Honeywell is fine-tuning a civil helicopter-specific combined vision system based on a recent flight-test campaign that evaluated fused synthetic vision and enhanced vision technologies for the primary flight displays of higher-end models. Though the company had planned to begin offering a helicopter synthetic vision system (SVS) by 2010, complexities in presenting real and database-generated terrain, obstacles and various safety features to a helicopter pilot have slowed the process. Work continues, but no new date has been issued.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is classifying its forthcoming squadron of Boeing EA-18G Growlers as a support force distinct from its air combat units, raising the possibility that the 12 electronic-attack aircraft will be added to the fast-jet fleet instead of substituting for part of it. The move may not persuade the government to pay for more fast jets than it has planned, however.
Bolstered by recent new product introductions and buoyant sales of its turboshaft engines, Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) says plans for a next-generation PT6 family replacement will not be firmed up until at least 2014.
While the rest of the U.S. defense community continues to be obsessed with the effects of sequestration, the major issue for shipbuilding juggernaut Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is the effect of the continuing resolution (CR) currently funding the government at fiscal 2012 levels. “From the beginning of this, we’ve been focused on the continuing resolution,” HII CEO Michael Petters says. With no new appropriations yet in place for fiscal 2013, which began last October, the nation’s shipbuilding programs are adrift.
NEW DELHI — India has raised its defense budget for the next fiscal year, contrary to expectations that there would be a reduction in its military spending due to economic strains. The defense allocation for the India’s fiscal year beginning April 1 is being increased by around 5% to 2.03 trillion rupees ($38 billion), from the originally allocated 1.93 trillion rupees for the year ending March 31.
Correction: The story in the Feb. 25 issue (page 25) about Piaggio Aero P.1HH Hammerhead UAV stated the wrong payload. The Hammerhead is designed for 16 hr. endurance with a payload of 500 lb. (225 kg) at maximum fuel capacity. Within the structural envelope, the platform is also able to accommodate, by reducing the fuel load, a payload (mission sensors/equipment) up to 2,000 lb.
BERLIN — EADS CEO Tom Enders has given up the once important target of balancing civil and defense revenues. “Maybe it is not a bad time to have a smaller rather than larger defense business,” he said at the EADS annual press conference in Berlin Feb. 27. The plan to increase defense exposure faltered when the merger with BAE Systems collapsed last year and important potential military contracts such as the U.S. Air Force tanker program were lost.
Boeing is ready to begin higher-altitude, longer-endurance flights of its private-venture Phantom Eye hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft after a redesigned main landing gear passed the test on the vehicle's Feb. 25 second flight, at Edwards AFB, Calif. The aircraft was damaged on its June 1, 2012, first flight when the skid gear dug into the lakebed on landing. The gear bay is concealed behind Mylar film for takeoff and in flight, to reduce drag, and the gear leg must cut through the film to deploy. The redesign repositioned the Mylar cutter.
Bidding jointly to build the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role (JMR) technology demonstrator, Boeing and Sikorsky have selected the latter’s X2 coaxial-rotor high-speed helicopter configuration as the basis of its proposal, to be submitted by March 6. The two companies have teamed to pursue the JMR technology demonstration (TD) and planned a follow-on Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Medium program to field replacements for first the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and then the Boeing AH-64 Apache.
The head of the U.K.'s air navigation service is urging government to take the country's busy airspace into consideration as it examines how to build future capacity. Richard Deakin, CEO of National Air Traffic Services (NATS), says several of the leading ideas to solve London's airport capacity problems have not taken into account the challenges of the airspace around them. Officials deciding on the future of London's airports must plan for more than just concrete and terminal buildings, he says.
From locating balloons to re-assembling documents, from crowd-designed vehicles to disaster-response robots, researchers are using challenges to draw ideas from those who would never normally do business with the Pentagon.
X-BAND PLANS: Washington and Tokyo continue discussing the possibility of deploying another powerful X-band radar in Japan to protect the U.S. and allies against North Korean threats, according to Frank Rose, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of State for space and defense policy. Besides U.S. assets in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has several Aegis-class ships that have a missile defense capability, and also has deployed the Patriot air missile defense system.
As budgets are cut and margins squeezed, and business becomes more competitive, industry is turning to challenges to seek diverse views on difficult problems. And the prize, for the companies, can be ideas, talent or visibility in key markets. “Diversity of thought is key to innovation,” says Ray Johnson, Lockheed Martin senior vice president and chief technology officer. “The more different views you get on a problem, the more you can facilitate a culture of innovation.”
The fact that large-scale aerospace and defense manufacturing is no longer as prominent in Southern California as it was in the Cold War-era is not news. But the region still leads the nation in the number of small suppliers and many are trying to come up with new ways of doing business, especially as they see ominous headlines about defense cuts from Washington.
The penalty that everyone said was too painful to occur is now happening, with Congress's failure to pass a deal to prevent nearly $1 trillion in government spending cuts over a decade. Now the question is how long the pain will last.
