Thales Raytheon Systems will provide a new radar for the French air force to monitor airspace around the country’s launch facility at Kourou, French Guiana. The radar is scheduled to be installed by 2011, according to the French defense ministry. The system will boost surveillance range for the military to 500 km. (311 mi.) from about 200 km. In addition to the radar, Thales Raytheon is responsible for providing the ground-based infrastructure.
Sikorsky is aiming for U.S. certification of the S-76D medium twin-turbine helicopter a year from now, having completed the first flight on Feb. 7. The company says it has about 100 agreements in place for deliveries beginning in 2010. The aircraft was flown once for 40 min.—to collect engine data—and is expected to begin flight testing in earnest within a month, says lead program pilot Craig Barnes. “We collected data for Pratt & Whitney Canada on power matching and response at higher power,” he says.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., facing a critical design review this year for the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter, has awarded additional subcontracts. Aurora Flight Sciences, which builds the helo’s main rotor pylon, will also supply the composite and titanium engine nacelles. BAR Systems will provide the armored, crashworthy cockpit seats and armor protection for the cabin. First flight of the CH-53K is tentatively scheduled for late in 2011.
The Government Accountability Office has found flaws in a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) study that compared the value of hiring federal versus private security screeners—and recommended the TSA not use it as sole support for major policy decisions. The TSA study, completed in May 2007, found that private sector screening costs 17.4% more to operate and rated the performance of private screeners as average. The GAO review, issued Feb.
The Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Laboratory has concluded DNA matter found in both CFM56-5B/P engines of US Airways Flight 1549 came from the Canada goose, which generally weighs 5.8-8.7 lb.—larger than the bird ingestion standard for the engine. The NTSB provided this in a Feb. 12 update to its investigation of the Jan. 15 water landing of the Airbus A320 in New York’s Hudson River.
After 14 years, the Government Accountability Office has removed the FAA’s air traffic modernization efforts from its high-risk list. It was the only program removed from the list this year, and the action is a real victory for the aviation industry.
Engine maker Pratt & Whitney Canada is to cut 1,000 jobs, 10% of its global workforce, over the next few months as it reduces production for 2009 in the face of order cancellations and deferrals of business aircraft deliveries. Major customer Cessna Aircraft has cut 4,600 jobs, while Hawker Beechcraft has announced 2,800 layoffs.
U.S. attempts to smooth relations with Russia and engage Iran in talks worry missile defense advocates who fear that scrapping the planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe may be the price of President Barack Obama’s diplomatic overtures.
The European Space Agency says the Herschel and Planck orbital telescopes have completed testing and are ready to be integrated at the Arianespace payload facility in Kourou, French Guiana, for a scheduled twin launch on Apr. 16. Separately, ESA said it will fund continued operation of its Mars Express, Venus Express and Cluster solar missions until Dec. 31.
Nigeria has contracted with China Great Wall Industry Corp. to build three more telecom spacecraft. The first, due for launch in the last quarter of 2010, will replace NigComSat-1, which was lost last year as the result of a power failure on China’s new DFH-4 high- powered bus.
Satellite operators are at risk of a loss to orbital debris like the one experienced by Iridium Satellite LLC last week about twice a decade, and the danger grows every time there is another collision involving orbiting objects.
Breaking the speed barrier for rotors has long been a dream of helicopter designers, but few customers have wanted to pay more to fly faster. That may be changing as operations in Iraq and Afghanistan push helicopters to their performance limits. Piasecki Aircraft advocates compounding helicopters like the UH-60 and AH-64—adding a wing for lift and propulsor for thrust and offloading the rotor so it can operate to higher speeds, altitudes and weights before reaching the limits set by retreating-blade stall.
Kaman has begun flying potential buyers in the SH-2G(I) shipborne helicopter, as it tackles the task of reselling a product returned by a dissatisfied customer. All 11 SH-2G Super Seasprites delivered to the Royal Australian Navy have been repatriated to Kaman in the U.S., and the task of qualifying the integrated software has finally been accomplished. “They are deliverable now,” says Mark Tattershall, business development director.
