The British Defense Ministry and Rolls-Royce have agreed on a multi-year support contract for the Harrier GR9’s Pegasus turbofan engine. The contract—worth £198 million ($281 million)—covers the next 10 years. This could see the GR9 out to its scheduled withdrawal from service in 2018.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has removed the FAA’s NextGen air traffic control modernization program from its biennial high-risk list, citing progress made in keeping crucial projects on schedule. GAO noted that ATC modernization was originally put on the high-risk list in 1995 because of its $36-billion cost, complexity, importance to FAA’s mission and “its problem-plagued past.”
I am concerned about the final two paragraphs of Pedro L. Rustan’s letter to then-President-elect Barack Obama in which he says the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) needs to attract talent from overseas (AW&ST Jan. 12, p. 62). Rustan says 60% of U.S. Ph.D. students in science and engineering traditionally have come from abroad and that Darpa should work with the Homeland Security and State Depts. to help this talent stay in America.
NASA is trying to diagnose the cause of the Mars Exploration rover Spirit’s recent erratic behavior. On Jan. 25—the 1,800th Martian day of what was originally baselined as a 90-day mission—Spirit failed to respond to its daily driving commands, and did not record its main activities for the day onto its hard drive. The next day, controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a command for Spirit to locate the Sun with its camera, on the hunch that the rover might be disoriented. Spirit found the Sun, but not in its expected location.
The first of an international pair of spacecraft designed to analyze the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming is in checkout, following the Jan. 23 launch of the Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (Gosat) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Gosat and NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, due for launch Feb. 23, will map the real-time distribution of greenhouse gases worldwide. Gosat alone will be able to generate 56,000 real-time data points around the globe, updating every three days.
Air access to Rome faces greater constraint if the regional authorities decide to shut Ciampino, a move being considered to bolster Fiumicino as the city’s main airport. Ciampino is used now by both the Italian military and several low-cost operators, including Ryanair and EasyJet. The authorities are offering an alternative site for the budget carriers, but it is nearly four times as far from the city as the present location. These operators are being successful in drawing customers from Alitalia for intra-European and some domestic routes.
Lufthansa’s plan to take over SN Brussels Airlines is receiving close scrutiny from antitrust regulators. The European Commission intends to review the deal, which was announced last year. “Initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition could significantly impede effective competition and so raises serious doubts as to its compatibility with the single market, at least as regards passenger air transport on a number of routes between Belgium and Germany, and Belgium and Switzerland,” the EC says.
Boeing is planning to cut 10,000 employees this year, more than doubling the reductions announced just last month. But senior executives are confident that the company’s financial position will remain stable, despite some of the most difficult economic conditions it has faced in at least half a decade.
Many Middle Eastern carriers are expected to suffer less during the current economic slow down than their peers elsewhere, which will further increase interest of maintenance, repair and overhaul vendors in the region. But, as customers become more discerning and competition intensifies, the market’s challenges will not get any easier.
The U.S. Air Force is launching an effort to certify plant-derived biofuels for use in its aircraft, an initiative that would dwarf the highly publicized tests by commercial airlines in recent months.
Haifa-based Elbit Systems has supplied more information regarding the Israeli defense ministry contract it received last December for additional Skylark l LE mini-UAVs. The $40-million award is to include training and logistics support, and units, destined for ground forces, are to be delivered across several years. Skylarks were a part of the recent volatile initiative to block mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip. The UAVs gathered intelligence that was disseminated among operating forces within the Israel Defense Forces.
Boeing is now the only contender to provide a platform for the prestigious contract to build a new U.S. Air Force One presidential transport. EADS and its Airbus commercial aircraft manufacturing subsidiary are not planning to compete to supply three planes to transport future U.S. presidents, according to company officials.
Lufthansa Cargo and Jettainer of Raumhein, Germany, have initiated a pilot test of lightweight air cargo containers from four manufacturers to see how well they hold up and whether they will cut transportation costs. Jettainer manages standardized air freight pallets and containers, which are currently made of aluminum. Lufthansa wants to see if containers made from lighter, non-corrosive composite materials will survive the airfreight operations while delivering fuel savings. The test will be run with 1,000 containers from four manufacturers.
