A wiring debacle is setting back the debut of Airbus's new A380 jetliner by two years. Boeing botched development of a new generation of classified imagery satellites so badly that the U.S. government turned the contract over to Lockheed Martin last year. And the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle being developed for the U.S. Marine Corps by General Dynamics is struggling to meet reliability requirements, putting it in the crosshairs of budget cutters.
The possible sale of a surveillance satellite to the Persian Gulf region could signal a change in long-standing U.S. attempts to limit proliferation of high-resolution imagery.
Contributing Editor Pierre Sparaco, who writes Aviation Week & Space Technology's fortnightly column "A European Perspective," has won a lifetime achievement award from the Aero-Club de France. Sparaco was recognized for his more than 40 years in aviation journalism, including 13 years at AW&ST where he was Paris bureau chief and senior European editor. He also had been editor-in-chief of French Aviation magazine. Sparaco's book, Airbus: The True Story, was released in English in June.
Pacific Aerospace Corp.'s achievement of FAA approval for instrument flight rules (IFR) operations is expected to give the PAC 750 a boost in U.S. sales where it's found seven customers for VFR operations among sport parachuting operators. The New Zealand manufacturer won IFR approval in its home market, Australia, South Africa and Europe. Powered by a single 750-shp. Pratt & Whitney PTC-34, the PAC 750 is a derivative of the Creco 750 agricultural plane. Pacific Aerospace widened the cabin to seat 10 or up to 17 skydivers.
The BA609 tiltrotor program now has two prototypes flying, after the second model completed its inaugural mission Nov. 10 at the Italian air force base Cameri. The rotorcraft is being built by a joint venture of Bell Helicopter Textron and Finmeccanica's Agusta Aerospace. A third model is being readied at AgustaWestland's facility in Cameri, while a fourth is undergoing final assembly at Bell in Fort Worth.
South Korea is responding to increased tension with North Korea by deploying gun-toting robots to the border, where manpower shortages are expected to increase, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. The Sentry robot built by Samsung Techwein detects moving objects and can even chase them down and shoot them using a K-3 machine gun. The Sentry also can fire rubber bullets or sound an alarm. The robot demands a secret password once its target is within 10 meters.
The whole point of repealing the Wright amendment for Dallas Love Field, among other things, is to allow flights to certain points to be direct rather than connecting, i.e., one or more stops with no change of aircraft versus stops involving changes (AW&ST Oct. 9, p. 17). As far as Southwest and Love Field are concerned, this is an essential difference. Consumer reporting has tended to confuse the issue by equating the two types of service.
The 450 narrow-body airliners that China has signed for over the past two years should keep the country's airlines satisfied for the best part of a decade, according to Airbus and Boeing forecasts. But the Chinese carriers seem to disagree. Fearless of indigestion, the airlines would take more aircraft in the short term, if only Airbus and Boeing could supply them, Airbus China President Laurence Barron said at Airshow China two weeks ago.
On a typical day for a British Army battlegroup, the hundred or so troopers of Lt. Col. David Labouchere's command group awake before dawn. They roll up their sleeping bags and stow their gear in a dozen Land Rovers and medium trucks. Before departing, they pull up the trip flares that, along with sentries, provide early warning of intruders while they sleep. They pile up all material evidence that they were ever here--a few empty water bottles and rations wrappers--and burn it near the latrine pit.
The House Armed Services Commit- tee is looking into the national security implications of the announced merger of U.S.-owned Lucent Technologies and Alcatel of France. The boards of Lucent and Alcatel, both of which are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, approved the $10.4-billion transaction. Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is concerned about potential technology transfers to countries such as China, Iran and Syria, with which Alcatel has had dealings.
Suzanne Stephensen (see photos) has been appointed director of people programs and recruitment; Ryan Quinlan director of employee relations, compensation and performance; and Amber Hunter director of corporate communications, development and marketing, all for SkyWest Airlines. Stephensen was director of inflight resources and succeeds Hunter. Quinlan was head of business development, marketing and pricing for Ivy Logistics.
Space Systems/Loral has delivered the WildBlue 1 K a-band spacecraft to Kourou, French Guiana, for a scheduled early December Arianespace launch. WildBlue 1 will provide broadband to rural U.S. households.
AirCell expects to sign launch customers within six months for its inflight wireless broadband service, now that the company has received the exclusive license from the U.S. Federal Com- munications Commission. However, AirCell says the airline service launch has slipped to 2008 and it has no immediate plans for voice service.
You have had many articles about the travails of the Airbus A380. However, it is unclear from what date the two-year delay will start. On the one hand, I understand the first deliveries will not start until around June 2008, but there will be a small handful of A380s delivered in the second half of 2007. Maybe Airbus does not know when its production problems will be resolved.
Russia is pushing ahead with a significant upgrade to its MiG-31 Foxhound, which is intended to help bolster air defenses in the more remote areas of the country.
A Pentagon official has revealed a bit about how the Air Force is supporting the war in Iraq with electronic warfare. The service keeps four EC-130 Compass Call jamming aircraft in theater, says Brig. Gen. Andrew S. Dichter, Air Force lead for airborne electronic attack. It's "one place in the war we're doing pretty well." Of the four deployed, two are dedicated to the global war on terrorism by jamming, mapping and exploiting communications and "picking up what the enemy is doing." The other two focus on the "pre-detonation of IEDs," Dichter says.
At nearly $70 billion in annual spending and growing, it's about time for defense technology to get the attention it deserves. From the boardroom to the battlefield, we are seeing advanced technology flexing its muscle as the largest and fastest growing component of the global defense industry. It drives supply-chain strategies, interoperability, tech-transfer thinking and real-time decisions in the global war on terror.
In the wake of the recent Lebanon war, one deficiency emerging from after-action reports of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is that its commanders were not trained well enough for what they faced on the battlefield. The IDF now is fielding a solution--a new Tactical Battle Trainer (TBT) from Israel's Elbit Systems. It connects an advanced 3D simulation network to an army battalion's existing battle management systems.
France is seeking to acquire more strike weaponry to help deploy additional resources, including its new Rafale fighter, to assist troops operating in Afghanistan.
The Indian Space Research Organization hopes to develop a human-rated spacecraft that can be orbited by upgrades of one of its existing launch vehicles, and it is rounding up the necessary paperwork for government clearance of a $2.2-billion manned orbital mission in 2014. ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair told a gathering of more than 80 scientists and engineers--including representatives of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
SES Global reported a 53.9% rise in sales in the third quarter, and a 49.3% jump in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Most of the increase stemmed from consolidation of New Skies Satellites and ND Satcom, acquired earlier this year, and one-time payments from the termination of Connexion by Boeing and the sale of nine transponders on SES Americom's AMC-23 satellite to SES's Brazilian affiliate Star One. On a like basis, revenues grew 7.6% and EBITDA 8.1% (see p. 14).
Lockheed Martin has received a $3-million U.S. Navy contract to demonstrate its High-Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Concept, or HAAWC, which is designed to deliver the Mk-54 lightweight torpedo from a P-3C aircraft at approximately 20,000 ft. The award follows the recent successful completion of wind tunnel and wing-separation tests using Lockheed Martin's LongShot wing adapter kit. Alan Jackson, the company's HAAWC program director, says the new capability gives the Mk-54 a range well in excess of 10 naut.
