The earliest Airbus expects to have its A30X follow-on to the A320 family on the market is in 2017, says Airbus North America President Barry Eccleston. And it could be later than that. Aside from the fact that the current-generation A320-family aircraft are selling well, the airplane is meant to be designed to meet new environmental targets.
Tom Bergeron has been appointed president of ISR Systems for the Goodrich Corp. , Charlotte, N.C. He will succeed Ken Luczaj, who is scheduled to retire at the end of the year. Bergeron was vice president/general manager of the division’s surveillance and reconnaissance team.
The board of directors for Auckland International Airport Ltd. has rejected a NZ$4.76-billion ($3.6-billion) bid by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to buy a major stake in the airport, which handles most international traffic in New Zealand. The New Zealand board said the proposal involved unacceptable risk that would hurt the long-term value of the company.
Emirates Airlines, as part of a continuing effort to expand its global network, on Oct. 29 launched two nonstop flights from Dubai: Three-times-weekly service to Toronto and six-times-weekly service to Ahmedabad, India. The Boeing 777-300ERs to be operated on the Dubai-Toronto route offer 12 first-class, 42 business-class and 304 economy seats. Emirates will operate Airbus A330-200s in three-class configuration and Boeing 777-200s in two-class configuration on the Dubai-Ahmedabad route.
The U.S. Air Force is acknowledging it has used the new Raytheon laser-guided Maverick missile in combat for the first time. The first use from a USAF aircraft, on June 14, 2007, employed a laser-guided Maverick procured by the Navy, which has been using the weapon in U.S. Central Command. USAF is employing the weapon on its A-10s (see left photo) to support operations in Iraq. The weapon is especially useful for precision strikes against targets in urban areas. A U.S.
NASA’s Stereo-A, one of the two Stereo spacecraft launched into heliocentric orbits to produce 3D images of solar eruptions, has caught the Sun ripping the tail off a passing comet. In this series of four images collected by scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory with the spacecraft’s Heliospheric Imager, the comet Encke loses its tail (third panel from the left) as it hurtles into a coronal mass ejection (CME). The plasma tail brightens as the CME—a cloud of magnetized gas—approaches, before it is detached by the collision.
Add Continental to Delta among U.S. carriers that intend to make use of London Heathrow Airport access next March, with the expiration of rules that allow only two U.S. airlines, American and United, to fly between Heathrow and the U.S. Continental says that as of Sept. 30 it had committed itself to pay about $130 million for an unspecified number of scarce, pricey Heathrow slots and was looking for more. CEO Larry Kellner expects the carrier to begin with at least three daily flights from Houston and Newark.
Bell Helicopter Textron has “frozen” the exterior profile design of the Model 429 helicopter following extensive flight tests that centered on determining inflight handling characteristics. The Model 429 is scheduled to receive Transport Canada and FAA certification at the end of 2008 followed by initial customer deliveries. Two pre-production prototypes have accumulated more than 400 hr. of flight testing. Bell has purchase agreements for more than 240 of the twin-engine helicopters. The company plans to increase production to 60 aircraft annually by 2011.
Iran probably could develop a nuclear weapon in as little as 9-11 months if it had a finished design and devoted all of its estimated 3,000 centrifuges 24 hr. per day to producing highly enriched uranium (HEU), an analyst and lecturer with the U.K.-based Center for Science and Security Studies believes. But the analyst, James Acton, doubts that Iran has finalized any weapon designs, and he adds that Iran would have to skirt International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections to produce HEU at that rate. “If Iran has designed a nuclear weapon already . . .
Karl Bird (see photo) has been named manager of the Acquisition Div. of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena, Calif. He was director of contracts for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, El Segundo, Calif.
Required Navigation Performance procedures will be a leading form of navigation in the years ahead, according to Boeing. “[We see] RNP in the long term as where navigation is going—not only in the U.S. but in the world,” says Tim Tuttle, Boeing program manager for air traffic management. RNP usually relies on GPS guidance but can also use ground-based distance-measuring equipment (DME/DME) for positioning.
A General Atomics competitor—Aurora Flight Sciences Corp.—has acquired Payload Systems Inc., which has specialized in providing engineering services for 26 space missions. The idea is to take the experience from developing advanced sensors for space and adapt the processing and exploitation of sensor data to unmanned vehicles operating in the atmosphere as well as space.
