Boeing has shipped the second Wideband Global Satcom satellite to Cape Canaveral in preparation for launch on an Atlas V now set for Mar. 9. WGS-2 is the second of six Boeing 702 satellites built for the new WGS network, which is replacing the Defense Satellite Communications System.
Problems in integrating urgent operational requirements on the British Tornado GR4 strike aircraft may mean revising its planned deployment date to Afghanistan. The British Defense Ministry and BAE Systems are trying to determine whether there is need to reschedule deployment of the Tornado GR4. A detachment of the aircraft had been due at the beginning of April to replace the Harrier GR9 force now stationed at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
NASA engineers are calculating the long-term effects of a software error that sent out-of-spec vibrations through the International Space Station structure during reboosting last month.
China Eastern Airlines will seek to defer or cancel half of the aircraft it has contracted to receive this year. Announcing a turnaround plan that largely matched earlier reports, the debt-ridden carrier says it will sell stakes in subsidiaries and aim to cut costs by 15%.
A Rheinmetall-Rafael team has been tapped to supply a light multirole missile for Germany’s Mells program, intended to allow the country’s new fleet of Puma fighting vehicles to be outfitted to defeat tanks, helicopters and bunkers. The German federal procurement agency last week placed a €68-million ($87-million) contract with the team to integrate the long-range version of the Israeli Spike on the Puma. A production contract is expected to follow.
Kevin Breeden has been named senior manager of Western U.S. sales and service for corporate aircraft for the St. Louis-based Sabreliner Corp. He was regional sales manager for Standard Aero. Tracy L. Ogle has been promoted to director of helicopter programs from rotary-wing program manager.
Last week’s “Aerospace & Defense Earnings Snapshot 2008” (AW&ST Feb. 2, p. 13) listed an incorrect figure for Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems unit. Operating income was $3.2 billion in 2008, down 6% from 2007.
It all started at a living room table in a group house on Washington’s bohemian U Street in 1998. Walter Holemans was a 33-year-old engineer who had quit his job at Orbital Sciences Corp. to pursue a dream of designing oceanographic equipment. But Holemans quickly discovered there was little money to be made in oceanography. On the advice of friends and former colleagues, he switched his focus to separation rings.
Corporate flight department leadership and pilot decision-making skills emerge among critical factors that resulted in two fatal general aviation accidents. At a Jan. 28 hearing here, the NTSB revealed its findings related to two crashes in July 2007—one involving a Cessna 310R, “an accident [that was] made even more tragic because it could have been so easily avoided,” according to NTSB acting Chairman Mark Rosenker. The other involved a midair collision between two electronic news-gathering (ENG) helicopters in Phoenix.
Feb. 19-20Aerial Firefighting Conference & Exhibition 2009, Incorporating Fixed & Rotary Wing Aircraft and Unmanned Air Vehicles. Crowne Plaza Hotel, Anaheim, Calif. See www.tangentlink.com/event.php?ekey=AFF%20California Mar. 3-4Technology Training Corp.’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Conference. San Diego Sheraton Hotel & Marina. Also, Mar. 26-27—Maritime Security & Domain Awareness Conference. Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Alexandria, Va. Call +1 (310) 563-1210, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com
USAF Brig. Gen. Joseph A. Lanni has become commander of the Air Force Security Assistance Center of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He was director of air, space and information operations at the AFMC headquarters. Lanni will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. David W. Eidsaune, who was commander of AFMC’s Air Armament Center/program executive officer for weapons at Eglin AFB, Fla. He, in turn, will be followed by Maj. Gen. Charles R.
Adding to the list of Israeli tactical and operational innovations during the Gaza incursion were new collectors for both ground and airborne intelligence.
Regarding the blended-wing body (BWB) and its bureaucratic relation—the hybrid-wing body (AW&ST Feb. 2, pp. 50 & 58)—while technically the BWB is the best approach given today’s technology, it is still a rerun of design decisions of 60 years ago when the Avro Vulcan was being developed to fulfill much the same requirement as the Boeing B-47. That aircraft was the progenitor of the now-conventional “tube and wing” designs. Aeronautical innovation seems to have stagnated in the intervening decades.
A new auditing system is being instituted to cover air charter and fractional ownership operations, but some question its necessity. The Air Charter Safety Foundation, an offshoot of the National Air Transportation Assn. (NATA), has launched its Industry Audit Standard, which is to be used in evaluating the safety processes and policies of operators, including safety management systems, regulatory compliance and best practices.
EADS’s newly created subsidiary in Germany, Premium Aerotec, plans heavy investment in technology and infrastructure to help it become an independent Tier 1 aerospace supplier in the next three years.
Vietnam says it has applied for three new orbital positions to permit the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group to expand its budding telecom satellite network. VPTG’s first spacecraft, Vinasat-1, was launched in April 2008 to 132 deg. E. Long. The 12 Ku-band and eight C-band transponders on Vinasat-1, built by Lockheed Martin, are expected to be fully occupied by 2010. The company then will study acquisition of a second unit. The new orbital positions are 107, 126 and 131.8 deg. E.
French space agency CNES says it appears likely that ambitions for Europe’s planned ExoMars lander mission will have to be scaled back if the mission is to go ahead, even with Europe’s new plans to explore Mars jointly with NASA. ExoMars originally was envisioned as a technology mission. But under pressure from the science community, it was rescoped with a much-expanded instrument package, doubling the cost to at least €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion).
European defense companies are eyeing a possible breakthrough in hypersonic engine technology by researchers at the University of Rome, who say lithium hydride is a potential fuel for scramjets.
Sikorsky Aircraft is giving Northrop Grumman’s Navex air navigation system an entry into the international market on export-bound UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters. The Italy-based subsidiary, Northrop Grumman Italia, will supply the systems and installation kits for an initial 15 helos, with a follow-on contract for an additional 17. Two systems will be supplied for each helicopter.
EADS has selected MSC Software’s SimEnterprise suite to support its 2007 Phenix initiative that is harmonizing and standardizing product life cycle management across its business units, including Airbus, Eurocopter and Astrium. MSC is to provide the software infrastructure for EADS’s simulation and computer-aided engineering (CAE) processes. Future projects are likely to rely on MSC’s MD Nastran, a simulation analysis tool; SimXpert, which provides a unified template for users with multiple software systems; and SimManager, a simulation integration tool.
Boeing recently demonstrated that a laser system mounted on an Avenger combat vehicle can shoot down small UAVs. During tests in December 2008 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the system achieved its principal test objectives by using its advanced targeting system to acquire and track three small UAVS flying against a background tapestry of mountains and deserts. One was shot down from an operationally relevant range.
An article in this issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology and a government action last week raise the prospect of a win-win-win situation in coming years as the U.S. commercial aviation system strives to increase its capacity and operating efficiency, even as it reduces its costs and carbon footprint.
Raytheon is hoping for funding from the U.S. Navy to continue testing a new warhead for its Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), a 70-naut.-mi.-range glide weapon. The new shaped-charge warhead would cost less than the existing Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge (Broach) made by BAE/Thales and Qinetiq, says Phyllis McEnroe, Raytheon’s JSOW program manager. Raytheon is also planning the next flight test of JSOW-ER, an extended-range variant incorporating the Miniature Air Launched Decoy engine, for May.
