The U.S. Navy last week grounded 39, or about 25%, of its P-3C surveillance aircraft. Structural problems are the root of the problem and they were discovered during a routine review of the fleet’s health. The fix, which could take up to 24 months, is replacement of the trailing edge of the wing between the two nacelles. In the meantime, the Navy is shuffling airframes to make up for 10 deployed P-3Cs that cannot fly. Meanwhile, the first Boeing P-8, a 737-based P-3C replacement, has been put on the production line.
Lockheed Martin is proposing a stealthy long-range cruise missile design to meet a British deep-strike requirement. The company already has U.S. government approval in place to provide technical data.
For the first time this year, Aviation Week & Space Technology asked its readers to recommend their favorites from the photo contest entries, at AviationWeek.com. They chose from the same 300-plus finalist entries that our judges reviewed. On these pages, you can see the most-recommended images from each of the contest’s four categories. To see all the finalists, go to AviationWeek.com/gallery.
The Australian government has formally accepted the first MRH90 multirole helicopters, its version of the NH90. The helicopters are being bought to replace Sea Kings for the navy and Black Hawks for the army and will now undergo more than a year of operational tests and evaluation.
To the relief of airlines, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters backed away from congestion pricing at New York Kennedy and Newark airports, but in its place she turned to caps on flight operations and eventual auctions of newly created slots. Beginning in the spring, peak-hour operations at JFK will be capped at 82-83 per hour, but Peters stresses that this won’t reduce capacity because airlines are voluntarily moving flights to other parts of the day. These caps will be extended to Newark to prevent airlines from shifting flights there from JFK.
There are constituent services, and there are constituent services on steroids. In a symbolic act of devotion to his Florida district, which includes Kennedy Space Center, Republican Rep. Dave Weldon is proposing legislation that would eliminate the coming gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability by keeping the space shuttle flying twice a year beyond its scheduled 2010 retirement, until replacement Constellation systems arrive.
Judges in AW&ST’s annual photo contest review and discuss prints of some of the 779 digital images that were submitted by 91 photographers for consideration in four categories. The judges were assisted by members of the AW&ST Art Dept. and Senior Editorial Administrator Norma Maynard. Senior Content Producer Michael O. Lavitt managed the web component of the contest.
Russia’s bold effort to consolidate what remains of its aerospace industry risks stagnating as bureaucracy and wildly optimistic market projections conspire to slow progress. A year after the creation of the United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), management is still wrestling with the organizational structure, is lagging behind its own initial timeline and has yet to solidify its industrial plans.
Air Force EA-18Gs? It sounds impossible, but maybe not. Industry and Pentagon sources say USAF has made little headway on its lingering electronic attack requirements. The service had been pursuing a standoff jammer based on the venerable, and powerful, B-52. But the program cost crept upward around $7 billion, too much in the Pentagon’s tight budget environment. Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, USAF’s military deputy for acquisition, acknowledges that some in the Pentagon are pushing the Air Force to buy Growlers designed for Navy requirements.
Budget carrier Skybus is doing what it set out to do, creating new markets with ultra-low fares, but the startup is facing a revenue-generation problem and will have to cut costs or face raising its ticket prices.
Bolstered by a big production contract for its Hellas laser obstacle avoidance system, EADS developers are planning an aggressive upgrade strategy to grow the device into a synthetic vision system for helicopter pilots. Eurocopter has just awarded a contract to EADS to buy 150 Hellas kits for NH90s, including those for Germany. The deal is valued at more than €50 million ($72 million). A French contract could follow.
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.
