The Australian Scramspace hypersonic demonstrator aimed at achieving speed of Mach 8 in 2013 is undergoing wind tunnel trials at the German aerospace center's facility in Gottingen. The 62-meter-long (203-ft.) wind tunnel can effectively simulate scramjet operations at an altitude of 30 km. (19 mi.) Scramspace—the 1.8 meter-long Scramjet-based Access-to-Space System—is due to be launched in March 2013 from the Woomera test range in Australia.
David Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
The crash of a stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aircraft in Iran is revealing details about U.S. intelligence monitoring of that increasingly bellicose and isolated nation.
Japan Airlines has established the first four international routes for its Boeing 787s, although the carrier now expects first delivery of the aircraft will slip to February.
Meantime, if Pentagon planners really have not been preparing for the Budget Control Act's sequestration scenario, they should be, says Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. At best, the potential impact on defense research and procurement is a 12% cut in real spending levels from fiscal 2011; at worst, it is 21%. The big variable in Harrison's analysis is whether savings will be found in the personnel side of the Pentagon's budget or whether it is mostly or entirely exempted.
Unlike most large-scale composites plants that have had to evolve organically to keep pace with demand, Alliant Techsystems' (ATK) Aircraft Commercial Center of Excellence (ACCE) in Clearfield, Utah, was designed from the outset to handle the unprecedented production rates envisioned for future widebodies such as the Airbus A350.
Los Angeles Bureau Chief Guy Norris's article “American Sets Stage For NEO Power Battle,” which covers American Airlines powering part of its new Airbus fleet with V2500s, drew the following responses: Rowboat68 who notes: Just as the J-79 powering the 880 airliner was the cause of the failure of Convair, so will Boeing fail if it ignores the GTF [geared turbofan]. Convair failed by ignoring the twin-spool design. We've been down this road before. Frank expands on this:
An old maxim says the best way to fight a submarine is with another submarine, but the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter has U.S. Navy officials rethinking antisubmarine warfare (ASW) strategies. The development comes as officials scrutinize budgets and look to maintain core military capabilities such as ASW, while considering major acquisition changes such as revising shipbuilding plans. Still, kinks remain in the Seahawk's utilization, as recent testing results indicate.
Private industry in India is being handed an opportunity to do something it has only dreamed of—building large-scale military hardware for a market dominated by a handful of state-owned corporations. The most significant effort yet to establish a private foothold will come as the Indian air force (IAF) calls on the private sector to build a replacement for its vintage Avro HS-748 military transports.
USMC Gen. (ret.) James Cartwright, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has joined the board of Chantilly, Va.-based TASC Inc. Before his appointment to the Joint Chiefs, he was the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command. USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) John T. Brennan has been appointed to lead TASC's Air Force Business Unit. He comes from the Science Applications International Corp., where he headed an operation serving the Central Intelligence Agency.
Delivery of NASA's large Curiosity rover to a Martian crater next Aug. 6 will be a do-or-die test, not just of its “sky crane” landing system, but of an equally new approach to targeting distant bodies with unprecedented precision.
USAF Maj. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, Fort Meade, Md. He has been deputy director for command, control, communications and computer (C4) systems for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon in Washington. Brig. Gen. Linda R. Medler has been appointed director of C4 at U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade. She has been assistant deputy director for netcentric capabilities for the Joint Staff. Brig. Gen. John R.
Middle Eastern airlines have long been accused of receiving unfair government support, but they are arguing that their model should serve as an example for the world. “Yes, we have governments support us, in the same way as Europeans did before their privatization,” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al Baker told delegates at the Arab Air Carrier Organization (AACO) annual general meeting here last week. He argues that once airlines in the region “are properly mature,” they will launch initial public offerings (IPO) and privatize to fully stand on their own feet.
The tiny resource-rich Southeast Asian nation of Timor-Leste wants to buy military transport and maritime surveillance aircraft, and the country is aiming separately to build a new international airport for the capital, Dili. Timor-Leste gained full independence from Indonesia in 2002 and its government has been relying for airlift on a United Nations peacekeeping mission stationed in the country.
Martin Murray (see photo) has been appointed finance director at Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways, succeeding James Hughes-Hallett, who will return to the U.K. Murray was deputy finance director at Swire Pacific Ltd.
GKN Aerospace is selling its £20 million ($31.5 million) aerospace engineering services business to Quest Global Engineering, but also has formalized an agreement for Quest to provide long-term engineering support to GKN, a U.K.-based defense and commercial air transport Tier 1 systems and aerostructures provider.
India's home-grown airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) effort enters a crucial phase this month with the Embraer EMB-145-based platform making its first flight in coming days, according to defense officials.
Bob Del Zoppo has been promoted to assistant VP-advanced technology programs at Syracuse, N.Y.-based SRC Inc., formerly Syracuse Research Corp. Dave Sprague and Rick Wells have moved up to assistant VPs for information technology. Tracey McCarthy has become assistant VP-operations in the Information Science and Engineering Div.
Economic turmoil in Europe and high fuel prices have made 2011 a difficult year for the region's carriers. The problem is, the outlook for 2012 is already far worse, with economic and regulatory headwinds only getting stronger.
USN Capt. Kevin Peterson has become the new program manager of the Network Enterprise Domain Program Office of the Joint Tactical Radio System in San Diego, succeeding Capt. Jeffery Hoyle.
Boeing South Carolina has opened a fabrication support center to serve its 787 final assembly line in North Charleston. Called the Interiors Responsibility Center South Carolina, the 300,000-sq.-ft. facility's products include stow bins, closets, partitions, overhead rests for flight attendants and flight crews and video control stations.
Northrop Grumman's second X-47B, Air Vehicle 2 (right), has joined AV-1 in flight testing under the U.S. Navy's UCAS-D unmanned combat air system demonstrator program. AV-1 is being moved to NAS Patuxent River, Md., from Edwards AFB, Calif., to begin the work-up to autonomous landings on an aircraft carrier in 2013 and automated aerial refueling trials in 2014. Northrop Grumman photo by Alan Radecki.
Nicholas E. Calio, President/CEO Air Transport Association (Washington, D.C. )
In “War in Washington: U.S. Airlines Vs. Boeing” (AW&ST Nov. 21, p. 12) you correctly noted the Air Transport Association's (ATA) position that the Export-Import Bank's practices have a significant adverse effect on U.S. airlines, disadvantaging the carriers and commercial aviation jobs, and thus bears close scrutiny.
In the recent commentary “No Risk, No Reward” (AW&ST Nov. 14, p. 62), John Stopher recounted a great cautionary tale for engineering companies: “External staffs imposed specific design constraints, believing that they understood better than . . . engineers how to build effective spacecraft.” He notes, and I agree, that engineers do not need to be “managed,” they need to be told what the job is and then be allowed to do it.
The editorial “Debate Defense Spending Honestly” (AW&ST Nov. 14, p. 66) makes excellent points, but does not sufficiently address our military bloat. We can safely shift $300 billion a year from the defense budget to NASA and infrastructure development, and still maintain a robust military.
