The Eurofighter Typhoon consortium will be the only European aircraft maker to do battle against U.S. rivals in the South Korean F-X3 fighter competition. The team, led by Airbus Military in Spain, hopes South Korea's interest in finding an industrial partner for the future KF-X program may offset some of the U.S. historic advantage there. Saab does not plan to bid the Gripen in South Korea, and Dassault also has decided it will not pursue the F-X3 program. South Korea is looking to buy 60 aircraft in the latest tranche of its fighter and field the first in 2016.
April 2-3—Engine MRO Forum. Dallas. April 3-5—MRO Americas 2012. Dallas. April 4-5—MRO Military Conference & Exhibition. Dallas. April 23-25—NextGen Ahead: Air Transportation Modernization. Washington. May 8-9—Civil Aviation Manufacturing. Charlotte, N.C. May 23-24—MRO Regional: Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia. Vilnius, Lithuania. Sept. 19-21—MRO IT Conference & Showcase. Miami. Oct. 9—MRO IT Europe. Amsterdam
Both India and Pakistan are increasingly focusing on air dominance and effects-based operations as airpower is becoming a mainstay of their militaries.
Europe faces a tricky balancing act. Even as it tries to end its tendency to field competing missile programs, many of the existing but duplicative systems need to be upgraded to bridge the gap until the new ones are fielded around 2030.
Consolidation has led to the formation of the Big Three airline groups in Europe: Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and the International Airlines Group (IAG). But all three are finding that some takeovers simply do not work, and antitrust authorities and economic realities might block further steps.
In the troubled world of defense acquisition, the U.S. Navy's Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft shines as a rare example of a program that appears to be broadly staying on both schedule and cost. After a slow start, test and development aircraft are racking up flight hours and the first production aircraft was delivered to NAS Jacksonville, Fla., on March 5, opening the way for the start of fleet training.
Government payloads riding piggyback on commercial spacecraft are likely to win only 1% of the worldwide satellite-market revenue in the next few years, as bureaucratic inertia and a “not-invented-here” mentality work against the potential cost savings.
European engine makers MTU and Avio have followed the lead of airframers EADS Cassidian and Alenia Aermacchi in teaming for potential cooperation in the field of engines for unmanned medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) aircraft. The move is part of a German-Italian effort to offset the Franco-British defense strategic partnership, which aims to foster closer technology cooperation, including for unmanned aircraft. A cooperative unmanned MALE program is the first thrust.
On Nov. 18, 2011, Gulfstream Aerospace secured provisional type certification (PTC) for its much-anticipated G650, the largest, fastest and, at $64.5 million each, the most expensive Gulfstream to date. The G650 quickly gained market acceptance with orders for more than 200 and a backlog extending into 2017. It is a masterpiece of many, headed by one: this year's Business and General Aviation Laureate winner, Pres Henne, Gulfstream's senior vice president of programs, engineering and test.
Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, has been elected chairman of the Washington-based Information Technology Sector Coordinating Council. He was vice chair and has been a member of the council's executive committee since 2006.
Robert Hooks has been appointed division director for CMRNE Technology at TASC in Chantilly, Va. He was deputy assistant secretary for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Throw a broad net to catch a big fish, the Chinese say. In English: have a lot of irons in the fire. Following that principle, China is contemplating at least nine business aircraft, of which five would be dedicated private jets while the others would be adapted commercial airplanes. Not all of those ideas will materialize, but five chances is a lot, even if a truly home-grown Chinese business jet is many years away.
Some air forces ponder whether to dedicate a portion of their fleet to counterinsurgency operations, but in Latin America the question is more likely to be how long that mission will remain the primary focus. If there is a major shift in how the region's air forces approach their future defense needs, the impetus is likely to emerge from Brazil or Venezuela.
I read with dismay “Un-extravagant Bomber,” which deals with developing the Long Range Strike-Bomber aircraft (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 27). Include me among the skeptics who doubt that the U.S. Air Force can develop an LRS-B for $550 million apiece, given what we now pay for C-17s in series production and will pay for tankers. A very big part of the cost of military aircraft is the prolonged development of complex systems.
Dassault Rafale fighter launched the MBDA Scalp-EG cruise missile in last year's Libya campaign. This week's special report, beginning on page 56, focuses on how such new weapons, as well as sensors and networking, will be used more widely, as stealth systems and traditional fighters jointly meet airpower needs between now and 2030. Dassault Aviation photo.
Sikorsky plans to demonstrate the use of its fly-by-wire and autonomous flight technologies on a newly purchased S-76, according to Igor Cherepinsky, who leads these efforts in the company's Innovations Div. The aircraft was purchased this year and is now undergoing modifications in preparation for flight tests. He says he hopes for first flight late this year or early in 2013.
Pop quiz: What do these have in common—the Army Aerial Common Sensor intelligence aircraft, the V-XX presidential helicopter, the Army/Air Force Joint Cargo Aircraft, the KC-X tanker and the Air Force Light Air Support aircraft?
As a place to work, McMurdo Station, Antarctica, is about as remote and extreme a location as there is on the planet. The South Pole research facility goes into hibernation around mid-February. That's followed by sunset in late March, and then six months of darkness.
If propulsion and aeronautics were the building blocks for aviation at the dawn of the age of flight, in the second century of flight, it is more likely to be information technology and electronics that are key to advances.
When Boeing launched the 787 in 2004, it was more than two decades since the 767—the mid-market widebody it would replace—had entered service. In those 22 years, technology had advanced almost beyond recognition, and with it the expectations of airline customers.
Manufacturing, by necessity, has always been a core competency of aerospace. Simply consider the huge responsibility that makers of airframes, major subsystems and components have in the production of flight-critical hardware for everything from recreational aircraft to spacecraft. Then there are the lives of tens of millions of travelers annually whose lives depend on the care that has gone into the manufacture of the airliners on which they fly. While end-use customers may not always get the equipment they ordered on time, quality has always been a virtual given.
Kingfisher Airlines returned an Airbus A330-200 to a lessor in Britain and plans to curtail international services to arrest further losses. The airline, however, did not mention which international sectors it will cut or when—but the Mumbai-London Heathrow route no longer is available for online booking. Its New Delhi-London Heathrow options remain for now. Kingfisher uses A330s for flights from India to places such as London and Hong Kong, and narrowbody A320s for flights to cities in South Asia.
Steven Grundman has been named M.A. and George Lund Fellow for Emerging Defense Challenges by the Washington-based Atlantic Council. He is the principal of Grundman Advisory and was deputy undersecretary for industrial affairs in the U.S. Defense Department.
