Lockheed Martin plans to conduct detailed studies of an advanced hybrid wing-body transport concept under a second phase of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Revolutionary Configurations for Energy Efficiency (RCEE) program. The study is part of AFRL-led efforts to identify ways to radically reduce the amount of fuel used by the Air Force's air mobility fleet for “a severely energy-supply-constrained future scenario,” says AFRL. Reducing fuel burn has become a top priority for the U.S. Defense Department, which consumes almost 4 billion gal.
Students will be given the opportunity to send up small payloads, as well as fly up themselves when suborbital commercial space flight becomes available as early as late 2013, according to some of the leading companies in the field. At an Aug. 1 hearing of the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and XCOR Aerospace all said they are counting researchers and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students among the projected clients for their vehicles.
As any military planner hoping to introduce new capabilities knows, breaking the cost paradigm in these days of tight budgets is every bit as important as proving the technology itself.
Two of the Progress capsules that Russia uses to resupply the International Space Station have validated advances that could simplify cargo and crew operations at the orbiting laboratory. The unpiloted Progress 48 capsule, with almost three tons of cargo, docked with the ISS Aug. 1 less than 6 hr. after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, demonstrating a four-orbit journey instead of the normal two-day, 34-orbit transit. The spacecraft carried out four precise rendezvous maneuvers over the first 2 hr., 40 min.
Finmeccanica 's first-half financial results for 2012 confirm that the flagship Italian defense company is recovering financially, but its growing debt is becoming an issue for management. Giuseppe Orsi, chairman and CEO, says Finmeccanica will dispose of assets worth €1 billion ($1.22 billion) before the close of the year, which should allow the company to reduce its debt. At the end of June, that debt stood at €4.6 billion, an 11% increase over the same period in 2011.
As planned, the U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will get a new chief executive. The Pentagon says USAF Maj. Gen. Christopher Bogdan has been nominated for a third star and to become director of the Pentagon-based program office, succeeding Navy Vice Adm. David Venlet, who has headed the program since 2010. Bogdan, previously in charge of the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker program, stepped into the deputy position on JSF in July. He succeeded USAF Maj. Gen John Thompson, who had been with JSF for less than a year, in an unusual job-swap announced in May.
Aug. 13-14—Bombardier 2012 Safety Standdown Latin America. Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo (Brazil) Hotel. See www.safetystanddown.com Aug. 13-16—American Institute Aeronautical and Astronautics/American Astronautical Society's Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. See www.aiaa.org Aug. 15-17—Ninth Annual Latin American Business Association Conference and Exhibition. Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo. See ww.abag.org.br/labace2012/
Bradford Parkinson, the vice chairman of the outside board that advises the government on matters affecting GPS, had a financial conflict of interest when he signed a letter in August 2011 opposing the LightSquared satellite- and ground-based wireless communications network, the NASA inspector general (IG) finds.
NASA tweaked the paths of its Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Odyssey orbiter in preparation for the planned landing of the car-sized rover in a crater near the Martian equator early Aug. 6. Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory fired thrusters on MSL twice for a total of 6 sec. at 1 a.m. EDT July 29. The thruster burn was designed to nudge it west of its projected entry point into the planet's atmosphere by 21 km (13 mi.), after tracking with Deep Space Network antennas indicated it was that far off its target entry point.
Steve Alford has been tapped to become VP and general manager for the Circor Aerospace's Corona-based California businesses. He was global director of manufacturing for Milliken & Co.'s floor covering division.
Centaur was conceived for scientific missions, but as the possibilities for optionally piloted aircraft (OPA) technology become more apparent, “we are actively thinking of what the next steps are,” says John Langford, president of Aurora Flight Sciences. In addition to enabling new types of missions that combine unmanned persistence with certified platforms, optional piloting could act as a bridge to the future by helping build trust in flying autonomous aircraft in the national airspace system (NAS).
European Union emission allowance (EUA) prices fell sharply in July on renewed doubts that the system's regulator, the European Commission, would reveal new details on proposals to withhold future supply to prop up prices. EUAs for December 2012 delivery under the EU emissions trading system (ETS) fell to as low as €6.65 per metric ton ($8.19) by the close on July 30, down from €8.36 on July 5, a fall of 20.5%.
Hans J. Langer, founder and CEO of technology company EOS, has been named one of the Top 20 Most Influential People by the U.K.'s TCT Magazine. The list recognizes individuals for their contributions to the additive manufacturing industry in the past 20 years.
Debate over a potential $1 trillion government-wide, decade-long budget reduction starting next year has largely focused on the U.S. defense industry. But during congressional testimony last week, the White House's top management and budget official opened what might be a new front on the effort to persuade Congress to come to agreement to avoid the so-called sequestration penalty, saying the FAA's operations could be in line for “significant” cutbacks that could send a ripple effect through the aviation industry.
A recent commentary by Pierre Sparaco discussed the case of the 2009 loss of Air France Flight 447 over the Atlantic (AW&ST July 23, p. 19). He ends by stating that he patiently waits “for a successor to Pitot's device.”
Wall Street is watching US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker's play for American Airlines with great interest. Fending off Parker, American chief executive Thomas Horton says the carrier is looking at all options, including a tie-up with code-share partner Alaska Airlines—to which Alaska politely says thanks, but no thanks. “We have said for many years that our preference is to remain a strong, vibrant, independent company,” says Chief Financial Officer Brandon Pedersen. And contravening its usual stance on mergers, Wall Street largely agrees.
Insitu has begun flight tests of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' RQ-21A small tactical unmanned aircraft (Stuas). Developed from the company's Integrator commercial unmanned aircraft system, the RQ-21A made the 1-hr flight late last month from an Insitu facility in Boardman, Ore. With six months left to run in its 27-month engineering and manufacturing development contract, the program is on track, says Boeing subsidiary Insitu. Development and operational testing are scheduled to begin this month at NAS China Lake, Calif.
Nathan Hodge, a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has won the Washington-based National Press Club's Michael A. Dornheim Award for his extensive reporting on aerospace, defense and aviation issues. The award is named for Aviation Week's late Los Angeles bureau chief and senior engineering editor.
Avideo of a small unmanned helicopter dropping from hover like a stone, its operator unaware control has been hijacked, threatens plans to open civil airspace to UAS (unmanned aerial systems) by exposing the vulnerability of GPS to counterfeit signals, or spoofing. Although the weaknesses of civil GPS have implications beyond aviation—threatening the energy, financial and telecommunications sectors—they have come into sharp focus since Congress directed the FAA to open national airspace to UAS by 2015 (see p. 52).
In February, when Congress directed the FAA to open national airspace to civil unmanned aerial systems (UAS) by the end of 2015, it unleashed a flurry of regulatory and industry activity—and unlocked a closet of public and political concerns over how these systems could be used domestically.
Bob Seidel has joined JFI Jets of New York, as CEO, succeeding Bill Cripe, who will take a sabbatical. Seidel was general manager and senior VP of Jet Aviation's U.S. aircraft management and charter division.
After months of sharpening their bids and building teams, a U.S.-wide competition for the FAA to designate six sites to test UAS (unmanned aerial system) technologies in civilian airspace is about to begin. Across the country, governors, lawmakers, business development organizations, airports and companies are sharpening bid proposals that the FAA expects to issue “soon,” with an eye toward choosing the winning teams by year-end. Recent legislation requires the FAA to integrate UAS into the civilian airspace by Sept. 30, 2015.
