The A330 MRTT is a military tanker/transport version of the Airbus A330-200 commercial airliner. The twin-engine A330 MRTT is powered by either Rolls-Royce Trent 700 or General Electric CF6-80E1 turbofan engines. Eighteen green airframes were produced for conversion through August 2012. An additional 12 are forecast to be built in the 2013-22 period.
The piston-powered CL-215 amphibian aircraft first flew in 1967, finding primary use as a firefighting platform, though the aircraft could also be used in other applications such as transport, maritime surveillance and search-and-rescue. Production of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-CA3-powered aircraft ended in 1989, with 125 produced. A new variant, the Bombardier 415, is currently in production and is powered by PW123AF turboprop engines. Eighty-three 415s were built through 2012. An additional 31 are forecast for production in 2013-22.
International Space Station occupancy temporarily surged to nine people on Nov. 7, with the launch and docking of the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft. Onboard was a crew of three, including veteran aerospace engineer Koichi Wakata, who is slated to become the first Japanese commander of the orbiting science lab in March.
The AMX is a counter-air and close air support aircraft powered by a single 11,030-lb-thrust Rolls-Royce Spey Mk 807 non-afterburning turbofan. Alenia and Aermacchi (then independent companies) initially pursued separate designs for Italy's required attack/support aircraft, but began collaborating in 1978. Embraer joined the team in 1980. The resulting single-seat aircraft made its maiden flight in 1984, with deliveries beginning in 1989. A two-seat trainer variant, the AMX-T, flew in 1990.
The Sikorsky CH-53 and MH-53 are three-engine, heavy-lift transport and special-purpose helicopters. They were initially developed out of twin-turboshaft models. Power for the CH-53E and MH-53E models is provided by three GE T64-GE-416 or -419 turboshaft engines rated at 4,380 shp and 4,750 shp, respectively. Sikorsky produced 177 CH-53Es, 48 MH-53Es and 11 S-80s (export version) through the end of production in 1999. In January 2006, the U.S. Navy selected Sikorsky to begin preliminary design work on the CH-53K, a new model for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Robert A. Kromer has been appointed senior vice president-sales and marketing for Blackhawk Modifications, Waco, Texas. He has held executive positions with Cessna Aircraft, Sino-Swearingen, Mooney Aircraft and Piper Aircraft. Honors And Elections
Clayton Mowry, president of Arianespace Inc., has been named to receive the 2013 Mentor of the Year Award on Nov. 13 by the New York-based Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI), for making mentorship a priority in successful leadership.
Hoping to gain entry into a potential U.S. market for nontoxic “green” satellite thrusters, the Swedish National Space Board will permit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to ground-test environmentally friendly propulsion technology already flight-tested on a European spacecraft. Under the bilateral cooperative agreement, Sweden's Ecaps company will deliver 5N and 22N High Performance Green Propulsion thrusters to Goddard, which will oversee hot-fire testing and range-safety analysis. The Swedish technology is based on ammonium dinitride.
Last year, the Arab Air Carrier Organization (AACO) chose a trip into the region's past by picking Algerian capital Algiers as the site for its annual general meeting. It was a surreal event in many ways: A lot of attendees did not even get to Algeria because they could not obtain visas, and those who were able to travel there were stuck in a highly protected luxury hotel above the city. Anyone who wanted to take a stroll was supposed to do so only with a bodyguard.
Nigel Rudd has been appointed as a nonexecutive member and vice chairman of the board of directors of BBA Aviation plc. He is expected to succeed Michael Harper as chairman in May. Rudd is nonexecutive chairman of Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd., Invensys and The Business Growth Fund, and a nonexecutive director of Sappi Ltd.
The race is on for airlines to secure FAA approval to allow passengers to use personal electronics devices (PED) gate-to-gate. JetBlue, Delta and American are said to be among the first carriers to submit plans to gain the FAA's approval, on the same day the agency announced that it had “streamlined” the process for allowing PED use at all altitudes. Previously, airlines required all electronic devices to be turned off below 10,000 ft., a safety measure designed to avoid the potential for interference between the devices and aircraft avionics.
Just this week, the Aviation Week Intelligence Network is releasing its 2014 Commercial Fleet & MRO Forecast, projecting slightly more than 17,000 new aircraft will be delivered during the upcoming decade. We expect the in-service fleet size to edge up 1% during the decade and utilization to rise 4%, while retirements should decline about 5%. While single-aisle aircraft dominate the delivery picture, large twins are set for strong growth as well.
Qatar Airways is the first of the three Persian Gulf carriers to join one of the three alliances, signing up for Oneworld last week. Separately, CEO Akbar Al Baker says he would be interested in a further stretch of the Airbus A350. Such an aircraft “could meet our requirements” if it has the right payload/range characteristics even in the very hot Qatar summers, he added. He did not specify the range requirements.
As the hard-won progress in hypersonic propulsion technology can attest, the road to sustained air-breathing engines that can operate above Mach 5 is littered with five decades worth of failed tests, some more dramatic than others.
Vicky Hartley (see photo) has been appointed London Heathrow Airport-based senior financing director for the Boeing Capital Corp. She was an aviation financing executive in London for WestLB and Berliner Bank.
An Oct. 28 article (page 39) misstated the history and operational status of the Airbus A350 program, which was launched in 2006. The A350-1000 market has grown by 29% since then and now totals 2,100 units that are expected to be built during the next 20 years.
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works takes the wraps off its proposed SR-72, a Mach-6 successor to its long-retired SR-71 Blackbird spy plane (page 18). The concept, detailed here for the first time, relies on a breakthrough turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system that marries scramjet technology with today's fighter engines. Elsewhere in this issue are updates on helicopter programs and technologies (pages 25, 26 and 44) and the latest on industrial jockeying to win work to build the next U.S. bomber (page 22).
South Korea may move quickly to order the Lockheed Martin F-35 for its derailed F-X Phase 3 competition for 60 fighters—and yet again, it may not. In a program that has become chaotic and unpredictable even by the standards of fighter acquisitions, a range of outcomes is in the offing.
Sirius XM Radio's FM-6 satellite is performing post-launch orbit-raising maneuvers as planned following its Oct. 26 launch aboard a Proton M Breeze M from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On Oct. 27, the satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, began the first of several thruster firings to propel itself from geostationary transfer orbit to its final geostationary orbit at 116.15 deg. W. Long.
Nov. 11-13—Airport Council International's (ACI) 2013 Airport Concessions Conference. Sacramento, Calif. See www.aci-na.org/event/2420 Nov. 13-15—10th ALTA Airline Leaders Forum 2013. Cancun, Mexico. See www.altaairlineleaders.com Nov. 17-21—Dubai Airshow. See www.dubaiairshow.aero Nov.21-22—Air Force Association's Global Warfare Symposium and Air Force Ball. Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles. See olereg.com/afa/LA2013RegHome.aspx
Biologists tell us complex eyeballs first appeared in the Cambrian era, more than 500 million years ago, as the evolutionary value of making sense of the light waves bouncing around in the atmosphere began to manifest in the relatively primitive creatures alive then. Over time, experts say, the eye has evolved as many as 100 different times, demonstrating the persistent importance of sight as a tool for survival.
