NASA may be wrapped up in red tape, but the European Space Agency is ready to consider expanding the International Space Station partnership. “I am really willing to support the extension of the partnership of the ISS to China and South Korea,” ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain tells China Daily during the Global Lunar Conference in Beijing.
Initial data from the partially successful May 26 X-51A Waverider hypersonic demonstrator flight reveals the scramjet engine was still running normally when the vehicle began experiencing control difficulties prior to termination. Hailed as an overall success for achieving several key hypersonic test milestones, the flight was halted early when telemetry was lost at around 200 sec. into the test. “From what we saw, the engine was not the cause of the failure,” says Charles Brink, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory program manager.
Astrium’s Spanish unit has delivered the flight model high-gain antenna (HGA) for NASA’s Mars Space Laboratory (MSL), scheduled for launch in 2011. The unit, to be carried on the MSL’s Curiosity rover, was produced under a bilateral agreement between NASA and Spain’s Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI). Spain’s first hardware ever to touch down on Mars, the HGA permits transmission of science and rover health data and Earth commands directly, without passing through an orbiter or intermediate links.
Cyber-attacks from the U.S. will be launched under a different set of rules during war than when digital weapons are in play in peacetime, says Army Gen. Keith Alexander in his first speech as chief of U.S. Cyber Command. He confirms the need for streamlined decisions to make cyber-weapons relevant to fast-moving military operations. The tricky part of his answer is that neither version of the rules of engagement has been sufficiently codified. “If you can’t attribute an attack [against the U.S.], how do you do that?” Alexander asks.
The article “Survival Instinct” (AW&ST May 10, p. 48) states that an NTSB study “indicated that most travelers ignore passenger-safety information, and one reason they do so may be the belief that accidents are not survivable.” Perhaps, but it seems more likely that the information is ignored because passengers are inured to it.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has finalized a contract to supply a telecom satellite to the International Relations and Accounting Center (IRAC) of Azerbaijan’s ministry of communications and information technologies. Under an agreement signed on May 25, capacity on the 5 kw. 36-transponder Ku-/C-band unit will be shared with Measat of Malaysia, which owns the 46 deg. E. Long. slot at which the spacecraft will be deployed. Measat will use the unit, to be known as Azerspace/Africasat-1A, to augment capacity for the fast-growing African market.
GKN Aerospace, a long-time user of Vistagy’s FiberSim composite engineering software, says it is turning to the Waltham, Mass., company for process consulting help to fulfill a winglet contract for Bombardier’s CSeries. FiberSim, which GKN also applied on contracts for the Airbus A380 leading edge, A400M wings and wing spars and Boeing 767 winglets, allows users to migrate from a ply-based to a structure-based design approach. A structures view makes it easier to incorporate design changes.
NASA is canvassing industry for ideas on advanced “green” airliners that could enter service by 2025, with the goal of building a subscale, unmanned flight demonstrator that could fly in 2015. The goals include reducing fuel consumption and nitrogen-oxide emissions by 50% and airport noise by 80% relative to today’s large twin-aisle airliners. NASA plans to award contracts totaling $36.6 million to up to four teams for 16-month studies to define preferred concepts beginning in Fiscal 2011.
June 13—Royal Air Force’s Cosford (U.K.) Air Show. See www.cosfordairshow.co.uk June 14-15—Technology Training Corp.’s Defense Export Controls Conference. Hilton Crystal City, Arlington, Va. +1 (310) 563-1223, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com
A contracting team headed by Boeing has been awarded a five-year, $1.7-billion contract from the FAA for the Next-Generation Air Transportation System. The contract, which has a five-year option, covers two major areas: air traffic management modeling and simulation and integration of ground and airborne technologies and operations. Aircraft to be covered include all those used by airlines, the military and general aviation, besides helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Chinese government has deregulated pricing of domestic business- and first-class air tickets, abolishing a rule that they must be set at 1.3 and 1.5 times the price of economy fares, respectively. The change opens the way for China Southern to widely introduce lie-flat seats that it has tried in an Airbus A330. The carrier could not obtain permission to charge the price it wanted for that service level, three times the economy fare, a company executive says.
