Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned combat aircraft system demonstrator was hoisted aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Truman at NAS Norfolk, Va., on Nov. 26 ,to begin several weeks of deck handling trials, both in port and underway. The trials with Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) are a precursor to autonomous carrier takeoffs and landings planned for 2013.
Rolls-Royce will be introducing a new maintenance program for Fokker 70s and 100s that promises to reduce the cost of overhauling their Tay engines. Fokker, however, is being a little coy about releasing the details just yet. “Rolls-Royce is working on a dedicated program to reduce the cost of the heavy checks for the Tay engine. More detail than that cannot be provided due to the fact Rolls-Royce first needs to inform our operators,” says a Fokker spokesman.
James E. Leddy has been appointed senior VP and treasurer of New York-based JetBlue Airways. He was senior VP of treasury and cash management at NBCUniversal.
India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) on Nov. 28 conducted the first flight of a Jaguar strike aircraft with upgraded avionics, known as the Darin III. The updated aircraft is equipped with a new mission computer, flight and engine instrument systems, a solid-state digital recording system, and data recorder, autopilot, radar, GPS and radar warning receiver. The Indian air force is upgrading its roughly 100 Jaguars from the initial Darin I version under a 2008 contract signed with HAL. India also signed a deal with the U.S.
Showtime for the biennial Middle East Business Aviation convention is set for Dec. 11-13 at Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport-Dubai World Central. Previous commitments in the U.S. that week preclude my attending, which is too bad, since the previous gathering (photo) was an eye opener for this first-time visitor to the glittering UAE, and well worth the ticket price.
How do you maneuver an unmanned aircraft around the carrier deck without a pilot onboard? By using a wireless hand-controller strapped to your arm. That's what the U.S. Navy is doing during testing of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland. See the video on the Ares defense blog. Mac says:
Brian Hogan, Steven Allen and Charles Johnson have been named management partners of U.K.-based Mango Aviation. Hogan and Allen were CEO adviser and chief compliance adviser, respectively, at Zest Airways. Johnson was promoted to partner for product & ancillary revenue.
NASA plans to hold a workshop in February on possible uses for two 2.4-meter telescope mirrors transferred in June by the National Reconnaissance Office. Although the optics have been proposed for a wide-field infrared survey of the sky, other possible uses are for focused space-technology research, human exploration and operations, heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science. The mirrors were crafted but never used for terrestrial reconnaissance.
Jan. 22-23—MRO Middle East. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. March 5-6—Defense Technology Requirements. Arlington, Va. March 7—Aviation Week's Laureate Awards. Washington. April 16-18—MRO Americas/MRO Military. Atlanta. May 7-8—Civil Aviation Manufacturing. Charlotte, N.C. May 14-15—MRO Eastern Europe. Vilnius, Lithuania. Sept. 24-26—MRO Europe. London. You can now register ONLINEfor Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/events or call +1 (212) 904-4682.
Isle of Man-based airline Manx2 is to be renamed Citywing following a management buyout. The airline, which will remain headquartered on the island, plans to begin services under its new identity on Jan. 2. Current Chairman Noel Hayes will remain in the role at Citywing along with Managing Director David Buck. The airline flies to regional destinations around the U.K. and hopes to develop further city-to-city routes outside the Isle of Man.
Eight experiments—four commercial and four academic—will fly on the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2013 as winners of a competition jointly sponsored by Space Florida, the state's aerospace development organization, and NanoRacks, which provides cubesat-standard accommodation on the orbiting laboratory.
Boeing beat out Lockheed Martin for a $179.6 million contract to build the tail kit as part of a life extension to the B61-12 weapon that will also allow for it to be carried by the F-35 fighter. The tail kit work will require high geolocation accuracy, much like what Boeing provides with the Joint Direct Attack Munition family of weapons. This contract covers development, which should wrap up in October 2015.
U.S. soldiers on the move can finally use the Navy's next-generation mobile, narrowband communications satellite now that it has been turned over for operational use, though not all capabilities will be usable for months to come. The Lockheed Martin Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite, launched Feb. 24, carries an engineering version of a new, 3G-like voice, data and video capability for soldiers called the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access.
EU carbon dioxide allowances (EUAs) crashed in November after the system's regulator, the European Commission, proposed a delay to the auctioning of allowances in 2013-15. December 2012 EUAs rallied as high as €9.08 per metric ton ($11.71) ahead of the announcement on Nov. 12, and fell to €6.73 by Nov. 19.
Los Angeles Bureau Chief Guy Norris writes on the Ares defense blog that “with temperatures hovering around zero, few witnesses were around Mojave, Calif., to see a new two-seat production derivative of Northrop Grumman's secretly developed Firebird make its first flight. Enoiel notes:
Cost-effective readiness training for fifth-generation fighter aircraft is driving new simulation technologies that will change the way military pilots are trained within five years.
Pierre Chao, a longtime aerospace and defense (A&D) industry sage and managing partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors, succinctly sums up what the outcome of the budget impasse in Washington between Republicans and Democrats should be. “Your taxes are going to go up, your benefits are going to go down, and spending is going to go down,” he said in a post-election address to Aviation Week's A&D Programs conference. “My six-year-old daughter knows this.”
American Airlines received its last Boeing 737-800 from International Lease Finance Corp. earlier this month as part of its 15-aircraft sale-leaseback program. The financial arrangement started in November 2011, when American filed for bankruptcy protection, and helped American diversify its funding sources.
Inflight connectivity provider Gogo says its bandwidth-boosting ATG-4 (air-to-ground-4) upgrade will be installed on approximately 500 airliners by the end of 2013, up from the 40 aircraft equipped today.
Dec. 3-5—Worldwide Business Research's Defense Logistics. Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, Va. See www.wbresearch.com/defenselogisticsusa Dec. 3-5—University of Westminster Aviation Seminar. “Air Transport Business and Management.” London. Call +44 (203) 506-6559 or see www.westminster.ac.uk/airtransportshort Dec. 4-6—Aeromart Toulouse 2012. Center de Congres Pierre Baudis, Toulouse. See www.bciaerospace.com/toulouse
