Northrop Grumman has won a $55-million USAF contract to procure MQ-1 ASIP-1C scaled sensors for the Predator unmanned aircraft and another $19.6-million contract to provide engineering, manufacturing and development support for the Global Hawk UAV. Meanwhile, the Air Force Research Laboratory and Boeing have demonstrated that UAVs can conduct automated aerial refueling. The idea is to keep refueling those unmanned aircraft so they can continue long-endurance combat orbits for missile defense, electronic intelligence gathering and surveillance.
El Al Israel Airlines is set to strengthen its short- and long-haul operations. The carrier plans to link with American Airlines in a wide-ranging code-share agreement, giving El Al access to U.S. domestic routes out of its gateway airports in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, while American can sell tickets on many El Al flights into Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, El Al will buy four new Boeing 737-800s to boost short-haul markets.
The South Korean air force says it has a “realistic plan” to introduce fifth-generation fighters in the middle of the next decade. The strategy is included in the Defense Reform Plan 2020. The priority will be procurement in the F-15K class until neighboring countries begin acquiring fifth-generation fighters, adds Chief of Staff Kim Eun-ki. He stresses that F-XX, the program to introduce the fighters, will be pursued regardless of the outcome of KFX, the program to develop a home-grown stealth fighter.
Ryanair Chief Financial Officer Howard Millar says the carrier plans to reduce the value of its stake in Aer Lingus in the “not-too-distant future.” Ryanair, which has attempted a hostile takeover bid of its rival, purchased a 29% stake in Aer Lingus at €2.50 ($3.66) per share, but the value is now below €2. Aer Lingus stockholders and the European Commission moved to block the takeover bid; Ryanair is appealing.
French aerospace contractor Thales expects a new integrated cockpit testing lab to help it meet commercial aircraft makers’ demands for larger, more complete work packages and a reduced roster of suppliers.
NASA’s plans to reuse human-rated hardware wherever possible as it builds the spacecraft that will take explorers back to the Moon is perhaps best illustrated in the decision to use the J2 engine.
Boeing and Alenia Aeronautica are strengthening the foundation of their long-standing cooperation with a large expansion in research and development efforts. A set of newly signed memoranda of understanding will see the two aerospace companies increasingly working together in long-lead research in the aerostructures and materials fields. The endeavor covers military and commercial work.
A request for proposals for the reborn Joint Common Missile program, now the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, is expected next month. The earlier effort to replace Maverick, Longbow and Hellfire missiles was awarded to Lockheed Martin, but terminated in the midst of budget cuts.
After a flurry of denials by Eurocopter and the Indian army, New Delhi confirms it has terminated a $600-million AS550 Fennec helicopter deal for 197 rotorcraft, but declined to confirm whether the cancellation was motivated by irregularities. Eurocopter was in final price negotiations for the deal, after the earlier elimination of Bell Helicopter, and a contract had been expected to be signed this month.
Dirk Meier has become vice president-procurement for Zurich-based SR Technics . He was manager of engineering and maintenance manager for TUI Airline Management.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he doesn’t want to keep funding the civil government with yet another continuing resolution (CR). Only the Fiscal Year 2008 defense appropriation has been signed into law and there isn’t enough time to pass the remaining 11 bills separately before Congress goes home for the year. The current CR, which expires Dec. 14, is starving many programs, such as NASA’s exploration initiative.
The year-over-year rate of cargo traffic growth in October slipped from September’s 5% rate to 3.6%, an indication that economic volatility is having an impact on international airfreight demand, the International Air Transport Assn. reports. Passenger traffic increased 7.7%, down from the 8.2% annual growth rate recorded in September.
Astronauts Robert Satcher (right) and Richard Arnold help engineers work out human-factors issues in a low-fidelity mockup of NASA’s planned Orion crew exploration vehicle at Johnson Space Center. Wearing space shuttle ascent and entry suits, mockup crews practice emergency egress and use notional seats and Styrofoam props to evaluate different layouts for the 5-meter-dia. capsule cabin. The U.S. space agency is moving into detailed design of Orion and its Ares I launch vehicle after a major weight scrub this fall (see p. 52). NASA photo.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has certified a digital head-up display (HUD) with liquid crystal technology on the Airbus A318 and A318 Elite (business jet). Airbus plans to certify the HUD on the entire A320 family as well as on the A330/340, though the first certification will be for a single HUD. The A380 will have the option of a single or dual HUD that will initially provide trajectory-related symbols in the pilot’s field of view to improve situational awareness during approach and landing.
Grand China Air, the business that is to carry forward Hainan Airlines’ challenge to China’s “big three,” has begun operations. It will bring together a group of formerly independent carriers: Hainan, Xinhua, Chang’an and Shanxi. Hainan Airlines Chairman Chen Feng predicts Grand China will be a world-leading airline and a globally known brand within five years. Hainan, the major shareholder, is headquartered on Hainan Island and is already the fourth-largest airline in mainland China.
Conventional wisdom holds that the sinking U.S. dollar is bad news for aerospace exporters in Europe and Canada, which sell their products in dollars but pay their workers in local currencies. Conversely, the greenback’s slide bolsters the competitiveness of U.S. exporters by making their products cheaper abroad. But in an increasingly global aerospace economy, things often aren’t that simple (see related story, p. 40).
The French government is looking at raising expenditures at the outset of its next three-year defense spending plan in the hope that later savings will allow the country to meet a short-term budget peak without raising overall spending targets.
Spacewalking astronauts plan to use part of one of the three extravehicular activities (EVAs) scheduled for the STS-122/1E ISS assembly mission to continue seeking the source of damage to the mechanism that rotates the station’s starboard solar arrays. And if power levels permit, Stan Love will join ISS spacewalker Dan Tani for a fourth EVA to go all the way around the big solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ), pulling off as many of its covers as possible to take photos, collect samples of the metallic debris Tani first discovered on Oct.
Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez of Mexico has been reelected for a full three-year term as president of the Council of the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization .
The remaining political appointees at the Pentagon are hurrying to make their marks on the Bush administration’s final budget—proposed for Fiscal Year 2009—and, in some cases, to preserve programs they see as critical to future national security and Republican constituencies.
Air France-KLM and Air One are the remaining bidders for Alitalia. After Aeroflot dropped out, Lufthansa last week decided not to submit a non-binding bid for the Italian carrier by the Dec. 6 deadline. Alitalia is expected to name its preferred bidder soon and then discuss a potential takeover. Lufthansa didn’t bid because of the potential financial drain; it’s a concern also for Air France, whose management has vowed it will only buy Alitalia if it makes financial sense.
A Malaysian requirement for 12 medium utility helicopters may lead to much larger sales if the country works toward a proposed inventory of 74 units, making the program one of the most attractive in Asia. The competition is attracting interest from Sikorsky, Kazan Helicopters, Eurocopter, Boeing and AgustaWestland, with bids due on Jan. 8. The eventual order is only part of a broad push by the Malaysian armed forces to buy more helicopters, and it is taking money from other programs.
With a lot of scrubbing and starting over behind them, engineers working on NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle and its Ares I launcher are moving into detailed design on a stack they believe can deliver its targeted payload to orbit with thousands of pounds to spare.
The first thing you notice is how small it is inside—more spacious than Apollo, they say, but tighter than the shuttle. After watching gangs of astronauts doing back flips in the pressurized modules on the International Space Station, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle mockup here seems cramped and even claustrophobic.
MDA says a Dec. 3 test of an infrared seeker for the Raytheon Network-Centric Airborne Defense Element, an Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile modified to intercept ballistic missiles in boost phase, was a success. The seeker was flown on an AIM-9X launched from an F-16 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
