As it prepares for the 737 MAX, Boeing is adding more automation and fuselage buildup capacity at its Renton factory south of Seattle. But it is keeping options open for the transition of the new airplane into the existing 737 Next Generation final assembly line.
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL air-launched rocket is in final preparation to send a NASA scientific satellite into polar orbit to study a poorly understood region of the Sun's atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) (see image) will combine an ultraviolet telescope and a multi-channel imaging spectrograph to study the interface region between the visible surface of the Sun and its upper atmosphere, which is the source of most of the Sun's UV radiation.
The Pentagon has finally signed a $6.5 billion, five-year contract with Bell-Boeing for the next 99 V-22 tiltrotors—92 MV-22s for the Marine Corps and seven CV-22s for USAF Special Operations Forces. This second multi-year deal covers work through fiscal 2017 and will save $1 billion, compared to buying the 99 aircraft in annual procurements, according to program officials.
Big shows are made for big news, and while there is no golden rule in the air transport business that says new product launches are best saved for major air events, Boeing hopes this year's gathering at Le Bourget will be the perfect venue for the go-ahead of the 787-10X.
The already relentless pace of the Trent engine program for the Boeing 787 is accelerating to new levels as Rolls-Royce ramps up flight- and ground-test development work on new and major derivatives of the Trent 1000.
There is little doubt that the Air France-KLM Group is in bad shape; its shares are trading at a fifth of their value in the company's glory days in 2007. Of all the elements contributing to Air France-KLM's debt (close to €6 billion, or $8 billion) and losses (a €530 million operating loss for the first three months of this year), the culture of complacency was probably the most damaging.
John H. Schmidt (see photo) has been named managing director for Accenture's North American aerospace and defense practice. He was a senior executive with the company's communications, media and high-tech industry group.
In 2011, a Chinese aero-engine industry executive told Aviation Week that, if necessary, the country would muster its resources and develop the CJ-1000 commercial turbofan on its own, so determined was it to end its reliance on Western imports. Two years later, it looks like all those resources had better be mustered. The industry's attempt at luring U.S. and especially Western European help is looking increasingly bleak, though it has secured Russian assistance and has employed expert Western engineers.
Bill Boisture, CEO (Wichita, Kan. ), Beechcraft Corp. (Wichita, Kan. )
Recently, Bill Sweetman started out writing a Commentary on his view of required reform in the acquisition and protest process (AW&ST April 15, p. 18). However, he ventured far outside his area of objective expertise to wrongfully discredit our company, our products and our people. He irresponsibly used Beechcraft Corp. as a vehicle to make his point, but did not bother to inform himself of publicly available information.
Fastjet has already faced more than its fair share of troubles in trying to establish a pan-African low-cost operation. Now its chairman has resigned, and auditors are questioning the airline's reliability.
NASA's long-lived Opportunity rover is rolling toward a new destination at Endeavour Crater on Mars, following one of the nine-year mission's most striking discoveries, a rock rich in clay minerals that points to an early, biologically friendly era dominated by water with a neutral chemistry. Opportunity's internal examination of the rock Esperance in a region known as Cape York on the crater's rim has produced findings strikingly similar to those from rock analysis by NASA's Curiosity rover at the Yellowknife Bay region of distant Gale Crater.
When Japanese industry launched Mitsubishi Aircraft and the MRJ in 2008, the regional jet was intended to enter service late in 2013 as the only aircraft in its class with the decisive advantage of an advanced new engine. In accepting the cost and risk of the unconventional geared engine and in adopting a long, slender wing optimized for modest cruise speed, the developers were betting on high fuel prices.
The most lethal-looking U.S. aircraft on the Paris flight line this week is the Iomax Archangel, a heavily armed Thrush 710P crop-duster. There are two large airlifters on show but neither is from the U.S.
The goal, as the engineer from St. Louis explains, is to give decision-making to the fighter pilot by providing information with large-format animated graphics. The instrument panel becomes one sheet of glass. It can display a classic map, a perspective view or both at the same time. In perspective view—ideal for battle management—the threat envelopes of surface-to-air missile systems resemble 10-mi.-high mushrooms, and a suggested avoidance path weaves among their stalks.
Lessons the FAA learned following the Boeing 787 battery incidents include the need to involve experts outside of aviation when developing airworthiness standards for new technologies, says Peggy Gilligan, the agency's associate administrator for aviation safety. When the special conditions for certification of the 787's batteries were developed, the FAA “should have gone to experts on lithium-ion batteries” for comments, she tells the House Aviation subcommittee. “We will do that in the future,” she adds.
The table accompanying the story “Does Not Compute” in last week's issue (page 37) did not have a label for the far-right column. Here is the complete table:
H. Lee Buchanan and John C. Johnson have been named to the board of regents of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, Va. Buchanan is a venture partner at Paladin Capital Group and has been assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition, and deputy director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Johnson is vice president/general manager/deputy to the president of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems.
In early April, when Larry Lawson arrived at Spirit AeroSystems, the company had completed a quarter with earnings, revenues, operating margins and deliveries that exceeded analysts' expectations. So the new president and CEO began his tenure with a built-in lift from the previous year's troubles—a $590 million pre-tax charge for failing to meet delivery and cost targets—that prompted his arrival.
There are not many aircraft like Grumman's S-2 Tracker. Built for carrier-borne anti-submarine operations, the aircraft was envisaged for the rough-and-tumble of life in a hostile environment.
Boeing has signed the $4 billion second multi-year contract for CH-47F Chinook helicopters, with the U.S. Army electing to exercise 22 of the options in the agreement from the outset. The additional aircraft, all for foreign military sales customers, take the basic five-year contract to 177 Chinooks, including 155 for the Army. Another 38 helicopters remain on option. Of the CH-47Fs for the Army, 124 with be remanufactured aircraft and 31 will be new-build. The other 22, and all of the option aircraft, will be new-build The helicopters will be delivered in 2015-19.
History's judgment of Edward Snowden remains to be seen, but one thing is certain to some already: the self-identified cybersurveillance leaker is the embodiment of all things evil in defense contracting. While the case will squash any lingering doubt as to whether defense contractors will become primary losers in Washington's struggle this decade to cut the federal deficit, it is unlikely to lead to a dismantling of the military industrial complex as we know it, and for good reasons.
Subodh Karnik has been appointed vice president of ICF SH&E, Fairfax, Va. He has performed interim engagements as chief commercial officer of Air Pacific, head of operations and commercial business of Fareportal Inc. and executive vice president of Air Jamaica. Previously, Karnik was president/CEO of Global Aero Logistics Inc.
The only new aircraft over which CFM and Pratt & Whitney compete head-to-head is the Airbus A320NEO, and at the 2011 Paris air show it was the struggle for market share on this newly launched project that grabbed the headlines.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Patrick M. Higgins has been named deputy director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization at the Pentagon. He was director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization. Honors And Elections