India is EADS’s next target for establishing a research center as the company expands its technology footprint to align long-term development with its larger corporate goals, notwithstanding the significant near-term pressures on the aerospace giant’s balance sheet.
The reinstatement last week of the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) at Delta Air Lines is garnering strong support from safety leaders. The voluntary program allows airline employees and third parties, such as labor unions, to report safety incidents without fear of retribution. ASAP’s goal is to identify safety risks and correct them before they lead to accidents. Several other airlines dropped their programs.
The British Royal Navy took the opportunity of the Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring’s first arrival at its home base of Portsmouth to announce that the ship’s MBDA Principal Anti-Air Missile System would be known in U.K. service as the Sea Viper. Current anti-air missile systems include the Sea Dart and Sea Wolf. HMS Daring is the lead ship for the Type 45 class.
At a time when the U.S. and its leaders are focused on bailouts and other actions to rescue the most troubled sectors of our economy, please don’t neglect the industry that generates a trade surplus that supports the U.S. economy: aerospace. We cannot take the American aerospace industry and its jobs for granted. The Aerospace States Assn. (ASA) and its membership of lieutenant governors from around our nation congratulate you on becoming our 44th president. And from each state capital, we challenge you to invest in America’s future.
U.S. companies are likely to find themselves increasingly disadvantaged in competition for medium and heavy military aircraft programs because of a dearth of new models, a study from Forecast International warns. European manufacturers Eurocopter and AgustaWestland have invested heavily in new clean-sheet hardware for this segment, defined as 6.8 metric tons and above, while American airframers have focused on derivative designs, Forecast says. This could pose problems for U.S. firms at a time when the U.S.
Thales Alenia Space says it finished 2008 with 23% of the geostationary communications satellite market. The Thales-Finmeccanica joint venture landed five orders last year, out of 26 worldwide, along with four commercial communications payloads for other builders’ spacecraft and part of the payload for the Hispasat AG1 demonstration satellite, co-funded by the European Space Agency. It also won a contract to build a 15-satellite low Earth orbit constellation for O3b Networks.
The first of an international pair of spacecraft designed to analyze the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming is in checkout, following the Jan. 23 launch of the Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (Gosat) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Gosat and NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, due for launch Feb. 23, will map the real-time distribution of greenhouse gases worldwide. Gosat alone will be able to generate 56,000 real-time data points around the globe, updating every three days.
Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
The U.S. military services are rushing billions of dollars in new intelligence-collecting aircraft into service to support operations abroad, but questions remain about whether the Pentagon will eventually field a true, full-spectrum architecture of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and electronic-attack capabilities.
Lufthansa’s plan to take over SN Brussels Airlines is receiving close scrutiny from antitrust regulators. The European Commission intends to review the deal, which was announced last year. “Initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition could significantly impede effective competition and so raises serious doubts as to its compatibility with the single market, at least as regards passenger air transport on a number of routes between Belgium and Germany, and Belgium and Switzerland,” the EC says.
Countering improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan is providing an impetus to the further rapid deployment and operational use of the Royal Air Force’s Sentinel R1 airborne stand-off radar aircraft, along with unmanned aerial vehicles. France is also looking to bolster its UAV resources in theater. Two RAF Sentinel R1s were deployed for a short period to the Afghanistan theater in the fourth quarter of 2008, and a second deployment is likely soon. The Sentinel was due to enter service in 2006, but development issues led to a two-year delay.
As a business traveler, I want to salute the captain and crew of US Airways 1549 that ditched in New York’s Hudson River on Jan. 15. Brilliant job! But I am concerned about how the aircraft came to rest, with aft cabin doors partially submerged. The emergency procedures cards show a ditching with the aircraft floating level and escape slides/rafts deployed forward and aft. The Airbus A320 came to rest tail down, making the aft door slides/rafts unusable.
