thomas Eriksson, who will become head of logistics development for Saab Aerotech.
MBDA has taken over the BAE Systems warhead design engineering capacity, which will be housed at the company’s Lostock site in Lancashire, England. Shifting the warhead business to MBDA is part of a U.K. effort to build a sound industrial footing for its future weapons programs.
China will tighten last year’s restrictions on airline growth, refusing to accept applications for new carriers until 2010 and limiting aircraft purchases. No more than three new airlines will be approved each year from the backlog of applications received before the original limits were announced in August.
In a duopoly, how hard is it to learn lessons from a rival’s mistakes? Nearly impossible, judging from Boeing’s explanation of why it has had so much trouble coming to grips with the apparent depth of the 787’s development problems (see p. 35).
Amidst the gloom about 787 production, there’s some good news for Vought Aircraft Industries, Alenia Aeronautica and their partnership in Charleston, S.C. The Design-Build Institute of America has selected the Vought/Global Aeronautica manufacturing complex for its 2007 Design-Build Award of Excellence. Vought builds 787 aft fuselage sections in a 342,000-sq.-ft. plant, and Global Aeronautica integrates them and other fuselage assemblies next door in a 334,000-sq.-ft. facility.
The economic equivalent of a tsunami, fueled by the politics and growing public concerns surrounding global warming, is gaining force and will slam into civil aviation within the next few years, certainly no later than 2011. That’s when the European Union (EU) will require airlines to get on board with its emissions trading scheme (ETS) for intra-EU flights; the requirement for all flights operating in EU air space is expected to kick in a year later.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, with assistance from its U.S. counterpart, continues to investigate what caused an Air Canada Airbus A319 to encounter in-flight control problems. Flight 190 was at 35,000 ft. en route to Toronto from Victoria, British Columbia, on Jan. 10 when the upset occurred, injuring 10 of the 88 people on board. Theories on the cause include encountering an atmospheric bore, which is comparable to a tidal wave, or the wake vortices of another airliner.
Carl A. Marchetto has been appointed president of Minneapolis-based ATK Space Systems , which will be formed from ATK Mission Systems and the Information Systems and Geospatial businesses of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, which have been acquired. Marchetto has been executive vice president of the Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Space Systems Group.
The U.K.’s Joint Test and Evaluation Group and Qinetiq, which together comprise Aircraft Test and Evaluation Center (ATEC), have completed a 12-month £5.25-million ($10.3-million) project to boost the capability of Royal Navy Sea King HC MK 4 helicopters. Carson composite blades have replaced the main rotor blades and an AgustaWestland five-blade tail rotor system replaced the original tail rotor system. Performance evaluation and flight testing confirmed predictions that the system generates up to a 2,000-lb.
USN Capt. (ret.) Fred Cleveland has been named vice president-base maintenance for American Airlines , effective Jan. 28. He was commanding officer of Naval Aviation Enterprise Fleet Readiness Center in San Diego. Kurt Stache has been named vice president/general sales manager. He was president of the airline’s AAdvantage marketing programs.
The U.S. Army has received five BAE Systems-built, target-detection systems for use on Shadow unmanned aircraft. The Aurora Generation-5 hyperspectral remote sensing system weighs as little as 35 lb. and allows wide-area surveillance with high-resolution electro-optics and an airborne processing system to automatically detect and identify threats.
Two F/A-18s, a single-seat E model from VFA-105 and a two-seat F from VFA-11, collided over the Persian Gulf and crashed Jan. 7 while returning from a close-air-support mission in Iraq. The three crewmen, from NAS Oceana and currently stationed on the USS Truman, were recovered safely by helicopters. The crash came a day after a 20-min. confrontation between five small Iranian attack boats and three U.S. warships.
Controllers at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) have lost touch with the Arirang 1 (Kompsat-1) Earth-observation spacecraft, apparently as a result of failure of the satellite to maintain a lock on the Sun for power generation. “Our efforts to restore communication with the Arirang 1 satellite have been unsuccessful,” says a KARI official, according to press reports from Seoul. Launched in 1999, the spacecraft carries a 6.6-meter (22-ft.) resolution camera. Arirang 2 (Kompsat-2), launched in 2006, continues to function with its 1-meter-resolution camera.
Korea Aerospace Industries has delivered to Boeing the first forward fuselage of the F-15SG for the Singapore air force. Delivery of the first F-15SG wing set was scheduled for Jan 10.
Robert Wall (Donauwoerth, Germany), Michael A. Taverna (Donauwoerth, Germany)
EADS is renewing its effort to become less-Airbus dependent, with a goal of deriving 50% of revenue from non-Airbus activities and boosting the services business to 25% from 10% by 2020. The financial targets are part of a new company strategy, Vision 2020, put forward by EADS CEO Louis Gallois. It also calls for reaching a mid-term target of 10% earnings margin before 2015 and a longer-term goal of sourcing 40% of supplies from outside Europe. “The core of Vision 2020 is a better-balanced EADS,” Gallois asserts.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco), Robert Wall (Paris)
Aircraft order intake in 2008 is expected to taper off after Boeing, Airbus and engine makers enjoyed record-setting years. But just how much is an open question. A third year of record orders swelled Boeing’s intake past the 1,400 mark in 2007, including engine makers General Electric Aviation, CFM International and International Aero Engines in the bonanza. Airbus was a similar powerhouse and was neck-and-neck with Boeing, although the European aircraft maker’s final figures won’t appear until this week.
Northrop Grumman says it will lead a team to again compete for the U.S. Army’s Aerial Common Sensor reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence-gathering aircraft. The team includes AAI Corp. (which builds UAVs), General Dynamics C4 Systems and L-3 Communications.
Jan. 22—Midlands Aerospace Alliance’s Reach Information Event: “Complying With Chemical Regulations.” Rolls-Royce Learning & Career Development Center, Derby, England. Also, Jan. 30—“Diversifying Into Defense Markets.” Oaktree Conference Center, Coventry, England. Call +44 (845) 225-0503, fax +44 (845) 225-0504 or see www.midlandaerospace.org.uk Jan. 23—Precision Strike Winter Roundtable and William J. Perry Award Luncheon. Crystal City Marriott, Arlington, Va. Call +1 (703) 247-2590, fax +1 (703) 522-1885 or see www.precisionstrike.org
The State of Florida has given AirTran Airways $3 million in cash, along with additional incentives, to keep the airline’s headquarters in Orlando (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 16). The carrier met with state and local government officials, says AirTran official David Hirschman, “And they asked us not to shop the deal around, and to wait to hear their proposal before starting a bidding war and making a final decision.” Gov.
