The first two operators of the Boeing 787-8 are seeing better-than-anticipated fuel burn, despite prior expectations of below-par performance as a result of data from pre-delivery flight tests. Figures from launch airline All Nippon Airways show fuel savings are up to 21% on long-range flights, while figures for Japan Airlines' aircraft indicate the potential for slightly better numbers.
Long miffed about the administration's space policy, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) blasted NASA for having “reached a new low.” Wolf sent a letter to the Space Studies Board, which advises the National Academies on space research, asking Chairman Albert Carnesale to weigh in on NASA's strategic direction.
In a major consolidation that shifts jobs for 11 vice presidents, Lockheed Martin Space Systems says it is establishing two basic business lines—military and civil space—rather than breaking those areas into separate talent pools devoted to more specific requirements. The shift addresses criticism of the management of Space Systems programs while responding to an era of tightening military and NASA budgets that emphasize fixed-price contracts.
Lockheed Martin is finding out that reestablishing compliance with Pentagon auditing standards on its top aircraft programs—including the multibillion-dollar F-35—is not as easy as once thought. Noncompliance is also hitting the company's bottom line, as the Pentagon is increasing its withholding on payments for production.
Senior Editor Adrian Schofield turned to the Things With Wings blog to talk about his experience with dimmable windows on Boeing 787s. All Nippon Airways has been disappointed with the degree of dimming. Schofield tested out this feature and more on an Air New Zealand 787 flight. johnswolter comments:
Fred Allen has been named VP-sales and marketing at and , Londonderry, N.H. Allen is a 10-year commercial aviation veteran with experience in supply chain leadership in airline and original equipment manufacturer maintenance, repair and overhaul.
An article that appeared in the June 25 issue of AW&ST (p. 36) included an incorrect spelling of the name of Intelsat Chief Technical Officer Thierry Guillemin.
Lockheed Martin's union workers in Fort Worth and elsewhere who build the F-35 and F-16, voted June 28 by an 80% margin to accept a new four-year labor contract that will provide yearly pay increases of 2.5-3% and bonuses.
A tightly wrapped object the size and shape of a combat aircraft was hauled along Chinese highways in June, sparking speculation that the country was deliberately revealing a new twin-engine fighter from Shenyang Aircraft.
Flight tests of a fuel-saving upgrade to the Rolls-Royce T56 are set to begin at Edwards AFB, Calif, in July and run through August. The modified engine will be fitted to an Air National Guard Lockheed Martin C-130H and is aimed at demonstrating flying qualities data as well as verifying overall improvements in performance.
In the complex hypersonics test environment, events rarely turn out 100% as planned. But researchers at Germany's DLR aerospace center remain optimistic that they have enough data to refine the future Shefex III (Sharp-Edged Flight Experiment) demonstrator even as data uncertainty hangs over the final seconds of the Shefex II's flight.
Also on the Ares blog, Robert Wall reports on Norway's commitment to purchase the JSF. He writes: “That Norway would go ahead with buying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been more or less a given as long as the U.S. showed its willingness to make the aircraft a home for Kongsberg's stealthy Joint Strike Missile. That has now apparently happened.” Some background and pertinent details of the deal are listed.
While NASA astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are fully booked with scientific and engineering research for now, most of that work has involved projects the U.S. space agency is funding
China continues to find itself shut out of the International Space Station, blocked by U.S. congressional anger over the way the nation treats its dissidents and regional separatists. But China takes the long view and its leaders appear willing to do whatever it takes to establish a Chinese presence in space eventually. Last week the crew of Shenzhou 9—mission commander Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang, the first Chinese woman in space, and Liu Yang—entered the Tiangong-1 spacecraft launched earlier (see photo).
In regard to the item “Sense of Disproportion” in the Washington Outlook column (AW&ST May 28, p. 22), the National Guard needs a real mission to justify its existence. One such assignment could involve combating wildfires. Four regions in the U.S. should be established: NE, SE, NW and SW. In each, a centrally located base should be equipped with a fleet of modern, capable water bombers. The Guard could fight fires locally or be combined with other regions to combat the super fires that all too often rage.
The number-crunching capability of the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA's Ames Research Center has been boosted by 14% to 1.24 petaflops—a quadrillion calculations per second. If the world's population did a calculation a second, it would take 370 days to complete what Pleiades can accomplish in 60 sec. The upgrade is the eighth performed on the supercomputer since its installation in 2008 at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at Ames.
