AAI has flown a new Mark 4.7 version of its Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft, aimed at tactical and maritime endurance missions. The UAV, flight-tested last month at Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, retains the Mark 4.4’s engine and avionics, but has a larger fuselage and wing and a multi-sensor payload combining electro-optical, infrared and laser rangefinder/designator capability. Endurance exceeds 12 hr., says AAI, adding that the new launch and recovery system allows space-constrained field and shipboard operations.
Installation of an automatic air collision avoidance system that developers say will save a significant number of lives and “billions of dollars” in fighter service over the next two decades is underway on a U.S. Air Force F-16 testbed.
Swiss International Air Lines is the first buyer of the Bombardier CSeries, but the aircraft maker indicates that the initial operator has yet to be secured. Swiss will put into service the 30 aircraft its parent company, Lufthansa, last year committed to buying through a letter of interest, the German airline group’s supervisory board decided last week. Swiss will use the first 20 CSeries to replace an equal number of Avro RJ100s on short-haul service in 2014 and 2015. A further 10 aircraft will be phased in starting in 2016.
I was intrigued by the letter from Nahum Gat (AW&ST Feb. 23, p. 8) regarding his education and career in the U.S. The Defense Dept. got its money’s worth. However, it raises questions. Graduate degrees are training exercises, and whoever pays for them should expect to recoup their investment. Today, it is not easy for an aerospace engineering student to change a student to a worker visa. Most of these highly trained engineers will return home. It is difficult to see how a government sponsor can justify funding a foreign student.
Delta Air Lines is still “anxious” to take deliveries of Boeing’s 787, President Ed Bastian said last week, as he discounted the significance of removing orders for the new twinjet from the company’s fleet plans, as included in a Mar. 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “We’d already have eight flying had Boeing been able to deliver the plane,” he told a J.P. Morgan Aviation & Transportation Conference. Delta acquired 18 787 orders in its takeover of Northwest Airlines.
The mainline commercial aircraft China is developing will make its first flight in about eight years, says manufacturer Comac, suggesting the project has been advanced by a year or two. The company has completed the preliminary design and feasibility study for the airliner, which will be called the C919, says chief designer Wu Guanghui. Comac says it is looking for foreign suppliers, including engine makers, and will choose those contractors at an early stage in the development.
In yet another attempt to hold defense contractors accountable for programs, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) wants companies bidding on government contracts to be bonded and insured. Taylor, who chairs the House Armed Services’ seapower subcommittee, is trying to drum up interest on Capitol Hill for a system of performance bonds.
AeroVironment says it has completed an end-to-end demonstration of its Switchblade lethal small UAV. The 2-lb. man-portable, tube-launched Switchblade carried a video sensor and small warhead. In flight, the electrically powered air vehicle sends streaming video back to a hand-held controller. When a target is detected and designated by the operator, the UAV becomes a weapon, autonomously guided by a video tracker on to the target. The demo was funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
Australia has contracted with a consortium including local EADS unit Australian Aerospace to maintain its Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Hercules transports. The work is valued at A$292 million ($190 million). Other members of the group are Lockheed Martin and StandardAero.
High-level government and industry discussions in the coming weeks will not just help decide the fate of the A400M transport—they could also shape the face of European airlift fleets in the medium term. A series of closely related talks is planned to sort out how to deal with years of delays associated with the A400M, including whether the program should survive. A wholesale termination is possible after Mar. 31, since the aircraft program will have failed to fly by then.
Elbit recorded a net profit of $204 million in 2008, up from $76.7 million in the prior year, on a 33% spike in revenue to $2.65 billion. The profit margin increased to 7.7% from 3.9%. Elbit ended the year with a $5-billion backlog, with 72% for export customers.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport will be using the $4.50 passenger facility charge to fund design work for the second phase of the O’Hare Modernization Program. The FAA extended the charge for 22 months to pay the $177-million bill for design of the second airfield phase of the modernization, including two runways and a runway extension, a taxiway and a new air traffic control tower. Another $5 million will be spent for planning and feasibility studies for the western terminal area.
On May 23, 2008, a crippled fishing trawler radioed from the Bering Sea, “Mayday! Mayday! This is the Alaska Ranger. We are flooding, taking on water.” The distress call was received at 2:53 a.m. by the U.S. Coast Guard, which launched two helicopter rescue teams: an HH-60 Jayhawk, located 230 naut. mi. northeast of the trawler, and an HH-65C Dolphin, positioned 100 naut. mi. from the USCG Cutter Munro. Ensuing over the next several hours was the largest—and one of the most dramatic—cold-water rescues in U.S. Coast Guard history.
