Washington is only just beginning to realize that the two highest-profile U.S. aerospace and defense contractors have been booted from the competition to provide India's next fighter jet, the biggest such deal since the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was decided in 2001 (see p. 36). But financial analysts and others are seeing the likelihood for quickened change in U.S. military export controls and efforts. The big lesson: Do not take foreign military competitions for granted.
May 17-19—Technology Training Corp.'s Conference on Armed Unmanned Aerial Systems. Rio Hotel, Las Vegas. Call +1 (310) 563-1210, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com May 17-19—11th Annual European Business Aircraft Convention Exposition. Palexpo, Geneva. Call +(32) 2766-0070, fax+(32) 2768-1325 or see www.ebace.aero May 17-20—Fatigue Concepts Short Course: “Fatigue, Fracture Mechanics and Damage Tolerance of Modern and Aging Aircraft Structures.” Sheraton Mid West City, Okla. Call +1 (916) 933-5000 or see www.fatcon.com
Northrop Grumman plans to unveil its Firebird optionally piloted aircraft this month at the Pentagon's Empire Challenge exercise. Firebird is designed to carry up to four intelligence-collecting sensors and is aimed at the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper and Hawker Beechcraft C-12 markets. In this configuration, Firebird is carrying the tactical common datalink (under the nose), an electro-optical and infrared sensor (below the cockpit), and a synthetic aperture radar (under the fuselage). Each wing also contains a single hard point suitable for weapons deployment.
Sierra Nevada says drop tests of the Dream Chaser spaceship will take place from the Scaled Composites-developed WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in the second quarter of 2012. Sierra Nevada is one of the big winners in the second round of NASA's CCDev program, getting $80 million of the total $269.3 million payout aimed at maturing concepts for private spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and other low-Earth-orbit destinations.
Pierre Sparaco (AW&ST April 11, p. 41) says aviation is responsible for a “minuscule 2.6%” of man-made CO2 (AW&ST April 11, p. 41). He omits to add that this is expected to jump to 5% in 2050 as aviation grows and other industries take action to reduce emissions. He also ignores NOx emissions and contrails as contributors to global warming.
Mike Long (see photo) has become customer support director for GE Aviation's Cincinnati-based Nexcelle. Long progressed through GE's customer support organization for aircraft engines, beginning as fleet program manager and later was a customer support manager in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Mexico and the U.S.
Lim Liang Song has been appointed chief executive officer of Changi Airports International (CAI) of Singapore, succeeding Wong Woon Liong, who will continue as a member of the Changi Airport Advisory Group. Lim joins CAI from venture capital firm Indigo Partners, where he was a principal.
Three years of belt-tightening to ride out a global economic downturn should have put European airlines in a strong position to ride a recovery wave. There is just one problem—there is no wave. Rather, carriers face a fresh storm of problems in the guise of sustained economic weakness in Europe; crisis situations in North Africa, the Middle East and Japan; and fuel back on an uphill trajectory. Airline managers once again are scrambling to see what further cost-cutting measures they can come up with.
The Airbus A320 NEO (new engine option) is no great shakes. The company's predictions of superiority in sales with that option, as stated in “Advantage, Airbus” (AW&ST April 11, p. 22), are overblown. In fact, choose just about any engine and overall architecture prowess can handily beat NEO using the same engine Airbus is using now. If a builder of substance would create the airliner architecture breakthrough that is possible, NEO would be in the boneyard, as would every other airliner in production, and for sure the A350 and Boeing 787.
Space Exploration Technologies founder Elon Musk defends his company's launch vehicle pricing against skeptics who think he is low-balling Washington, arguing that tight cost control allows the company to publish prices well below those offered by competitors. “SpaceX is so vertically integrated, we know and control the overwhelming majority of our costs,” he writes in a SpaceX blog.
As a subscriber for more than 20 years, I find that I usually agree with your editorials. But “Don't Take Aviation for Granted” (AW&ST April 18, p. 50) contains this faulty premise: “However, the [stimulus] money was scattered to the winds.”
