Douglas Barrie (London), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Iran is continuing to add to its unmanned aerial vehicle inventory with what may be an anti-radiation drone bearing a resemblance to the South African Lark or Israeli Harpy. The Harpy has been supplied to China, Turkey and India. A South African defense official says the Lark has never been exported, though he did remark on the Iranian UAV's likeness. The UAV uses a small pusher-propeller powerplant.
The formation of an aerospace command for India has moved a step further with the air force planning soon to present to the government a military-space doctrine on its surveillance, reconnaissance and network-centric requirements. The urgency is due to the May 1 retirement of a reconnaissance squadron of 10 Mikoyan MiG-25R Foxbats for imagery intelligence. "Their replacement will have to be satellites," says Air Commo. (ret.) Jasjit Singh, head of New Delhi-based think tank the Center for Air Power Studies.
Larry Harrell has been named to the board of directors of the Hiller Aviation Institute and Museum, San Carlos, Calif. He is vice president-strategy and technology in charge of system and platform coordination among the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News, Ship Systems and Integrated Systems sectors. Harrell is also a director of Scaled Composites and Aurora Flight Sciences.
A ratio was printed incorrectly in the letter entitled "Doesn't Meet Credibility Test" by James R. French (AW&ST Mar. 27, p. 8). The letter should have said an upper-stage spaceplane using the best-known boron propellant needs to have a start-of-burn/end-of-burn mass ratio of around 5.2 to 1.
Steve Opel has become senior manager for Air Force-related programs for the Interstate Electronics Corp., Anaheim, Calif. He was an Air Force colonel and the Materiel Command's representative to the Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB, Ill.
Cubana Airlines will become the first non-Russian carrier to put Tupolev Tu-204-100s into service. The airline has placed an order for three of the narrowbody aircraft, powered by Russian PS-90As, one of which will be delivered in freighter configuration. Cubana also increased by two its commitments to buy Ilyushin Il-96-300s. Delivery of all the aircraft is to be completed in 2007. The carrier has taken delivery of two Il-96-300s.
The Eclipse 500 jet is designed so a single pilot can fly up to five passengers. But Eclipse's biggest customer isn't taking chances. Edward Iacobucci, CEO of jet taxi startup DayJet, says two pilots will be on board every flight when his venture launches its on-demand service. DayJet has ordered 239 Eclipse 500s, taken options for 70 more and hopes to begin service late this year (AW&ST July 25, 2005, p. 44).
The F-22 combined test force at Edwards AFB, Calif., has flown the newest Amraam design, the AIM-120D, in the weapons bay of the fighter, to monitor the effects of noise and vibration on the medium-range air-to-air missile. The weapon has yet to be fielded, so the tests are expected to help in its development. Tests on the earlier AIM-120C-7 showed that vibrations at certain frequencies were harmful to the missile's electronics. As a result, cards inside the D model's navigation system have been redesigned to limit transmission of vibro-acoustic effects.
The U.S. Air Force's replacement tanker program has languished for two years while enduring a blizzard of analyses, but KC-X is finally being launched with a contract award expected in mid-2007.
The Laureate Awards are a celebration of achievement and excellence. And aerobatic flying champion Patty Wagstaff's consistent excellence in precision flying, her dedication to training and her work in promoting general aviation and attracting new pilots to the sky, have earned her the 2006 Laureate for Lifetime Achievement. For the first time, the award bears the name of the late Philip J. Klass, an Aviation Week & Space Technology editor for more than 50 years.
Brazilian airlines TAM and Gol are set to benefit extensively, if their rival Varig is forced to shrink its network in the ongoing restructuring or shut down.
Panama's Copa Airlines will add an eighth 737-800 to its fleet in a contract that includes purchase rights to nine more. Copa is converting three of its options for Embraer 170/190s to firm orders, opting for the larger 190 regional jet. The move boosts Copa's firm order to 15 170/190s. The latest order is for Advanced Range 190s, which are slated to be delivered in 2007-08. Total value of the Boeing and Embraer orders is $180 million at list prices.
Cineflex's new V14 Multi-Sensor (MS) camera system is the first imaging system to combine a high-definition day/night camera coupled with an extended focal length lens, a real-time wide-field-of-view camera and a long-range three-field-of- view infrared thermal sensor, according to the company. The system is expected to enhance high-altitude surveillance and major incident tactical imaging for law-enforcement and military needs. The Magnum MS is offered as a fully customizable system, suitable for use on aircraft, mobile vehicles and marine vessels.
