With the purchase of LiveTV finalized last month, Thales has done more than bolster its position in the inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) sector. As the world’s third-largest supplier of avionics to the commercial aircraft industry, the company aims to enhance operational efficiencies for airlines as well—everything from engine monitoring and weather updates to proposed trajectory changes that reduce fuel consumption.
L ockheed Martin and Pentagon officials have carefully planned their talking points at this week’s Farnborough air show to focus on the F-35’s reliability.
Air New Zealand has become the first airline to take delivery of the Boeing 787-9, and plans to debut the aircraft on revenue flights from Auckland to Sydney in early August. A celebration to mark the handover was held in Everett, Washington, on July 8, almost 10 years after the orders for 10 aircraft were placed. The first aircraft was flown back to New Zealand on July 10. The carrier will spend about three weeks preparing the aircraft for revenue service, conducting proving flights and additional training.
A s Airbus showcases the A350-900 for the first time at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, the aircraft’s exclusive engine provider, Rolls-Royce, is poised to begin tests of the higher-thrust Trent XWB-97 version for the stretched A350-1000.
The Textron AirLand Scorpion made its international debut at last week’s Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in the U.K.; it sat a mere several feet from the F-35B mockup brought in by Lockheed Martin in place of the F-35Bs that were no-shows, thanks to a fleet-wide grounding. The twin-engine jet made seven stops en route to its appearance July 10 at the event; it arrived at the air field July 9. The aircraft flew 4,607.9 mi., logging a cumulative 15.7 hr. for the journey; it was accompanied by a Cessna Sovereign+ business jet.
Although Boeing has played down the disruption to its 737 production system caused by the July 3 derailment of a BNSF train in Rivulet, Montana, the crash was an eye-catching example of how even the most robust and redundant supply system can be severed by an interruption to something as small as a 4-ft., 8.5-in.-gauge railroad track.
T wo years ago at the Farnborough International Air Show, defense companies were optimistic about generating export sales to offset declining government support at home. Now Western defense executives are worrying about the rapid spike in competition from companies in China, Israel, India, Brazil and South Korea.
Business jets, one of the White House’s favorite symbols of corporate excess, are back in the administration’s crosshairs. The White House is threatening to veto a bill that would make permanent a 50% bonus depreciation measure on certain capital equipment, including biz jets. The bill is among a series drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee that would make permanent tax breaks that for years have been approved on a temporary basis.
The FAA is revising its guidance on air cargo ops in response to last year’s fatal Boeing 747-400 freighter accident at Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield. In April 2013, a National Airlines freighter operating for the U.S. military, crashed on takeoff from Bagram, killing all seven crew. The converted passenger aircraft was carrying five military vehicles.
Tucked into President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to address the increase in children migrating across the border into the southwestern U.S. are a few dollars for the growing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) industry. Of the total, $39.4 million is requested to fund 16,526 additional border security flight hours in fiscal 2015 and 16 additional UAS crews. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol uses Predator B UAVs.
The composite backplane structure designed to support the 18 beryllium mirrors that will give the planned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) a 21-ft. primary aperture has completed static testing, clearing the way for its integration with the deployment mechanisms that will unfold it in deep space and the mirrors themselves. ATK, which designed and built the backplane structure, joined JWST prime contractor Northrop Grumman in the test, which determined that the 2,180-lb. structure can support loads totaling 12 times its weight during its 2018 launch.
Public and private organizations worldwide will be able to use hyperspectral imagery collected on the International Space Station, following a collaboration agreement between the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the U.S. Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) to develop a new sensor. Casis, the non-profit organization established to promote the use of capabilities offered by the U.S.
Russia launched its new Angara-1.2 light launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome July 9, after a technical glitch postponed a planned June 25 debut. Lifting off on a ballistic trajectory at 12:00 UTC, the two-stage Angara carried a mass simulator weighing 1,430 kg (3,150 lb.), according to Angara prime contractor Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. Khrunichev said the suborbital demonstration mission ended as planned when the Angara second stage and its dummy payload landed 21.28 min. post-launch 5,700 km (3,600 mi.) from Plesetsk.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Guilford, England, will build the medium-resolution Alsat-1B remote-sensing satellite for Algerian space agency ASAL, along with a new spacecraft assembly and integration center in Oran, on the country’s northwestern coast. Based on the SSTL-100 small satellite bus, Alsat-1B will carry a 24-meter-resolution (39-ft.) multispectral imager and a 12-meter-resolution black-and-white imager.
Avic’s Xian Aircraft factory has begun final assembly of the center fuselage for the Comac C919 program’s first flight-test aircraft. The plant, one of several Avic units supplying major structural assemblies to Comac, says it completed the center wingbox, which should be part of the center fuselage module that Xian Aircraft is contracted to supply to Comac in Shanghai for final assembly of the aircraft. The center fuselage should be delivered this month. The first C919 is due to fly in 2015. Certification of the 158-seater is scheduled for 2018.
Lufthansa and Air China should begin joint-venture operations between China and Europe as early as the 2014 winter schedule, providing improved market access to the German airline and cooperation with a competitive partner to the Chinese carrier. The two Star Alliance airlines also plan to collaborate more closely on maintenance, repair and overhaul services. The memorandum of understanding was signed on July 7.
Boeing could face “long-term credit risks” if the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the official export credit agency of America, is not reauthorized before October, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said July 8.
Japan has delayed entry into service of the Kawasaki Heavy Industries C-2 airlifter by two years to 2016 following an airframe failure in a strength test. Concentrated loads around the frames near the cargo door caused the failure, the ministry of defense says. The strength of the wing has evidently been verified. When the program was launched at the beginning of the last decade, the first delivery was due in 2011. More recently, the type was supposed to be in service this year. Japan has ordered six C-2s.
French lawmakers said July 8 that the nation’s €190 billion ($258 billion) military spending plan for 2014-19 is short €1.5 billion for next year, owing to an anticipated gap in revenue expected from the sale of radio-frequency spectrum allocated to the nation’s military. These exceptional resources, gleaned from the one-time sale of real estate, spectrum allocation and other state assets, will be used to fund €6.1 billion of the France’s defense budget, including €1.77 billion in 2014, €1.77 billion in 2015 and €1.25 billion in 2016.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and U.K. Defense Minister Philip Hammond are expected to sign an agreement July 15 to study joint development of a future combat air system (FCAS). The memorandum of understanding, to be signed during Le Drian’s visit to the Farnborough air show next week, follows a January summit between U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande, where they agreed to fund a feasibility study toward an unmanned combat drone that could form the basis of an FCAS.
Boeing’s planned maintenance services partnership with SIA Engineering Co., of Singapore represents the manufacturer’s most aggressive push into the commercial aftermarket and tracks with the company’s strategy of teaming with partners that add value as it seeks to grow its services revenues. The deal, slated to close this year, would create Boeing Asia Pacific Aviation Services. Boeing would hold 51% and SIA 49%.
There was an error in an item in The World section ( AW&ST June 30, p. 12). The revised search area for Malaysia Airlines’ missing Flight 370 is listed as 60,000 sq. km.—the “conversion” is given as 37,300-sq.-mi. The ratio of km to statute miles is in fact 0.62, but the units are area, not length, so the factor should be squared. The conversion should be 23,160-sq.-mi. (The reader is correct—Ed.)
Reader Finbar Constant was correct with respect to the Lufthansa dual registration ( AW&ST July 7, p. 8). Yes, Lufthansa has reused the registration D-ABYC that is now on one of its Boeing 747-8s. It was used on the airline’s first-generation Boeing 747-200s.
