Robert Wall (Madrid and Toulouse), Graham Warwick (Washington)
In their pursuit of cleaner, quieter, more fuel-efficient aircraft, Europe's designers have produced some elegant concepts. Now the trick will be developing the technologies needed to make those designs a reality.
Hardy Butschi, (see photos) has become VP and general manager of Geneva-based Jet Aviation's Saudi Arabian fixed-base and line maintenance operations in Jeddah and Riyadh. He was director of sales and deputy director of customer support in Geneva. David Ricklin is the new VP and general manager in Geneva.
Finally, with his retirement set for the end of the month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is warning his expected successor, Leon Panetta, not to look for $400 billion in presidential budget reductions via across-the-board cuts. Instead, Gates is recommending more overhead cuts, a look at overlapping missions, changes to health care for retirees and a smaller force structure. But he also stresses that the last decision has consequences. Notes Gates: “A smaller military will be able to go fewer places and do fewer things.”
Re: Congressional Editor Jen DiMascio's Ares post: Panetta on Cost-Sharing djanes writes: As much as some may whine about how major defense contractors keep raking it in at the expense of the taxpayers, keep in mind that we created this monster.
Orbital Sciences Corp. will build Thaicom Plc's. next communications satellite, a medium-sized hybrid platform set for launch in the second quarter of 2013 on a Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Falcon 9. The regional telecomm satellite operator, based in Nonthaburi, Thailand, will buy a spacecraft based on Orbital's GEOStar-2 platform, equipped with 18 C-band and eight Ku-band transponders, according to the companies. Thaicom 6 is designed to operate at 78.5 deg. E. Long.
The AF447 accident again shows the danger inherent in automated flight-control systems where computers can override pilots. Clearly, whatever happened in the first seconds of the disaster led the crew to believe the aircraft was in danger of exceeding its critical Mach number.
Drifting ash clouds from a volcanic eruption in Chile caused major disruptions for Australian and New Zealand airlines last week, as route suspensions stranded passengers in many cities. Airline decisions about when to cancel flights varied widely. Qantas and Jetstar suspended their New Zealand networks for most of the week, while Air New Zealand operated many of the same routes by flying below or around the ash clouds. Air New Zealand says these re-routings increased fuel consumption by 10%. Qantas defended its cancellations by stressing that safety takes precedence.
Europe is launching a new wave of engine technology research to sustain aviation growth, reduce impact on the environment and bolster the competitiveness of regional engine makers.
There have been plenty of questions hanging over the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet as the program shifts from design and production to operations. But Sukhoi officials are taking heart from the first few weeks of operations, which have not revealed any major headaches so far.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes is reviewing a proposal from its 22,000 engineers and technical workers—represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea)—to institute binding arbitration in 2012 contract talks. “I believe disputes over wages and benefits can be rationally resolved if both sides will voluntarily subject such disputes to binding binary interest arbitration,” Speea Executive Director Ray Goforth told the annual meeting of the union's 150-member governing council June 11.
Dassault Aviation has created a more affordable version of its Falcon 2000 rather than field an all-new super mid-size (SMS) business jet during one of the industry's most severe down cycles. The company's intent is to upstage the smaller competition with an aircraft that has considerably more cabin volume, better runway performance and a larger tanks-full payload.
Japanese airlines are finally detecting signs that the plunge in air travel demand following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is reversing, although full recovery remains a distant prospect.
The drive to satisfy the airlines' insatiable need for better fuel efficiency will take another step this summer when engineers from Europe's Clean Sky research program complete a feasibility study for installing a counter-rotating open-rotor engine on the side of an Airbus A340-600 flying testbed.
The usual cacophonies of anti-automation types are again carping as the results of the AF447 accident are revealed. The arguments are always the same: Automation makes pilots less capable. But this crew likely would have misdiagnosed and misapplied stall recovery techniques even if they were flying an old “round-gauge” Boeing.
June 27-28—Aviation Safety Management Systems Overview Workshop: ATC Vantage. Tampa, Fla. Call +1 (727) 410-4759 or see www.atcvantage.com/sms-workshop.24l June 27-30—American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 41st Annual Fluid Dynamics/20th Annual Computational Fluid Dynamics/29th Annual Applied Aerodynamics/42nd Plasmadynamics and Lasers/42nd Annual Thermophysics/Sixth Annual Theoretical Fluid Mechanics Conferences. Sheraton Waikiki and the Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu. Call +1 (703) 264-7511, fax +1 (703) 264-7551 or see www.aiaa.org
Aeroflot has started commercial operations of the Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ) 100 regional jet. The airline received its first SSJ 100 through VEB Leasing on June 9, clearing the way for the June 16 first revenue flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg. According to the airline's CEO, Vitaly Savelyev, SSJ 100s also will operate from the Russian capital to Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa and Samara. The international routes for SSJ will be unveiled later, he notes. Aeroflot is the largest Superjet customer, with an order for 30 aircraft and an option for another 10.
Rob Tomenendal has been named VP-sales and marketing for King Aerospace Commercial Corp., Ardmore, Okla. He was business development director for Gore Design Completions.
Walter W. Roney, 2nd, has been named business manager of the Airline Avionics Institute, Osprey, Fla., succeeding Phil Wright. Roney has held airline customer support positions at Hamilton Sundstrand, Cessna Aircraft and BAE Systems-Platform Solutions.
Charles Compton, a World War II Civil Air Patrol volunteer, has been named to receive CAP's Distinguished Service Medal. He earned the recognition for his service at CAP Coastal Patrol Base 1 in Atlantic City, N.J., where he flew missions that discouraged enemy submarines from surfacing, forcing them out to sea.
Seats that morph to adjust to a passenger's shape and systems that harvest passenger energy are just two of the ideas in Airbus's latest future aircraft concept.
Franco-British cooperation in the field of unmanned aviation could quickly expand, with government and industry eyeing opportunities to jointly pursue tactical systems.
Although Boeing has not yet decided its product strategy for how to evolve the 737 and 777, what is already clear is the programs will not unfold in parallel. “We will never again do two major development programs simultaneously,” says Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Jim Albaugh, reflecting on when the company tried to develop the 787 and 747-8 at the same time.
The Falcon 900LX has joined other members of the Dassault Falcon family certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of China for operation. China is targeted as a market of potentially explosive growth for business jets, especially those in the premium category.
