NTSB board member Mark Rosekind has been selected by the Obama administration to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, succeeding Peter Strickland, who resigned in December 2013. Rosekind’s departure would leave the NTSB down two members since Deborah Hersman left to lead the National Safety Council. Chris Hart, who has been acting chairman since April, also awaits Senate confirmation.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has become the third air arm to operate the Airbus A400M airlifter following the delivery of its first aircraft on Nov. 17. The aircraft was delivered to RAF Brize Norton from Airbus’s final assembly line in Seville, Spain. The U.K. joins France and Turkey, which already are flying the type, and has 22 A400Ms on order.
Overweening Assumptions Two factors stand out in “Revolutionary Roadmap” ( AW&ST Nov. 3/10, p. 29). First, Chinese weapon developments may allow them to challenge U.S. air superiority. This isn’t surprising.
The new subsidiary, Fuzhou Airlines, will compete at one of the two key bases of China’s sixth-largest carrier, Xiamen Airlines, which plans a big lift in capacity next year at Fuzhou. The new carrier has begun flying to Beijing, and other early destinations will be Shanghai, Xian, Haikou, Taiyuan, Chongqing, Hefei, Kunming and Tianjin.
The airline’s board of directors is replacing Wolfgang Prock-Schauer after less than two years at the helm of Air Berlin; veteran German airline executive Stefan Pichler will take over from him in February. Prock-Schauer is to stay on as head of strategy. The carrier’s operating loss in the first nine months widened to €114 million ($142 million).
Flying far is more important than flying fast, Japanese fighter technologists have found in studies aimed at defining their country’s next combat aircraft. Researchers are also emphasizing that Japan’s next fighter should share targeting data and carry a big internal load of large, high-performance missiles.
NASA’s go-as-you-can-pay approach to exploration-system development means the heavy-lift Space Launch System in development to carry Orion beyond low Earth orbit and eventually on to Mars is very much a work in progress, starting with the engines.
The removal of the Kiowa Warrior from the Army aviation inventory marks the end of an era of an astounding combat-proven aircraft that was fundamental to mission success in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The inevitable has happened in the U.S. attempt to move the economy off the planet. That it happened twice in a week is driving a needed element of reality into the endeavor.
As part of a major overhaul of its regional operations, Air New Zealand plans to retire its 19-seaters and bring in additional, larger turboprops. The airline’s 17 Beechcraft 1900Ds are to be phased out by August 2016. Air New Zealand has converted options for four more 68-seat ATR 72-600s (see photo), boosting its orders to nine. It already operates four ATR 72-600s and 11 -500s, with 23 50-seat Bombardier Q300s also in its regional turboprop fleet.
Bell Helicopter conducted the maiden flight of its new Model 505 JetRanger X on Nov. 10. The helicopter, FTV1, took to the air at the company’s Mirabel facility outside Montreal. Test pilots Yann Lavalle and Eric Emblin conducted a low-speed controllability assessment of the aircraft before flying two laps of the traffic pattern with a total flight time of 30 min. and reaching 60 kt. The company has already received 240 letters of intent to purchase, and wrote an order for 50 more from Chinese firm Reignwood Investment Ltd. at the Zhuhai Airshow on Nov. 12.
A heavy load of dust cast off by the comet Siding Spring 2013 as it hurtled past Mars last month could have damaged the fleet of scientific orbiters circling the planet, had they not tweaked their orbits to be as far away from potential danger as possible. Preliminary results from the Oct. 19 encounter revealed far more dust entering the Martian atmosphere as the planet passed behind the comet than planetary scientists had expected.
The French army has deployed two of its new NH90 Caiman utility helicopters to Africa after achieving initial operating capability. The aircraft have begun operational missions in Mali as part of the French government’s ongoing counter-terror operation in the Sahel region of Africa. The two NH90s arrived Nov. 3 after being ferried through Spain and with refueling stops.
Chinese demand is a factor behind Airbus’s keenness to build the A350 faster than the 2018 target of 10 aircraft per month. “We don’t have many early delivery slots to offer customers in China,” and none before 2020, Eric Chen, president of Airbus China, says. He adds that more A350s would have been sold to Chinese airlines had slots become available. This year, A350 production is increasing to three from two per month. By the end of 2015, it should reach five a month, with the full-rate target of 10 a month expected in 2018.
Boeing and Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China have opened a facility that will turn waste cooking oil, commonly referred to as “gutter oil” in China, into sustainable aviation biofuel. The companies estimate that 500 million gal. of this biofuel could be made annually in China. Biofuel produced by the China-U.S. Aviation Biofuel Pilot Project is expected to meet international specifications approved in 2011 for jet fuel made from plant oils and animal fats. This type of biofuel has been used for more than 1,600 commercial flights.
