The Russian air force expects to grow its fleet of Ansat-U light training helicopters to seven units by year-end, with five already handed over to the Syzran air force academy on Oct. 8 and Oct. 20. Air force commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin promised that these helicopters will gradually replace aging Mil Mi-2s as the rotorcraft used for initial pilot training in the military academies.
Twenty-five years after the discovery of fullerenes gave life to nanotechnology, these novel forms of carbon are making their presence felt in aerospace electronics and structures. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are cylindrical carbon molecules a few nanometers in diameter, 50 times stronger and 10 times lighter than steel, with three times the thermal conductivity and hundreds of times the electrical conductivity of copper. They are being used to develop conductive composites and multi-function materials.
The new electric-powered, tilt rotor “Panther” unmanned reconnaissance aircraft has just flown out of the black world of classified programs at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) where it made a series of clandestine flights to demonstrate its myriad capabilities, including low noise, electric power, small infrared signature, cruise and hover flight, and vertical takeoff and landing prowess.
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin believes high-profile program failures in aerospace and defense could be avoided by engineering elegant system designs. But he cannot quite define “elegance in design.” Paul Eremenko, a program manager with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), believes problems could be avoided by measuring and minimizing the complexity of system designs. But he cannot yet measure “complexity.”
Frederico Fleury Curado, the president and CEO of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, is frustrated that his company cannot shake long-held perceptions that it operates in a low-cost environment. He points to Brazil’s rising wages, high taxes and costly regulatory burdens. Meanwhile, a sharp rise in the value of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar is further eroding the once enviable cost advantage of operating in Brazil. Those are reasons why Embraer is moving assembly of some of its new business jets offshore—to the U.S.
Karen Loughran has been appointed manager-defense and aerospace for North America by the State Government of Victoria , Australia. Loughran, a native of Australia, brings more than 20 years of experience in business development for U.S. government and commercial organizations, including several aerospace companies.
An engineer clicks on an icon and the three-dimensional solid model on screen digitally transfers to a machine that hums to life half a world away. Metal powder melts under an incandescent beam of energy and a complex part takes shape, layer by layer. The component complete, the machine downloads another design file and begins building a different part.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board took a closer look last week at regional airlines and the codeshare agreements they frequently operate under, to discuss ways to improve operational safety, both real and perceived. Regional Airlines Association President Roger Cohen says regionals are “still very misunderstood,” even though they operate more than half of U.S. departures.
Airbus Military remains confident that the A400M Grizzly’s civil certification program will be completed by the end of next year as engineers recover from several problems that caused testing to slip slightly. There is also progress on the contractual front, with German government sources indicating that the country will only take 53 of the 60 military transports originally on order. In addition, French avionics specialist Thales will have to cover possible additional expenses for flight management system (FMS) changes, the sources say.
The layer of crushed concrete positioned at the terminus of 51 obstacle-ridden runways in the U.S. has accounted for seven aircraft saves, the latest when a Gulfstream G4 ground to a halt Oct. 1 at Teterboro (N.J.) Airport, its landing gear entrenched in what the FAA refers to as Engineered Material Arresting Systems (EMAS).
Howard Lefkowitz has joined inflight broadband provider Row 44 as chief commercial officer. He served as vice president-business development and marketing for Earthlink and helped Dick Clark Productions bring the first interactive prime-time show to network TV.
MISSION: STS-133, Fifth International Space Station Utilization Flight (ULF5), the 133rd launch of the shuttle program and the 35th to the ISS. ORBITER: Discovery (OV-103), making its 39th flight. Discovery last returned from orbit on April 20 at the conclusion of the STS-131 mission to deliver a load of supplies to the ISS.
Michael Mecham (Busan, South Korea, and Nagoya, Japan)
The biggest names in aerospace manufacturing in South Korea and Japan are heavily involved in their nations’ defense and space industries, but they are leveraging wing and fuselage contracts for Boeing’s 787 to expand their reach as global suppliers in commercial aviation.
Frank Morring, Jr., Aviation Week’s senior editor for space, received the 2010 Von Braun Memorial Dinner’s Media AwardOct. 27 from the National Space Club-Huntsville, Ala., Chapter during its 22th Annual Dr. Wernher von Braun Memorial Celebration.
Michael A. Taverna (Brussels), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
With a new U.S. space policy finally taking shape, plans to assemble a multinational space exploration effort patterned after the International Space Station are starting to advance. The five ISS partners, along with dozens of other countries with an interest in space—China and India among them—concurred at a European Union conference in Brussels Oct. 21 that exploration is only feasible if undertaken as an international partnership. The participants also accepted basic precepts to guide this effort.
Army acquisition, including of unmanned air systems and helicopters, increasingly will be driven by the imperative to “buy less, more often,” according to Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center. The Army Training and Doctrine Command also will speed up the frequency with which it reviews the concepts that inform new requirements, Vane told the Association of the U.S. Army conference last week in Washington.
European network carriers are seeing a faster-than-anticipated rebound in revenue that is creating an improved earnings picture despite continued operational headwind.
“Pacific Watch” (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 31) reports that Japan is debating whether to buy four RQ-4B Global Hawk surveillance aircraft. Articles like this make me question using remote-controlled aircraft at all. The principal argument almost always seems to be that drone use removes pilots from danger, coupled with a suite of very capable information-gathering capabilities. Every time a human climbs into the cockpit of a flying machine there is risk involved, but so what?
Ethiopian Airlines has ambitious plans to grow sixfold in the next 15 years and create new subsidiaries in other parts of Africa, together with Star Alliance members South African Airways and Egyptair.
A weak dollar and prospects of a strong workforce are prompting Extra Aircraft of Germany to set up an assembly facility for its Extra 500 turboprop in Montrose, Colo. The company received approval from the Montrose County Commission last month to use a county-owned hangar at Montrose Regional Airport for completing the small executive aircraft. Ken Keith, an American executive who acquired the company in 2003, says he expects assembly operations to begin before year-end and that the first U.S.-completed aircraft will be delivered next March or April.
Mark Bianchi has been named vice president and general manager of StandardAero ’s Los Angeles International Airport facility. He was executive vice president-aircraft maintenance for NetJets Aviation.
Asian airlines’ balance sheets will benefit from a round of raising capital that is being undertaken while the passenger market is strong. The rebound in air traffic and the need to finance aircraft on order are leading carriers to tap financial institutions and markets. Airline managers have also learned that it is important to have more cash on the balance sheet to cope with one-off events such as terrorist attacks that may lead to a sudden drop in traffic.
As the International Space Station passed the record set by Russia’s Mir as the longest continuously occupied spacecraft,the ISS crew activated a new system that will generate as much as 530 gal. of water a year for the station’s environmental control and life support system (ECLSS). On Oct. 22, station crewmembers ran their new Sabatier system for 8 hr., producing water from by-products of the ECLSS Oxygen Generation System and Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly.
Nov. 8-10—SMI Group Conferences’ 12th Annual Global MilSatCom Conference and Exhibition. Millennium Conference Center, London. Call +44 (207) 827-6000, fax +44 (207) 827-6001 or see wwwsmi-online.co.uk/events Nov. 8-10—SAFE Association’s 48th Annual Symposium. Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego. Call +1 (541) 895-3014, fax +1 (541) 895-3014 or see www.safeassociation.com
