Alenia Aeronautica has flown its Sky-X UAV demonstrator for the first time in a fully automatic mode, including takeoff and landing. The 30-min. mission occurred at the Swedish Vidsel air base. The next stage of flight trials is to be undertaken at the Italian air force Amendola base before year-end.
Volga-Dnepr has seen a nine-month revenue increase of 55%. Revenue for Il-76 operations was up 129%, and An-124-100 cargo hauling grew 14%. The cargo airline unit, AirBridge Cargo, saw revenue increase 134% to $158.8 million. Full-year sales for the group should top $600 million. AirBridge during the summer added a Boeing 747-200 to its operation, allowing it to double frequencies to Japan and Europe. Two more 747-200Fs are to be acquired next year, with two new-build 747-400ERFs slated for operations in late 2007 or early 2008.
The Joint Simulation System, or JSIMS, may be gone, but it is far from forgotten. JSIMS achieved notoriety after the U.S. Defense Dept. spent 10 years and $1 billion developing a joint forces training and simulation program, only to kill it in 2004 after numerous delays and cost overruns. While the formal program no longer exists, pieces of JSIMS live on in other forms. And its failure has inspired new approaches to joint training. The Pentagon completed a study in summer 2005 that recommended scaled-down expectations and a new acquisition model.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Nov. 7 in which a United Airlines Airbus A320 taxiing behind a United Boeing 737-200 made winglet-to-horizontal-stabilizer contact. Pam Sullivan, the NTSB air-safety investigator looking into the incident, says "substantial damage" was done to the 737 horizontal stabilizer and elevator. There are scrapes and gouges on the underside of the stabilizer--one deep enough to cut into the rear spar. Damage to the A320 winglet was minor.
Guilty or not guilty? The question could soon rule the flight safety environment, and this is unquestioningly bad news. The good news is that the world's flight safety community in the last few days confirmed it is capable of speaking with a single voice. Such an encouraging statement of fact is based on an unprecedented cross-border resolution jointly devised by the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), the British Royal Aeronautical Society, France's Academie Nationale de l'Air et de l'Espace and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization.
Astrobiologists have simulated the chemistry that formed organic material in the atmospheres of Saturn's moon Titan and the early Earth, gaining insights into the processes that may have produced the organic material that fed early life here. By beaming an ultraviolet light into a gas sample made up of methane and nitrogen, as is found in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, researchers from NASA's Astrobiology Institute produced aerosols that they were able to measure and analyze to gain a better understanding of in situ data returned by the ongoing Cassini/Huygens mission.
A 75% decline in sales and sudden evaporation of profits would trigger a panic attack in most chief executives, but not Geoffrey Hedrick. He hasn't cut research spending or laid off a single employee.
I would disagree with Harry Riblett when he says "the accident rate for 'puddle jumpers' has been less than stellar" (AW&ST Oct. 23, p. 6). Q Series, Saab 340 and ATR aircraft have safety records that far exceed those of most mainline models.
TAP Air Portugal is buying the country's smaller, regional operator Portugalia under a €140-million deal. It also is spending another €4 million to buy the 6% share Portugalia holds in the Groundforce handling company.
Selex's Sistemi Integrati unit has received a €44-million ($56.2-million) contract to modernize seven ATC centers in Turkey. A main center capable of monitoring Turkey's entire airspace is slated to be established in Ankara, while six local approach centers are to be readied in Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Dalaman, Ercan and Bodrum. Those in Istanbul and Izmir are being configured to serve as backups to the main center.
In October, capacity growth outpaced traffic at Air France-KLM, which depressed load factor, although yields continued to grow. The load factor for the carriers remained at 81.4%, led by Asia routes where traffic increased 10% on a capacity expansion of 9.7%, resulting in a load factor of 88.4%.
With the Boeing 787 expected to enter service in mid-2008 and Airbus 380 delays creating a delivery logjam, customers are now focusing on the 787 and the new 747 stretch as the ultimate in "VVIP" aircraft.
