The Pentagon has tweaked its Responsive Small Spacelift program in the run-up to releasing a request for proposals to bidders this week. RSS is to develop more flexible launch and launch services for small payloads using largely existing technology. The two mission types have been redefined.
Congress wants the Air Force to consider reengining the fleet of E-8C Joint-STARS ground surveillance aircraft, but don't expect the plan to go very far. The cost is so high it "just doesn't compete well" when the service goes through its budget trades, Jumper says. The concept of putting four new engines on the eight-engine B-52Hs is similarly not likely to get beyond the idea stage, he adds.
Delta Air Lines pilots gave thumbs-up to a new contract late last week that will deliver $5 billion in cost savings to the ailing carrier over a five-year period. The agreement includes a 32.5% wage reduction that becomes effective Dec. 1 and work-rule changes aimed at increasing the efficiency of pilot scheduling. The new contract will freeze the pilots' retirement defined benefit plan and create a new defined contribution plan. It will also allow Delta's regional partners to operate a larger number of 70-seat jet aircraft.
NATO's need to become more mobile and flexible is being torpedoed by Europe's fixation on fielding a space-based navigation system, says the U.S. Air Force's top officer in Europe. Gen. Charles Wald, deputy chief of U.S. European Command, says he's concerned that "they're now moving toward purchasing a Galileo GPS system. You have to ask yourself, when there is already an existing GPS system free for everybody to use as they see fit, [why] Europe is going to invest almost $10 billion on it. From a NATO perspective . . . we've already assured access [to GPS].
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT CO. HAS DELIVERED a King Air 350 to mark the 40th anniversary of the turboprop-powered line that began in 1964 with the Model 90. Jorge and Meisy Zamora, doctors based in McAllen, Tex., will operate the new King Air in support of their in-state medical clinics and regional business missions. The 6,000th King Air is on the production line at Raytheon's factory in Wichita, Kan., and is scheduled to be delivered later this year.
Italy will convert 15 military fields to state-owned civil airports by 2005, according to the country's civil aviation authority, the ENAC. Airports that will go the way of civil operations: Ancona, Comiso, Naples, Treviso, Brescia-Montichiari, Catania, Rimini, Palermo-Boccadifalco, Vicenza, Verona, Udine, Rome-Ciampino, Brindisi, Cagliari and Capua. The Grazzanise airport will maintain military status, but be opened to civil flights.
The Polytec Inc. PSV-400-3D scanning laser vibrometer, utilized in experimental modal analysis, uses Doppler shift of back-scattered laser light to determine instantaneous velocity and displacement of a point on a vibrating surface, the company says. Aerospace applications include: measuring vibration characteristics of intricate prototypes and preproduction products for design verification, characterizing airframe components for production, and quality control and evaluation of aging aircraft for maintenance and repair.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Feb. 16-17--World Aerospace Symposium/Toulouse. Pierre Baudis Toulouse Congress Center, Toulouse, France. Apr. 19-20--MRO Military Conference. Also, Apr. 20-21--MRO USA Conference & Exhibition. Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Dallas. May 24-25--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition. Washington.
The 23 programs profiled on the following pages are the product of nearly 50 years of commercial aircraft development by aerospace companies around the world. They include mainline transports equipped with more than 100 seats, as well as regional jets and turboprop aircraft. The list, intended to serve as a convenient reference, was compiled by Forecast International (FI), a leading provider of aerospace/defense forecasting and intelligence services. FI also is the principal source of data for Aviation Week and Space Technology's upcoming 2005 Aerospace Source Book.
The British Defense Ministry is extending the assessment phase of its 860-million-pound ($1.58-billion) Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicle program, risking a potential delay of the in-service date. The Watchkeeper program is a key intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (Istar) effort, and the ministry has been keen to see it enter service as quickly as possible.
The European Commission has growing doubts about Alitalia's rescue plan. EC officials are pressing Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for a commitment to privatize the ailing flag carrier. This is the prerequisite to approval of a proposed 1.2 billion-euro ($1.5-billion) recapitalization plan to relaunch the airline. Moreover, Italian officials reportedly are slow in providing additional information on and clarification of the plan.
