Germany's new defense minister, Thomas de Maiziere, has been quietly going about his business, trying to implement the reform program for the country's military. Industry has been waiting to learn how the proposed changes in end-strength will filter into procurement plans. Last year, a list of program cuts was already circulating and now, according to German reports, a new one is making the rounds.
Joseph A. DiLallo (see photo) has been named VP-corporate aviation finance at Key Equipment Finance, Superior, Colo. He was senior VP and manager for JPMorgan's aviation finance division.
Akbar Al Baker has been elected to the executive committee of the Arab Air Carriers Organization of Beirut, for a three-year term. He has been CEO of Qatar Airways since its launch in 1997.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has won a $15 million contract to supply the Italian air force with two additional MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft and three Lynx Block 30 synthetic-aperture radars, part of Italy's plan to build its fleet to six each of Lynx-equipped Predators and Reapers. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has notified Congress of plans to upgrade the French navy's four Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes for $180 million and provide Argentina with a commercial off-the-shelf avionics upgrade for five Lockheed Martin C-130Hs, for $166 million. The U.S.
Plasma aerodynamics is a new branch of science in which electrical discharges are used to modify flow fields, gas properties and chemical reactions. Simulation and laboratory experience has been gained over the last two decades in using electrical discharges to control airflow and combustion. Research is being driven by interest in using plasma aerodynamics to improve the lift-to-drag ratio of air vehicles, provide fast trajectory control, thermal load mitigation, inlet performance control and improve the efficiency of supersonic combustion.
Despite the government-wide effort to trim spending, the head of the Missile Defense Agency suggests a global buildup of missiles may insulate some of the MDA's signature programs—the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system and the Phased Adaptive Approach for Europe—from major budget reductions. Even excluding the U.S., China, Russia or NATO, as many as 6,250 missiles with ranges of 300 km (186 mi.) or more have been produced, Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly said during a speech at the Atlantic Council.
When the Obama administration killed the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) last year, it ended the prospect of a single next-generation platform to monitor Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans and near-space environment for military and civil users. The erstwhile partners, the U.S. Air Force and NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have moved on to replacement programs—the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS) from Northrop Grumman and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) from Ball Aerospace.
The U.S. intelligence community is headed for billions of dollars in budget reductions over the next decade, with significant cuts expected to contractor ranks, the director of national intelligence (DNI) warned an industry conference last week. DNI James Clapper told the Geoint 2011 conference in San Antonio that he wants half of the projected cost savings to come via information technology improvements, especially through new cloud-computing services. Other savings will come from cutting back on contractors and overseas facilities.
In a recent Feedback, reader Virgil Soule proposes that a tilt-wing be designed and implemented with tiltrotors (AW&ST Oct. 3, p. 8). Tilt-wings, though they may generally have a higher cruise speed, tend to generate higher downwash velocities in hover and are noisy critters—as witnessed by the XC-142, CL-84 and the never-to-be-realized Ishida design. None were ever produced, for the reasons stated. Soule touts a 300-kt. cruise speed for a tilt-wing. The latest block of MV-22s is now achieving 280 kt. and 300 kt. is a reachable goal.
Alexandre de Juniac has been appointed chairman and CEO of Air France. He succeeds Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, who has resigned. De Juniac was chief of staff for International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde during her tenure as French finance minister. Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman of the Air France-KLM board, has become chairman and CEO of the group, and Leo Van Wijk is the new deputy CEO.
Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America operations base will be equally busy carrying to sub-orbit research payloads and space tourists, say developers at the newly dedicated facility here.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington and Cape Town, South Africa)
NASA will store some rocket engines, slow work on others and study still more as it struggles to squeeze the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) Congress has ordered into a flat $3 billion annual budget for development. Early flights of the SLS will use surplus space shuttle main engines (SSMEs) and, as side-mounted strap-ons, the five-segment solid-fuel motors developed for the terminated Ares I crew launch vehicle's first stage.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Price T. Bingham (Melbourne, Fla. )
I will not be surprised if the Air Force decides to cut the Joint Stars program as discussed in “Intelligence Quotients” (AW&ST Sept. 26, p. 30). Ever since Desert Storm, the service's leadership has demonstrated an appalling lack of understanding regarding the critical importance of seeing and targeting ground movement over a wide area. Evidence of this continues with the assertion that Global Hawk provides equal coverage!
