Orbital Sciences Corp. says it is “two to three weeks” away from taking possession of the launch pad at Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., which will give it the green light to complete preparations for the first demonstration flight of its Antares rocket. The first static test fire is slated for this month, with the first test flight on track for late September.
Alitalia doubled its losses in the first half of 2012 compared with the same period last year. But the Italian carrier believes it has reason for hope, although profits are likely to be elusive this year. CEO Andrea Ragnetti says it has been “one of the most difficult semesters in the European airline business ever, but the worst is behind us.”
The Pentagon has already begun deploying the Raytheon SM-3 Block IAs, optimized to intercept short- and-medium-range missiles, in Aegis ships patrolling abroad; Japan is also buying the weapon. Meanwhile, the test campaign for Aegis has shifted to the SM-3 Block IB, which will provide an improved seeker and propulsion/guidance system. SM-3 will eventually be added to land-based batteries, in accordance with President Barack Obama's Phased Adaptive Approach, to protect parts of Europe and, eventually, the U.S. East Coast.
Bell Helicopter's Bell 429 has received its airworthiness certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, after CAAC 145 repair facility Kingwing General Aviation completed the model's first test flight and reassembly in that country. CAAC also approved Bell's 429 helicopter training program.
India says it is still negotiating with France's Dassault on the Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program. Dassault is expected to sign the Indian air force's biggest-ever contract, worth more than $15 billion, to supply 126 Rafale fighters. India intends to induct the first squadron of 18 MMRCAs into its air force by 2016.
Boeing's H-6U Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) has completed autonomous takeoffs and landings from a ship as the helicopter is readied for a French navy demonstration late this year.
Marshall Porterfield (see photo) has been named director of NASA's Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Div. for the next two to three years. He will take a leave of absence from Purdue University, where he is a tenured professor of agricultural and biological engineering and biomedical engineering.
The hair-raising 7-min. descent and high-precision landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars last week (p. 24) provided a much-needed reinvigoration to a space agency that is struggling to stay relevant after last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet.
The latest variant of Boeing's X-48 blended wing body (BWB) unmanned research aircraft flew for the first time from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., on Aug. 7.
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.
