Three U.S. companies are expected to tap NASA’s expertise as they develop robotic lunar landers for commercial applications that could include prospecting for water to use in deep-space exploration. Under the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar Catalyst) effort, Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, Masten Space System of Mojave, Calif., and Moon Express, based at Moffett Field, Calif., will be able to use NASA experts, software and hardware, and test facilities as they develop robotic vehicles that can land on the Moon.
A new U.S. conventional arms transfers policy governing direct commercial and foreign military sales is supposed to allow Washington to make ad-hoc decisions about military exports, including industrial competitiveness, an official says. To be sure, Presidential Policy Directive 27 on Conventional Arms Transfers signed in January further entrenches human-rights and arms-proliferation concerns as part of the exports approval process, according to an April 23 speech by Gregory Kausner, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. But U.S.
Boeing’s contentious squeeze on suppliers is gaining traction despite complaints from below and it still has a lot more to give, CEO Jim McNerney says. Boeing is in “the early innings” of turning the Partnering for Success (PFS) supply chain policy into contracts, and Wall Street increasingly will see the benefits over the coming decade. “It’s already in the order of billions of dollars over a medium and long term, and there’s more where that came from,” he tells analysts and investors.
Pratt & Whitney is investigating an “anomaly” on a version of the geared turbofan engine that forced one of the company’s two Boeing 747SP flying -test beds to make a precautionary landing at its Mirabel Aerospace Center outside Montreal on April 29. Commenting on the incident, which is thought to have involved a test version of the PW1100G in final development for the Airbus A320neo, Pratt & Whitney says, “ . . .
Royal Jordanian Airlines (RJ) President and CEO Amer Hadidi has stepped down after less than two years in the posts. Chairman Nasser Lozi now also will be president/CEO. Hadidi was appointed chief executive in July 2012, succeeding Hussein Dabbas who had served since August 2009. Hadidi’s resignation was consensual and expected. He already had resigned several months ago but the board of directors asked him to stay on during the search for a replacement.
Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole expects that in the future the majority of airline passengers, as well as their checked and carry-on luggage, will travel through expedited screening at airports using a variety of risk-based security (RBS) initiatives the agency is developing. The latest RBS program, TSA pre-check, is operating at 118 of 450 commercial service airports where the TSA handles screening. More than 200,000 U.S.
With an eye toward development of a wider commercial space market beyond the needs of ferrying crews to the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing has unveiled a commercial airliner-inspired interior concept for its Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) manned space capsule.
Steven Pifer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former ambassador to Ukraine. Prior to that, he helped negotiate the Budapest Memorandum.
This week, Aviation Week publishes two editions. On the cover far left, a YCH-53K engineering development aircraft sits on a runway at Sikorsky’s final assembly and test center in West Palm Beach, Fla., in this Sikorsky photo by Dean Sfikas. The all-new design for the U.S. Marine Corps features three times the lift capability of the CH-53E helicopter it superficially resembles (see page 45).
Tom Captain Vice Chairman, Global & U.S. A&D Practice Leader Deloitte LLP Michael Finley A&D Advisory Principal PwC Antoine Gelain A&D Practice Leader Candesic Steve Grundman M.A. and George Lund Fellow for Emerging Defense Challenges, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security
“Open for Bids” ( AW&ST April 21, p. 32) notes that Denmark is soliciting bids for its new combat aircraft program. The F-18 Super Hornet and Eurofighter Typhoons are said to be preferred because of the country’s potential need to deploy to Arctic regions “where the safety of two engines is a must.”
Regarding “Sweeter Apple,” ( AW&ST April 28, p. 40), why do airlines tout the weight and fuel savings realized by replacing flight manuals with iPads, yet not expound on how the health of their pilots will improve from not having to tote heavy flight bags?
Kudos to Rachel Ehrenfeld ( AW&ST Feb. 17, p. 58) for re-illuminating the threat posed by surface-to-air missiles (SAM) to commercial airliners. Sooner rather than later someone is again going to attempt to shoot down an airliner with a SAM. Even if they fail, the attempt would result in an airline industry gravely altered until a fix was put in place. Fix it now. Put “gumballs” and flares onboard. Foam the fuel tanks and place hydraulic fuses in flight-control lines.
As an employee of Delta Air Lines, I read “Deal Maker” ( AW&ST April 21, p. 44) with particular interest. I was proud to call Richard Anderson my CEO for the last few of my 37 years working for the carrier. But I would also like to laud the CEO who preceded him. Gerald Grinstein came into the picture when Delta was in turmoil following the recession at the turn of the century and specifically after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, had stultifying ramifications for the airline industry.
I read “Exit Excursions” ( AW&ST March 24, p. 42) with interest, because when I was a performance engineer at Douglas Aircraft, none of the FAA-approved landing distance information for the MD-series jets hinged on the use of reverse thrust. There was no “credit” for thrust-reverser operation, and consequently no penalty for inoperative or unused reversers. New Boeing training focuses on the status/use of reverse thrust as an important tool to prevent overruns.
As “Early Offensive” ( AW&ST April 7/14, p. 31) notes, Boeing and Asiana disagree on measures to address the root cause of the crash of the Asiana Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport last July. Do not overlook the proximal cause. The seawall at the end of the runway provided a perfect “tripping hazard” to clip off the aircraft’s landing gear and send it skittering down the runway.
“Waiting Market” ( AW&ST April 21, p. 24) by Frank Morring, Jr., leads the reader to conclude that the people working on space solar power ideas believe that once the problem of launching the hardware is solved, the programs will progress with little problem. But who is doing the systems engineering?
Aviation Week has been strangely silent regarding the unfolding debacle at Boeing Commercial Airplanes since and during the 777X contest between management and labor.
Joshua S. Alwood has won a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government for science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Alwood was recognized for advances in space bioscience he achieved at NASA’s Ames Research Center as a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow there from 2010-13. He studied the biological challenges the human skeleton faces in a zero-gravity environment and the radiation exposure associated with spaceflight.
Bill Hastings is one of five engineers at Pratt & Whitney to be named Distinguished Engineers of the Year during the recent National Engineers Week by the Hartford (Conn.) chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Hastings is chief program engineer for the F119 program.
