Italian politicians face fundamental choices over the extent of Rome's participation in the Joint Strike Fighter, with the process getting underway in earnest next month. The new government will have to review the country's ambitions for the Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF, whatever its political makeup.
W. Peter Cherry, chief analyst for the Science Applications International Corp., Vienna, Va., is among six new members of the Washington-based National Academy of Engineering who have aerospace backgrounds. The others are: Archie R. Clemins, president of Caribou Technologies Inc., Boise, Idaho; Sau-Hai (Harvey) Lam, Edwin Wilsey '04 Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University; Verne L. (Larry) Lynn, a consultant on unmanned aerospace vehicles from Naples, Fla.; Albert F.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) believes that some day, a single aircraft will achieve the capabilities of three or four different vehicles by radically changing, or morphing, the shape of its wings during flight. Long-standing scientific work on these shape-shifting structures took a step forward to applied applications recently with successful wind-tunnel tests of two hunter-killer aircraft designs with morphing wings that were developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works and NextGen Aeronautics, a small California startup.
CAE has been chosen as the first manufacturer to provide a full-flight simulator for the 90-seat ARJ21 regional jet, which is under development by China Aviation Industries, AVIC I. CAE won a C$15-million ($12.9-million) contract to provide the first simulator for the ARJ21, which will be located at a training center in Shanghai, in time for the jet's entry into service in 2009.
Bill Lay and Charles Beard had a wonderful Viewpoint article on the need to include time-certain development as an integral part of the procurement process (AW&ST Feb. 13, p. 70). Here is another reason to include the factor of "time" in development: When technology and capability change every three months and it takes six months to write a specification, and the procurement process takes two or three or more years, the overall project time will stretch way out. These inconsistencies cause project distortion.
India will work with Russia to develop a new generation of Glonass navigation satellites and launch them on its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), under an agreement fleshed out this month after two years of negotiations. The deal between the Indian Space Research Organization and the Russian space agency Roscosmos was signed following the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to New Delhi Mar. 17. It includes launching of Glonass-M satellites with a version of the GSLV, and joint development of the smaller Glonass-K navigation satellites.
A leaked report that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners failed to spot homemade bomb-making materials hidden in luggage at 21 airports has Congress in an uproar, but Edmund (Kip) Hawley is taking the long view of the situation.
The Air Force and Navy have come to a "parting of the ways" over the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System, says USAF Secretary Michael Wynne. The Air Force is completing work on refueling unmanned vehicles, with a long-range-strike mission in mind. The Navy wants its UAV to conduct low-observable carrier ops. "If it works, I think the Air Force could show up back on their doorstep," Wynne says. The chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Mullen, says the Navy plans to field a carrier-capable, unmanned strike and recon aircraft in 10-15 years.
THE MODERNIZATION OF THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM is spotlighted in a Princeton University study, completed in 2004 under the auspices of the FAA and NASA's Joint University Program. Princeton graduate students John O. Andrews, Ezekiel S. Burke and John M. Thomas, whose specialties include aerospace engineering and operations research, called for the FAA to adopt a single tax system so that all commercial operators (not passengers) be taxed on a per-plane, per-time, per-location basis.
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PanAmSat reported a 7.6% rise in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2005, to $672.2 million. Revenues rose 4.1% to $861 million. Net income was $72.7 million, compared to a $79-million loss the previous year.
Colombia's AeroRepublica is buying five Embraer 190s and has taken options for another 20 of the company's regional jets. Deliveries are to start in November.
About half of the 65 Lockheed Martin F-22As may have a problem with the strength of Alcoa-built titanium frames in the fuselage, say U.S. Air Force and industry officials. "The parts may not have been heated up sufficiently on several sets of frames," says an aerospace industry official with insight into the program. The Air Force described the part as a forward boom, a spar that connects the tail surfaces and main structure of the fighter.
