Following the longest flight yet by an air-breathing scramjet engine, the X-51A Waverider team is waiting to see whether the largely successful first launch of the hypersonic demonstrator will unlock funding for further development of the technology.
The National Transportation Safety Board has had revising pilot flight-/duty-time rules on its most-wanted list for 10 years, and now it is going to have to wait a little longer. A notice of proposed rulemaking that first was expected at the end of 2009, and then pushed back to this summer, is now targeted for September, says NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman. “This has turned into a slow process with no end in sight,” she tells regional airline CEOs.
Mike Harlan has become president/CEO of the Breeze-Eastern Corp. , Union, N.J. He succeeds Robert L.G. White, who has retired. Harlan was executive vice president/chief operating officer.
After two years of construction, the Bell Helicopter Training Academy in Fort Worth has placed the first simulator for Bell 429 flight training into operation. FAA certification to Level 6 is expected early next year.
Two weeks after Russia announced its plan to produce Israeli UAVs, Azerbaijan also is inaugurating a production line for Israel’s Aeronautics Defense Systems’ Aerostar and Orbiter UAVs. says Yaver Jamalov, Azerbaijani defense minister. The country’s defense industry will hold 51% of the joint venture. The contract with Aeronautics has an estimated value of more than $200 million. Azerbaijan has signaled interest in arming the UAVs with bombs and rockets. The country’s air force already operates several dozen Aerostar tactical UAVs and Orbiter mini-UAVs.
If you are an aerospace engineering student pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, you are encouraged to enter an essay contest being run by Usaire, an association of U.S. and European aerospace, defense and high-tech companies.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Mark Carreau (Galveston, Texas)
NASA will soon submit a revision of its dead-on-arrival Fiscal 2011 budget request, but the prognosis for the new figures does not seem much better than for the old.
Sikorsky’s X2 Technology high-speed helicopter demonstrator has reached 181 kt. in flight tests, faster than most conventional helicopters, clearing the way for the final push to 250 kt. The speed was achieved after the helicopter was “cleaned up“ to reduce drag, by making the landing gear retractable and fitting the rotor-hub fairings. Sikorsky has now completed three of the four phases of the company-funded X2 Technology demonstration program. The final phase is intended to demonstrate that the rigid coaxial-rotor helicopter can cruise comfortably at 250 kt.
Safran Chairman/CEO Jean-Paul Herteman says his company will look elsewhere for partners to shore up onboard computer and other defense electronics businesses that it had considered merging with units of Thales. Talks with Thales broke off earlier this month. Herteman says he doesn’t know if they can restart, despite threats by French defense officials—who favor such a link—that they may withhold R&D money to force a marriage, and comments by Thales chief Luc Vigneron that he might consider a sweetened deal (AW&ST May 17, p. 11).
Lockheed Martin will head the team supplying the Finnish air force with an airborne surveillance system, as well as associated ground systems, under an approximately $100-million, four-year contract. Team members include Patria Oy, Rockwell Collins, DRS Technologies, Applied Signal Technology, AdamWorks and L-3 Communications. They will work with Finnish industry members to modify an EADS CASA C-295 turboprop aircraft with advanced surveillance systems and provide the ground stations and communications terminals to support the airborne system.
Mike King (see photos) has been promoted to director of business development from manager of FlightSafety International ’s Learning Centers in Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn. He has been succeeded by Angela Gremard, who has been promoted from assistant manager of the St. Louis center.
The U.S. regional airline industry, beset by the harsh economic climate and serious questions about safety in the past couple of years, is at a crossroads. Some have chosen to redefine contracts with their mainline partners that allow them to fly larger aircraft under the network airline’s brand name, while others are focusing on feeding any carrier anywhere it is profitable to operate 30-seat turboprops, finding lucrative niches for the more efficient, albeit slower, aircraft. And manufacturers say regionals fill a needed role in the 60-99-seat market.
Taxi tests of the AeroVironment Global Observer hydrogen-powered high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft have been conducted at Edwards AFB, Calif. Next up is a final flight readiness review and initial low-altitude battery-powered flights.
Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air, which has thus far handled most of its heavy maintenance work internally, is considering outsourcing more of this work to FAA-certified, U.S.-based contractors—a move that has concerned union members. According to Jen Boyer, Horizon spokesperson, the carrier is weighing all options and has not yet made a decision. Horizon operates 40 Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 aircraft (with eight more on order) and 18 CRJ700s, and it outsources part of its Q400 airframe maintenance to AAR Corp., according to Aviation Week’s MRO Prospector database.
