Xi’an Aircraft International Corp. has completed the previously flagged formation of two joint ventures with siblings in the Avic I aerospace conglomerate based in Chengdu and Shenyang. The new joint businesses are intended to absorb private capital, rather than rely on traditional state military funding, says Avic I General Manager Lin Zuoming.
Investigations into the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle accidents highlighted a phenomenon known as “normalization of deviance,” in which a dangerous condition becomes acceptable over time if it has not caused harm. Diane Vaughn, a Columbia University sociologist who linked the concept to the cause of the 1986 Challenger accident and later served on the staff of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, says reports of preflight alcohol abuse by astronauts probably don’t rise to that level.
Pakistan has flown what its officials say is a stealthy cruise missile—the Ra’ad. It reflects the growing effort to build and buy low-observable, unmanned aircraft and missiles as well as the associated rush to field sensors and defensive missiles to kill them.
Although NASA has done pretty well this year in the authorization process on Capitol Hill, appropriations logjams mean the agency is looking down the barrel of another congressional continuing resolution, which would hold its Fiscal 2008 funding to Fiscal 2006 levels. For the Constellation program, which is building the launchers and spacecraft needed to return humans to the Moon by 2020, this would mean a whack of about $900 million, to $3.050 billion from $3.982 billion.
A court in Brazil has denied a petition by the pilots of the ExcelAire Legacy 600 involved in the Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision with a Gol Airlines 737‑800 to provide testimony from the U.S. Attorneys for the Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based private jet operator are appealing the Aug. 27 decision, the latest development in Brazil’s criminalization of the accident, which killed 154 people. More coverage is online at www.aviationweek.com/aw/business.
Ken Estelle has been appointed vice president/general manager of Rockwell Collins’ Technical Service Solutions, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was vice president of Smiths Aerospace’s Global Customer Management, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing have submitted proposals for the U.S. Air Force’s GPS Block III program. USAF is expected to respond late this year or in early 2008. The initial bids will be for eight Block IIIA spacecraft valued at $1-2 billion, with an initial launch set for mid-2013. Two more blocks totaling 24 spacecraft are anticipated. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin and ITT have begun producing an upgraded payload for the current GPS IIR-M series.
Avidyne is also offering a lightning detector that generates a real-time map of color-coded hexagonal grids of lightning activity. The company says the TWX670—developed by the Avidyne Safety Systems Group (formerly Ryan International) in Columbus, Ohio—detects lightning more accurately than previous-generation systems and gives pilots real-time data on storm-cell intensity for tactical weather-avoidance decisions, especially in the 0.25-naut.-mi. range.
Sean Menke, Air Canada’s executive vice president for commercial strategy and a former Frontier Airlines official, will succeed Jeff Potter as president/CEO of Denver-based Frontier. Menke headed marketing for Frontier and was chief operating officer before shifting to Air Canada in 2005.
Boeing says it plans to demonstrate a 1-kw. laser-equipped Humvee-based Agile Multi-role Weapon System against unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices in the coming months. Later, the company plans to experiment with the system’s ability to lase on the move. This wattage requires the operator to focus the energy on a target for up to 40 min., a company official said at the Space and Missile Defense Conference and Exhibition. Also planned is an upgrade with a higher-power laser designed to target unmanned aerial vehicles in flight and blind their optics.
Skybus, the new-start airline whose $10 fares—limited to 10 seats on any flight—surprised industry and pleased eager Midwestern travelers, started out in concept as a combination of Southwest Airlines and Europe’s Ryanair nearly four years ago. Since then, experience is teaching management new lessons that are morphing Skybus into a creature of its own.
American Airlines is recalling 460 flight attendants from the pool of 4,200 former Trans World Airlines attendants who were furloughed after American acquired TWA in 2001. Recalls since 2003 have reduced the number of affected attendants, which is expected to decrease to 1,608 at the end of this year. The union seniority lists were joined in October 2002, with the ex-TWA employees at the bottom. Under the union contract, anyone not recalled after five years is scheduled to be dropped from the list in October. U.S. Sen.
Climate-change data from NASA’s fleet of Earth-observation satellites and the spacecraft it plans to launch in the coming decade are likely to enhance scientific understanding of how modern aviation contributes to the problem of global warming.
