The Russian defense ministry has ordered 55 Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced jet trainers from the Irkut Corp. The deliveries should start in 2012 and last through 2015. “The Yak-130 procurement by the air force will bring the pilots' training to the required level and prepare them to operate the new-generation combat aircraft,” says defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov. The Yak-130 has a glass cockpit and a re-programmable fly-by-wire system that can replicate the characteristics of various Russian advanced fighters, including the Sukhoi T-50 fifth-generation aircraft.
The Defense Logistics Agency has awarded Northrop Grumman a $76 million sole-source contract to deliver spare assets in support of the U.S. Air Force B-2 bomber.
Engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore demonstrated a technique adapted from medicine that may help satellite controllers effect delicate repairs on operational spacecraft. Modifying a da Vinci medical console typically used by surgeons, graduate students Tian Xia and Jonathan Bohren were able to control an industrial robot 30 mi. away at Goddard Space Flight Center. The console included a 3-D eyepiece and motion feedback for “touch” sensitivity, and may lead to techniques for spacecraft repair and refueling.
Blue Origin, the secretive Seattle startup working on a commercial crew-delivery spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Crew Development seed-money effort, has signed an agreement with the agency to test a thrust chamber assembly at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The BE-3 engine's combustion chamber and nozzle will be hot-fired at the center's E-1 test stand.
Safran's Sagem unit and MTU Aero Engines plan to set up a joint venture to work on safety-critical software and hardware for military and civil aircraft, including the TP400 turboprop powering the Airbus Military A400M airlifter. The operation should be up and running next year with aviation applications.
General aviation manufacturers are enduring one of the deepest and longest recessions in memory, resulting in massive layoffs, slowed production and cancelled new designs. Excepting Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault—whose ultrajets still find favor among blue bloods, blue chips, movie stars and moguls—those who make, maintain or serve general and business aviation aircraft have been in a bad way since Lehman Brothers turned out the lights in 2008. And things are not expected to get appreciably better any time soon.
NASA's Kepler planet-finder has finally found a planet in the habitable zone around its Sun-like star that is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for water to remain in the liquid state believed necessary to sustain life. Unfortunately, the orbiting probe's primary mission is drawing to a close just as its worldwide science team begins to narrow in on the best way to find the truly Earthlike extrasolar planets most likely to sustain life, and when funding for extended missions at the U.S. space agency is running dry.
The NextGen air traffic modernization initiative loses a powerful cheerleader with the departure of FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who resigned last week after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in a Virginia suburb of Washington. NextGen backers in Congress say Michael Huerta, Babbitt's deputy and the new acting administrator, will continue advocating strongly for the big-ticket program despite a tough budget environment.
Speaking of must-pass spending bills, Congress has to arrive at enough agreement to cover nine appropriations measures—including a $518 billion baseline defense measure—by the time the current “continuing resolution” (CR) expires Dec. 16. Potential pitfalls include differences between the House and Senate over how to fund labor issues, as well as House Republican policy provisions that could alienate liberal Democrats. Still, lawmakers are not worried about a deal on the defense bill, which could move on its own if agreements cannot be reached for other agencies.
Finally, contractors who do business with cash-strapped NASA will be well advised to save money on color printing, attendance at conferences, and promotional pens and other “swag,” as U.S. government agencies have to do. At least that is the word from Deputy Administrator Lori Garver at a closed-door session with CEOs. Curiously, Garver recently returned from a junket to the South Pole with other science agency chiefs after watching President Barack Obama sign an executive order limiting “unnecessary travel” and other waste by federal officials (AW&ST Nov. 21, p.
Iran is not the only Middle Eastern country where saber-rattling seems to be in vogue; Syria also wants the world to know it has a formidable surface-to-surface missile capability. For the first time ever, the Iranian ally recently televised the launch of a Scud-B, SS-21 “Tochka,” and Syrian 600- and 302-mm heavy rockets. The public demonstration represents a paradigm shift by the Syrian regime, according to Uzi Rubin, former head of Israel's Missile Defense Organization.