Carson also provided some insight into the management change that occurred on the 787 program last month. He said that the replacement of longtime 787 program manager Mike Bair with Pat Shanahan was “in the works” when Boeing announced a six-month delay in first deliveries on Oct. 10. Shanahan’s appointment wasn’t announced for six more days because of the need for “internal coordination” of the details, Carson says. “The wives had to agree,” he jokes.
By his own admission, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Scott Carson is a “lousy forecaster.” After Boeing notched 1,002 commercial aircraft orders in 2005, he predicted demand would cool off. But Boeing ended up with 1,044 orders in 2006. Then last December, Carson dismissed talk of the run extending through 2007. The previous two years were “anomalous,” he explained. “We manufacturers should enjoy that and get on with life.” But Boeing notched 922 firm orders as of Oct. 23, putting it well within striking distance of last year’s record.
Boeing won a $90-million contract for Lot 4 production of the 250-lb. Small Diameter Bomb variant for fixed targets as well as four-place miniature munitions carriage systems.
Jacques Chirac, with what were perhaps reasons of pride and ego, would not allow a non-European powerplant to be chosen for the A400M (AW&ST Oct. 22, p. 32). In spite of a technically superior design from Pratt & Whitney Canada a conglomeration of manufacturers from the European Union was chosen instead.
Rescheduling forced by two major power-generating problems on the STS-120/10A International Space Station mission now underway threatens delivery of the laboratory modules long awaited by Europe and Japan. Mission managers were mounting a complex and risky attempt to fix the most pressing concern before the space shuttle Discovery departs the station on Nov. 5. But uncertainty remains about the station’s ability to generate enough electricity to support the European Columbus module and Japan’s larger Kibo laboratory over the longer term.
Robert J. May, Jr., has been named Dayton, Ohio-based vice president-Air Force market for Battelle . He was executive director of the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and had been executive director of the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Brazil’s civil aviation agency chief resigned Oct. 31. Milton Zuanazzi will be succeeded by Solange Paiva Vieira, an economist who is now in charge of civil aviation in Brazil’s defense ministry. The change of command is the latest move in the continuing controversy over the safety of Brazil’s air traffic control system. System failures have caused crippling air traffic delays, and Brazil experienced its two worst air disasters in a 10-month period.
Alexey Isaikin, who has been president of the Volga-Dnepr Group, also will be president of AirBridgeCargo Airlines . Denis Ilyin has become senior vice president-strategy and sales and Gennady Pivovarov senior vice president-operations/general director of AirBridgeCargo. Sergey Dyachkov has been appointed general director of Volga-Dnepr Airlines.
President Bush says keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran could avoid World War III. That and other administration pronouncements sound too familiar to suit Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). “Let us not make the same disastrous mistake as we did with Iraq,” says the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, who urges support for a resolution by Sen.
Congestion relief for New York’s major commercial airports may be in sight. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Nov. 1 took over operations of Stewart International Airport at Newburgh, N.Y., which it is redeveloping into a stronger regional airport.
Southwest Airlines’ fuel hedging meant less than in previous years when the price of oil fluctuated around $60 per barrel, as it did during the first few months of 2007, but it’s much more valuable with oil at more than $90 per barrel, as it was last month. The airline is hedged for about 90% of its fourth-quarter fuel requirements at the equivalent of an average oil price of $51 per barrel, and so is about 70% of its needs for full-year 2008. Southwest’s fuel-hedge savings increased in the third quarter to $189 million and almost certainly will grow further.
Germany launched its third SARLupe X-band radar satellite last week, further expanding Europe’s new SAR reconnaissance capability (AW&ST Oct. 22, p. 52). The spacecraft lifted off atop a Cosmos 3M booster from Plesetsk in northern Russia. Two spacecraft remain to be launched before the system will be fully operational, probably in 2008.
Israeli officials, who clashed with Washington over Israel’s sale of AWACS aircraft and Harpy UAVs to China, are having second thoughts about the wisdom of those and other deals that transfer military technology. With Iran’s widely reported interest in buying at least 24 Chinese-built J-10 strike aircraft, a deal that might also include Syria, the Israelis now have to think about fighting against that new design. The irony is that at least some J-10 technology was spun off from Israel’s Lavi fighter program, abandoned in 1987.