Continental Airlines plans to install Jeppesen Class 2 and Class 3 Electronic Flight Bags on its 368 aircraft. The airline still will receive Jeppesen paper products to be used as a backup to the new electronic systems. The first Class 3 systems will be installed on two Boeing 777s. These units have also been specified for the 25 787s that Continental has on order. Other types of aircraft will be retrofitted with the less-expensive (and less-capable) Class 2 systems.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded a $750,000 two-year contract to Surface Enhancement Technologies to improve the fatigue life of V-22 Osprey components, using a patented low plasticity burnishing process (LPB) as an alternative to other surface treatments such as shot peening. The process imparts a deep layer of high-magnitude compressive residual stress that mitigates degradation in fatigue-prone areas. The company, a division of Lambda Technologies of Cincinnati, is working with subcontractor Bell Helicopter Textron.
European engine manufacturers are starting to embrace a set of new technologies to achieve the next leap in noise reduction for commercial aircraft powerplants. Until now, much of the research has concentrated on “passive” technologies—such as shielding noise from the ground or smoothing airflow through the inside of the engine, but the advances that can be achieved in this realm are slowing. As a result, “active” or adaptive techniques are coming into vogue.
Bell-Boeing’s Joint Program Office has won an $82.4-million U.S. Navy contract add-on to begin production of an additional USAF CV-22 Osprey special operations tiltrotor aircraft. Boeing also pulled in an $18-million Navy contract to design and build the Undergraduate Military Flight Officer ground-based training system for NAS Pensacola, Fla. The system can provide introductory training for naval flight officers, weapon system officers and international military flight officers training for advanced aircraft.
Neal J. Keating has been appointed president/chief operating officer of the Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., effective Sept. 17. He is expected to become CEO on Jan. 1. He will succeed Paul R. Kuhn, who has been chairman/president/CEO and is scheduled to retire on Feb. 21. Keating was chief operating officer of Hughes Supply and had been CEO of GKN Aerospace.
Swiss competition authorities have endorsed a decision by the military armaments agency to award Eurocopter a contract for EC135/635 helicopters, despite complaints by the losing bidder, AgustaWestland, which was offering the A109. The 310-million-Swiss-franc ($255-million) program should provide two EC135s for VIP transport, and 18 EC635s—military derivatives of the EC135—for troop transport and training. The rotorcraft are to replace about 40 Eurocopter SA316 Alouette IIIs.
As it considers how to keep pace with India’s burgeoning defense market, France’s Thales has settled on a “going local” strategy that relies on joint ventures to cover multiple programs rather than a program-by-program approach, especially considering India’s strict offset policy.
Harnessing intellectual energy to solve problems is the goal of the Boeing Co.’s global operations, and this year’s Workforce Study finds Boeing among the best at capturing and developing that capacity. By sheer mass, the company claims some best-in-class points: •$100 million invested in education each year. •12% of the company’s 158,000 employees are pursuing an academic degree. •6 million hr. of training are performed every year across the company (not based on a specific goal per employee).
Unlike other companies selected as leaders in Aviation Week’s Workforce Study, Airborne Systems is a select niche player, providing a specialized subsystem for the industry. The company designs and manufactures parachute products. “We, in essence, are a people-dependent business,” says CEO Elek Puskas. “We are labor-intensive, rather than capital-intensive, in a narrow field. The collective know-how and experience of our people is our asset.”
Pratt & Whitney’s new $12-million testing facility in Middletown, Conn., has initiated performance trials of the fan drive gear system, a major element of the company’s next-generation geared turbofan engine. The dedicated gear system site’s test rig is capable of handling up to 60,000 shp. and simulating fight altitudes of up to 45,000 ft., as well as creating operational loads to test performance limits of the gear system outside of specifications to validate durabililty.
This is how fully packed U.S. network airlines’ airplanes were in July: Delta Air Lines reported an all-time-record load factor for any month of the year, 86.8%, and those of three other carriers were higher—88.4% (Northwest), 87.9% (American) and 87.3% (United). The lowest load factor among the six mainline carriers, Continental’s at 86.3%, was only half a point lower than Delta’s. All but Continental reduced their domestic capacity, and all but American increased international capacity.
Over the past four years, the trend has been for national laboratories and research centers to rank at or near the top in the Technological Challenge category of “Where A&D Professionals Want To Work.” This year was no different.
