Cessna Aircraft has launched the Citation M2 to succeed the CJ1+ light business jet. With room for up to six passengers, the $4.2 million Citation M2 has a maximum cruise speed of 741 kph (463 mph) and a range of 2,408 km (1,505 mi). The M2 features Garmin G3000 avionics and an all-new cabin design and is powered by two Fadec-controlled Williams FJ44-1AP-21 turbofan engines.
China's Tiangong 1 orbital laboratory, launched on Sept. 29, will serve as a docking target for three missions during the coming two years, as China continues to take measured steps in its manned space program. For the moment, the greatest goal of the program is placing a 60-metric-ton space station in orbit by 2020, although Chinese space scientists hope to launch lunar missions. The next three missions for Shenzhou capsules—Shenzhou 8, 9 and 10—will each aim at mating with Tiangong 1.
Energy is becoming an obsession for the U.S. military—whether it is energy security, to reduce its dependence on imported oil; or energy efficiency, to offset rising operating costs driven by fuel prices. Energy considerations are increasingly finding their way into the requirements for both the acquisition and upgrade of aircraft and could soon be elevated to the list of key performance parameters for new platforms in development.
Scientists studying the flow of freshwater as a clue to how the Earth's climate is changing are pleased with the first ocean-surface salinity map produced by the U.S./Argentine Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft. “Aquarius's salinity data are showing much higher quality than we expected to see this early in the mission,” says Gary Lagerloef of Earth & Space Research in Seattle, the mission's principal investigator.
A new “Global Exploration Road Map” developed by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group offers two 25-year human pathways to Mars, one through an “asteroid-next” approach favored by President Barack Obama and the other through a “Moon-next” gateway. The competing strategies won support from 10 space agencies meeting in Kyoto, Japan, on Aug. 30. Five years in the making, the road map does not come with a price tag. Nor does it require binding agreements from existing participants, or exclude newcomers, including the noticeably absent China.
Eutelsat controllers are checking out the Atlantic Bird-7 satellite after Sea Launch AG lofted it atop a Zenit-3SL rocket from its floating platform in the Pacific on Sept. 24. The mission was the first for the Bern, Switzerland-based company since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2009. The rocket delivered the EADS Astrium-built communications satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Eutelsat reported partial deployment of the satellite's solar array within 3 hr. of separation.
California super-entrepreneur Elon Musk of PayPal, Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies fame is no naif when it comes to the ways of Washington. Wielding one of the bigger megaphones in town—a luncheon address at the National Press Club—he used the opportunity last week to zing a rhetorical missile at the military-industrial complex.
Look for the Obama administration to try to ramp up foreign military sales and financing to Southeast Asia. Washington hopes to make military aid do for it in that region what it did in the Middle East. “Our funding helps tie a country's security sector to the United States, creating strong strategic and financial incentives for the recipient countries to maintain close relations,” says Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
With All Nippon Airways (ANA) in possession of the first 787-8, Boeing is upbeat about taking the first steps in its next big challenge—a production ramp-up—but hesitates about when the industry's first composite jet will begin to pay off. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO James Albaugh says production rates will notch up to 2.5 airplanes per month from the current two in November and reach 3.5 per month in “late winter or early spring.”
As aircraft designers focus on airframe and system integration, Boeing says that modifications to the 787's flight control system (FCS) provided it with a bonus in performance improvements that helped to avoid further structural redesign and delays.
Three years of Boeing 787 delays should have provided ample time for airlines and their maintenance organizations to ready themselves for the new generation of aircraft. Reality looks quite different, though.
Robert Wall (London), Amy Svitak (Paris), Amy Butler (Washington)
Europe will never match the U.S.'s passion for missile defense; but step-by-step, Washington's NATO partners are moving to build up capacities that could augment and expand the shield the Pentagon is creating. Progress will be slow and incremental, though, and—in terms of budget expenditure—will remain a mere fraction of what the U.S. commits to the mission area.
