BERLIN – Airbus Military expects to conduct the first flight of its first production A400M transport in the first quarter of next year, later than the most recent plan for the struggling program.
If Congress fails to block a looming government-wide budget cut, the Pentagon will lose $54.7 billion and NASA about $1.7 billion, the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a report delivered to Congress Sept. 14. The cuts amount to a 9.4% cut to defense accounts and an 8.2% cut to other domestic discretionary programs, including NASA. The penalty known as sequestration was put in place last year by a bill designed to spur lawmakers to reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion.
Berlin – Germany is expected to make a multibillion euro decision in the coming years on whether to continue with the Medium-Extended Area Defense System (Meads) or shift to a Patriot-based upgrade plan to modernize its air defense capability.
Boeing says a new contract proposal presented to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) will “more than offset some increased health insurance cost sharing” requested by the manufacturer. The company says the net effect will mean average pay increases of more than 3% for engineers and 2% for technical workers over the lifetime of the proposed four-year contract. A Speea official said the union is evaluating the proposal.
As CEO of EADS, Louis Gallois was repeatedly rebuffed by his board when he sought to acquire U.S. defense companies. Less than four months after Gallois' retirement, a single deal could finally make EADS a top supplier to the Pentagon—and in the process create the largest aerospace and defense (A&D) company ever.
This week, Aviation Week & Space Technology publishes two editions. On the cover at the far left, a high-speed camera mounted in the weapons bay of an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter captures a 1,000-lb. Joint Direct-Attack Munition just after release, during the aircraft's first safe-separation trial Aug. 8 near NAS Patuxent River, Md. The squares and circles on the JDAM are photogrammetric markers. Cameras tracked the JDAM as it separated from the bay. Engineers compare the images to predictive models (see page 56).
European aerospace giant EADS is tackling a number of problems in its military businesses as it proceeds with talks to merge with British behemoth BAE Systems in an effort to increase its global footprint in the defense market.
With the U.S. election looming, the last thing anyone wants to say in public is that the Pentagon's biggest program is further from finishing its tests than it was supposed to be four years ago, that nobody agrees exactly how far away it is, and that—11 years after the program started—none of the three service operators has set an initial operational capability (IOC) target date.
It wasn't easy to kill Lockheed Martin's F-22, but resurrecting the Raptor could be just as difficult. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the issue in play during a Sept. 8 interview with a Virginia television station near the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, saying if he were elected president, he would add more of the fifth-generation fighters. But it's not clear whether the pledge aimed squarely at the local audience would fly even if Romney wins in November.
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver raised some eyebrows last week with a provocative sound bite: “We're going back to the Moon.” A prime mover in the Obama administration decision to kill the “Moon, Mars and Beyond” Constellation program, Garver explained that she was talking about cislunar space, with a mission as early as 2017. That would be the planned first flight of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle atop the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
Airbus Military is once again investigating the loss of a boom from one of its A330-based Multi-Role Tanker Transports (MRTTs). On the eve of the ILA Berlin Air Show, the company encountered an embarrassing problem with its A330-based tanker program. During a post-production checkout flight, the refueling boom of a tanker bound for the United Arab Emirates fell off the aircraft in flight. This is the second such incident for Airbus Military.
Can industry really police itself? That's the question the Transportation Department's Inspector General will pose the second time starting Sept. 19, in an audit of the FAA's voluntary disclosure reporting program. The IG's review of the program comes as lawmakers continue to be concerned about the findings of a 2008 Inspector General's audit that found an FAA inspector and Southwest Airlines ducked the system.
Last week, a fresh set of calls urged Congress to address the nation's financial situation. Executives from Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and EADS North America are proceeding with pre-election plans to warn thousands of workers that they might be laid off early next year. Two former Treasury secretaries, one Republican and one Democrat, said failing to address America's debt problem has dire economic and foreign policy implications. And Moody's rating agency now says the nation's long-held AAA rating hinges on congressional budget negotiations. Sen.
Francesco Caio Title: CEO, Avio Age: 55 Birthplace: Naples, Italy Education: Engineering degree from Milan Politecnico and MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
As Airbus's new CEO, Fabrice Bregier, and COO, Gunter Butschek, make major changes to the aircraft manufacturer's organization, the company's position within the EADS group has been strengthened. Two Airbus executives, Butschek and COO for Customers John Leahy, have been added to EADS's executive board, which now has 13 members including CEO Tom Enders.
