AgustaWestland is preparing to begin flight trials of its 8-metric-ton-class AW149 troop transport helicopter, after unveiling significant design changes made to the rotorcraft since program launch two years ago. A risk-reduction aircraft with a new cabin and avionics will be flown this year to smooth the path for the first AW149 prototype to fly in 2010.
Pilatus has secured a €22.5-million ($30-million) order to sell six PC-12NGs to the Finnish air force. The single-engine turboprop is to serve as a liaison vehicle in Finnish service. Deliveries are slated for late 2010 and will replace Piper PA-31-350 Chieftains, which have been in service in the Finnish military since 1983. Pilatus says it prevailed in a year-long competition, with flight tests in Switzerland and Canada. Chairman/CEO Oscar J. Schwenk sees the order as likely to prompt European and other air forces to closely consider the PC-12.
The Pentagon has awarded Bell Helicopter a $60-million contract to start building 24 Bell 407 helicopters for the Iraqi air force. The deal includes options for 26 more units. The contract will run for 27 months, with another 13 added if the options are exercised. The helicopter will be armed, including the ability to fire rockets and Hellfire missiles. Additionally, the deal to provide four C-130Js to the Iqaf has been finalized. USAF awarded Lockheed Martin a $6.9-million contract for what could be a $292.8-million foreign military sales deal for the airlifters.
Boeing is predicting that financing will be secured for all of its 2009 aircraft deliveries, but with credit markets still tight and private equity funds unwilling to step into the breach, some analysts caution it won’t be an easy task. Some customers will need help with financing this year, Boeing acknowledges. But the company says it is ready to provide up to $1 billion through its financial arm, Boeing Capital Corp. “We can handle any financing changes this year,” says Chairman/CEO James McNerney.
Pratt & Whitney Canada is in “ongoing discussions” with a customer over the agreement to develop the PW127TS engine for Russia’s Mil Mi-38 twin-engine medium-lift helicopter. Senior management from Helicopters of Russia, which includes Mil, were quoted in the Russian press indicating that they were looking for a Russian supplier to replace P&WC. A memorandum of understanding covering joint production of the engine was signed in May 2008.
Plans for Alenia North America to establish a final assembly facility for the C-27J Spartan at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., have been delayed indefinitely, pending clarification from the Pentagon about its proposal to truncate its buy of C-27J airlifters for the U.S. Army. L-3 Communications and Alenia were teamed to provide up to 78 of the airlifters. Plans for an Apr. 25 groundbreaking at Cecil Field were dashed amid news broken last week by The Hill, a Washington-based newspaper, that the buy could be halved and the Pentagon may shift management to the Air Force.
Virgin Nigeria may deliver its first profit this year following a tumultuous period during which the privately owned airline overhauled its business model and battled with government-imposed changes. Last year was particularly challenging for the 3.5-year-old carrier; the airline suffered significant losses and was forced to shift domestic operations at its Lagos hub from Murtala Mohammed International Airport to the MMA2 terminal, creating an added burden for connecting travelers as well as other service disruptions.
The British government may be admitting the difficulty of maintaining a balanced force structure capable of dealing with counterinsurgency and interstate warfare—but the full extent of the problem will only be apparent following next year’s general election. No matter which party is victorious, there is a growing consensus that a root-and-branch defense review is inevitable: one that could have far-reaching implications for the U.K. armed forces, and its defense and aerospace companies.
Air China is seeing indications of a market recovery in both domestic air travel and freight. The airline, the only major Chinese carrier not receiving state financial aid, has asked the government for additional capital. Meanwhile, it is cutting spending but expects to expand its fleet modestly this year, although the increase in capacity will be moderated by returning leased aircraft. Chairman Kong Dong says the airline will receive 27 aircraft and return 8-10.
Lufthansa Cargo plans to ground two more MD-11s in October owing to the dramatic drop in demand in the air freight business, while one of its nearest competitors, Cargolux, has yet to shrink its fleet despite a $61-million net loss for 2008. The German line has idled four MD-11s already, meaning the additional capacity pull will effectively put one-third of the airline’s fleet on the ground. Lufthansa Cargo saw demand drop 20% in the first quarter and has not noticed any signs of improvement yet.
As the FAA deploys its Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) infrastructure, it is working with airlines and industry to develop new uses for the technology, including runway incursion prevention (see p. 36). Avionics company ACSS is exploring how to include an alerting feature in its SafeRoute suite of ADS-B applications, and our cover image from ACSS shows how a cockpit display of traffic information might warn the pilot of an incursion. The own-ship symbol is shown as an aircraft outline on an airport moving map.
Some work from Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth-based F-35 production line will likely be moved to Marietta, Ga., where the company is now planning for the eventual closure of its F-22 Raptor manufacturing capacity. Lockheed Martin officials say they expect to move assembly of the wing carry-through structure to Marietta beginning in 2010. Initially, 70 jobs will be involved and later 300. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans to end the buy of twin-engine stealthy F-22s at 187, curbing Air Force ambitions for at least 243 aircraft.
