Pratt & Whitney is poised to complete final service-release tests of the F135 Joint Strike Fighter Stovl (short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing) propulsion system, while the competing General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 team says plans for first flight remain on track despite last month’s fan incident.
Tokyo aims to become a more attractive gateway for international travelers with the reopening of Haneda Airport to international services. The airport last week officially inaugurated its new international terminal with an initial annual capacity of 7 million passengers. To facilitate up to 30,000 more aircraft movements in the first year, the new D runway also became operational on Oct. 21, albeit several months later than planned.
NASA will pay United Launch Alliance $187 million to launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) orbiter to the red planet in November 2013. Under the new contract, ULA will use an Atlas V 401 to send the atmospheric probe to Mars, including payload processing, ground support at the launch site, and tracking, data and telemetry services.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden took two press secretaries with him to China last week (see p. 34), but he ducked the press while he was there with a little help from his hosts. Bolden got the visit to China’s human spaceflight launch center at Jiuquan that was denied his predecessor, Michael Griffin, and he toured some of the space facilities around Beijing. Bolden met with Chinese space officials, but apparently proposed no cooperative initiatives. He left it to his deputy—Lori Garver—to talk about the trip.
Michael A. Taverna (Toulouse), Brendan Gallagher (Toulouse)
A single touch-screen display across the breadth of the cockpit? Alerts to warn pilots they are dozing off, or that they’re looking at the wrong solution to a sudden problem? A single-pilot flight crew? None of those scenarios are as far-fetched as they might have seemed just a few years ago.
Engineers and a former astronaut have started human-in-the-loop testing of the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) for Bigelow Aerospace’s Sundancer inflatable orbital module, using a 90-cu.-meter (3,178-cu.-ft.) chamber at the Orbitech facility in Madison, Wis. Initial 8-hr. tests will evaluate thermal and humidity control, ventilation, carbon dioxide and trace contaminant removal, and atmospheric monitoring.
Nov. 1-2—Shephard Group’s Air Power Middle East 2010. Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Doha, Qatar. Call +44 (175) 372-7019 or see www.shephard.co.uk Nov. 1-2—University of Westminster Aviation Seminar. “Market Research for Air Transport: Practical Techniques and Strategies.” Also, Nov. 3-5—“Demand Analysis and Capacity Management: The Air Transport Issues.” London. See www.westminster.ac.uk/aviation
At a meeting on space exploration organized in Brussels last week by the European Union, the international space community--including NASA, Roskosmos, Japan’s JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency--agreed to hold regular forums to plan and coordinate exploration activities using the International Space Station (ISS) as the starting point for collaboration. The European Space Agency has agreed to extend use of the ISS to all EU countries, to share its costs among more users.
Capt. Konstantin “K.” Volodzko (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
The “Price of Safety” (AW&ST Sept. 20/27, p. 28) just scratched the surface as to the ill-effects of the new notice of proposed rule-making (NPRM). When FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt was flying the line at Eastern Airlines, two-man flight deck crews could leave the cockpit, stretch their legs and clear their minds, interacting with passengers and cabin crew before returning to their stations. Thanks to 9/11, that world is gone. Pilots are virtual prisoners locked behind bulletproof doors.
India’s Rustom-H medium-altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft is expected to birth a hunter-killer variant to provide the country with its first indigenously developed armed combat unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
Darren Shannon (Dublin ), Andrew Compart (Washington)
A revival in international yields and a commitment to shareholder value produced some of the best third-quarter results on record for U.S. legacy carriers, but behind the grandiose statements there lurks the specter of another fuel-price hike that could destroy this newfound momentum.
Boeing has shipped LightSquared SkyTerra 1 to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a Nov. 14 launch on an International Launch Services Proton. One of its 702HP series, SkyTerra 1 will combine four gateway ground stations and ground-based beam-forming equipment to create two space-based networks for LightSquared, the former SkyTerra. Once in orbit, the satellite’s 22-meter (80-ft.) L-band reflector antenna will be the largest commercial one launched.
The U.S. Army is close to deploying the first medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned air vehicle system it has developed from the ground up, as a program of record. At the same time, Army researchers are pushing forward with a number of new UAV programs for an unprecedented diversity of missions.
The U.K.’s decision to drastically alter its fast-jet fleet plans introduces new uncertainties into the global fighter market. In a two-pronged move, London is trimming its buy of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and changing course on the model.
George Larson, senior editor of Aviation Week’s Business & Commercial Aviation magazine, has won the 2010 David Ewald Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement and excellence in journalism. The award was presented by the National Business Aviation Association at its annual meeting in Atlanta (see p. 35). Larson, who also is the author of books on flying, worked at Flying magazine and founded and edited Air & Space magazine for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Washington sympathizes with London’s making difficult choices in its national security restructuring (see p. 20), but officials are initially defensive about suggestions the U.K. might not remain a strong ally.
I enjoyed the Market Focus commentary “Targeting China, With Eyes Wide Open” (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 13), but I disagree with the comment that Western companies have entered into similar arrangements, only to be squeezed out after their Chinese partners acquired technology and know-how. Through several years of cooperation with partners in China, most Western companies gained valuable experience with local markets. They discovered better opportunities and ways to do business in China, and then they chose to cash out.
A pie chart accompanying an article on Honeywell’s 2010 business aviation forecast transposed the projected shares of demand for two regions (Oct. 18, p. 40). Latin America’s share is 13%, and the Asia-Pacific’s share is 6% of the world market.
Michael Dill (see photo) has been promoted to vice president-business development and strategy covering the North American, Asian, European and North African aerospace businesses at Circor Aerospace Products Group , Corona, Calif. He was group continuous improvement director.
The Air Force’s tanker fleet will contract significantly as KC-135s become too expensive to repair and new tankers come on line at the anemic production rate of just 15 aircraft per year, analysts warn. USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Norm Seip and Rebecca Grant predict that the first group of 179 new KC-Xs will not be reinforced with follow-on KC-Y and KC-Z aircraft for at least another 20 years—and perhaps never—while a replacement for the larger KC-10 will not show up for 30 years.
A photo of a Porter Airlines Bombardier Q400 in flight (Oct. 11, p. 58) should have been credited to Rick Radell, who also shot the cover photo in that issue.
Virgin Blue is making a last-ditch effort to overcome regulators’ resistance to its joint venture proposals with overseas airlines, and now the Australian government is wading into the fray to pressure U.S. officials to reverse their initial rejection of one of these deals.
Dassault Falcon Jet has recorded 34 new aircraft orders during the first nine months of 2010, but also posted 35 cancellations. Still, President John Rosanvallon notes this year’s sales are double those of 2009, which ended with 160 cancellations.
The U.K. has issued funding to define a new technology demonstrator intended to help develop the country’s space sector. The £770,000-contract ($1.2-million), awarded to Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., will enable planners to identify innovative payloads that could be demonstrated on the small satellite, dubbed TechDemoSat-1, and to define the SSTL-led mission. A follow-on grant of £2.7 million will later be released to design, build and test the spacecraft.
Boeing added another 50 737s to its order column as of Oct. 21. No customers were identified. The orders raise net 737 orders for the year to 432 and net orders for all models to 472.