Denmark's defense minister this week is expected to signal the country's intent to sign up for the production sustainment and follow-on development phase of the Lockheed Martin F-35.
China appears to be considering development of an aircraft-carried satellite launch vehicle, similar in general concept to the U.S. Pegasus or Russian Burlak. A model of a design was on display at Air Show China 2006, which was held earlier this month. The three-stage system would have a launch weight of 13 tons and a 110-lb. payload. The aircraft type that would carry the launch vehicle has yet to be specified.
The FAA has certified the Cessna Citation Mustang personal jet for flight into known icing conditions. Type certification was achieved Sept. 8. Cessna anticipates certification by EASA before deliveries to European customers begin in the third quarter of 2007. There are 21 Mustangs in production. Plans call for delivering 40 airplanes next year, followed by full rate production in 2008. The Mustang is sold out through mid-2009.
Air Canada has increased overall capacity in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The additional flights will be operated by Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz. The airline is increasing the number of seats to destinations it serves in the Atlantic Canada area by more than 16%, or more than 10,000 seats per week, compared with last winter.
Finnair suffered a double-digit slide in third-quarter operating profit compared with last year, blaming low ticket prices and high fuel costs. President and CEO Jukka Hienonen says structural changes underway at the airline should result in more attractive results by the third quarter of 2007, buoyed by an increase in traffic, particularly business travel.
Rumsfeld may be gone, but budget realities mean his acquisition approach is likely to continue. Key transformation efforts--the Army's Future Combat Systems, the Air Force's unmanned aircraft and Joint Strike Fighter and the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship--seem secure, in the view of many Wall Street and think-tank defense analysts. Defense-company stocks could drift upward over the next few months because Wall Street still expects a "strong" Fiscal 2008 defense budget, now far along in the planning process, says UBS Investment Research analyst David Strauss (see p. 10).
Pratt & Whitney and Bombardier are among Canada's biggest corporate spenders on research and development, according to a new list compiled by Research Infosource, a business intelligence company. Pratt & Whitney Canada's C$472-million ($418-million) investment in R&D last year put it fourth on the list, behind Nortel Networks, Bell Canada and Magna International. Bombardier ranked ninth, with R&D expenditures of $187 million. Two other aerospace companies made the Top 100: CAE Inc.
European and other Western aerospace companies continue to flock to China. Last week, Thales opened a maintenance center in Beijing. Initially, the center will serve spectrum control systems supplied for communications applications. Earlier, Turbomeca started a joint venture with Beijing Changkong Machinery, a unit of aerospace giant AVIC II, the country's main helicopter manufacturer. When it opens for business in October 2007, the venture will assemble and test fuel control and hydromechanical equipment for turboshaft engines.
The degree of trust exhibited by pilots during a performance is merely an extension of what the entire Blue Angels team practices every day, whether in the air or in the hangar.
Boeing began flight testing its Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) on Oct. 10 using a low-power solid-state laser as a surrogate for the high-energy chemical oxygen iodine laser later planned for the system. The chemical laser will be fitted in a rotating turret in the belly of the aircraft--a modified C-130H--next year for flight testing against ground targets. Meanwhile, the chemical laser achieved "first light" in Sept. 21 ground tests that are continuing this fall. Boeing is developing this next-generation laser weapon through a U.S. Defense Dept.
Tom Berghan (see photo) has become site leader of Crane Aerospace & Electronics' Redmond, Wash., facility. He was a production/materials/lean manager and internal consultant for Genie Industries, also in Redmond.
China is no exception to the aerospace fervor for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) of all shapes and sizes, at least in model form. This year's Air Show China, held earlier this month, saw China Aviation Industry Corp. I companies display a range of air vehicle designs from several of its companies including a full-scale simple pusher-prop UAV to models of high-altitude long-endurance (HALE ) UAVs. A Chengdu Aircraft HALE design similar to Global Hawk (left photo) shared display space with the Anjian (Dark Sword) unmanned combat air vehicle concept (right photo).