France has ordered a third command ship/helicopter carrier to augment its force projection capability. The 21,000-metric-ton displacement vessel, which also carries surgical units, amphibious landing craft and troops, will be built by STX France and DCNS with funding from a €2.4-billion ($3.1-billion) aerospace and defense economic stimulus package approved late last year. The first two ships were delivered in 2006-07.
Raymond Blohm says F-22s only carry eight missiles and fire two at a time, so all the enemy has to do is throw enough expendable fighters at F-22s to exhaust their missile supplies (AW&ST Mar. 30, p. 8). Then it will be F-22 cannons against their missiles; a kill ratio of 4:1. If this is all F-22s are good for, then perhaps we could get by with something less sophisticated that could carry far more missiles and have a higher kill ratio. But he wants to buy more F-22s, presumably because they are more sophisticated.
France’s newest nuclear ballistic missile-carrying submarine, the Terrible, completed an initial test firing of a dummy missile on Apr. 18, although the mockup’s float system malfunctioned after launch. Defense ministry officials said the dummy—sized to represent the country’s new M51 missile—will be retrieved shortly to determine the cause of the malfunction and analyze test results. The Terrible, the fourth of the Triomphant-class submarines, was launched in January and christened on Mar. 21.
Helicopter emergency medical services stakeholders agree that the sector’s dismal fatal accident record must be improved. But they disagree on how. Proponents for voluntary industry change, FAA rulemaking and legislation recently formally made their cases. The divergent views became apparent at the Apr. 21 House Aviation subcommittee hearing that explored HEMS safety oversight and whether legislation—specifically, state regulation of EMS operations—was the “cure.”
The article “Prosecutorial Overreach” reports that members of a Tuninter ATR 72 cockpit crew were sentenced to prison for executing an only partially successful ditching. Although we have been painfully aware since 9/11 that aircraft fly above a vulnerable quilt of innocents, the judges—with the hindsight benefit of extensive flight simulator testing of the feasibility—asserted the pilots failed to try and land on the nearest runway.
Disappointing results from a request for information (RFI) from industry have led the U.S. Army to head back to the drawing board for its canceled Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program. “Based on the results of the RFI, no manufacturer had an aircraft that exists today that met all the key performance parameters,” according to Col. Frank Tate, action officer for attack and reconnaissance aviation programs. Moreover, the Army has decided to launch an analysis of alternatives (AOA) to determine, among other things, the next step for ARH.
Chicago’s Midway Airport will remain in municipal ownership, at least for now. The $2.5-billion plan to lease the square-mile port on the South Side to the Midco consortium has died, a victim of the recession. The city and Midco closed the 99-year lease after agreeing earlier to a two-week extension of the Apr. 6 financing deadline. “The company was unable to finalize the transaction due to current global market conditions that have materially deteriorated since the bid award,” Midco states.
Arianespace has been selected to orbit JCSAT-13, a telecommunications satellite recently ordered by Japan’s SkyPerfectJSAT Corp. from Lockheed Martin. The launch, set for 2013 on an Ariane 5, is the seventh awarded to Arianespace this year.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) controllers are checking out a new 300-kg. (661-lb.) radar imaging satellite—Risat-2—built with Israeli technology in a hurry-up effort to improve India’s satellite reconnaissance capabilities over Pakistan in the wake of last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai. ISRO used a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C12) Apr. 20 to launch the spacecraft from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island on the Bay of Bengal.
Telespazio spacecraft operators at the Fucino Space Center in Italy will soon begin operations with the Sicral 1B communications satellite after it was sent into orbit by a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL Apr. 20. Liftoff from the Sea Launch Odyssey oceangoing platform came at 4:16 a.m. EDT, and operators at Fucino later acquired the spacecraft’s first signals from orbit and confirmed its health. Odyssey was positioned on the Equator at 154 deg. W. Long. The Zenit-3SL’s Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 6,697-lb.
SES Astra and Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. of Abu Dhabi will create a joint venture to offer direct-to-home TV services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Southwest Asia. Yahsat is investing more than $1.7 billion in a privately owned dual-use satcom company intended to serve commercial and government customers in the Persian Gulf and surrounding regions. The investment includes two large Ka-/Ku-/C-band spacecraft and an extensive ground network being supplied by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space.
The slowdown in civil aerostructures business is forcing Saab to restructure and lay off another 300 employees, with more terminations possible. CEO Ake Svensson says more focus will be put on aerosystems and the continued push to sell Gripen fighters. The 300 layoffs at Linkoping, Sweden, are to take effect this year, and come on top of 500 positions being eliminated over two years as part of a larger cost savings program.
