The long-running effort to reengine the U.S. Air Force's E-8C Joint Stars aircraft with a version of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D has taken a step forward with the completion of Northrop Grumman and Air Force flight tests on a testbed aircraft. The tests were completed in 32 flights versus a planned 39 and form a necessary precursor to obtaining military airworthiness certification. The new-build engines will replace TF-33s, the military variants of Pratt's JT3Ds.
In “Embracing Change” (AW&ST May 14, p. 45) the sentence about the atrophy of targeting capability being linked to specialized personnel who are assigned to unrelated tasks between operations, struck a familiar chord. This is not only an Air Force problem. It plagued the Marine Corps' aviation units as well. As an ordnance chief, I was in a constant dance to keep personnel trained and up-to-speed so operations officers could have pilots qualify or re-qualify with both new and old weapons.
Ralph DeMarco has been named president of sales and marketing at L-3 Aviation Products of Phoenix. He held the same title in L-3's Aviation Recorders division.
The big question in Washington is whether a squabbling Congress will act to avert an automatic government-wide budget reduction of $1.2 trillion, half of which would come from defense spending. But it may not matter. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is warning the Pentagon to prepare itself for major reductions to defense spending—up to $1.5 trillion over 12 years—regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill.
Boeing's long-term strategic plan to set up a second assembly site for the 787 took another step toward completion with the initial flight of the first aircraft to be built at Charleston, S.C., on May 23. The aircraft—the 46th 787—becomes the first Boeing jet airliner to be completed away from the company's facilities in Puget Sound, Washington, and the heritage McDonnell Douglas manufacturing sites in Southern California.
Max-Viz anticipates June approval for installation of its Enhanced Vision System (EVS) on the Hawker series of business jets. Award of the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) will extend to well over 200 different aircraft models for which the system is approved—a remarkable showing for a young outfit with just 10 employees and focused on a single technology. EVS thermal imaging effectively “turns night into day,” enabling a pilot to view objects, including wildlife, on moonless nights or in smoke or haze.
When the U.S. Air Force showed only a tepid interest in unmanned aircraft, a small San Diego company, General Atomics, decided to build them on its own dime. So when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hit and U.S. forces were suddenly sent to combat guerilla-like forces in the mountains of Afghanistan, the company's Hellfire-equipped Predators were not just a concept—they were in production.
Pete Laszcz is the new general manager of Timco Aviation Services' Greensboro, N.C.-based airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations, succeeding Mike Anderson. Laszcz was managing director of MRO marketing and sales at American Airlines.
Airbus is seeing better-than-expected fuel-burn savings during initial flight trials of its A320 winglet upgrade, called Sharklets. The company was hoping for a fuel-burn improvement of up to 3.5% on long flights, but early indications are the savings may exceed estimates, says Fernando Alonso, senior vice president for flight and integration tests. Low-speed performance of the A320 is not degraded by the addition of the winglets and, Alonso says, handling also continues to be good.
In the 1980s, I was a propulsion systems engineer at the then-Douglas Aircraft Co. in Long Beach, Calif., and Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Renton, Wash. In Long Beach, I was involved in the study of DC-9 derivatives equipped with high-bypass-ratio turbofan engine installations and DC-9 propfan aircraft performance studies. As part of a tiltrotor aircraft advanced composites structures group at Renton, I was involved in the preliminary design of the engine installation for a Boeing/NASA/UDF (unducted fan) flying testbed.
Textron Defense Systems has demonstrated refinements to its BattleHawk squad-level loitering munition with flights of the lethal unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force at Socorro, N.M. BattleHawk is a tube-launched, warhead-equipped small expendable UAV unveiled by Textron last year as the Tactical Remote Aerial Munition, its entry into the emerging loitering-munition market.
Indonesia aims to become a major defense exporter and will increasingly be working to secure partnerships that can assist it in achieving that goal. The government is formulating guidelines for international joint development of defense equipment including military aircraft, the country's deputy defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, told Aviation Week at the Defense Services Asia (DSA) exhibition here last month.
European airlines are suffering. Almost every one of the continent's legacy carriers has its own restructuring program in place to reduce losses, minimize the pain and somehow climb out of the abyss they are in. That's the case for the very big players such as Air France-KLM, Lufthansa or the International Airlines Group's Iberia unit, and even more so for smaller carriers. Hardly any European airline is going to make a profit this year, and if they do, then it's more because of non-flying activities such as Lufthansa Technik.
Saudi Arabia will acquire £1.6 billion ($2.51 billion) in military training equipment. The deal includes 22 BAE Hawk advanced jet trainers, 55 Pilatus PC-21s and support elements under the Saudi air force aircraft training effort.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has completed wind tunnel tests to assist Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in developing a reusable Falcon 9 first-stage. SpaceX's long-term vision is to bring back the first stage for a vertical landing near the launch site, thereby increasing the reusability of the entire launch system and cutting overall costs. The company is developing a technology testbed for the concept called the Grasshopper, which consists of a single-Merlin-powered Falcon 9 first stage with a set of landing legs.
Mary Neff has become VP-supply chain at JetBlue Airways. She was director of the operations program management office and has been program director of airports and system operations.
Tim Strauss (see photo) has been appointed managing director of cargo at Hawaiian Airlines. Strauss was VP-transportation and logistics at Emery Worldwide (now UPS Supply Chain Logistics) and has held management development roles in the cargo divisions of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Airbus Military and its A400M development program face a mixed situation. After years of schedule struggles, company officials exude confidence that they will hand over the first airlifter earlier than expected despite a new round of engine problems. Late last week, engineers were poised to begin a key test phase that should lead to civil type approval in July, according to program chief Cedric Gautier. The initial military type certification is due in August or September, says Airbus Military head Domingo Urena-Raso.
The new owners of bankrupt Mexicana de Aviacion are shooting for a June relaunch of the grounded carrier. Med Atlantica, the investment consortium that took effective control of Mexicana earlier this month, says it is in talks with the airline's two largest creditors, Banorte and Bancomext, and has requested Mexico's transport ministry to return route rights it had lent to Mexicana's rivals after the airline ceased operations.
NASA is spending about $3 million on the initial SEP studies, originally set up by the technology element in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
Norwegian will lease two Boeing 787-8s from International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) to bring its current fleet for the widebody to eight aircraft. The airline had already inked agreements to acquire three 787-8s and lease three from ILFC to underpin its long-haul ambitions. The new lease is for 12 years, with both aircraft to enter service in 2014. Norwegian expects to field its first 787-8s next year, with three aircraft to be delivered. Four will follow in 2014 and one in 2015.
Boeing delivered the 50th 767-300 Freighter to the customer that launched the model in the mid-1990s, air-cargo carrier UPS on May 22. UPS, which already has the largest 767-300F fleet in service, has nine additional 767-300Fs on order. The carrier also operates 75 757-200 Package Freighters and eight 747-400Fs.
Initial results of the investigation into the crash a Superjet 100 in Indonesia on May 9 do not show any technical problem with the regional jet, aircraft maker Sukhoi says.
