'Solid Preference?' ( AW&ST May 26/June 2, p. 24) could be dealing with faulty figures. The cost-per-launch target value of €70 million ($95 million) for a future Ariane 6 vehicle was established by the European Space Agency (ESA) in early 2012 in its NELS study (New European Launch Service), based on the price Russia—prime competitor for geostationary transfer orbit launches—was charging for Proton services.
The Face to Face interview with Chris Chadwick, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security ( AW&ST May 26/June 2 , p. 69), continues a trend of interviews that makes one wonder if the questions were written after the responses were provided. In this instance, Chadwick is asked 10 questions, and in only four does he actually answer the specific query. Essentially, we receive variations of the company line: “We are doing great.”
As China’s well-funded push to build up its aero-engine industry gathers strength, details are emerging of new aviation powerplants in early development. Three of these—a turboprop, turboshaft and turbofan—form a family built on a common core, a cost-effective development practice that the Western industry now rarely uses. Two others, turbofans for commercial aircraft, are based on the common approach of scaling turbo machinery up or down to meet different thrust requirements.
No one doubts China’s eagerness to move into the civil aircraft-engine sector with a broad range of products. But Avic’s ability to verify the performance and safety of its civil engines, always in question, is now confirmed to be quite lacking.
The Export-Import Bank is perceived as so important to Boeing that news stories initially blamed House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor’s primary election defeat for a one-day, 2.3% slide in Boeing stock. Financial analysts later stopped hyperventilating and attributed the downgrade more to other factors. But it was a nod to the power Cantor had wielded in the House.
The pilot of a Spanish Eurofighter died when the aircraft crashed near Moron airbase near Seville on June 9. The aircraft came down on approach to the airfield, which is shared with U.S. forces. The accident is the third Eurofighter crash in Spain in 12 years.
June 24—Global Flight Tracking. O’Melveny & Myers Conference Center, Washington. www.unanca.org July 3—Inaugural IOSH Aviation Safety Conference. Duxford Imperial War Museum. Cambridgeshire, England. Contact [email protected] July 14-20—Farnborough air show. www.farnborough.com/airshow-20124 July 16-18—Quantum Control User Group Annual Conference. San Diego.
