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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
President Barack Obama has nominated Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to be deputy administrator at NASA. Best known for innovative spacesuit designs, Newman joined MIT’s faculty in 1993. Pending approval by the Senate, she will follow Lori Garver, who resigned in September 2013 to become general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association.
The owner of London Heathrow Airport is selling Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports to a consortium of Ferrovial and Macquarie in a deal worth £1.048 billion ($1.68 billion). The long-awaited sale by Heathrow Airport Holdings announced on Oct. 16 is expected to close in 2015. Ferrovial currently owns the controlling share of 25% of Heathrow Holdings through a subsidiary called FGP Topco Ltd.
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.
