Engineers managing development of NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) want industry to suggest options for fairings and payload adapters that can expand the big rocket's ability to carry payloads to orbit. In addition to launching the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, NASA hopes to use various configurations of the SLS for other missions, including civil and commercial cargo flights and deep-space robotic-science probes. Glenn Research Center published a request for information on potential SLS fairings and adapters Nov.
Boeing Business Jets is to offer VIP aircraft based on the 737 MAX family, with the same CFM Leap-1B engines and advanced winglets. The VIP aircraft will become available when the 737 MAX enters airliner service in 2017, at the current rate of six delivery slots a year. First to be offered, the BBJ MAX 8 will have a range of 6,325 nm, more than 14% greater than the similarly sized, 737-800-based BBJ 2. The stretched BBJ MAX 9 will have a range of 6,225 nm.
Supply is slowly rising to meet a long-standing demand in the broadband connectivity market for passenger cabins and cockpits. The rebalancing is driving a flurry of forward-fit and retrofit activity in the sector as airlines struggle to meet the bandwidth-heavy habits of their customers.
Boeing has begun flying an aerodynamic prototype of the U.S. Army's Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (Emarss), although whether the program will proceed into production from engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) remains uncertain.
Craig Spence has been named permanent secretary general of the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Association by the Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He will continue as AOPA's VP-operations and international affairs.
This week Aviation Week & Space Technology publishes two double-issue editions, both with a special report on airline fleet modernization (see page 50). The cover at the far left illustrates one aspect with its United Airlines photo of the new Boeing Sky interior for the carrier's latest 737s. Both editions also contain reports on how aerospace is reinventing systems design (see page 76), an air strike on Sudan (page 35) and the changing landscape of foreign ownership of airlines (page 44).
So far, not so bad. The Comac C919, the single most important program in the great array of China's civil aircraft plans, has used up all of the slack in its schedule. The manufacturer is, by numerous accounts, suffering from at least as much bureaucratic caution as would be expected of a Chinese Communist organization executing a high-priority political project. And the aircraft, according to some industry executives, is likely to miss its target for a first flight in late 2014.
Cato Halsaa, CEO of Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, has been elected chairman of the Brussels-based European Satellite Operators Association, succeeding Eric Beranger. Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, was confirmed as vice chairman and David McGlade, CEO of Intelsat, was elected second vice chairman.
Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, has been named inaugural speaker for the President's Distinguished Lecture Series of the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J.
As efforts to integrate unmanned aircraft into civil airspace intensify, industry pundits are eying legal and safety challenges that could be posed by the introduction of autonomous technology into commercial air transport.
While the fight over Australia's international airline market has been capturing headlines lately, major takeover moves by Virgin Australia are set to turn up the heat in an increasingly fierce competition on the domestic front.
Chinese airlines operate 47 flights a day between Beijing and Shanghai, half with widebody aircraft, mainly Airbus A330s. There can be little question of putting more narrowbodies on the route; its congestion and delays are already notorious. So the future must bring increased twin-aisle capacity.
Your well-considered series of articles concerning the Middle East Conflict inform us that, “Iran cannot be bombed out of developing a nuclear-armed missile.” We are then given further details that an Israeli attack might set the Iranian program back two years while a U.S. attack might provide a respite of 5-10 years before a much angrier Iran will possess nuclear weapons. Why, if the goal is a non-nuclear Iran, is so much emphasis being placed on a strategy which will ultimately fail?
Arnee Gomez (see photo) has been named VP-human resources for the Aerospace Group of Lynnwood, Wash.-based Crane Aerospace & Electronics. She was director of human resources at Danaher Corp.
Jay White has been named the winner of Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's (AOPA) Joseph R. Crotti Award. White, former president and current general counsel of the California Pilots Association, was honored for his efforts to protect California's general aviation airports and pilots' flight privileges. Sen. John Thune (S.D.) ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee, has received AOPA's Joseph B. “Doc” Hartranft, Jr., Award for his work on behalf of general aviation.
The operating efficiencies that the Boeing 787 gains from carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) has made those materials—composites—the baseline for the product development team working on the 777X, despite a push by aluminum manufacturers that their lightweight alternatives are more aligned with Boeing's traditional manufacturing methods.
