Threats from rivals Boeing and Airbus about protesting the forthcoming Pentagon selection of a design for its $40-billion refueling tanker program appear to be waning—at least for now. Last year, both contractors had quietly begun exploring whether a protest would be valid in the event of a loss and how best, if necessary, to counter one (AW&ST Sept. 10, 2007, p. 48). Last fall, most officials in the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and in industry agreed on one thing regarding KC-X: A protest was imminent.
In the News Breaks item headlined “Current Tanker Problems” (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 16), you showed a fundamental lack of understanding of the role and work of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
The European Space Agency is dropping plans for an interim orbital facility, after NASA assurances that it will not be necessary, but intends to keep pursuing a manned space transportation capability.
Saab has completed in-country flight trials using the first of the South African Air Force’s 28 Gripen combat aircraft. The end of the tests using the fully test-instrumented airframe clears the way for the handover of the aircraft, SA01, to the air force in March. Trials using the two-seat Gripen D included unguided bomb clearance and electronic warfare work. The flights were carried out from the air force base at Overberg, and used the adjacent Overberg Test Range. Aircraft SA1 was due to have been flown to the Denel facility in Johannesburg on Jan. 17 to be repainted.
Lockheed Martin has picked Alliant Techsystems to build the distinctive circular solar arrays that will power the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle it is developing for NASA’s Constellation Program.
Airline pilot hiring is “near an all-time high,” says Kit Darby, president of Air Inc., which reported 13,157 new hires in 2007, second to 2000’s high of 19,027. The airline career specialist is forecasting 10,650 new positions this year.
The National Institute for Aviation Research in Wichita, Kan., will open CAD/CAM, composites and advanced joining laboratories in the National Center for Aviation Training set for 2010 at Jabara Airport near Wichita. The composites lab will feature a lay-up and repair area, a clean room and an autoclave; the joining lab will focus on laser welding, research and training.
The Russian-U.S. Land Launch medium-lift rocket is expected to enter service this spring, following the return to flight last week of the Sea Launch Zenit-3SL heavy-lifter from which it is derived. But doubts remain. Sea Launch lifted off from its floating Pacific Ocean launch pad at 11:49 a.m. GMT Jan. 15, placing the Thuraya-3 mobile communications satellite into orbit. The mission ended a year-long shutdown following a launch explosion on Jan. 30, 2007, that destroyed an SES New Skies telecom satellite, NSS-8.
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.
