Though only one year into its contract to develop and produce the KC-46A for the U.S. Air Force, Boeing could accommodate early international orders for the aerial refueler possibly as soon as 2018, says Dennis Muilenburg, president of the company's defense sector. Boeing is slated to deliver the first 18 aircraft in 2017. USAF plans to buy 15 aircraft a year at full-rate production; the total buy will be 179 tankers.
July 23-25—Practical Aeronautics Short Course: “Introduction to Jet Engines-A Practical Perspective.” Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland. See www.practicalaero.com July 23-29—Experimental Aircraft Association's 2012 Airventure. Oshkosh, Wis. See www.airventure.org July 31-Aug. 9—Fatigue Concepts. Aircraft Structures for Safety Inspectors and Engineers. Larkspur Landing. Sacramento, Calif. See www.fatcon.com
Here is how Air Berlin can survive: Continue to cut costs, grow the long-haul network and everything will be fine eventually. But there are two problems for one of Europe's largest airlines: It does not have the necessary money to grow and, at the moment, there is not even an airport where the plan can be implemented.
The Airbus A350 is facing crucial milestones in the coming weeks, with final assembly of the first flight-test aircraft to start in September but wing assembly several weeks behind schedule. Airbus plans to confirm by the end of October the A350 schedule leading up to first flight. The wing is due to arrive that month for MSN1, the first flight-test aircraft.
The plot is thickening once again as the U.S. Air Force continues its troubled quest to field a Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft for use in Afghanistan. Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer and U.S. aerospace giant Boeing have joined forces to provide a combined A-29 Super Tucano offering to the Air Force for its next round of bidding on the program.
Mongolia's airline industry could soon be coming to the fore internationally, because it has a remarkable number of carriers that are planning to connect this remote nation to its Asian neighbors.
No fewer than five new intermediate- and medium-size helicopters were on show on the ground or in the air at Farnborough as manufacturers reported a healthy recovery in civil orders anchored by global sales to offshore-support operators.
Regarding all plans for the International Space Station and future Mars missions: what is typically left out in most communications from NASA and other space agencies is the question of cosmic/galactic and solar radiation.
Air New Zealand is facing a lot of change this year, as it simultaneously undertakes a leadership transition and a sweeping overhaul of its international business. Christopher Luxon (see photo) is central to both these shifts. As general manager of international operations, he has overseen the review of this segment, and he has also been named to take over as CEO when Rob Fyfe steps down at the end of the year.
The major U.S. and European aluminum competitors, Alcoa and Constellium, continue to battle it out for Airbus' attention with aluminum and aluminum-lithium alloys. Alcoa received a deal valued at $1.4 billion that includes a new agreement to provide skins for the A320 plus aluminum-lithium applicatons for the A350 and A380. In May, Airbus and EADS signed a $2 billion agreement with Constellium that also includes A320 wing skins and aluminum-lithium products for the A350.
Stepping up production rates across five lines and finalizing the company's future twin-aisle strategy remain Boeing's immediate priorities, says incoming Boeing Commercial President Ray Conner. Other targets in the nearer term include securing a new agreement with the SPEEA engineering union. The key focus, supporting both the production build-ups and new developments, remains on the supply chain.
Pratt & Whitney will negotiate the next two production lots of F-35 engines in parallel to avoid the prolonged talks that dogged the previous batch. Negotiations with the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) will cover LRIP 5 and 6, and come as Pratt delivers F135 engines for LRIP 4. “We will start negotiations within days,” says Bennett Croswell, president for military engines. Lot 5 will cover 32 F135s for the conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35 variants, and six short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing engines. Lot 6 will cover an additional 32 and seven, respectively.
In just a few years, the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320NEO will be the new standard aircraft in the narrowbody market. While Boeing is still making crucial design decisions, Airbus has begun parts production for the new type.
The leadership style of the Missile Defense Agency's director is so contentious that a Pentagon inspector general (IG) investigation has substantiated allegations that it is inconsistent with standards expected of senior Army leaders. A leaked IG report on Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly says multiple witnesses have testified how the three-star director “yelled and screamed at subordinates,” as well as “demeaned and belittled employees” to the point that several senior staff have departed.
Rafael, Israel's leading missile development center, continues to work quietly on an air-to-air derivative of the Stunner interceptor—to be designated Python 6, or the Future Advanced Air-to-Air Missile (FAAM). The Stunner is a surface-to-air weapon being developed in partnership with Raytheon for Israel's David's Sling air and missile defense system. The Python 6 has been chronicled for almost a decade.
The probability of a cyber-based crisis is mounting, according to the four-star head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency—and in an unusual twist for a commanding officer, Army Gen. Keith Alexander is practically begging lawmakers to get together on legislation that sets federal cybersecurity standards. Military officers are not known for calling on lawmakers to pass legislation. But the U.S. Code is light on laws addressing modern cyberrealities, and if the U.S.
Gunter Kuechler has been reappointed to the supervisory board of Lufthansa System AG. He is a member of the Gerhard Herzberg Gesellschaft and chairman of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research.
Setting a standard for aircraft carbon dioxide emissions was never going to be easy. It requires the aviation community to agree on a single measure of fuel efficiency—a parameter at the core of competition between manufacturers.
Pedro L. “Pete” Rustan, who made a daring escape from Fidel Castro's Cuba as a young man and went on to design U.S. reconnaissance satellites, send a spacecraft to the Moon and develop technology used in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, died of cancer on June 28 at home in Woodbridge, Va., near Washington. He was 65.
The crash of an Air France Airbus A330 on June 1, 2009, was a major shock. But with French accident investigation agency BEA's final report released, valuable lessons can be learned, provided that conflicts between the parties involved can be overcome.
A country that has never built a business jet, and until a few years ago had almost none of them in its skies, is on track to having two types of executive aircraft rolling off assembly lines within 18 months.
