Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. only delivered one-third of the number of Superjet 100 aircraft it had planned for last year, yet the ones it did deliver to Armavia and Aeroflot are logging high daily utilization numbers. As it prepares to receive European type certification early this year, the company is increasing delivery volumes and expanding training facilities to ensure smooth operations for new customers.
Douglas Royce/Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com
From 2011 through 2020, general aviation aircraft manufacturers are expected to deliver 18,000 piston-engine models and 6,000 turboprops valued at $8 billion and $20.5 billion, respectively, which is encouraging considering the ongoing slump in output. However, the near- and mid-term outlook won't produce any cheers.
General Electric expects to raise the GE90 engine production rate to an unprecedented 225 per year by the end of 2014 on the back of record orders for the Boeing 777 taken last year. Overall, GE says the GE90 experienced its most successful year in 2011, accumulating commitments for 400 engines. GE plans to produce more than 180 GE90s in 2012, up from 170 in 2011 with further growth to 225 over the next two years.
Controllers guiding NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) are planning their next trajectory-correction maneuver on March 26, after a major burn Jan. 11 sent the big rover and its Atlas V upper stage on their separate ways. A 3-hr. series of thruster pulses set up the rover for an Aug. 6 powered descent into Gale Crater, while the upper stage was left to proceed away from the planet. The Nov. 26 launch was deliberately targeted away from Mars to prevent the upper stage from plummeting into the Martian environment with Earthly contaminants.
Boeing is considering a hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) system for the -9 stretch of the 787. If adopted, it will be the first commercial use of this drag-reducing technique, which works by sucking in the air flowing over the skin to keep the smoother boundary layer attached to more of the chord. This delays the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, and cuts drag. Studies have shown potential for up to a 25% reduction in profile drag, and up to 20% lower block fuel consumption.
Russia's airlines carried 64 million passengers last year, or 2.5% more than in 2010, reports the country's air transport agency. The airlines' annual passenger turnover grew 13.2%. Foreign airlines carried another 40 million passengers in the Russian market. Freight traffic increased by 10.9% as domestic airlines carried 977,000 tons of freight and mail on international and domestic routes.
With a new $1.5 billion contract now in hand, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) is planning to build nine Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) to support U.S. national security launches in fiscal 2014. This buy is a bridge to a forthcoming strategy from the U.S. Air Force in the fiscal 2013 budget, which will be delivered to Congress Feb. 6. In it, USAF is expected to announce a multiyear buy strategy for EELV including eight in fiscal 2013. The new deal covers Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft Nos.
Boeing certified the 747-8 passenger aircraft without use of a 3,300-gal. tail fuel tank, a restriction that is only likely to affect the nine VIP Boeing Business Jet orders among 106 the company has received for the four-engine jet. The lockout of the tank in the horizontal stabilizer cuts 300-400 nm off the airplane's maximum range. It was ordered because of an FAA certification requirement that Boeing demonstrate that the airplane will not be affected by the loss of a fitting in its wing-to-engine strut joint.
In 2011, airlines around the world conducted the first revenue flights using biofuel blends to demonstrate their potential to reduce carbon emissions. But availability of jet fuel derived from vegetable oils and animal fats remains limited. With biodiesel for road transport competing for feedstock, the aviation industry is looking increasingly toward advanced biofuels produced from more abundantly available woody biomass and municipal waste.
How soon the A&D community forgets. True, 2011 was packed with accomplishments and newsworthy events. However, I believe your Cheers and Jeers editorial (AW&ST Dec. 19/26, 2011, p. 74) overlooked a huge milestone for the U.S. Air Force. Last February, the long battle over whether USAF would get a replacement for the aging KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet was finally decided. One can jeer about who won, why it took so long to get there, or the length of the road ahead. Still, that hurdle is finally behind us.
Andy Nativi's Aerospace Daily And Defense Report article “F-35 Under Fire In Italy” elicited: FMafia saying: Don't be surprised if the cuts are more than the predicted one-third. The debt situation in Europe is getting worse. Dare2 noting: The article doesn't mention the escalating cost of the F-35 program. If it stayed at the level for which European customer nations signed, it wouldn't look this bad for countries with lower levels of debt.
Daher-Socata delivered 36 TBM850s last year, equaling the total the year before. Deliveries to buyers in the U.S. continued to dominate, with 84% of deliveries topping even the 76% of 2010. Latin America was the second largest market, with Asia-Pacific and Europe following. Europe was the second largest market in 2010. Daher-Socata says it was the fourth best sales year for the TBM.
The 15 remaining RD-25D space shuttle main engines are on the way from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where they will be stored until needed to power the core stage of NASA's planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS). As many as five of the reusable liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines will be used on the SLS, now scheduled to make its first flight test late in 2017 (see p. 24).
Richard Ennis, director of Melbourne (Fla.) International Airport, has been selected to receive the United Safety Council's Safety Leadership Award for his outstanding safety leadership efforts regarding a new management and training program for aircraft rescue and firefighting services.
Albert J. Givray (see photo) has been named general counsel of Tulsa, Okla.-based Nordam, succeeding Russell E. Wienecke, who has retired. Givray, a partner at Denver-based law firm Davis Graham & Stubbs, has been Nordam's outside counsel for more than 30 years.
In yet another show of force, amid the intensifying uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime, the Syrian army held an extensive exercise last month. On display were two recent additions to its arsenal—the medium-range Buk-M2 self-propelled air defense system and the Bastion coastal defense system.
A Boeing artist's concept show how a new cruise missile-like vehicle—a product of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Champ program—has been designed and built to carry a directed-energy weapon into well-protected airspace. It can elude air defenses because of its small size, but it is smart enough to produce tailored pulses of energy to kill the electronics of key sites—or areas within those sites—without blanket power outages. In fact, there would be virtually no clue about where the attack came from. A link to videos of an electronic attack is on p. 44.
Chen Siqing (see photo) has become chairman of BOC Aviation of Singapore, succeeding Zhang Yanling, who has retired. Chen is a member of the senior management of Bank of China and has served as VP and president of its Corporate Banking Committee since June 2008.
Although financial markets are uncertain about Europe's sovereign debt crisis, consumers seem unfazed, says Airports Council International, which expects overall passenger traffic growth to remain above 4% and international traffic to grow by 6% this year. The increase may be smaller in the first half “but overall airports should be in a good spot to grow revenues further,” ACI says. Growth in China and Brazil is expected to cool, and political uncertainty in North Africa is expected to slow activity there.
In an item about F-15 sales, Washington Outlook in the Jan. 2 edition (p. 23) erroneously referred to the “Royal Singapore Air Force.” Singapore is a republic and has no royalty.
Peter Mastroianni has joined Million Air as general manager of its Fayetteville, Ark., facility. Mastroianni recently retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he was chief of standardization and evaluation for the 621st Contingency Response Wing at Joint Base-McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst, N.J.
Daljinder Kaur has become sales and marketing manager of Chromalloy's U.K operation in Nottingham, England. She was European business development manager at Trans World Alloys.
Christopher Ellender (see photo) has been appointed senior regional sales manager for product support sales at Gulfstream Aerospace's facility in Luton, England. He headed global aircraft sales and acquisitions for FirstFlight.
