Aurora Flight Sciences has delivered the first aft fuselage for the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk RQ-4B unmanned aerial vehicle, which is now in development. Aurora officials say they were a "scrappy" company when they started work on the Global Hawk program and have since grown into a "mature design and manufacturing" outfit. The RQ-4B will carry 50% more payload than its RQ-4A predecessor, including a variety of electro-optical, infrared, radar and signals intelligence systems.
The world's most populous nations and fastest growing economies have ended a four-decades-old border dispute and taken steps, so they say, that will help Asia become more peaceful. Agreed to last week when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, the agreement came just two weeks after the U.S. made its own strategic headlines in the region by agreeing to sell F-16s to Pakistan and then told India it could have its own fighter deal, plus help in its civilian nuclear program (AW&ST Apr. 4, p. 28).
Crane lowers a 4-million-lb. X-band radar assembly onto a converted offshore oil rig at the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard in Corpus Christi, Tex. After testing in the Gulf of Mexico, the 282-ft.-tall, self-propelled Sea-Based X-Band Radar will travel around South America to its homeport of U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) with the ability to distinguish between incoming hostile missile warheads and decoys.
World News Roundup 14 German army gets first UH-Tiger attack helicopter 15 Tests underway for variable-speed refueling drogue for V-22 16 X-band radar to assist Ballistic Missile Defense System 16 Operators of some Boeing aircraft face big bill to replace insulation World News & Analysis 18 Europe gives space, security special billing in seven-year R&D aid plan 20 Industry fears Europe in danger of losing launcher expertise
Emirates is building a new $353-million engineering center at Dubai International Airport. Planned for completion early next year, the eight-hangar facility (seven for light and heavy aircraft maintenance and one paint hangar) is to service Emirates' current and expanding fleet. The airline has about 100 aircraft on order, including 45 Airbus A380-800 superjumbos and 29 Boeing 777-300ERs (AW&ST Apr. 4, p. 42). The facility will also offer third-party maintenance.
SkyWest Airlines just placed a firm order valued at about $637 million for 20 additional Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets. The airline--which operates as a United Express, Delta Connection and Continental Connection carrier--now has 32 CRJ700s as well as 125 50-seat CRJ200 regional jets in its fleet. All SkyWest CRJ700s operate as United Express from Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Russian International Space Station managers are studying the use of an old Orlan space suit as a pressurized housing for student experiments that could be thrown overboard at the ISS. Low-cost experiments could function longer in a pressurized suit that has outlived its usefulness for extravehicular activities (EVAs) by station crewmembers. The Russians are studying the hand release of the inflated suit by station crewmembers during an EVA as early as the fall of 2006.
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Kudos for the outstanding articles on the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels. I have been an admirer and follower of both teams since the "Birds" flew North American F-100 Super Sabres and "Blues" flew Grumman F11F Tigers in the late 1950s. Your articles captured the essence of what makes these teams successful. You also effectively answered some persistent questions (e.g., why the "Blues" don't wear g-suits) plus confirmed some rumors (e.g., hidden beneath that shiny paint, both teams fly some old airframes).
This year, the high cost of fuel is likely to lead to probably more than $5.5 billion in losses for the airline industry. The figure provided by International Air Transport Assn. Director General Giovanni Bisignani assumes a $43 per barrel oil price, lower than currently being witnessed. The total losses for 2001-05 would reach a staggering $40 billion, Bisignani notes.
In a bid to strengthen its position in the homeland security communications market, EADS is looking to buy Nokia's professional mobile radio operations. Negotiations are in the advanced stage, according to EADS. The deal, one of a series in recent months intended to beef up EADS' secure communications, would include systems operating on the Tetra and Tetrapol secure communications standards.
The Zodiac Group has negotiated a $600-million contract to acquire the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based C&D Aerospace Group, a maker of aircraft cabin equipment. It is part of a consolidation trend in the business segment. C&D Aerospace had $400 million in revenue last year. Zodiac says it will finance the acquisition internally. Regulatory approval is still required.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries will use Vistagy Inc.'s FiberSim specialist computer-aided design software for composite structures for fuselage work on the Boeing 787.
The FAA has proposed an airworthiness directive that would require new repetitive tests, inspections and analyses of rudder servo actuators on Airbus A300B2-B4, A300-600 and A310 aircraft. The action is prompted by reports of actuator desynchronization. The FAA points out that desynchronization of one of three actuators, combined with an engine failure, could result in failure of the related hydraulic system and loss of one of the two synchronized actuators. In turn, this could create additional fatigue loading and possible cracking of the attachment fittings.
FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP OPERATOR NETJETS and Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) have reached a tentative agreement whereby NetJets will buy up to 50 Hawker Horizon super mid-size business jets for its fleet. According to RAC, the agreement calls for a 10-year maintenance program, and is scheduled to be in place by mid-April. The Horizon received FAA certification in December 2004, and production is underway at RAC's facilities in Wichita, Kan.
Donald R. Schreiber has been named chairman/CEO of Kellstrom Industries, Miramar, Fla. He was CEO of GE Aviation Materials. As chairman, Schreiber succeeds James C. Comis, 3rd.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. made final the rest of its tentative decisions on service to China, affirming selection of American Airlines for daily Chicago-Shanghai nonstops beginning in March 2006.
The U.S. Homeland Security and State Depts. announced a "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative" last week that will require U.S. citizens and foreigners to have passports to travel from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America or Bermuda into the U.S. starting Dec. 31. There will be some exceptions under existing programs such as the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspec-tion, which is for pre-enrolled frequent border crossers who have undergone background checks.
Even as U.S. and European trade negotiators continue their back-and-forth over aircraft development subsidies, strategists on both sides of the Atlantic are weighing what to do if, as expected, the talks' self-imposed Apr. 11 deadline passes without an agreement. For later, the U.S. eyes other offenders, notably Japan and Russia.
One of NASA's new overseers in the House thinks another look at the space agency's organization may pay off before it embarks for good on President Bush's program of exploring beyond low Earth orbit. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) says the agency's present structure--set up by former Administrator Sean O'Keefe to tighten its focus on exploration--risks wasting the human capital built up over past decades, particularly in the hard-hit aeronautics programs.
Boeing will convert 10 Lockheed C-130 transports to MC-130H Combat Talon II configuration under a $134-million, first-phase contract from the U.S. Air Force. Plans call for two airplanes to be delivered as part of the initial phase, followed by $446 million to modify the remaining eight. Deliveries are set to begin in July 2008 and continue through 2011. Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications will receive subcontracts to support Boeing in development and modification work. The MC-130H features a glass cockpit and a sophisticated electronic-warfare suite.
Rachel Ehrenfeld has some facts wrong about man-portable air defense systems (manpads) and airliners (AW&ST Mar. 14, p. 98). Airliners by design are robust platforms; they can take hits and survive. Let's look at two airplanes that have landed with damage that no manpad hits could have inflicted--the Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 that lost most of its cabin roof in 1988 and United 747 that lost a major section of fuselage above the cargo door in 1989.
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The space shuttle orbiter Discovery with its ATK Thiokol solid rocket boosters and modified Lockheed Martin external tank is positioned on Launch Complex 39B at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), ready to return the program to flight as early as mid-May (see pp. 24 & 54). The Apr. 6 rollout was the first since Columbia was transferred to Pad 39A in December 2002 preceding its Feb. 1, 2003, accident.
