New analysis of one factor that drives structural design in launch vehicles suggests that weight savings of as much as 20% can be achieved in some large components and gives designers a much better understanding of the level of robustness needed for safety.
In answer to a growing constraint problem at a increasing number of airports, Europe this year may introduce new rules on wake vortex separation aimed at potentially freeing up valuable capacity at the slot-constrained facilities.
Russia has agreed to acquire a pair of 20,000-metric-ton-class helicopter carrier/assault ships from France, with an option to build another two locally. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev informed his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, on Dec. 24 that France’s DCNS-STX and St. Petersburg-based OSK had been selected to meet Russia’s requirement for the vessels. Russia issued an international tender in October for the ships for which Navantia of Spain and South Korea’s Daewoo also competed.
Simon Henley (see photo) has become president of EPI Europrop International GmbH. with full responsibility to manage the TP400 engine program. He was director of new product introduction and helicopters at Rolls-Royce Defense, where he was responsible for the development, testing and demonstration of a wide range of new engine products. Before joining Rolls, he had a 32-year career in the Royal Navy as an aircraft engineer officer, retiring as a rear admiral.
Many industry observers (including this author) are surprised by the resilience of air transport production rates following the Great Recession. How can Boeing and Airbus possibly increase production rates while most capital goods industries—including business aviation—experience production rate declines of 20% or more?
Steven D. Howe, Director (Idaho Falls, Idaho), Center for Space Nuclear Research (Idaho Falls, Idaho), Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, Idaho)
I was disappointed with reader Sam Scimemi’s misunderstanding regarding the nuclear thermal rocket (AW&ST Nov. 1, 2010, p. 12). The NTR offers a high thrust capability and a specific impulse of over 900 and has been identified as the preferred propulsion approach for NASA’s Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0 study (NASA-SP-2009-566), which baselined using three 25,000-lb.-thrust engines.
Boeing and Fujitsu are partnering to offer comprehensive automated identification technology (AIT) packages for retrofit on commercial aircraft—any manufacturer and any type. The first application should be available in the second quarter of 2012. This could have a major impact on the aftermarket, and very few in the industry saw this coming. Boeing originally planned to include radio-frequency identification (RFID) on its first 787, as did Airbus on its A380, but neither effort, despite an early collaboration, panned out as originally planned.
Douglas Barrie, a longtime reporter and analyst, and Aviation Week’s London bureau chief until recently, has received the Lauren D. Lyman Award for outstanding achievement in aviation journalism from the Aerospace Industries Association. At a luncheon in Washington last week, the U.S. industry group honored Barrie, an authority on guided weapons and Chinese and Russian airpower. He left Aviation Week this year to become a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Mark Malkosky (see photo) has become assistant director-maintenance training business development and sales for FlightSafety International . He has held maintenance training positions at CAE and also worked for Bombardier Aerospace and SimuFlite International.
Systems suppliers will not have much of a role to play for the mid-decade improvement that Airbus is planning for its A320 family. As its name, the New Engine Option (NEO), implies, the upgrade is all about fuel burn and lifecycle operating improvements that Pratt & Whitney with the PW1000G geared turbofan or CFM International with the LEAP-X can bring to Airbus’s most successful airplane program. The rest of the industry is anxiously anticipating how the next generation of 100-200-seat workhorses will evolve for Airbus and Boeing.
Kobe Bryant has been appointed a global ambassador for Turkish Airlines for two years . Bryant has been named Most Valuable Player of the National Basketball Association finals for the past two years and has won five NBA championships in his career.
In a rare reversal of an initial rejection, Australian regulators are giving the green light to an alliance between Air New Zealand and Australia’s Virgin Blue Group on routes between the two nations. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) imposed conditions that it says are similar, but not identical, to additional commitments promised by the airlines. The carriers were expecting a ruling from New Zealand’s Transport Ministry as early as Dec. 17.
The European Space Agency has inaugurated a ground station in Kiruna, Sweden, that together with a second facility in Kourou, French Guiana, will serve to track, monitor and control the Galileo satellite navigation system. Separately, the European Union selected Prague as the home of the Global Satellite Navigation System agency, which is responsible for implementing the Galileo and Egnos GPS augmentation system programs.
After giving the green light to its third-generation Meteosat network, Eumetsat is now weighing design options for a follow-on polar-orbiting system. Like the present polar network, it will be run in close cooperation with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Defense Department.
Jan. 4-7—49th Annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Sciences Meeting. Orlando (Fla.) World Center Marriott. Also, Feb. 9-10—14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference. Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington. Call +1 (703) 264-7500, fax +1 (703) 264-7551 or see www.aiaa.org Jan. 17-19—Civil Air Navigation Services Organization’s Middle East Conference. Park Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. See www.canso.org
Emergent rules on aircraft export credit financing threaten to drive up costs to airlines and could trigger job losses at manufacturers in a future downturn, industry officials warn.
The Northrop Grumman/Bell Helicopter Fire-X demonstrator is executing a series of flight trials following its first unmanned flight Dec. 10 in Yuma, Ariz., just days after arriving there for flight testing.
I consider your article “Cargo Clampdown” (AW&ST Nov. 15, p. 32) to be criminally irresponsible. The detailed photograph of Richard Reid’s shoe bomb could be of great assistance to any aspiring bomb-maker. I am aware of the arguments for free speech and freedom of the press, but I am also aware of the need for basic common sense, in understanding the value that this type of information can be to terrorists.
Enabling technologies for a new satellite launcher and medium-lift helicopter and an aero-engine demonstrator are among the projects set to benefit from the first stage of a €35-billion ($46.2-billion) French government bond issue intended to help stimulate the country’s sputtering economy. The program, presented in late 2009 and approved by lawmakers in mid-year, recently moved into the implementation phase. Thirty work package proposals have already been submitted, says Rene Ricol, the government’s director for public investment.
Boeing test engineers were planning to complete a high-blow pressurization test of RC001, the first 747-8 Intercontinental, Dec. 17-19, marking a milestone on the road to the start of flight tests.
The problem the global air cargo industry faces in securing its freight is the same that plagues regulators worldwide: How does an industry set one set of standards for security when rules and processes differ country-by-country, and technology capabilities differ airline-by-airline.
Nicolas Ferri has been appointed VP-Latin America and the Caribbean for Delta Air Lines . He joins Delta from the Oneworld airline alliance, where he was VP-sales and marketing.
Gerald Weber, Airbus executive VP-operations, a member of the Airbus Executive Committee in Toulouse and the head of Airbus Operations in Hamburg, will leave the company at the end of March. He has held senior managerial positions at Audi, Autolatina and Volkswagen-Tabaute in Brazil and was director-central manufacturing-engineering at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany.