A summer-long review of U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities is pointing to a growing need for systems able to operate in contested airspace, greater integration with space-based and cyberassets, and more collaboration with other services and intelligence components. The review's results could prove crucial to determining which programs thrive or are shelved in the upcoming fiscal 2013 request.
Congress seems noticeably quiet on the Joint Strike Fighter, considering the program's tenuous future and the huge challenges still in front of the F-35. Contractor Lockheed Martin is in the midst of difficult negotiations with the Pentagon on the next set of aircraft. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently put JSF on the target list in anticipation of the steepest budget cuts in more than a decade. Then there are the aircraft's long-term support costs, which were projected to reach $1 trillion.
Without Afghanistan, the U.K. might never have remedied the shortfalls in its helicopter modernization plan. Now the question becomes whether those gains will be lost once British combat forces withdraw. One early test case could be the extent to which equipment lessons gleaned during recent tours of duty are addressed. Besides reflecting combat experience in Afghanistan, the assessments spotlight the use of AgustaWestland WAH-64D Apaches during the NATO-led air war over Libya, where the U.K. employed the attack helicopter from the HMS Ocean.
As EADS focuses on putting in place a new management team next year, it only needs to look to Finmeccanica for a refresher course on how things can go wrong. Despite efforts to address uncertainties before the year is out, both companies have failed to fully clear the decks in 2011, pushing difficult decisions into 2012. The situation at Finmeccanica is particularly critical after ratings company Standard & Poor's (which, like Aviation Week, is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies) downgraded the European company's long-term debt rating.
During the 2008 financial crisis, manufacturers were worried that customers would be unable to pay for aircraft on order. This time, it is suppliers that are causing unease.
Even before the eurozone debt crisis ensued, 2012 was expected to be a difficult year for the global airline industry. But if things spiral out of control in Europe, the sector could be devastated. “The biggest risk facing airline profitability over the next year is the economic turmoil that would result from a failure of governments to resolve the eurozone sovereign debt crisis,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says.
Lufthansa already operates the world's largest-capacity airliner, the Airbus A380, and is now looking to use that experience to ease service preparations for the world's longest airliner—the Boeing 747-8—as it prepares to become the first carrier to operate both behemoths in 2012.
Safran and Honeywell expect to begin tests on an electric tug attached to an Airbus A320's main landing gear in 2014 in preparation for offering the system as an option in the A320NEO program. Safran has purchased an A320 to conduct the tests and expects its best sales opportunities to come from airlines flying short-haul, quick turnaround routes, which require numerous daily rotations, says Alain Coutrot, deputy director of research and development for Safran's Aerospace Div.
Three years ago, Italian investor group CAI paid €1 billion ($1.3 billion) to rescue a struggling Alitalia, merging it with Italy's second-largest operator, Air One. Now antitrust authorities are questioning whether that deal resulted in Alitalia gaining too much dominance in its home market.
Advanced kerosene-fueled rocket engines will be a serious subtext this week when launch-industry representatives gather for briefings on NASA's plans to compete the strap-on boosters for its next heavy-lift rocket. The Space Launch System (SLS) needs new boosters to meet the 130-metric-ton capability that Congress has ordered. While NASA is careful not to specify what kind of propulsion it wants in the boosters, there is a hope among many in the launch industry, and within the U.S. government, that a new kerosene engine is the ultimate choice.
Seizing on an unexpected jump last year in global emissions of carbon dioxide, European scientists are calling on governments to invest more in space assets that can supply policymakers with a credible means of monitoring carbon output worldwide.
Technicians are wrapping up tests on the 18 state-of-the-art James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mirror segments built to work together on collecting light from the very dawn of time, and NASA believes it can complete JWST in time for a 2018 launch date. But much remains to be done, and members of Congress wonder if the deep-space observatory has become what one lawmaker calls a “money pit.”
Ten years and $38 billion into the development of the Joint Strike Fighter, the program is still fighting to stay intact. This is as much about changing times as it is about unmet expectations. A decade ago, Washington had a budget surplus. Today, it is saddled with debt. As the single-largest Pentagon procurement, the $380 billion F-35 cannot escape unprecedented scrutiny. The F-35 should now be an adolescent in the Pentagon's portfolio. Instead, it has been stuck at the toddler stage.