What does the future hold for space travel? While we can extrapolate from basic trends, experience shows we must also consider the possibility of wild-card breakthroughs in propulsion physics. While this might sound like science fiction, enough progress has been made to suggest how sensibly to pursue the ambition of interstellar flight.
Robonaut 2 (R2), the legless humanoid developed by NASA and General Motors, is moving for the first time since its launch to the International Space Station in February aboard the space shuttle Discovery. On Oct. 13, the robot moved its arms in response to commands from NASA control facilities in Houston and Huntsville, Ala. The two-armed robot, positioned in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module, was awakened electronically for the first time on Aug. 22. “We have his arm stretched out,” radioed NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, who was floating next to R2.
Imagine the ability to make any part from any material directly from your computer or smartphone. What could you build? What if you could translate the 0s and 1s of a digital file or the pixels of a picture into matter? What if you could ascribe specific physical properties to any pixel in that file? What would you be able to do with that part?
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. (ret.) Edward “Sonny” Masso has been named chairman of Washington-based Not Alone, a not-for-profit organization chartered to increase awareness and treat post-traumatic stress disorder and reduce suicide rates of returning veterans and their families. He was deputy chief and commander of naval personnel in his final flag assignment.
An increasing number of airlines will be coming to loggerheads with lessors regarding maintenance reserves and conditions for return of leased aircraft, now that more carriers are tapping the lease market. Airlines are responsible for aircraft line maintenance, such as A checks. But C and D checks, the heavier checkups, are far more expensive, so lessors usually require maintenance reserves—monthly installments the airlines must pay to cover the cost of these future, pricey checks.
The H-92 is the military variant of Sikorsky's S-92 civil model. It is powered by two GE CT7-8C turboshaft engines rated at 2,550 shp each. When configured for the land assault mission, the H-92 provides a 200-nm radius of action and the ability to carry 22 troops at 3,000 ft. on a 91.5F day. Five H-92s were produced through 2010, with approximately 70 units forecast for production in 2011-20.
A U.S.-India joint study group cosponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and the Aspen Institute India in New Delhi says the U.S. should train and provide expertise to the Indian military in areas such as space and cyberspace operations, “where India's defense establishment is currently weak, but its civil and private sector has strengths.” The U.S. also should help strengthen India's indigenous defense industry, the think tanks assert.
In 2001, Kawasaki began development of the C-2 to provide a replacement for the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force's C-1As and C-130Hs. The C-2 is a twin-engine tactical transport aircraft powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2 turbofans rated at 52,500 lb. thrust each. Maximum payload is 82,892 lb. First flight occurred in January 2010. Twenty-four C-1s are forecast to be produced in 2011-20.
Cape Town, South Africa—On the surface, the African continent seems custom-made for putting spacecraft to work solving problems on the ground. Desperately poor people are scattered across 55 nations, linked—if at all—by substandard roads and communications networks. Resources as basic as food and water are often in short supply, and the legacy of colonialism casts a shadow over a populace ill-equipped by education and skills to address the structural problems that it left behind.
In 1990, Beech teamed with Pilatus to propose the T-6 tandem-seat trainer (based on the Pilatus PC-9 Mk II) for the U.S. Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Trainer System program. The T-6, which is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turboprop, was selected as the Jpats winner in 1995. The Air Force and Navy intend to eventually acquire 782 T-6s, of which more than 513 have been delivered. Though it was developed for a U.S. military program, the T-6 has been well received outside the U.S.
The U.S. Central Command's investigation into the Aug. 6 Boeing CH-47 Chinook crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, confirms the primary cause of the accident was an insurgent-fired rocket-propelled grenade strike to the aft rotor blade as the helicopter approached its combat landing zone.
