Frances Fiorino (Washington), Neelam Mathews (New Delhi)
The Air India Express accident that took the lives of 158 people raises concerns about Indian airlines and underlines the need to make runways safer as traffic grows in fast-developing aviation regions.
The caption that appeared with the photo on pages 58-59 of the May 24 issue incorrectly identified the aircraft. It is a U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle.
Steven L. Enewold (see photo) has been named vice president for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System for the Northrop Grumman Corp. , Bethpage, N.Y. He was vice president/deputy integrated product team leader for the high-altitude long-endurance systems market segment.
European Space Agency controllers have finished commissioning the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, following a three-day mission review in Avila, Spain. The review determined that all instruments on SMOS, which was launched late last year along with the Proba 2 technology satellite, are performing nominally. The third in ESA’s Earth Explorer science missions, SMOS is equipped with an L-band interferometric radiometer that can determine temperatures on the basis of surface brightness.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
With military tensions growing in East Asia, the U.S. is sending F-22s and F-15s equipped with advanced, long-range radars to Okinawa. The radars are designed for air-launched cruise and ballistic missile defense, U.S. Air Force and aerospace industry officials tell Aviation Week.
Like the customers to whom they supply products and services, aerospace and defense companies in recent years have had to adapt to a more difficult operating environment. For the most part, they have done remarkably well—so much so that exaggerated swings in business cycles may no longer define the industry. Only time will tell, of course, but evidence from Aviation Week’s 15th annual Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study surely points in that direction.
The global appetite for heavy-lift helicopters is boosting the prospects for Russia’s commercial rotorcraft industry and providing energy to several new projects.
Scott Thompson (McLean, Va. ), James W. Thomas (McLean, Va.)
The aerospace and defense industry managed to turn in a respectable performance in 2009, despite a severe global recession. Revenues increased by 2%, reaching a record. Deliveries of large commercial aircraft hit an all-time high of 979, despite concerns about available financing. Furthermore, defense spending remained stable and all the large defense primes except EADS reported revenue increases.
An Airbus-funded study estimates that the global gross domestic product has been cut by $5 billion because of the impact of volcanic ash-related airspace restrictions, of which $2.2 billion was incurred in the aviation sector. Losses of $4.7 billion reflect the GDP impact from the one-week shutdown of airspace in Europe in April. Another approximately $235 million in losses were incurred during airspace disruptions in May. Europe, where air transport was hit most severely, saw a loss of $2.6 billion.
India is carrying out a feasibility study into two designs of unmanned combat air vehicles as part of what is known as the Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft program. The Aeronautical Development Establishment and Aeronautical Development Agency are the two state-owned research institutes involved in the program. The planned technology demonstrator for the program is sometimes referred to as the Indian Unmanned Strike Aircraft Program.
Preparations to test the James Webb Space Telescope’s flight hardware are prompting an extensive remake of the giant thermal vacuum chamber that was so important in the Apollo era that it is registered as a national landmark.
Just days after formally announcing its operations, aircraft leasing company Avolon has announced a deal with Dutch counterpart AerCap to buy six Airbus A320s and form a joint venture to manage other assets. The joint venture, in which both companies are equal partners, starts out with the acquisition of three A330-200s that belonged to AerCap outright and are placed with Aeroflot on long-term lease. AerCap will continue to manage the lease. Of the six A320s Avolon is buying, two had been delivered to AerCap in 2008 and four are coming off the production line this year.
Mike Ellis (see photo) has been appointed vice president for pre-owned aircraft for the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. , Wichita, Kan. He was president of Mike Ellis & Associates and chairman of the National Aircraft Resale Association. Recent Hawker sales appointments are: Noell Michaels, vice president for the Eastern U.S.; Jim Christiansen, vice president for the Central U.S.; David Coppock, vice president for the Western U.S.; and John Meehan, vice president for Latin America.
Boeing recently announced that its ScanEagle Compressed Carriage (SECC) unmanned airborne system on May 12 underwent testing at a facility in eastern Oregon. In a 75-min. flight, the aircraft’s airworthiness and flight characteristics were evaluated in a simulated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission. The SECC, powered by a 6-hp., heavy-fuel engine, was launched from a ground vehicle, flew an autonomous flight plan at various altitudes and provided streaming video from its electro-optical/infrared sensor package to a nearby ground station.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Michael Bruno (Washington)
A high-stakes test of U.S. defense contractors’ willingness to defy their customer and apply political pressure to safeguard their programs is unfolding here. While key congressional votes late last week threatened to determine the fate of the alternate engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the bitter battle between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney is likely to continue until Congress finalizes the Fiscal 2011 defense budget.
Engineers have given up attempts to contact NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, after a new image of the spacecraft collected from orbit suggests a solar array has collapsed under the weight of frozen carbon dioxide at its polar landing site. Attempts to contact the spacecraft from the Mars Odyssey orbiter in 61 overflights earlier this month failed, and managers believe the lander is dead—probably after being buried by as much as a foot of carbon dioxide ice.
PowerJet, a joint venture between Snecma of France and NPO Saturn of Russia, completed its last certification test on May 26—medium bird ingestion—on the SaM146 regional jet engine that will power the Sukhoi Superjet 100. The powerplant now awaits European Aviation Safety Agency certification, which is expected this summer, perhaps in time to “break some news” at the Farnborough air show in late July, says Chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga. The contract with Sukhoi is to supply engines for the 122 firm orders already placed for the aircraft, plus 10% more for spares.
Kevin Burke, who is chairman/president/CEO of Consolidated Edison Inc. of New York, has been named to the board of directors of Honeywell International , Morris Plains, N.J.