Airbus is looking to boost the performance of its A320 family even beyond the addition of wingtips now heading for several weeks of flight trials, which could impact timing decisions on a next-generation narrowbody. But that's not the only area of activity. On the A350 widebody, Airbus is continuing to evolve its configuration (already in flux for months) and will continue to do so for the near-term. Although the design freeze date is fast approaching, it will be extended indefinately for specific elements.
Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee tells Parliament that a surface-to-surface version of the BrahMos cruise missile has been made operational. He says it will be fired from a mobile launcher developed indigenously. Mukherjee says the air-to-ground version remains in development. The naval version, with a range of 300 km. (186 mi.), has been mounted on a number of new ships acquired from Russia.
French industries association Gifas reported a 7.5% increase in sales last year, to 28.1 billion euros ($33.7 billion), and a whopping 48% leap in orders, to 51.7 billion euros. However, Gifas President Charles Edelstenne warned that uncertainty about research spending, a weakening dollar, the health of lower-tier suppliers and future defense spending--particularly in France--could cloud future prospects.
Boeing missile defense officials refuse to answer questions about whether they are developing techniques for high-energy weapon effects from their SBX sea-based radar. However, since large distributed-array devices can be focused to deliver large spikes of energy, powerful enough to disable electronic equipment, the potential is known to exist and is being fielded on a range of U.S., British and Australian aircraft.
BAE Systems' Brough, U.K.-based Offshore Logistics has delivered the first shipment of raw material for the Hawk advanced jet trainers to be built under license in India. Key suppliers include Apollo, Rockfords, Aeropia and Rolls-Royce. India has ordered 66 AJTs, 24 of which are being supplied by BAE Systems "ready to fly," six in kits and the rest to be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Also, $22 million has been allotted for creation of an AJT-related infrastructure facility at Bidar in South India.
Steven M. Kellner (see photo, p.10) has been promoted to director of intelligence from quality control manager for the Intelligence Div. of Houston-based Air Security International.
There is an odd lack of imagination in the U.S. refueling tanker aircraft replacement debate. All of the current proposals use 1950s flying boom technology. A better solution would be to mount the boom tip on a small "flyer" towed at the end of a flexible hose. Modern computerized flight control systems could drive the control surfaces to stabilize, and steer the flyer with enough force so it can penetrate the receiver's slipstream.
Australia's rapidly modernizing Air Force counts on the network-centric approach to overcome long distances and small force size. The service's leadership decided more than a decade ago that a focus on strike should be supplanted by long-term investment in the technologies that would allow Australia to field the central nervous system for an international expeditionary force tailored to meet a wide range of natural and military emergencies.
The emergence of new long-haul aircraft could alter the commercial aviation insurance business, which is already in a state of flux. "The Airbus A380 has begun to make its presence felt, with at least one program increasing its liability limit in anticipation of the aircraft coming into commercial service," notes insurance and reinsurance broker Aon in its annual review of the industry.
A European Union-funded project led by Alcatel Alenia Space has demonstrated the feasibility of using Europe's Egnos wide-area GPS augmentation system to enhance emergency call positioning and rescue coordination. The project, dubbed Score, was demonstrated in Lisbon with Portuguese civil security forces and fire brigades using an end-to-end system composed of specially developed processing algorithms and servers and off-the-shelf receivers integrated with state-of-the-art cell phones and ground networks.
Douglas Barrie (London), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
A funding crunch within Europe's fledgling aviation safety agency is raising the specter of delays in the certification process. The Airbus A380 widebody is one of the aircraft the agency is dealing with.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) isn't buying industry complaints about overzealous Pentagon enforcement of the Berry Amendment, the decades-old law that requires metals in military hardware to be of U.S. origin. Contractors protest that government lawyers are holding them to an impossible standard by demanding verification of domestic metal in every component, right down to screws and bolts that literally cost pocket change (AW&ST Mar. 13, p. 24). But Hunter, Congress' leading "Buy America" advocate, isn't swayed.
