EADS will rebuild its Barracuda unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator under the Agile UAV within Network-Centric Environments program. Finland and Switzerland are joining the effort. The Finnish government has a similar requirement and is seeking a home for its unmanned aerial vehicle data link technology program.
The U.S. Air Force boosted its fifth GPS IIR-M satellite into orbit with a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The Lockheed Martin spacecraft was boosted Dec. 20 at 3:04 p.m. EST, and it separated from the third stage of the Delta II 7925-9.5, 68 min. after liftoff.
Japan needs 40 modernized F-15J Eagles to substitute for Lockheed Martin F-22s, which the U.S. refuses to supply, the defense ministry says. New aircraft won’t now be ordered before the fiscal year that begins in April 2010, says the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
The U.S. military is increasingly interested in developing a new generation of high-speed air-to-surface missiles that could be integrated into stealth aircraft to attack an enemy’s radar sites or fleeting targets. U.S. Air Force planners are anxious about enhancements in air defense technology, worrying that as powerful computer processing becomes more ubiquitous and network cabling becomes cheaper, adversaries can link radar systems of different types to raise their chances of spotting and potentially shooting down even low-observable aircraft.
The Reason Foundation, bastion of free-market forces among Washington’s think tanks, still thinks the Transportation Dept. should rely on congestion pricing to tame overscheduling and delays at New York’s airports. In a new study, Reason’s lead author, Robert Poole, says the Transportation Dept.’s omission of congestion pricing, and of “a real auction that puts every [slot] up for bid,” makes last week’s plan “a band-aid that won’t cure delays.”
Charter operator Orient Thai Airlines plans to order eight Boeing 787-9s and 12 737-900s, including some for its no-frills unit, One-Two-Go. The 787s are to be fitted with 380 seats.
The first flight of the A400M’s TP400 engine has slipped further, to the second quarter of 2008 from the first. Following delivery of an engine to Marshall Aerospace for integration on the C-130 testbed and a review of the program schedule, the Turboprop International consortium developing the massive engine announced the change.
The American Society of Aviation Artists joins Aviation Week & Space Technology for the eighth year in this annual special issue to present art selected from ASAA’s 2007 Exhibition. A judge from AW&ST selected the exhibition’s “Best of the Best” and top choices for honors in the categories of Military, Commercial, General Aviation and Space, while ASAA’s own judges selected its prize winners.
A company that plans to become Vietnam’s first private airline, VietJetAir, says it will launch operations in late 2008 or early 2009. State carrier Vietnam Airlines, meanwhile, is reportedly planning to turn its subsidiary Vietnam Air Service Co. into a low-cost carrier.
Pratt & Whitney plans to complete its emerging next-generation engine family partnership by mid-2008 amid growing signs the move could prompt International Aero Engines (IAE) to formerly embrace the geared turbofan concept.
The initial flight of the Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter has been delayed until around the end of the first quarter of 2008. The company had been aiming to fly the aircraft before the end of 2007. The aircraft is expected to enter series production for the Russian air force in 2010, and the acquisition program is included in the government’s procurement road map up until 2015.
When the U.S. airline industry began 2007, conventional wisdom ran that one or more mergers of big carriers were imminent. As the year heads into its final week, little consolidation has yet to materialize, and investors are paying a heavy price.
The European Commission is trying to determine if Olympic Airlines has once again received state aid in violation of European competition rules. This time, the review is focused on financial support received since 2005; the European Commission found Olympic and the Greek government in violation of subsidy rules over funding provided before 2005.
Airbus has avoided a nasty political controversy by selecting national champions to take over facilities it is unloading in France, Germany and the U.K., but the financial community believes the putative loser in the bidding, Spirit Aerosystems, could end up in the best situation, financially.
China Eastern says it is negotiating to buy 40 Boeing 737s and will take 40 Airbus A320s from a batch of 110 that the Chinese government agreed to buy on behalf of airlines in November.
Air France has started its inflight mobile phone use trials with partner Mobile OnAir on a specially fitted Airbus A318 seating 123 passengers. The first commercial flight took place Dec. 17 between Paris and Warsaw, but the aircraft will be operated on different routes to gauge customer acceptance. Customers first will be limited to data transfer, such as text messaging or use of their devices for e-mail or Internet applications. Cell phones must remain off during takeoff and landing, with the service only active in cruise once above 10,000 ft.
EADS Astrium and the German aerospace research agency (DLR) hope to start technology trials for a lunar lander in March, as part of a newly formed cooperation agreement between the two entities. The research activities are in anticipation of a decision by European science and research ministers to OK a lunar landing project. The European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial will take place in November.
Air China parent China National Aviation Holding Co. is trying again to block Singapore Airlines’ proposed purchase of a stake in China Eastern. After giving up an earlier attempt to buy China Eastern in association with Air China affiliate Cathay Pacific in September, the state holding company has now enlarged its own stake in the struggling airline to 12% and says it will vote against the Singaporean deal at a shareholder meeting on Jan. 8.
Frankfurt Airport is going into the detailed planning stage for its various expansion projects, after operator Fraport received regulatory clearance in principle to build a fourth runway. The state government of Hesse last week published a detailed approval document that outlines how the airport can expand. The clearance as such is no surprise, but Frankfurt gained more exceptions than expected from a planned nightly curfew, causing widespread protests in neighboring communities.
NASA has selected a pair of celestial targets for the Deep Impact spacecraft that blasted the comet Tempel-1 with a copper projectile on July 4, 2005. Under the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization and Deep Impact Extended Investigation (Epoxi) mission, the Ball Aerospace mothership will use the larger of its two telescopes next month to examine planetary systems that have been discovered around other stars, and then conduct a close flyby of the comet Hartley 2 on Oct. 11, 2011.
Fifty-five House members joined 19 senators in pressuring the Pentagon to add funding in its Fiscal 2009 budget proposal for continued production of Boeing’s C-17 transport. The Long Beach, Calif., production line would close in 2009—and jeopardize 30,000 jobs around the U.S., the lawmakers point out—unless the Air Force orders more. Some senior military officials, including U.S. Transportation Command chief Gen. Norton Schwartz, admit they may need more than the 190 on order, and a new study of airlift requirements is getting off the ground.
