Executive Editor Jim Asker discusses the Japanese regional jet project with Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief Bradley Perrett and Jens Flottau, managing editor for commercial aviation.
We look at the new features being introduced in the cockpit of Gulfstream's G600 and the Pratt & Whitney PW800 engine that will power the new ultra-long-range business jet.
Walter Heerdt has been named senior vice president-VIP and executive jets for Lufthansa Technik. He succeeds Hans Schmitz, who will be retiring. Heerdt has been senior vice president-marketing and sales for the Lufthansa Technik Group.
Michael Lopez-Alegria has been to orbit four times – three of them in a NASA space shuttle and once on a Russian Soyuz capsule. At the recent International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, the former U.S. Navy test pilot described the differences taking off and landing in the two vehicles. As you will hear, they are very different indeed.
Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier talks to Aviation Week about the market, the company’s hefty R&D investments and why he is confident Dassault will gain ground on Gulfstream in China. Since since taking the top job in January 2013, he has focused intensely on the company’s business-jet dossier, which accounts for 70% of sales. The 5X and 8X mark Dassault’s expansion into the super-midsize and long-range markets.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft, fielded for training and operations around the country, continue to fly under a restricted envelope following a June 23 engine fire in an F-35A. The Pentagon has yet to announce a definitive path to dealing with the design problem on the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine that prevented the F-35 from making its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough air show in July.
Russia’s deteriorating economic situation and political tensions over the crisis in Ukraine are posing serious challenges for the country’s airlines. Growth rates for Russian carriers ballooned in the last decade, but there are signs these times are over.
The search for MH370 has resumed with refined Inmarsat data in play, although skeptics maintain that searchers still do not have all the information they need
NASA’s $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope program was rebaselined in 2011 and has since adhered to its revised cost and schedule estimates for a planned launch atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket in 2018, but technology challenges could threaten the agency’s ability to keep it on track.
Rolls-Royce has begun flight tests of its composite carbon/titanium (CTi) fan blade, which will be a key feature in the company’s next-generation Advance and UltraFan engine designs.
First-light imagery from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) orbiter displays some of the components of the planet’s upper atmosphere that the spacecraft will study as they interact with the Sun. The three views captured by the probe’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph offer “the most complete picture of the extended Martian upper atmosphere ever made,” says Mike Chaffin of the University of Colorado, Boulder, a member of the Maven remote-sensing team.
Opinion: USAF has the rare opportunity to improve U.S. national security, impose costs on an aggressive foreign power, promote American technological innovation and create jobs at home.
Embraer plans to formally roll out the first prototype of its KC-390 military transport aircraft during a ceremony at its Gaviao Peixoto facility near Sao Paulo on Oct. 21. The aircraft will be the largest built in Brazil. The company hopes to fly the IAE V2500-powered aircraft by year-end.
As part of Russia’s effort to strengthen its military, the air force received many new aircraft in 2014, according to figures revealed earlier this month during a joint acceptance day held by the defense ministry. On the same day, the air force also took delivery of three Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighters, two Su-30SM2 two-seaters and three Mil Mi-8MTV5-1 military transport helicopters. Russian manufacturers also have delivered nine Su-30SMs, a domestic version of the export bestseller Su-30MKI two-seat fighter and four Su-30M2s, according to air force Cmdr. Lt. Gen. Victor Bondarev.
GE Capital Aviation Services is set to take over helicopter-leasing specialist Milestone Aviation Group in an agreement valued at $1.775 billion. The deal, revealed on Oct. 13, is likely to shakeup the still-fledgling helicopter leasing business, which was rebooted by the formation of Milestone in 2010.
The U.S. Navy has declared its new Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye carrier-based airborne command and control aircraft operational. The first five aircraft—one full squadron—has been fielded and initial operational capability was declared Oct. 10. The first squadron will deploy next year on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The Navy plans to buy 75 E-2Ds to replace 52 E-2Cs now in service, in a $19.9 billion, 10-squadron program, says Capt. John Lemmon E-2/C-2 program manager for the Navy.
Prox Dynamics has unveiled a night-capable version of its PD-100 Black Hornet unmanned air vehicle, believed to be the smallest operational military UAV. The 18-gram single-rotor helicopter is fitted with a Flir Systems infrared camera and a day video sensor, and can transmit video streams or high-resolution still images via a digital datalink with a 1-mi. range. More than 3,000 PD-100s have been delivered, the company says. The system has been used in Afghanistan by British Army units since 2013.
Qatar has agreed to purchase 152 PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) interceptors and 15 launcher modification kits from Lockheed Martin for $595 million. Twelve U.S. allies have purchased the Patriot air defense system. Of those, the Netherlands, Japan, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Germany and Kuwait already have the CRI interceptor. The company is in talks for sales of the CRI to Saudi Arabia, Poland and South Korea. Lockheed recently received U.S.
Scientists operating the New Horizons probe to explore Pluto and its moons plan to ask for an extended mission to a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), now that the Hubble Space Telescope has spotted three of the tiny faint bodies at the outer reaches of the Solar System that the nuclear-powered probe may be able to reach after it passes Pluto. The KBOs are 15-34 mi. across, and one of them is “definitely reachable,” according to the program team. All lie at least 1 billion mi.