As the impact of discount carriers, global alliances and airline economics spreads around the world, airport hubs such as New York John F. Kennedy International Airport are undergoing a transformation that is expected to create its own winners and losers in coming years. AW&ST examines the issues in its annual International Air Transport special report, with coverage beginning on p. 48. Joseph Pries photo shows aircraft parked at JFK Terminal 4.
Makino's multipurpose A99E-CD horizontal machining center is the company's most flexible and adaptive aerospace manufacturing machine. It can cut up to 75% off cycle times of both milling and grinding production operation to its Continuous Dress creep feed grinding technology on the same machine as a conventional high-speed milling process. The machine can mill, bore, drill, tap and turn as well as grind, using a patented grinding process. The combination can further reduce up to 90% of cycle time through combined milling and grinding operations.
Having been an advocate of dissimilar redundancy for some time, it is distressing to see that the aerospace community rarely uses the concept. The standard "add more redundant strings" as the criticality goes up is still used, but not everywhere.
Industry is noncommittal, if skeptical, about the Transportation Security Administration's newly proposed air cargo rule, which the agency estimates will cost U.S. aircraft operators, airports, foreign carriers, freight forwarders and airports $837 million through 2013. That's little more than $90 million per year, a number unlikely to increase industry's confidence in government cost-estimating methodology. Industry got to weigh-in on the rules before the TSA firmed them up, through an Aviation Security Advisory Committee air cargo working group.
FORECAST INTERNATIONAL, A PROVIDER of market intelligence and analysis for the aerospace and defense business, predicts that turbofan engines will gain market share at the expense of turboprop powerplants used in business aviation and airline transports. David Franus, senior power systems analyst, says the rise in popularity of smaller turbofan engines can be attributed to the success of fractional ownership programs that offer business jets, as well as the increasing number of larger regional jets that have entered service.
Five companies will share up to $2 billion in mission planning work under a new U.S. Air Force contract. BAE Systems, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Tybrin have been named contractors under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity Mission Planning Enterprise contract. Under terms of the agreement, the companies can get awards to develop software that would transition various weapons systems from the Air Force Mission Planning System currently in use to the future Joint Mission Planning System.
In the story "Guided Development" (AW&ST Nov. 8, p. 42), the ranges of the Chinese TL-6 and TL-10 missiles were inverted. The correct ranges are 15 km. (9 mi.) for the TL-10 and 27 km. for the TL-6.
Eugene Covert's letter on European subsidies would be equally valid if one substituted NASA for Onera and DFVLR since European countries also have freely benefited from the U.S.' publicly funded research and development. Those governments should ante up R&D funds instead of having Boeing cut off. This would allow expansion of the entire aerospace industry instead of artificially restraining it.
The USAF's Electronic Systems Center awarded a mission-planning contract that could be worth up to $2 billion by 2009. A pool of five prime contractors--BAE Systems, Tybrin Corp., Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin--will compete for the work. The umbrella contract is designed to streamline acquisitions by consolidating 23 contracts into one in an effort to eliminate stovepipes and duplication plus help rationalize a mission planning roadmap to a next-generation Joint Mission Planning System.
Neelam Mathews (New Delhi), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
As passenger and cargo traffic continues what has been the airline industry's greatest sustained boom, the Asia-Pacific region's major hubs are restructuring in response to new competitive pressures. A shift is underway in the old guard. Japan remains the region's largest economy--it accounts for 47% of Asia's economic output--and has the most developed airport infrastructure, although badly strained. Markets are shifting for long-standing hubs such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.
Arrow Gear Co. offers a full line of ground tooth spiral bevel gears from stock. The line comprises 57 combinations of gears, up to 16 in. in diameter. Key benefits to using the stock gear line include: substantial cost savings and low-cost solutions for prototype and low-volume development, delivery within days, and the ability to have a contact pattern modified by company engineers to meet specific gearbox deflection requirements. The company claims the distinction of producing more loose gearing for jet-engine applications than any other gear manufacturer, worldwide.
Wald refuses to predict what Pentagon programs may be offered up as potential budget victims in 2005's upcoming quadrennial defense review (QDR), but he does say the services need an even spread of capability to allow responses across the warfighting spectrum. The initial decisions to field a new tanker aircraft "have to start happening soon," Wald says--the capability is a "key strategic advantage" that must be renewed.
