Boeing’s planned maintenance services partnership with SIA Engineering Co., of Singapore represents the manufacturer’s most aggressive push into the commercial aftermarket and tracks with the company’s strategy of teaming with partners that add value as it seeks to grow its services revenues. The deal, slated to close this year, would create Boeing Asia Pacific Aviation Services. Boeing would hold 51% and SIA 49%.
Y ou have checked in for your flight and are killing time browsing the Duty Free shops when an announcement with your name in it rings across the departure hall, and you panic: You forgot to reset your watch. How far? Which way? Walk, run or take the shuttle? You make a dash for it, but the gate closes 2 min. before you get there. “We thought you had decided not to travel,” says the gate clerk as you work on apologies for the missed meeting.
L ockheed Martin and Pentagon officials have carefully planned their talking points at this week’s Farnborough air show to focus on the F-35’s reliability.
Boeing could face “long-term credit risks” if the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the official export credit agency of America, is not reauthorized before October, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said July 8.
The composite backplane structure designed to support the 18 beryllium mirrors that will give the planned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) a 21-ft. primary aperture has completed static testing, clearing the way for its integration with the deployment mechanisms that will unfold it in deep space and the mirrors themselves. ATK, which designed and built the backplane structure, joined JWST prime contractor Northrop Grumman in the test, which determined that the 2,180-lb. structure can support loads totaling 12 times its weight during its 2018 launch.
Lufthansa and Air China should begin joint-venture operations between China and Europe as early as the 2014 winter schedule, providing improved market access to the German airline and cooperation with a competitive partner to the Chinese carrier. The two Star Alliance airlines also plan to collaborate more closely on maintenance, repair and overhaul services. The memorandum of understanding was signed on July 7.
Air New Zealand has become the first airline to take delivery of the Boeing 787-9, and plans to debut the aircraft on revenue flights from Auckland to Sydney in early August. A celebration to mark the handover was held in Everett, Washington, on July 8, almost 10 years after the orders for 10 aircraft were placed. The first aircraft was flown back to New Zealand on July 10. The carrier will spend about three weeks preparing the aircraft for revenue service, conducting proving flights and additional training.
French lawmakers said July 8 that the nation’s €190 billion ($258 billion) military spending plan for 2014-19 is short €1.5 billion for next year, owing to an anticipated gap in revenue expected from the sale of radio-frequency spectrum allocated to the nation’s military. These exceptional resources, gleaned from the one-time sale of real estate, spectrum allocation and other state assets, will be used to fund €6.1 billion of the France’s defense budget, including €1.77 billion in 2014, €1.77 billion in 2015 and €1.25 billion in 2016.
Russia launched its new Angara-1.2 light launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome July 9, after a technical glitch postponed a planned June 25 debut. Lifting off on a ballistic trajectory at 12:00 UTC, the two-stage Angara carried a mass simulator weighing 1,430 kg (3,150 lb.), according to Angara prime contractor Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. Khrunichev said the suborbital demonstration mission ended as planned when the Angara second stage and its dummy payload landed 21.28 min. post-launch 5,700 km (3,600 mi.) from Plesetsk.
Tucked into President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to address the increase in children migrating across the border into the southwestern U.S. are a few dollars for the growing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) industry. Of the total, $39.4 million is requested to fund 16,526 additional border security flight hours in fiscal 2015 and 16 additional UAS crews. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol uses Predator B UAVs.
Lockheed Martin, the F-35 manufacturer, and Israeli Elbit Systems’ Cyclone subsidiary are in advanced negotiations on developing an external fuel tank to be used by all Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) customers to extend the range of the aircraft. The two companies are working on designing a 600-gal. external fuel tank, which could be carried in the non-stealth part of a mission, so after disposing the tank, the attachment pylon could be stored in an internal compartment, restoring full-stealth capability.
Public and private organizations worldwide will be able to use hyperspectral imagery collected on the International Space Station, following a collaboration agreement between the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the U.S. Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) to develop a new sensor. Casis, the non-profit organization established to promote the use of capabilities offered by the U.S.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Guilford, England, will build the medium-resolution Alsat-1B remote-sensing satellite for Algerian space agency ASAL, along with a new spacecraft assembly and integration center in Oran, on the country’s northwestern coast. Based on the SSTL-100 small satellite bus, Alsat-1B will carry a 24-meter-resolution (39-ft.) multispectral imager and a 12-meter-resolution black-and-white imager.
A year ago, the future turboprop market seemed cutthroat, with possibly many overlapping competitors that could ruin each other’s profitability. Now competition for the next decade looks likely to be less fierce, since only one of five projects for new aircraft has moved ahead.
N o doubt there was a lot of eye-rolling at NASA headquarters back in May when the Government Accountability Office faulted the agency for its lack of rigor in estimating life-cycle costs for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS). Certainly no one there who wants to see the big booster built is eager to draw attention to its price tag. But no one knows the costs of SLS or any of the other hardware NASA needs to fulfill its mandate to explore space.
Pratt & Whitney’s ambitious plan to re-enter the mainstream commercial engine market with the geared turbofan is facing its sternest test yet as Airbus -readies the first PW1100G-powered A320neo for flight, and Bombardier prepares to resume CSeries testing after the recent PW1500G failure.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and U.K. Defense Minister Philip Hammond are expected to sign an agreement July 15 to study joint development of a future combat air system (FCAS). The memorandum of understanding, to be signed during Le Drian’s visit to the Farnborough air show next week, follows a January summit between U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande, where they agreed to fund a feasibility study toward an unmanned combat drone that could form the basis of an FCAS.
A s the U.K. looks to invest in a replacement for its Trident-based nuclear deterrent and to restore its carrier strike capability, there is a growing realization that it will have to bring back some sort of maritime patrol aircraft capacity in order to help keep them safe. The U.K. lost its maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) back in 2010 when the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) controversially concluded that the armed forces should not bring the long-delayed Nimrod MRA4 aircraft into operation.
The coming year is likely to be time of change for the U.K.’s military services—on land and in the air—with the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, the introduction of new equipment and a significant defense review slated after the general election in 2015. Leading the air arm through this period will be Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford who has led the Royal Air Force (RAF) since July 2013.