Orbital Sciences will use an air-launched Pegasus XL to loft NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) under a new contract worth about $36 million. The first orbiting high-energy X-ray telescope with focusing capability, NuSTAR is intended to conduct a census of black holes and study the aftermaths of other violent phenomena (including young supernova remnants and collapsed stars) and the origins of cosmic rays. NuSTAR is set to fly in 2011 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
The Asia-Pacific region is usually reliable for providing steadily increasing airfreight and passenger traffic growth, but a survey by Airports Council International of 65 of its biggest members has executives worried. The region eked out a 0.5% gain in passenger services for all of 2008, but in December was off 4.8% compared to 2007. That year-end slide capped steadily declining performance across all sectors for the year, quarter by quarter. Passenger counts were up 4.5% from 2007 for the first quarter but by the final quarter, they were a negative 5.6%.
Discussions are underway to revive the White House National Space Council, says John P. Holdren, President Barack Obama’s choice to oversee administration science policy. The Obama team has been looking at the best way to resurrect the National Space Council, “and I think that’s going to happen,” Holdren tells the Senate Commerce Committee at his confirmation hearing. The nominee says the upcoming gap in U.S.
For a show with a $10-billion fighter competition at its heart, the Feb. 11-15 Aero India opened with surprisingly little bang in Bangalore. The opening day at Yelahanka air force station appeared particularly quiet, despite a total of 592 exhibitors from 25 countries. Almost half of the exhibitors were domestic. The economic downturn may have taken a toll on the number of attendees, though all six of the bidding fighter manufacturers had a significant presence.
Air France-KLM Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta recently joined the group of airline executives who maintain that the time is ripe for Airbus and Boeing to launch next-generation narrow-body twinjets. Like his peers, Spinetta believes the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 product ranges, although comprising highly reliable workhorses, have served their time and should be replaced by more efficient designs.
As passenger and freight activities plummet and borrowing costs have increased dramatically in recent months, the business outlook for airports is quickly deteriorating. And industry officials suspect there is more bad news ahead. The developments in the last few months have seen airports shift from being hot properties in which banks clamored to invest to authorities struggling to find money for even small infrastructure efforts.
Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, the Indian air force’s chief of the air staff, says a few introduction-into-service “problems” with the latest batch of the BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainer have been resolved. Availability problems arose from spares issues. Negotiations for procurement of a further batch of 57 Hawks, including 17 for the navy, are taking longer than expected to conclude.
Things have started to come together for the Royal Air Force’s Sentinel R Mk 1 airborne ground surveillance aircraft. Having completed their first operational deployment in support of combat forces recently, Raytheon on Feb. 10 handed over the first and last of the Airborne Standoff Radar aircraft.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week used a tour of the Middle East to try and generate interest in exports for the Dassault Rafale fighter. In Kuwait, Sarkozy said a deal for the sale of 14-28 Rafales is in the works and could be completed before year-end. Kuwait once was a Mirage F1 customer, but now operates Boeing F/A-18s. Rafale was also on the agenda during Sarkozy’s stop in Oman. Rafale is the only Western-built, in-production fighter without an export order.
House lawmakers are rushing to finish work on their version of the FAA reauthorization bill, but they concede their urgency could be in vain if the Senate drags its heels as it did last year. The House plans to pass the FAA bill before the end of March, when an authorization extension expires. The House passed the same bill in the previous session, but it lapsed in the Senate. Aviation subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) notes the reauthorization effort is two years behind “because of inaction by the Senate.” Rep.
French armed forces have taken official delivery of the SIDM interim medium-altitude UAV, nearly three years after its scheduled introduction into service. The French have deployed the SIDM to Afghanistan, where EADS will provide logistics support.
As an old Navy guy once exposed to the intricacies of strategic planning, I am put off by the trend that has crept into military strategic planning that places technical feasibility on the forefront of strategic planning and not threats.
