Northrop Grumman has licensed Australian composites technology company Quickstep to make parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35, taking a step toward issuing a contract for the supplier to build the components. Quickstep, which has developed a non-autoclave process for curing composites, will receive technical information for making the parts. It values the planned manufacturing contract for 21 F-35 parts at up to A$700 million ($644 million).
Mar. 29-Apr. 1—White Eagle Aerospace’s Short Course: “Aerospace Vehicle Performance.” Wingate by Wyndham Hotel, Oro Valley, Ariz. See www.whiteeagleaerospace.com Mar. 29-Apr. 1—2010 Aviation Maintenance Conference and Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee Joint Meeting. Hyatt Regency, Phoenix. Call +1 (410) 266-2008, +1 (410) 266-4119 or see www.aviation-ia.com/aeec
Could cost concerns with Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system give International Launch Services an entree into Europe’s government launch market?
The primary advantage of the Ares I is that it is the safest low-Earth-orbit launcher ever designed. It is not difficult to recognize that a launcher requiring only one turbopump (Ares I) is safer than one using 10 (Falcon 9). Most people riding in a vehicle containing many tons of highly explosive rocket fuel would prefer fewer moving parts. No matter how safe Elon Musk tries to make his rocket, he cannot escape unsafe factors inherent in the design, such as an extravagance of high-speed moving parts over the Ares I.
Florida will develop two more pads at Cape Canaveral AFS for commercial users, after winning permission from the U.S. Air Force to clear another hurdle to commercial development on previously military sites as political winds shift toward greater use of private vehicles to launch public payloads—including astronauts. The USAF 45th Space Wing granted Space Florida, the state’s aerospace development organization, real property licenses to develop Space Launch Complexes 46 and 36 for commercial users.
Japan Airlines should be profitable by fall, under the plans of the chairman appointed to restructure the carrier. The carrier will not drop its international services, says Chairman Kazuo Inamori, despite suggestions from government officials that it become domestic-only as JAL slid toward its Jan. 19 bankruptcy. Inamori, the founder of electronics manufacturer Kyocera, publicly belittled JAL managers, saying at a news conference that he had told them that they were unfit to run a green grocery.
EADS North Americas’ Fairchild Controls Corp. will team with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to evaluate cooling system technologies for avionics and mission systems on military aircraft. The cooperative research and development agreement is geared toward joint development and operation of a multiple-evaporator vapor-cycle system prototype at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Telesat Canada says it envisions procuring an X-band telecom hosted payload on the next spacecraft it plans to procure, to take advantage of hot X-band demand from military and government customers. Telesat is so confident in the strength of demand that it may install the payload without waiting for an anchor tenant, says CEO Dan Goldberg.
The need for a low-tech close air support/intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft is obvious, but the AT-6B may not be the best solution (AW&ST Feb. 8, p. 41).
The Cessna Citation CJ4, the newest iteration of the CE 525 family, has gained FAA type certification after a 22-month flight-test campaign involving three test aircraft flying 1,142 missions and 2,006 flight hours. Final analysis of CJ4 performance numbers resulted in use of a standard day 3,130-ft. takeoff field length, a 2,002-mi. National Business Aviation Association IFR range with two crew and five passengers at high-speed cruise, and lower than forecast fuel consumption. Cessna reports 150-plus orders for the aircraft. First delivery is slated for next month.
Royal Australian Air Force officials say they will bridge the widening gap until the arrival of the delayed Joint Strike Fighter by keeping the Boeing F/A-18F fleet in lockstep with U.S. Navy upgrades as well as continuing updates to its “classic” Hornet fleet.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will team with Dutch Space to develop and market a bus that will permit it to piggyback a geostationary payload under a launch vehicle fairing, to take advantage of excess lift capacity. Dubbed the GMP-CX, the bus will combine Dutch Space’s CX bus with avionics developed for SSTL’s new GMP small geostationary bus.
Gulf Air is searching for a global alliance membership to expand its presence, build its revenues and cut operating costs as it battles a 2009 loss of $1.3-billion. CEO Samar Majali says its Middle East network will be an asset to any of the major airline alliances. “We feel our network will be a strong factor strategically,” he says. “We are working to extend it without incurring costs.”
