Japan's Solar-B spacecraft will spend the next three years studying the Sun's atmosphere and the violent coronal mass ejections that can disrupt communications and power grids on Earth, following its successful launch Sept. 23. Liftoff of the solid-fueled M-5 launch vehicle (shown) came at 6:36 a.m. local time at the Uchinoura Space Center (5:36 p.m. EDT Sept. 22). The three-stage rocket placed Solar-B in its intended orbit of 280 X 686 km., with an inclination of 98.3 deg.
A high-power microwave weapon likely will be demonstrated first on a sophisticated variant of an unmanned combat aircraft, followed by introduction of an operational capability on the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters. HPM weapon capability, which can disable enemy electronics and scramble computers, would come as an upgrade to the fighter's radar. But the capability will emerge first as a dedicated payload for selected unmanned combat aircraft, says George Muellner, Boeing advanced systems chief. Flight demonstrations could be as little as five years away, Muellner says.
Some of the biggest names in European and North American aviation manufacturing and airline maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) give a common answer when asked if they have a big labor advantage in their Asian operations. Instead of citing low-wage labor, they report, rather, that being in Asia has more to do with the comparative advantage of doing business in the region.
Reporters who had to rely on a trans-Pacific telephone hookup to cover NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's visit to China last week may want to apply the technique closer to home. China denied visas to U.S. journalists who wanted to cover Griffin's tour of Chinese space facilities, some of them run by the Peoples Liberation Army (see p. 27). But access to government information can be just as tricky in Washington. Sponsors barred reporters from a publicly advertised hypersonics symposium Sept.
Congressional defense appropriators have backed a multiyear contract for F-22 Raptor procurement, but decided against allowing foreign sales of the futuristic fighter. Their Fiscal 2007 conference agreement, which was finalized last week, approves multiyear procurement of 60 F-22s, beginning with 20 fully funded aircraft in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
In the late 1990s, when the Internet and telecommunications were all the rage and defense was a shrinking industry, most private equity investors barely gave a thought to aerospace. How times have changed. Since 2003, the industry has seen 30 private equity mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals, triple the number of the previous three years, according to consultancy Bain & Co. With private equity firms bulging with cash that has to be invested, their interest isn't likely to wane anytime soon.
The A400M European airlifter program seems to be running late and headed for trouble. In an internal EADS review into whether that's actually the case, program officials are pointing to specific progress points. Late last month, Airbus Military reported its sixth critical contractual milestone, delivery of a Class Two cockpit mock-up. Failing to overcome that hurdle would have provided the multi-national customer team an opportunity to abandon the effort.
Airbus has managed to give its A380 mega-transport the performance and flight characteristics of a much smaller aircraft, both in the air and on the ground.
Resumption of International Space Station assembly apparently has spurred NASA to formalize the code of conduct station crewmembers have been using since the first of them reached the orbiting facility on Nov. 2, 2000. The agency officially adopted the code last week, unchanged from its original published draft. "It was really just a crossing of Ts and dotting of Is," explained an agency spokesman.
Turboprop-maker ATR by year-end hopes to get shareholder approval for a glass cockpit upgrade to its products and will then select an industrial partner for development of the avionics suite.
Plans are moving forward for the Netherlands' purchase of nine new CH-47Fs and upgrade of 11 Chinooks to the new F configuration, with the Pentagon's recent approval of a $652- million deal. The aircraft would include the Common Avionics Architecture System cockpits.
NetJets is in talks with Raytheon about another big executive-jet purchase to meet continuing strong business jet demand, particularly in Europe, and hints at a possible follow-on Falcon 7X order from Dassault after an initial buy last week. In the fractional ownership operator's purchase crosshairs is the Hawker 750, a new business jet Raytheon plans to announce this month.
Vladimir Sergeevich Syromyatnikov, a Russian aerospace engineer who developed the docking mechanism that linked the U.S. space shuttle to the Russian Mir orbital facility and later to the International Space Station, died in Moscow Sept. 19 of leukemia. He was 74.
To anticipate aviation industry trends after a period like the past five years--dominated by recession and slow recovery that rocked the world airline economy--demands a compilation of lessons learned. But that's not nearly as easy as it seems. To begin, you must separate the trends from the events that distort them.
Iraq's budding air force could get a boost with new intelligence aircraft now that a $900-million arms sale has been approved by the Pentagon. The sale includes 24 Raytheon King Air 350ER aircraft equipped with L-3 Wescam sensors and another 24-aircraft mix of King Air 350ERs or PZL M-18 Skytrucks for use as light transports. Defensive systems and GPS receivers are part of the sale.
President Bush intends to nominate USAF Col. (ret.) Steven R. Chealander as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board for the remainder of a five-year term that ends Dec. 31, 2007. He is manager of flight operations at American Airlines.
Boeing officials are studying alternative platforms for the second Airborne Laser aircraft, and the likely choice is the new 747-8. The larger aircraft could allow for increased range and more time on station than the 747-400F being used for technology demos. A platform decision will be made after a successful shootdown, planned for 2008, by the multi-megawatt-class laser of a ballistic missile in boost phase.
Upgrades to the U.S. Air Force GPS constellation are continuing with the launch of the second "modernized" Lockheed Martin Block IIR-M spacecraft with dual civilian channel capability (AW&ST Oct. 3, 2005, p. 28).
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A five-year Raytheon program has produced delivery of the first R7 pod for the company's High-Speed Anti-radiation Missile Targeting System (HTS) to USAF. The R7 pod is mounted to the side of F-16 strike aircraft to provide combat detection, identification and location of ground-based radar and communications emitters. Upgrades include a GPS receiver, digital receiver, new power supply and redesigned software load that is compatible with the latest F-16 operational flight program software.
After wresting bandwidth from the U.S. and Canada, hybrid terrestrial/satellite movers and shakers are now weighing expansion to Europe and other promising broadband markets.
Aer Lingus's initial public offering had mixed success. After pricing the stock at the lower end of the proposed range, the price surged more than 8% on the first day of trading. It raised €644.1 million ($818 million). The offering still leaves the Irish government with a 34.8% stake in the carrier with an option to go down to 28%.
Martin Sippel (AW&ST Sept. 6, p. 6) makes a good case for the feasibility of towback return of reusable boosters, but misses the point. The U.S. Air Force is studying a partially reusable booster for "a rapid-response launch system to place 10,000-15,000-lb. payloads into low Earth orbit within 24-48 hr. of notification" (AW&ST Apr. 24, p. 35).
Integrating very light jets (VLJs) and unmanned aerial vehicles into the National Airspace System will be "nothing new for the FAA," says the agency's safety chief, Nicholas Sabatini. FAA forecasters believe 5,000 VLJs could operate by 2017 as air taxis, leading to concern among many in commercial aviation about overtaxing the air traffic system, particularly around smaller airports with 3,000-ft. runways.
EADS is trying to work out why its Barracuda unmanned combat/reconnaissance air vehicle demonstrator crashed into the sea off Spain on Sept. 23, during its latest flight trials.
