The strong pipeline of new products, many announced but some still to come, provided a boost in Honeywell’s latest forecast for the delivery of 9,450 business jets valued at $280 billion through 2024.
Airbus is close to launching an increased maximum-takeoff and long-range version of the A321neo that it seeks to position as a Boeing 757 replacement. The manufacturer is briefing potential customers, but has not yet made a decision to proceed. An Airbus official says the new version is still in a project study.
A spacecraft designed to test reentry techniques for a future lunar-sample return mission lifted off from the Xichang launch facility on a Long March 3C Oct. 23 (Oct. 24 local time) on a week-long mission that will take it around the Moon. Citing a spokesman for the China National Space Administration, China Daily’s English-language edition says the testbed will return to Earth after a swing around the Moon to test a “skip” reentry technique to bleed off velocity before a parachute touchdown in the Gobi Desert.
Moody’s Investors Service believes the European transport infrastructure industry will remain stable over the next 12-18 months on growth in traffic volume. “We expect EU airport passenger levels to grow by 2-6% in 2014 and 1-4% in 2015, mainly driven by an increase in airline capacity,” says senior Moody’s analyst Joanna Fic.
The steady drop in oil prices is not yet raising concerns at Boeing or on Wall Street that airlines will alter their emerging pattern of lining up a historically high percentage of new deliveries as replacements for less efficient, older-generation aircraft. “The price of oil still could fall a long way before our planes are anything but compelling,” Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said last week.
Lockheed Martin and Turkey-based Roketsan are to codevelop a medium-range cruise missile for internal carriage on the F-35. Final integration of the 1,000 lb.-class SOM-J weapon is planned for 2023 as part of the Block 4 capability upgrade. Designed to meet a Turkish air force requirement, SOM-J is based on the larger SOM stand-off cruise missile developed indigenously in Turkey and in production at Roketsan.
Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Kremlin-controlled aircraft maker Irkut, a subsidiary of United Aircraft Corp., based on Russia’s worsening economic situation. The U.S.-based credit rating agency says it still believes Irkut and other state-backed companies will enjoy state support if they encounter “financial distress.” Not every state-backed Russian company will see ratings downgraded, albeit because they were lower already. For instance, Moody’s reaffirmed outlooks on Russian Helicopters.
Mergers and acquisitions activity in the U.S. aerospace and defense industry slowed in the third quarter, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Total deal volume slipped to the lowest level in 11 quarters, and was the weakest since the second quarter of 2005. The trend, reported by Aviation Week last month, comes as many A&D participants had once thought this year would mark the beginning of a wave of strategic M&A in Western industry. Divestitures continue to remain favorite business-shaping tools as companies divide or slice off divisions deemed non-core, slow-growth or worse.
No matter who holds the majority in the Senate after the November midterm election, the fate of defense spending in the fiscal 2016 budget will be tied up in a larger tangle of spending issues.
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.
Despite ongoing budget cuts that are forcing the Army to shrink, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says U.S. land forces will remain relevant now and into the future. The Army will be tapped to respond to potential threats in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific—often thought of in terms of air- and sea-based response.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