Citing “a change in market conditions,” Air Berlin has cut its Boeing 787 order by 10 airplanes with a list price value of $1.7 billion. It now holds 15 orders and five options. Germany’s second-largest carrier, Air Berlin has been in the red for two years. First delivery is set for November 2015. Boeing also reports losing four unidentified 737 orders. Its net orders for the year for all aircraft are 46.
An alleged maintenance violation prompted the FAA on Mar. 18 to propose a $300,000 civil penalty on American Airlines. The FAA alleges that mechanics deferred maintenance on an MD-82, noting that an annunciator panel light—“pitot/stall heater light-off”—was inoperative. However, workers later discovered the pitot probe heater, not the light, was out of order. Maintenance can be deferred for an inoperative heater but carries the restriction that flights are limited to daytime under visual meteorological conditions.
The British Defense Ministry is aiming to demonstrate target updating and redirection of an air-to-surface missile in flight, providing the ability to engage a moving target in a cluttered environment. Test shots will be carried out in 2011, with the trials feeding into the ministry’s future air-to-surface weapons program, the support of network-enabled weapons, and time-sensitive targeting needs.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is set to receive 30 Enstrom 480B training helicopters by 2014, with the first aircraft to be provided this year for evaluation tests. Michigan-based Enstrom Helicopter also is in final negotiations on a contract to supply 16 of the single-turbine 480Bs to the Royal Thai Army for rotary-wing training.
The German air force damaged a Heron-1 unmanned aircraft operating in Afghanistan on Mar. 17, at the end of the UAV’s first operational mission from Mazar-e-Sharif. The reconnaissance aircraft had landed and was returning to its parking spot when it collided with a parked aircraft. Both aircraft were damaged, and one person was slightly injured. German military officials are now investigating.
I’ve watched and advised two administrations and I’ve come to three conclusions—three principles—about the proper use of modern military forces. The first is that military power should not —maybe cannot—be the last resort of the state. Military forces are some of the most flexible and adaptable tools to policymakers. We can, merely by our presence, help alter certain behavior. Before a shot is even fired, we can bolster a diplomatic argument, support a friend or deter an enemy. We can assist rapidly in disaster-relief efforts.
The Pentagon and intelligence agencies are at loggerheads about the rules that will control the unleashing of cyber-counterattack, a mission that could, with more investment, be conducted from aircraft against targets a half-world away. But before airborne cyber-attack becomes a tactical weapon, resolution must be reached on the relationship between warfighters and intelligence and the authority to decide what is a valid target and what is not.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has released to Congress a National Broadband Plan intended to ensure that every part of the nation can have access to affordable, robust Internet service. The plan, ordered from the FCC in February 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, proposes to ensure 100-Mbps. service to 100 million households that lack access to the Internet and 1-Gbps. service to every community in the U.S. through local schools, hospitals or other public institutions. Other proposals would make 500 MHz.
Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines last week put the first of four new Airbus A320s slated for delivery this year into daily service between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Washington. The 178-seat A320s will enable the carrier to offer new service and increase frequencies to certain destinations. On May 1, Spirit plans to offer new service between Atlanta and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and on May 20 between Detroit and Atlantic City, N.J.
Unlike Pierre Sparaco, I think criticism of the Airbus Military A400M airlifter by the French government oversight office is right on (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 54). In the formative years of this program, France and Germany were seeking a replacement for their Transall C160s, and Britain for its C-130 Hercules. The former is a 47-metric-ton aircraft, while the Herc grosses 70 metric tons. The “replacement” was allowed to grow into a 136-metric-ton monster!
The Obama administration is amplifying its effort to sell the change in direction it hopes to implement for NASA, even as opponents begin to cast about for an alternative. President Barack Obama will travel to Kennedy Space Center next month to make a personal, public pitch for the new U.S. space policy still being hammered out behind closed doors at agency headquarters here. Obama’s appearance at a to-be-determined location near KSC will mark the start of serious government debate on the future direction of the U.S. space program that could last all year.
Commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye has selected Lockheed Martin to build its next-generation GeoEye-2 Earth-imaging satellite in support of the company’s bid for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s EnhancedView program. General Dynamics’ space sector, which was bought this month by Orbital Sciences, produced the GeoEye-1 spacecraft. Like GeoEye-1, the new GeoEye-2 spacecraft will feature an ITT electro-optical camera capable of 0.25-meter ground resolution for U.S. government customers. GeoEye has already spent about $70 million developing the camera.