Piaggio Aero Industries has a new minority shareholder: Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development, a governmental investment company that is controlled by the United Arab Emirates state's crown prince, Sheik Mohammed bin Zhayed. Mubadala has acquired a 35% stake in the Italian aircraft maker for an undisclosed amount. Mubadala has bought existing shares and injected much-needed fresh cash as Piaggio looks to expand its product line with a new business jet. Anti-trust authorities already have blessed the deal.
Orbital Sciences Corp. revenues grew 15% in the first quarter of this year over the same period in 2005, due largely to a 30% increase in the Dulles, Va.-based company's small geostationary communications satellite niche business. Revenue was $192.1 million, up from $167.1 million a year ago. Revenue from satellites and related space systems grew to $107.5 million in the first quarter, compared with $82.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
Heim Data Systems Inc. now has a version of the D5000 series specifically targeting applications requiring compatibility with IRIG106 Chapter 10 standard. The recently introduced standard defines the data formatting, control interfaces and media directories of airborne data acquisition systems such as flight-test recorders. It is designed to be lightweight, compact and rugged. The economical single-box D5000 series systems can now be utilized for PCM telemetry, avionics bus and sensor data acquisition in applications requiring compliance, according to the company.
Milan's Malpensa airport late last week was slated to become a showcase for a new airport surface movement detection system developed by a pan-European research team under the Emma-2 project. The two-phased plan is aimed at consolidating surveillance and conflict alert functions and providing advanced onboard guidance support to pilots and planning help to controllers. The system relies on sensors that monitor ground movements and display conflict alerts on a single screen for controllers to provide better situational awareness of airport traffic in all weather.
Bell Helicopter Textron's TR918 Eagle Eye commercial tiltrotor technology demonstrator crashed Apr. 5 after engine failure. A Bell official said the unmanned aircraft was flying at 325 ft. above the ground at a low airspeed at the company's UAV flight test facility at Wrangler, Tex., when it lost power and descended to the ground. The airframe was substantially damaged, but Bell is salvaging parts that could be used in a replacement. U.S. Coast Guard has selected Eagle Eye for service as part of its Deepwater fleet modernization initiative.
Honeywell reported aerospace sales were up 5% to $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2006, compared with the same quarter last year. Commercial aerospace sales growth of 10% was offset by a 1% decline in defense and space sales. Profit margin in the aerospace sector was up to 16.7% from 15.1% a year ago due to growth in volume and cost savings from reorganization of Honeywell Aerospace. Segment profit for the quarter was $440 million versus $378 million a year ago.
Chautauqua Airlines is waiting in the wings to operate up to 69 Embraer 145 regional jets that are scheduled to be dropped from Continental Airlines' capacity purchase agreement with ExpressJet Airlines. Under the agreement, ExpressJet is to notify Continental by Sept. 28 whether it will return any or all of the aircraft to Continental or continue to operate them under increased lease rates. If they keep the aircraft, ExpressJet will be able to operate them under another brand name.
United Airlines is re-allocating capacity carefully in its domestic system, with new focus on its Denver International Airport hub. Calyon Securities analyst Raymond E. Neidl says Denver growth is in response to strong demand.
Boeing's announcement that it will lay off about 900 workers at its Wichita Integrated Defense Systems factory this year prompted the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) to begin a Looking-For-Work lobbying campaign with the Kansas congressional delegation. Boeing attributes the layoffs to defense budget cuts, contract completions and program delays. The Air Force reopened its tanker competition last week after a two-year delay (see p. 28), but even if Boeing's KC-767 wins, it won't generate work soon enough to stave off the cuts.
The late Geoff Bridges plus Manfred Kiel (see photo) and Stanley Hui Hon-Chung (see photo) have been elected to The International Air Cargo Assn. (Tiaca) Hall of Fame. Bridges was managing director of British Airways Cargo and had headed Air Canada's cargo division. Kiel is chairman of SAT Sea-Air Transport GmbH., Dusseldorf, Germany. He was director of airfreight sales at German company Pracht and had been an executive at Alitalia. Hui is CEO of Hong Kong-based Dragonair and had been manager of international affairs for and chief operating officer of Air Hong Kong.