Sikorsky has demonstrated the Sandblaster anti-brownout system in flight tests on the JUH-60 Rascal helicopter testbed at the U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. Developed for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Sandblaster integrates automated flight controls, see-through radar, sensor fusion and synthetic vision to increase safety and reduce workload when landing in brownout conditions.
Northrop Grumman is developing a wireless databus that could eliminate many of the wiring harnesses in a spacecraft, reducing both weight and the time required for integration and test. The company has won a 21-month, $4.1-million Phase 1 contract to develop a wireless databus interface based on commercial technology for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Plug-and-Play Avionics (SPA) architecture.
A piece of space debris passed about 4.5 km. (7.3 mi.) from the International Space Station Mar. 12, forcing the crew into the Soyuz capsule as a precaution. Expedition 18 commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yuri Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus spent about 10 min. in the Soyuz, which serves as the station lifeboat. Had there been a collision requiring the station to be abandoned, Lonchakov would have piloted the Russian vehicle to an emergency reentry and landing. Before entering the capsule, the crew closed hatches to compartmentalize the modules in the U.S.
BAE Systems is to boost its presence in the tactical unmanned aircraft market by acquiring Tucson, Ariz.-based Advanced Ceramics Research (ARC), a privately held manufacturer of small UAVs. ARC produces the catapult-launched Silver Fox, with 8-10-hr. endurance and 5-8-lb. payload; and is developing the runway-operated Manta—with 6-8-hr. endurance and 15-18-lb. payload—and the Coyote, which is designed for deployment from the sonobuoy tubes of maritime-patrol aircraft and helicopters.
Fourteen years after the first electronic airline tickets were issued to the traveling public, a far-reaching effort led by the International Air Transport Assn. saw the airline industry last year transition to nearly 100% electronic ticketing. In 2004, IATA—seeing an opportunity to save airlines around $3 billion annually—set a goal of achieving 100% electronic ticketing. Processing a paper ticket costs about $10; an electronic ticket, around $1.
Even during a budget crunch, some Defense Dept. programs can expect to see continued strong funding—especially if they provide support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Keith Sanders, deputy director of air warfare for the Pentagon’s acquisition office, says one area that could enjoy that status is intelligence sensors. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) support has been given a virtual blank check and there’s no sign of that ending, Sanders tells the Precision Strike Assn. Annual Review in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
All of the Laureate nominees to whom Aviation Week paid tribute have distinguished themselves in industry, the military—or both. And that leads into another category of high importance—tomorrow’s leaders. The top cadets from the U.S. service academies represent academic excellence, mental and physical preparedness, and a dedication to service. These, the best and the brightest, will pursue careers in civil or military aviation and aerospace following their graduations this May.
The Italian government has accepted a €14.5-million offer from Alis to acquire Alitalia’s former cargo operations, including three MD-11F freighters and the services of 15 pilots. The aircraft are to be based at Milan Malpensa Airport. The first aircraft is to arrive at the end of March, the second in May and the third this summer. Alis intends to hire another 30 pilots to fly its MD-11Fs.
James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Assn., who reportedly faulted “politicians, populists and demagogues” for criticizing business aviation (AW&ST Mar. 2, p. 20), apparently does not get it. Coyne was quoted as saying: “It’s almost like someone asserting we’re the worst type of people, like child molesters. It’s bizarre.” Business aviation, like most of the world economy, is in the scariest downturn since the 1930s, brought on in large part by the very executives who ride in corporate jets.
The military arm of EADS and Airbus has, in the last few days, traversed another bout of heavy turbulence, this time involving an unprecedented governance situation. In an effort to further streamline the group’s structure, EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois and Airbus President Tom Enders decided to appoint a new head for Airbus Military Div. in yet another attempt to solve the ill-fated A400M military lifter program’s myriad difficulties.
Engineers are calling for a resumption of contract talks at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Wichita, Kan., after members rejected, for the second time, the company’s three-year contract offer last week. While returning to the bargaining table is the most obvious move, negotiators are considering “other approaches,” says an official of the Society of Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea). He did not provide specifics. Some 340 of the 676 engineers in Wichita are dues-paying Speea members.
