After months of wondering how the potential 10-year, $1 trillion Budget Control Act reduction to planned defense spending would impact the military—and their local constituents—lawmakers are starting to let their exasperation show in public. “Frankly at this point, we don't have much information other than that bad things will happen,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), said last week to four of the military chiefs of staff. “It's time for specifics.”
Some lawmakers again are pushing for Congress to allow the president to remove satellites and their components from the U.S. Munitions List. To prevent U.S. technology from spreading to China, the U.S. satellite industry since 1999 has been bound by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that restrict sales of satellites and their components. But as critics have argued in the decade-plus since, that goal was circumnavigated by European companies that design satellites sans U.S.
Blue Origin, the secretive commercial crew-transport startup run by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, may wish it were a little less so. The company, which is using $14.9 million in taxpayer funds to develop a vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle under NASA's Commercial Crew Development effort, didn't accept a congressional invitation to testify about its work before the House Science Committee recently—and it didn't leave Texas Republican Rep. Ralph Hall, the panel's chairman, too amused either.
And finally, Republican contenders interested in being their party's candidate for president have been invited to a debate Nov. 22 hosted by CNN and several Washington conservative think tanks. The forum, to be broadcast live at 8 p.m. EST, comes amid a heavy GOP debate series that has focused on domestic issues—traditionally a strong suit for Democrats. The debate also will entail foreign policy, which along with military matters, is seen as a Republican staple.
China's effort to develop its aviation propulsion industry appears to be increasingly ambitious, with two new engine projects coming to light, including a second high-bypass turbofan of around 30,000-lb. thrust, aimed at military use. While the push is broad, the prospects for success still look distant. Industry officials emphasize that independent engine development remains extremely challenging for the various subsidiaries of Avic that are involved. “It is not any one aspect of technology,” says one. “For us, it is all hard.”
They were confident they could do it, and they did it. Just a few days after Chinese officials said with unusual boldness that they expected no trouble in achieving their first space docking, the Shenzhou 8 capsule opened the way for the Chinese manned space program by closing on the Tiangong 1 docking target and solidly connecting to it.
Executing NASA's plan to rely on commercial space taxis to get its astronauts to orbit will precarious at first, and probably won't kick in soon enough to avoid another buy of Soyuz seats from Russia. Boeing—one of two commercial-crew companies that say publicly they can complete their business cases with only the U.S. space agency's two planned flights a year to the International Space Station(ISS)—needs state incentives and essentially free use of surplus space shuttle infrastructure for that to happen.
Under pressure to reduce spending, the institutions responsible for setting and financing European space programs will meet this week to hash out space funding priorities against a backdrop of tremendous financial turmoil in Europe.
NPP, the bridge satellite for civil and military weather- and climate-watchers, is going through a 90-day checkout after an Oct. 28 launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II 7920-10 rocket from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Built by Ball Aerospace and formally known as the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, NPP carries a five-instrument suite and will operate from a 512-mi.-high Sun-synchronous orbit with a 1:30 p.m. daily crossing of the equator.
Now that Germany has made good on its promise to cut its defense modernization program as part of a sweeping reorganization, the question remains: Will the government follow through with the promise to put the freed-up money toward future needs?
Prolonged delays in development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are coming home to roost for Lockheed Martin, as the Defense Department moves to force the manufacturer to bear the cost of any changes to production aircraft that could result from the thousands of hours of flight testing that still lie ahead. Even as development has fallen behind schedule, Lockheed has continued to produce aircraft and the resulting overlap, or concurrency, has driven up the cost of the initial batches of F-35s, forcing the cutback on procurement to cover the overruns.
Indonesia is moving toward signing a contract to upgrade Lockheed Martin F-16s to the Block 52 standard after the country's populist president weighed in on the debate about the country's defense procurement processes.
Finmeccanica's impending report of third-quarter financial results would be nothing special if not for that fact that the last time the Italian aerospace and defense giant communicated with the financial community, it went so badly the company lost more than 25% of its market value.
Plans to execute the stretched Boeing 787-9 to its revised schedule and weight targets are increasingly bullish, despite the company's revelation in its latest financial filing that first delivery may slide into early 2014. The higher-capacity 787-9 will seat at least 40 more passengers than the baseline model, and in the longer term it is widely expected to sell better, much as the 767-300 outsold its -200 sibling. Current orders for the 787-9, which will be stretched by 20 ft., stand at 266, just under one-third of the overall firm backlog.
As it has so often before, Boeing is betting big on an ambitious production rate for the 787 even though it does not expect to see the first “clean” aircraft roll through its factories until next year.
Boeing has finalized the all-important fan diameter for the 737 MAX derivative program, answering a growing number of questions from would-be operators and bolstering the twinjet's credibility in continuing campaigns against Airbus's successful A320NEO.
A solution to the bitter conflict between Qantas and its unions appears to be finally within reach, thanks to an act of high-stakes brinksmanship by the carrier.
While the Arab Spring political uprisings stirred speculation that Middle Eastern militaries might alter spending to combat insurgencies, in fact the uprisings appear to have sharpened the countries' concerns about the regional balance of power instead.
With the more than 400 wide-body aircraft on firm order by the three largest Middle Eastern carriers, one question is being asked frequently: Is there a market for all of these aircraft? In spite of what European competitors tend to say, the answer is mostly “yes.”
No question the Arab Spring political turmoil, which has run into the summer and fall, depressed air travel in the Middle East, but what is far from clear are the long-term ramifications of the unrest. Some markets have already recovered. Oman Air saw a marked downturn early in the year, but as the country has stabilized, so have passenger numbers. Royal Jordanian Airlines also has seen a gradual return to norm and has restored flights to Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya.
The Middle East has been one of the main importers of Western aerospace technologies, but slowly and quietly one of the biggest efforts to reverse that balance of trade is gaining traction.
The Middle East aircraft maintenance market has commanded much growth and development in the past decade, driven largely by the success of Dubai International Airport and other hubs. Market-watchers expect the expansion of air traffic volume and fleet sizes in the region to continue, and MRO along with them. By 2015, the United Arab Emirates will have more commercial aircraft than Japan, now the world's third-largest economy, says Bill Lay, PwC's Dubai-based partner.
The ability to fund customers' components to reduce their balance sheet expenses is an advantage few companies can offer at the level that Mubadala Aerospace does. As an example, Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, Sanad Aero Solutions and SR Technics—all three of which Mubadala owns—forged a major service deal with Virgin Australia in August. The agreement includes component maintenance, financing and training to support the airline's Airbus A330s—initially covering two aircraft, but set to expand to five in 2013.
A radically different approach to subsystem design and integration is needed if the Lockheed Martin F-35 and future “sixth-generation” fighters now on the drawing board are to be equipped with high-power sensors and directed-energy weapons now in development.
Despite being nearly three years behind schedule, the A400M military airlifter test program is progressing through its final year amid a surprisingly calm atmosphere. Test personnel recognize there is still ample time for hiccups to occur, but the head of flight-test operations at Airbus Military, Fernando Alonso, says, “we are in pretty good shape,” even if “we are still prone to find things” as the trials unfold. The program has logged 2,500 flight-test hours, with 3,700 hr. expected for the entire campaign.
