JSF REWORK: Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of early production Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters could require additional work because of nascent manufacturing issues that make them less stealthy than expected, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the April 7 report, Defense Contract Management Agency officials have noted difficulties in manufacturing outer mold lines, resulting from tight tolerance specifications and multiple manufacturing methodologies among the different JSF parts suppliers.
BOEING DELIVERIES: In the first quarter of 2011, Boeing Defense, Space and Security delivered seven new-build CH-47 Chinooks, three C-17s, four F-15s and a total of 13 F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs. It also delivered a 767 tanker to Italy. Boeing Commercial Airplanes delivered 104 aircraft during the quarter, which was four less than the same period in 2010.
Consumer and commercial gear that uses the GPS signal, and direct-to-home television applications drove 7.7% growth in the international “space economy” last year, as measured by the Space Foundation in its annual report on the state of the space industry. Overall, the global space economy of government budgets and commercial revenue rose to $276.5 billion in 2010, according to Space Foundation analysts, who will release their findings at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs next week.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA planned to stop work on space shuttle Endeavour’s upcoming final mission as a government shutdown loomed Friday, but with padding in the processing schedule, a furlough would not necessarily affect the shuttle’s planned April 29 launch date. About 2,100 NASA employees and 10,200 contractors at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., would be affected by a government shutdown, says NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 11 - 13 — Navy League Sea AirSpace 2011. Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland. For more information go to www.seaairspace.org
Northrop Grumman Corp.’s shipbuilding business was so inefficient that the company, after a year of trying to find a buyer, spun it off. The new entity, christened Huntington Ingalls Industries, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 22 under the ticker symbol HII. Some industry observers may wonder why investors would even consider putting money into the new stand-alone if it was unable to meet Northrop Grumman’s performance expectations.
RESUMED DELIVERIES: The Russian air force is once again taking delivery of Yakovlev Yak-130 military jet trainers after a nearly year-long hiatus that followed the May 2010 crash of one of the first four aircraft built. On April 6, five aircraft arrived at the air force’s training center in Borisoglebsk, part of the first batch of 12 trainers ordered by the military and assembled at the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol plant.
MAYBE LATER: The U.K. is drawing on some bookkeeping sleight of hand to avoid dealing with a persistent mismatch between spending plans and the budget. The government was facing the prospect of cutting an additional ₤1 billion ($1.6 billion) from the defense bill. But it has now decided to move some planned spending out of the core budget to be taken over by the Treasury, implement efficiency measures and delay some equipment purchases. Details of the realignment will not be made public until Parliament returns from recess.
Ship inspectors are reviewing welds as they examine the causes of cracks found in Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 1 Freedom, according to Joe North, Lockheed Martin vice president of Littoral Ship Systems. The cracks surfaced during a recent round of sea tests , North said April 8 during a press briefing and update on the LCS program. U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command officials had said the cracks measured as long as 6 in. and appeared in a weld seam between two steel plates in the hull about 3.5 ft. below the waterline.
LONDON — The Norwegian government plans to jump-start procurement of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft in order to receive the first aircraft in 2016 to commence training of pilots. The parliament has proposed an initial buy of four Lockheed Martin F-35s. Those would arrive about two years ahead of the broader introduction of the stealth fighter into the country’s air force inventory. The government puts the price tag for the deal at 4.8 billion Norwegian kronor ($883 million).
TOUGH CHOICE: The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy may decide to go with both Lockheed Martin’s K-Max and Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird unmanned cargo helicopters instead of selecting only one aircraft, according to Dan Spoor, vice president of Lockheed Aviation Systems. The service had been planning a downselect for Afghanistan operations following an operational assessment slated for this summer (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 6, 2010). The decision, Spoor says, will depend on the development of both aircraft toward the latter part of the year.
RARE LEGISLATION: As promised last year, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) is reintroducing legislation that he says is needed “to avert a U.S. rare earth supply crisis by restoring our nation’s production of rare earth metals.” Coffman and other lawmakers have become alarmed in recent years as congressional auditors have detailed how China is dominating the world’s supply of important, finished rare-earth materials. Such materials are widespread in U.S.
MISSILE MACHINATIONS: The U.K. is reallocating funding to develop the Thales Lightweight Multi-role Missile. The weapon is to be integrated on Wildcat Lynx helicopters and serve as the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon Light missile. It also can be adapted for air-launched and ground-to-ground applications.
DOMESTIC DIRECTIVE: The Obama administration is issuing a new Presidential Policy Directive on national preparedness, calling for development of systematic response plans for natural and manmade disasters.
U.K. PURCHASE: Curtiss-Wright Corp. has paid $20 million for the assets of Douglas Equipment Ltd., of Cheltenham, U.K., supplier of ground support vehicles for defense and commercial aviation. Douglas manufactures aircraft tractors and runway friction measuring devices. The products fit with handling systems produced by Curtiss-Wright’s Flow Control division based in Falls Church, Va., says Martin Benante, chairman and CEO.
LONDON — More than a year after A400M customers and industry broadly agreed on new contractual terms for the European transport aircraft program, both sides have finalized the actual wording of the deal. The intervening time has seen the order book from the seven core A400M buying countries shrink to 170 units from 180, with the U.K. and Germany reducing their purchase plans. Malaysia is looking to buy four aircraft.
It is not unusual for political leaders to visit the big air shows to promote their regions. But not many will do it by bragging that their aerospace industry has attracted industrial development for cars. The last time Gov. Chris Gregoire visited the Paris air show, in 2005, Washington state’s biggest manufacturing employer was riding high with the beginning of the sales explosion for the 787. She was hunting for aerospace suppliers in support of Boeing’s new jet.
Front-line International Space Station (ISS) managers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) are inserting a week-long partial simulation of a deep-space exploration mission into regular station planning for next summer, using the orbiting laboratory as an analog for a long-distance spaceship.
One lesson emerging from the drawn-out KC-135 tanker replacement duel is for the Pentagon to be a sharper customer by setting spending limits and prioritizing requirements. During the KC-X competition between Boeing and EADS, the Pentagon said it would not pay more than 1% more than the lowest price for any extra features. According to Shay Assad, director of procurement and acquisition policy at the Pentagon, this disciplined approach worked. “We knew what our requirement was,” Assad said in an exclusive interview with Aviation Week.
SAN FRANCISCO – The NASA-German Space Agency DLR’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) has started its second set of astronomy flights with a study of chemical reactions in and the flow of energy from interstellar clouds.
The government leaned closer to a shutdown on April 7 as the White House threatened to veto a House bill that would have funded defense through the end of the fiscal year and the rest of the government for one more week. In a Statement of Administration Policy, the Obama administration said it wanted to continue pursuing negotiations on spending that were making progress — at least as of late April 6.
As the Pentagon and Boeing begin to finally talk about the new KC-46A contract, one question is: where did the winglets go? Until this week, Boeing widely distributed artist concepts of its NewGen Tanker, based on the 767, with prominent winglets, sparking discussion among onlookers about why they were needed and how much integration would cost.
The Pentagon is quite confident Boeing can execute the notional plan for its long-fought, $4.4 billion KC-46A tanker development contract, but the company is working to iron out a detailed schedule of work by the end of the summer. Risk in Boeing’s winning KC-X proposal “wasn’t low. It is probably closer to the moderate side, but it is manageable,” says Shay Assad, director of procurement and acquisition policy at the Pentagon, in an exclusive interview with Aviation Week.