The start of April marked an important moment in the six-year history of the European Union's Emissions Trading System (ETS) with the release by the European Commission of carbon dioxide emissions data for 2010 showing that production of the greenhouse gas (GHG) went up by roughly 3% last year compared with 2009 levels. The 3.34% increase to an estimated 1.751 billion metric tons of the GHG as assessed by Platts from the partial EC-verified data release on April 1 suggests that the EU economy is bouncing back from the effects of the global recession.
The U.S. Air Force is crafting a plan to stimulate competition to break the virtual monopoly held by the United Launch Alliance's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle product family, even as USAF studies ways to reduce EELV cost. Among the competition initiatives is a test launch for companies seeking to break into the defense launch market.
Stephen Lambright has become senior vice president-marketing and business development for San Francisco-based XOJET. He was founder and vice president of marketing and customer services for Apprion and held a similar position at Savi Technology.
Taber MacCallun's Viewpoint “Space Station Is Ready for R&D” (AW&ST April 11, p. 66) makes several sweeping statements regarding the International Space Station (ISS) to which I must take exception.
On May 23, a special group of 4-6 travelers will board a business jet outside Washington for a quick flight to Sarasota, Fla., where they will spend a few days deep sea and bass fishing, beach partying and generally making merry. They'll have earned the respite.
If the Obama administration wants to realize its goal of deepening space cooperation with China, it will have to circumvent Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls NASA's purse strings.
Cannon do not have to be lethal to be useful. Directed-energy weapons are being paired with traditional kinetic naval weapons to produce an advanced shipboard defense against people, small arms, light boats and unmanned aircraft. Options include non-lethal and low-power effects.
Nearly three years after it was supposed to inaugurate the Boeing 787 service era, All Nippon Airways has begun training pilots for the new jet, a sign that Boeing's third-quarter delivery target is holding.
May 8-12—Aerospace Medical Association's 82nd Annual Scientific Meeting. Hilton Anchorage (Alaska) and Capt. Cook Hotels. Call +1 (703) 739-2240 ext. 106 or see www.asma.org May 9-12—Practical Aeronautics Short Courses: “Introduction to Aeronautics, A Practical Perspective” and May 16-17–“Introduction to Jet Engines, A Practical Perspective.” Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland. Call +1 (970) 887-3155 or see www.practicalaero.com
David Ryan (see photo) has become vice president and general manager of the McLean, Va.-based Intelligence Systems Div. of the Northrop Grumman Corp. He joined the company in 2005, serving in senior management roles in its space, defense and intelligence businesses, including vice president of programs and general manager of the Civil Systems Div.
Singapore appears set to become the center for the aircraft leasing industry in the Asia-Pacific region, thanks in part to an incentives scheme from Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB).
Three of the world's four leading aircraft manufacturers have decided that selling in China requires bricks and mortar. Airbus assembles A320s in Tianjin, Embraer builds ERJ 145s in Harbin, and Bombardier sources fuselages in Shenyang for its Q400 turboprop and expects to do the same for the CSeries. All work through joint ventures that expose the Chinese to foreign technology and manufacturing expertise in return for access to the world's second-largest aviation market.
Hundreds of commercial transports will be disassembled and parted out this year to feed airline demand for lower-cost parts and components in the face of rising fuel prices. But unlike 10 or 15 years ago, when most of the airframes torn down had reached the end of their useful lives, increasingly younger aircraft now are seeing premature ends to their flying careers.
Boeing will begin sending the first 747-8 Freighter test aircraft to its Global Services & Support site in San Antonio next month as the company winds down flight testing in anticipation of certification and first delivery to launch customer Cargolux in July. Refurbishment of all five test aircraft is expected to take a year and will be performed by Boeing Defense Space & Security employees. In March, Boeing began shipping early production 787-8s to the same facility for modifications to meet certification production standards prior to delivery.
