Aeromexico has selected the T2CAS terrain and traffic-collision avoidance system to equip its Boeing 757, 767 and MD-80 twinjets. Thales Avionics and Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems manufacture the system.
With the commercial aerospace industry at one of its lowest ebbs in memory, the mere mention of an eventual rebound must seem to a lot of small suppliers like a mirage. As painful as the current slump is, however, it's worth remembering that the sector will recover.
General Electric will delay certification of the 115,000-lb.-thrust GE90-115B by several weeks to correct a stage 1 high-pressure turbine blade platform distortion that cropped up about 35 hr. into a planned 150-block test (see p. 39). The company believes the distortion was caused by insufficient cooling air so cooling holes are being added to correct the problem. Flight tests of the powerplant will remain on schedule and block tests are set to resume soon. Engine certification, originally planned for this month, is now targeted for January.
Vykor Inc. has been using its expertise in manufacturing technology and knowledge of the supplier base to help companies contract out to get parts and tooling manufactured. Vykor is now putting its services on the Web with the Vykor Sourcing Solution at www.vykor.com. The service estimates what the manufacturing cost should be, helps define the best way to make a part, assesses supplier capabilities, assists the supplier in setting up its production based upon the supplier's capabilities, and can quantify justification to adopt new manufacturing technologies.
While the Pentagon likes to demonstrate its technology as it matures to show it is making progress, there is a pitfall that managers need to be aware of. If operational users see a capability demonstrated, they often think it is immediately available, notes Judy A. Stokley, the U.S. Air Force's program executive officer for weapons. If users then ask for the system and contractors come back and ask for millions of dollars and years to develop it, that can cause a backlash.
Earlier this fall, U.S. pilots demonstrated the ability to drop a bomb and then continuously update the weapon's aim point--while it was falling--with enough precision to consistently hit within lethal distance of a moving target. This week researchers will begin a new series of tests at Eglin AFB, Fla., to show they can continue to track moving targets even as they maneuver aggressively among other vehicles, foliage and obscuring terrain features.
China's exports, particularly for Japanese manufacturers seeking cheap labor, are prompting Japanese carriers to boost their freighter services to China's port cities. Japan Airlines will increase its services from a combined 12 flights a week to 17 by year-end. All Nippon Airways recently inaugurated twice-weekly services from Tokyo to Xiamen and is to add a flight to Tianjin. All Nippon Cargo Airlines, an ANA subsidiary, is boosting its Tokyo-Shanghai weekly services from four to five. Likewise, JAL has upped its Tokyo-Shanghai service from two to three flights.
Star Alliance carriers are weighing the options against a double threat to survival--two of its founding members, United Airlines and Varig Brazil, are wallowing in deep financial distress and partner Air New Zealand may cross over to the competition.
In her valedictory to the Aero Club of Washington, Air Transport Assn. President Carol Hallett speculated that the country's airlines could face nationalization. This action will come if the airlines and government do not take drastic steps to address the sector's problems. Citing the estimated $9 billion pre-tax losses for the airlines in 2002, she added that the nine largest U.S. airlines together have $100 billion of debt, while the market capitalization for the same airlines totals $15 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corp. intends to complete its acquisition of TRW Inc. on Dec. 11, provided that shareholders approve the proposed transaction. While no major opposition is expected, some large investors are highly critical of what they perceive to be Northrop's business strategy of striving for growth for growth's sake. They also voiced concerns about Northrop's integration of TRW Inc.
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, budget airline EasyJet's founder, resigned as chairman last week, to be succeeded by Colin Chandler. Its 2002 full-year results, released at the same time, saw pretax profit up 78% from 2001, with turnover up 55%. Irrespective of the performance, the company's share price fell 13.6% on the announcement of Haji-Iannou's departure, but rallied by 3% the following day.
Herley Industries subsidiary Herley Israel has won a $1.25-million contract from Indra Systems to supply microwave components to be integrated into electronic warfare systems.
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Research that may lead to lighter, more efficient fighters took a jump forward last month with the first flight of the active aeroelastic wing demonstrator at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft--a joint project of NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory and Boeing Phantom Works--will use existing controls as servo tabs to twist the wing itself for roll control, exploiting torsionally flimsy structure that would normally hinder performance.
CFX-TASCflow is a computational fluid dynamics program aimed at turbomachinery, by virtue of being able to handle several computational grids that move with respect to each other, such as grids representing rotors and stators. The drawing at right shows the program applied to the space shuttle main engine high-pressure fuel turbine, modeling how a cold streak affects an inlet strut, stator blades and rotor blades.
The world's largest commercial communications spacecraft, the 11,600-lb. European Astra 1K, was left stranded in a useless orbit last week following the failure of its ILS/Russian Proton K upper stage shortly after launch from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Nov. 26 accident will have major implications for SES European satcom operations, the aerospace insurance market and the competition between Proton and the Boeing Sea Launch programs that use the same rocket stage that failed.
Local residents and environmentalists continue to protest nighttime operations at European hubs. Aviation authorities are desperately working to reduce noise complaints by revising initial climb and final approach procedures, but they fear the rising controversy could lead to more operational limitations. The recent airspace restructuring near Paris, for example, is not producing the expected results. Local residents claim flight crews do not comply with the updated rules. Similarly, a fierce dispute about night takeoffs at Brussels-Zaventem erupted in Belgium last week.
BAE Systems Controls is making the first use of its CsLEOS real-time embedded operating system in a mission-critical application on a production aircraft. Ship No. 121 of Boeing's C-17 military transport, due for delivery in mid-2004, will have a new automatic flight control system based on CsLEOS. The operating system allows several safety-critical functions to run on the same processor yet be strictly partitioned from one another (AW&ST Sept. 2, p. 64). The ARINC-653 partitioning means one function can be revised without having to recertify the others.
Large aerospace programs often have design and decision-making distributed among several sites or companies, and large-screen "reality centers" are one way to connect them. Silicon Graphics has a new set of software called Viz Server to help run the imagery. Viz Server allows one to control compression, resolution and frame rate of the video to match the "visual area network" capability.
Greece has picked the NH90 helicopter for its army transport requirement, becoming the ninth European country to select the medium-lift helicopter. The decision was part of a $2.1-billion package of follow-on acquisitions, including Apache attack helicopters, corvettes and frigate modernization, approved last week under a massive multiyear arms buildup.
To improve security, Wind River Systems is designing a "Trusted Operating System" to handle secret information in embedded systems. With so much national infrastructure running on networks, and some based on Windows, there is concern about vulnerabilities. National infrastructure will be upgraded to be more secure over the next 2-10 years, says Steve Blackman, director of marketing for Wind River's Aerospace & Defense unit.
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory controllers returned the Galileo spacecraft to normal operation on Nov. 13 following a high-radiation pass by Jupiter's moon Amalthea, but the tape recorder containing science data from the flyby is not responding to commands. The spacecraft entered a standby mode 16 min. after closest approach to Amalthea on Nov. 5, triggered by at least five events likely related to the electronics being exposed to radiation more than 100 times a lethal human dose (AW&ST Nov. 11, p. 18).
Neelam Mathews (New Delhi), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
The Asia-Pacific region's most openly kept airline secret is officially out. Qantas Airways intends to buy a 22.5% share in Air New Zealand, injecting $550 million into the cash-starved carrier, and the two will begin a wide-ranging strategic alliance.