Aiming to help the aviation industry gather more data on flying aircraft through volcanic ash clouds, Icelandair’s Technical Services unit installed equipment in a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle, enabling it to measure ash cloud density, says Jens Bjarnsson, Icelandair’s senior vice president of technical services. “We put the required cables in, so when there’s another volcano, we just have to put the external probes on, and the aircraft can take off and start measuring,” he says.
India aims to begin the project definition of a “stealthy” unmanned combat air vehicle by the end of 2010, with the proposed design capable of carrying at least two air-to-surface weapons in one or more internal bays. Concept and design work on the overall program, known as the Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft (AURA), is being carried out by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). The notional air vehicle is being given the working name the Indian Unmanned Strike Aircraft (IUSA).
South Korea plans to make a second attempt at lofting a satellite on June 9, almost 10 months after the first launch failed. The rocket is again a KSLV-1, and it should be the last launch of that model, which has been a technology demonstrator. A larger rocket, the KSLV-2, is planned. The KSLV-1 uses a Russian first stage and a South Korean upper stage. The KSLV-2 should have much greater South Korean technology content and be able to place 1.5 tons in low orbit.
After years of neglect, U.S. rotorcraft technology is to get a boost from a Pentagon research program that aims to fly a shape-changing rotor offering substantially more payload and range with significantly less noise and vibration. Three teams have been awarded contracts for the initial phase of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Mission Adaptive Rotor (MAR). Program managers plan to fly an adaptive rotor by 2018 to ready the technology for the next U.S. military rotorcraft program.
Obituary: The U.K. Royal Air Force’s second most senior officer, Air Chief Marshal Chris Moran, died suddenly on May 26. He was 54. Moran, the Air Command commander-in-chief, collapsed while taking part in a triathlon at RAF Brize Norton. The cause of death has yet to be made public.
Embraer expects a first flight as early as December of the EMB‑145 airborne early warning system aircraft it is building for the Indian air force, utilizing an active array antenna from India’s Defense Research and Development Organization that mimics the Saab-2000 Erieye. The DRDO’s contribution comes from the Active Array Antenna Unit of its Center for Airborne Systems and is to be integrated into the aircraft after certification. Deliveries are expected in 2011, says Embraer’s executive vice president for defense systems, Orlando Jose Ferreira Neto.
A Long March 3C rocket launched the fourth satellite in China’s Compass positioning system on June 2. When complete, the system should have 35 satellites, of which 10 are due to be launched in 2009-10. A Long March 3C was also used in January to launch the third Compass, one of five to be placed in geostationary orbit. Low-orbit Compass satellites have been launched by Long March 3As. The first was sent up in 2007, though two experimental spacecraft were put into orbit in 2000.
The first of Sikorsky’s Polish-built S-70i Black Hawks is now undergoing flight trials. The helo, constructed at the company’s PZL Mielec facility in Poland, is flying trials at Sikorsky’s main test facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. Production flight tests in Poland are due this year. A second prototype is being produced now, and Sikorsky plans to build 20 S-70i helos in Poland a year, starting in 2012. They are intended for non-U.S. customers.
A Yak-130 Mitten jet trainer, tail No. 93, crashed on May 22 during takeoff from the Lipetsk Air Force Training Center. Both pilots ejected; one was injured. The aircraft involved was piloted by air force Col. Alexander Kotov and Senior Lt. Evgeny Gostev. The Yak-130 fleet was temporary grounded as a result of the accident. The trainer was the last of the initial batch of three serial aircraft handed over to the Russian air force in 2009.
Airport operator Berliner Flughafen hopes the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) will turn into a major hub serving short- and long-haul destinations.
At Aviation Week’s recent “NextGen Ahead 2010” conference in Washington, Clay Jones, the chairman, president and CEO of avionics supplier Rockwell Collins, warned that a fiscally constrained U.S. government will not have the will to fully fund modernization of the air traffic control system. He also unveiled a proposal to keep the NextGen project from withering. Shortly before his speech, Jones outlined his plan to Aviation Week editors in a wide-ranging discussion that also touched on the defense market.
The modernization of the U.S. air traffic management system, known as NextGen, is undeniably moving ahead. Blueprints and plans are turning into technology deployments, and so far, the government is meeting its commitment to fund the new ATM infrastructure despite competing domestic priorities.