As Lockheed Martin readies for the imminent start of shipboard trials with the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, test pilots have given high marks to the jet's vertical-landing handling characteristics, though they caution that more work is needed to mitigate the effects of hot gas reingestion.
Two South African aerospace and defense companies have unveiled a new attack and reconnaissance aircraft, designed to be smaller and less costly than any other current manned, weapon-carrying type. In addition to providing armed overwatch for counter-insurgency, peacekeeping or border security operations, it is being touted as a fully autonomous and more versatile substitute for unmanned air systems.
L-3 Communications is hoping to spin up interest from U.S. and international customers in a new tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft concept based on demonstrations of its Spydr prototype.
When India did not shortlist either of the U.S. fighter offerings in its large Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft competition, questions began to swirl about whether something was amiss with the defense industrial relationship between the two sides. But it appears that U.S. industry still has access to this growth market. The latest sign is that after seven months of on-again/off-again talks, India's effort to reengine more than 100 of its Sepecat Jaguar strike aircraft is finally moving forward with indications that Honeywell will land the deal.
The need to put more effort into sustaining aging equipment and the introduction of platforms with new support schemes should make the near-term outlook bright for military maintenance, repair and overhaul organizations. But the fiscal reality in Europe and the U.S. is such that those two trends are merely compounding a gloomy budget picture and darkening the prospects for industry.
EADS is facing crucial decisions over its ownership structure now that Germany's government must decide within weeks about how to best protect its interests in Europe's largest aerospace company. According to industry sources, Daimler AG is losing patience in the slow-moving process to sell at least part of its stake as planned. It could, those sources say, decide to float its shares on the stock exchange if no other investor is found by the end of the year.
As if volatile oil prices, a European recession and an aggressive low-cost airline rival were not enough to deal with, EasyJet management's main threat appears to come from its inability to resolve a long-running dispute with one its founder—and one of its main shareholders—Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The two sides have sparred over a host of issues—from the composition of the board of directors to fleet plans—and in the latest twist, EasyJet suggests Haji-Ioannou may be threatening to set up a rival airline.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines is embarking on a new strategy that will build on the deep cuts already made to its cost structure and move the airline even further away from the traditional hub-and-spoke legacy business model.
They tend to whoop once it's over, but going into the centrifuge at the National AeroSpace Training And Research (Nastar) center here in the Philadelphia suburbs, would-be suborbital space travelers usually are a bit subdued. After two days of classroom work, some preparatory “flights” and an unpleasant session in the high-altitude chamber, they have a better understanding of how a real flight—and their bodies' reactions to it—could go wrong.
NASA hopes to devote $1.6 billion in the next two years to commercial crew vehicles able to reach the International Space Station (ISS). That is extremely encouraging to those who want to see the terrestrial economy move off the planet, but it may not be the only path to commercial orbital transportation.
Staring at the bright lights and immaculate floor of The Spaceship Co.'s (TSC) new suborbital spacecraft and launch vehicle factory, Mojave Air & Space Port CEO Stuart Witt smiles and shakes his head.
Europe may lag behind the U.S. in the field of commercial space tourism, but its agencies and companies are poised to move into the market if it develops. European industry is already taking advantage of facilities for commercial research aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and plans are afoot for tourist flights from the Swedish arctic.
Oct. 12-13—Fifth Edition of Lean Six Sigma for MRO Forum. San Francisco. Oct. 20-21—MRO IT Conference and Showcase. Chicago. Oct. 24-26—A&D Programs. Phoenix. Nov. 2-3—Engine MRO Forum. Istanbul. Nov. 8-10—MRO Asia. Beijing. Nov. 16-17—Lean Six Sigma for MRO Europe. Amsterdam. Nov. 30-Dec. 1—Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference. New York. Feb. 1-2—MRO Middle East 2012. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. March 7—54th Annual Laureate Awards. Washington.
