The new price targets for F-35 low-rate-initial-production (LRIP) Lot 4 are likely to factor into the Pentagon’s ongoing debate about how to proceed with the multinational, single-engine fighter program, which is facing additional testing delays and potential cost overruns in the billions. A new program plan is not expected to be unveiled until February, when the Pentagon sends its Fiscal 2012 budget request to Congress.
Richard H. Anderson (see photo), CEO of Delta Air Lines, has been elected chairman of the Air Transport Association of America board. Gary C. Kelly, Southwest Airlines chairman, president and CEO, was named vice chairman.
Waleed Abdalati has been named NASA ’s chief scientist, serving as principal adviser to the NASA administrator on agency science programs, strategic planning and the evaluation of related investments. He has been director of the Earth Science and Observation Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Airbus is pointing to Indian and Chinese domestic air traffic expansion as underpinning growth forecasts for the next 20 years, but also sees the region’s fleet expansion as having a dampening effect on new cargo aircraft. In its newly released outlook of traffic and fleet developments out to 2029, Airbus has cut the number of new freighters and cargo conversions to be delivered in that time to 2,960 units, from 3,439. That comes even as the average annual growth rate for freight ton kilometers is up to 5.9% from 5.2% in last year’s forecast.
Citing projected demand for general aviation aircraft in China, Teledyne Technologies plans to sell U.S. piston aero-engine manufacturer Continental Motors to Beijing’s Avic International for $183 million. Acquisition of Mobile, Ala.-based Continental requires U.S. government anti-trust and foreign-investment clearance as well as Chinese government approval, but is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2011. Avic is expected to retain Continental’s senior management and headquarters. Teledyne projects Chinese demand for 100,000-600,000 GA aircraft.
Hui-Ying Wen, a Draper Laboratory Fellow, has been honored by the New England Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society for her research into a simulation framework that could be used to evaluate options for automating tasks or assigning them to the onboard crew in lunar landing missions.
Avicopter is studying a 10-ton helicopter and sees a possible opportunity to build another, smaller aircraft, as it works to become one of a small group of manufacturers with a full range of rotorcraft. A third rotorcraft under consideration, which would be built with Russian Helicopters, would have a gross weight of 30 tons, says Avicopter, the rotary-wing specialist subsidiary of Chinese aeronautics conglomerate Avic.
End the aerial tanker debate. Fire the lawyers, stop the litigation and just split the contract between Airbus and Boeing. Both have aircraft flying, each offering different capabilities. The crews need a new aircraft. I know from old equipment—I flew the KB-29P; the first boom tanker.
In the 1980s, Curtiss-Wright Corp. began thinking of its home in the industrial Northeast as increasingly staid and the American South as “the place to go.”
Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce have shipped the first production short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) propulsion system to Lockheed Martin for installation in the F-35B variant. The lift-fan module, produced at Rolls’s Indianapolis facility, will be integrated with Pratt & Whitney’s F135’s Stovl engine and remaining elements of the lift system in the first production aircraft BF-6. The 50-in., two-stage counter-rotating lift fan, capable of generating more than 20,000 lb.
The forthcoming twin-engine, extra-widebody jetliner is intended to compete with Boeing’s 787 and 777. The A350 will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines rated in the 74,000-92,000-lb.-thrust range and will likely have a cruise speed of Mach 0.85. Three basic versions are being marketed: the -800, -900 and -1000. Depending on version, the aircraft seats 270-350 passengers and will have a range of 8,000-8,300 nm. An ultra-long-range version, the A350-900R, will also be available, as will a-900F freighter.
The U.S. Air Force is playing down speculation about operational roles for the secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), but it acknowledges that the reusable spacecraft could complement ongoing operationally responsive space initiatives.
The MS-21 is a twin-engine, narrowbody derivative of the defunct Yak-242 airliner being developed by Yakovlev (a subsidiary of Irkut in Russia’s United Aircraft Corp., or UAC). Planned for first flight in 2014, it will come in three variants, all available in both basic and extended-range versions: the MS-21-200 (150 passengers), -300 (181 passengers) and -400 (212 passengers). The MS-21 will be powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW1000G geared turbofan or the optional Aviadvigatel PD-14.
A major technology-needs inventory now underway at the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) will provide guidance for civil, military and commercial spaceflight managers, regardless of the funding NASA receives for technology development in the years ahead.
The An-124 is a four-engine, intercontinental-range, heavy-lift cargo transport, while the An-225 is a one-off, six-engine, heavy-lift jet designed to carry the Soviet shuttle orbiter Buran. Initial flight of a production An-124 prototype took place in 1982, and commercial operations began in 1986. The An-124 and -225 arepowered by MKB Perm Progress/Lotarev D-18T turbofan engines. Fifty-five An-124s and one An-225 have been manufactured to date.
Christophe Robin has been named vice president-engineering for Daher-Socata ’s Airplane Division. A graduate of France’s Ensica national college for aircraft manufacturing engineers, he has created Dyn’Aero, which has designed and developed more than 17 light and ultra-light aircraft.
Airbus’s launch of the A320NEO (New Engine Option) family has shifted the commercial aircraft industry’s attention from the widebody market, and Boeing’s travails with the 787, to the dramatic change underway in the narrowbody sector.
The TBM 850 is a single-engine, 4-6-passenger, turboprop-powered business transport; it replaced the earlier TBM 700 in 2006. The TBM 850 is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66D engine rated at 850 shp. and has a range of 1,520 nm. Through 2009, 184 aircraft were built. Production of 413 TBM 850s is forecast for the 2010-19 period. EADS Socata is designing the TBM 850 to compete with very light jets.
Richard Flynn has been named CFO of Jazz Air Income Fund , effective Feb. 28, succeeding Allan Rowe, who will retire. Flynn has been vice president-finance. Honors And Elections
Airbus says it will close 2010 with nine new executive jet sales, raising to 170 the number of such jets it has sold of all types, including one A380. Approximately half of those sales come from the Middle East.
The 747 is an intercontinental widebody commercial transport; 1,418 were produced through 2009. The aircraft is powered by four turbofan engines. The current 747-400 production model is available with 62,100-lb.-thrust General Electric CF6-80C2B5F engines, 63,300-lb.-thrust Pratt & Whitney PW4062s or 59,500-lb.-thrust Rolls-Royce RB211-524H2-Ts. The 747-400 carries 416 passengers in a typical three-class configuration. First flight and certification occurred in 1969. The -400 variant was certificated, and deliveries began, in January 1989.
This is a family of twin-engine, 70-122-seat regional jet aircraft. The 70-80-passenger 170 made its first flight in February 2002 and deliveries began in March 2004, while the 78-88-seat 175 flew for the first time in June 2003. The 170 and the 175 share a common engine in the 14,200-lb.-thrust General Electric CF34-8E. The 94-114-seat 190 made its initial flight in March 2004, while the 106-122-passenger 195 first flew in December 2004. The 190 and 195 also share the 20,000-lb.-thrust CF34-10E engine. Through 2009, 614 aircraft in the series were built.
Thierry Antinori has been named chief executive of Austrian Airlines ’ executive board, effective April 1, joining co-chief executives Peter Malanik and Andreas Bierwith. Antinori is chief marketing officer at Lufthansa, Austrian’s parent company.
