Spacecraft component and control system specialist Moog continues to expand with the purchase of American Pacific Corp.'s In-Space Propulsion unit. The In-Space Propulsion business, which Moog bought for $46 million, makes liquid propulsion systems and parts for satellites and missiles at sites in the U.S., Ireland and the U.K.
StandardAero has delivered its 6,000th auxiliary power unit, a Hamilton Sundstrand APS2300, out of its 130,000-sq.-ft. Tennessee facility. The program began 17 years ago and focuses on repairing Honeywell 36 and RE220 series engines in addition to the APS2300 APUs.
NASA's experimental Project Morpheus lander crashed and exploded during a free flight at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., Aug. 9. The vehicle “lifted off the ground and then experienced a hardware component failure, which prevented it from maintaining stable flight,” NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs says. “No one was injured and the resulting fire was extinguished by KSC fire personnel. Engineers are looking into the incident and the agency will release information as it comes available.”
Europe's Meteosat Second-Generation-3, launched July 5, has generated its first image of the Earth using its primary instrumentation. The first results from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager mark a milestone in the six-month commissioning process.
Nearly 30 years ago, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan tasked the Pentagon with creating a unique shield to counter the growing threat of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. He kicked off a massive industrial effort backed by billions of dollars under the leadership of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization—the so-called Star Wars program. Though Reagan's vision of an impenetrable shield has never been realized, the Pentagon has navigated through a thorny political landscape to begin fielding a rudimentary framework of capabilities to protect the U.S.
Just how structurally inefficient European legacy carriers still are in spite of current economic pressures is well illustrated by the comparison of Iberia and its new short-haul offshoot, Iberia Express. The latter has 10 aircraft and was launched three months ago. It became profitable in its second month and exceeded the target of a 20% unit cost improvement over its parent. It achieved 30%, and that is without the greater economies of scale available to Iberia, an airline with over 15 times more aircraft.
Aug. 27-31—International Society of Air Safety Investigators' 2012 Annual Seminar. Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. See www.isasi.org/isasi2012.html Aug. 28-30—2012 Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Shanghai International General Aviation Show. Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center. See www.sh-aero.com/en/ Sept. 4-5—Association of Aerospace Industries' Human Factors and Error Management Short Course. Nah Wah Building, Singapore. See www.aais.org.sg/human_factors
Aviation Week Senior Editor Graham Warwick's entry on the Ares defense blog about Canada receiving another Cyclone helicopter elicited several responses, including: ghemago noting:
I recognize that Washington Outlook is labeled a Commentary, however the recent item, '“Distilling the Issue” (AW&ST July 30, p. 17) demands rebuke. In part it states, “Politics—not policy or technology—is proving to be the biggest obstacle . . . ” regarding alternative fuel. Conspicuous by its absence is the word “economics.” Recently a “Green Fleet” sailed from Hawaii powered by $12 million worth of experimental fuels. At about $26/gal., these biofuels cost 5-6 times more than conventional sources.
Vince Northfield (see photo) has joined Pall Corp., Port Washington, N.Y., as president of Pall Aerospace and senior VP of Pall Corp., succeeding Jim Western, who will retire in October. Northfield was VP-global manufacturing of ESAB Welding and Cutting Products at Colfax Corp.
India is preparing to launch at least five satellites by year-end, a senior space scientist says. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to launch two foreign spacecraft—Spot-6, a 800-kg (1,800-lb.) remote-sensing French satellite, and the 15-kg Japanese Protiers—onboard the PSLV-C21 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) in September.
Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. increased its second-quarter profit 13.4% from HK$425 million ($54.8 million) in the first half of 2011 to HK$482 million in the first half of 2012.
These are good times for civil aviation, but not so promising for defense. Acquisitions—many of them small-scale—are often aimed at strengthening an ancillary line of business. General Electric's purchase of Austin Digital Inc. (ADI), a Texas-based specialist in flight operations data analysis—for an undisclosed sum—is a case in point.
Materials testing service provider West Penn Testing Group has finished installing a phased-array ultrasonic testing cell. After four years, the FAA has accepted the technology into the ASM 2628 standard and is preparing the updated standard for publication.
Today's top-of-the-line business jets represent the culmination of a century's worth of aeronautical, computational, propulsive and radio advancement. Their capabilities—New York to Beijing at near-Mach speed all the while gentled in the stratosphere—are undeniably extraordinary. But the experience they deliver is closer to teleportation than air transportation. Passengers are removed from the world whizzing by below, while the pilots monitor omnipotent digital systems that essentially control every aspect of their craft and its progress.
Tim Brady, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, has been named to the board of the National Association of Flight Instructors.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation into the July 28 failure of a General Electric GEnx-1B engine on a taxiing Boeing 787 after finding the problem stemmed from the failure of a fan mid-shaft. The shaft forms the core of the low-pressure (LP) spool of the GEnx-1B. and connects the fan stage with the low-pressure turbine. The shaft is made up of two main sections, and the failure is close to the torque retaining nut connecting the two.
Astronaut Stephen Robinson has been appointed a professor at the University of California at Davis. He ended his 36-year career at NASA as a veteran of three spacewalks with more than 49 days of spaceflight experience.
L-3 Communications has bought Thales's civil fixed-wing flight simulation business. Thales will hold onto the military and government sectors of its simulation and training business, along with simulation for rotary-wing aircraft in both the civil and military markets. L-3 Communications is expected to keep the business's base at its current location in Crawley, U.K.
U.S. Navy Capt. Bret C. Batchelder, who has been selected to become rear admiral (lower half), has been assigned as director, operations division, Office of Budget, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management and Comptroller/Director, operations division, Fiscal Management Div., N821, Office of Chief of Naval Operations, Washington. He is currently director, Aviation Officer Career Management and Distribution, PERS-43, Navy Personnel Command, Millington, Tenn. Capt. Bruce H.
Europe's aerospace industry is making progress in unraveling the complexities of time-based flight profiles, which will be essential components of the next-generation air traffic management network. Long-range ATM plans call for aircraft to fly precise four-dimensional (4D) trajectories, with time being the fourth dimension. While it will be at least six years before 4D procedures could be deployed in the European aviation system, work is underway to advance the concept and address the range of issues that must be solved before its operational debut.
