While Air Combat Command focuses on the new bomber, some other capabilities, including a new unmanned aircraft and some weapons, are not likely to garner major funding in Fiscal 2012.
Boeing is starting conversion of the first of six retired F-16A and C models from U.S. Air Force inventory at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., as prototypes for the QF-16 drone program. The company leads a team that will focus on the aircraft’s flight control regime and includes BAE Systems. They are working under a $69.7-million Phase 1 development contract. USAF wants 126 QF-16s drones as replacements for QF-4s by 2014.
Ever since it was deregulated in 1978, the U.S. airline industry has made an art of setting money on fire. While some investors have profited from airline stocks’ wild fluctuations, many more have been burned or wiped out altogether when carriers restructured their businesses under bankruptcy protection. But a report by CRT Captial Group analysts Michael Derchin and Ben Shim is urging investors to take a fresh look at the industry as it heads into a recovery.
South African Airways is adding five Airbus A320s to its existing 15-unit commitment for the narrowbodies. The deal, announced May 27, will see deliveries start in 2013. SAA has opted for International Aero Engines V2500 powerplants. The airline had already signed for 22 A320s, but seven were sold to TAM of Brazil in 2003 when SAA opted for Boeing 737-800s.
House lawmakers from both parties are putting more pressure on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) to water down legislation regarding aircraft repair stations in other countries. Oberstar’s proposal, part of the House FAA reauthorization bill, would require foreign repair stations to be regularly inspected by the FAA. That concept has been heavily criticized by the airline and MRO industries, which prefer Senate language that would essentially exempt the European Union and nations that also have safety agreements with the U.S.
USAF Air Combat Command chief Gen. William Fraser doesn’t agree with the Navy’s projections that the F-35 will cost more to maintain than previously expected. Officials at Naval Air Systems Command calculate a higher cost for operating the system for 65 years than the Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office. The recent Navy study finds sustainment for the single-engine stealthy fighter could cost about $442 billion (in Fiscal 2002 dollars) more than planned. “We don’t agree with the Navy numbers,” Fraser tells Aviation Week.
After breaking records in 2008, revenues in the global aerospace and defense industry were flat in 2009 and profits declined somewhat. But measured against the backdrop of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the performance turned in by the A&D sector was encouraging. “Flat” seems to be the new “up,” and the industry is fortunate to have commercial aircraft backlogs equivalent to more than six years’ worth of production and long-term defense purchase agreements, both of which provide a cushion against the recession.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has authorized Part 147 approval from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority for new instructor-led and advanced aircraft simulation training programs for the Boeing 787 and 747-8. The courses cover mechanical and avionics theory and replicate the classroom work but with students using tablet PCs to access airplane maintenance data using the same software as is used on the flight line or in the hangar.
Business aviation leaders in Europe are urging changes in several new operating rules that they fear, if left as is, will adversely affect the bizav sector. Since 2008, commercial air transport flights throughout the European Union have been governed by an interim set of regulations known as EU-Ops, which were drawn from Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) specifications and national rules. Noncommercial activities have continued to be guided largely by national regulations.
Arianespace has been selected to launch Britain’s new Skynet 5D satellite, an Astrium-built unit set to be orbited in the first half of 2013. Together with a contract for Intelsat 17, also awarded last week (see p. 18), the Paris-based launch provider says it now has seven telecom satellite orders this year, including two unannounced. Arianespace was slated to return to service late last week, carrying Germany’s second ComsatBw military communications satellite and SES’s Astra 3B broadcasting spacecraft.
FedEx’s alleged failure to revise its Continuous Airworthiness Maintenance Program last week drew a $1.55-million proposed civil penalty from the FAA, which the carrier is appealing. The FAA alleges that FedEx failed to ensure that it was using “approved standards, inspections and time limitations” for 14 cargo unit load devices that were used on 124 flights from March 20-April 17, 2008.
Honeywell is closely analyzing a pair of TPE331 engines on an aircraft flown through ash clouds over the U.K. as part of efforts to scientifically quantify the true impact of volcanic ash on aircraft engines.
India is embracing medium- and long-range precision-strike weapons, short-range directed-energy air defenses and unmanned combat air vehicles as key aspirations for its future arsenal, according to a technology plan expected to be released imminently.
U.S. regional airlines, facing what seems to be a near-certain future of consolidation and a moment of truth this decade on contract renewals for aircraft of 50 seats or fewer, could find an escape route in the relaxation of scope clauses in pilot contracts of their major airline partners. But they had better not count on it.
Air New Zealand says it will defend against allegations made by Australian regulators that the carrier, among many others, engaged in price-fixing on some cargo operations.
UPS pilots are facing layoffs for the first time in the company’s 103-year history—with 169 to be furloughed from May 23 through Nov. 17, according to the Independent Pilots Association (IPA), the collective bargaining unit for the airline’s 2,800 flight crewmembers. The furlough schedule for the remainder of the 300 pilots facing layoffs is expected to be available in early 2011. Since April 2009, the IPA has tried to preserve pilot jobs by producing $117 million in guaranteed savings for UPS through voluntary program efforts that included pay cuts and unpaid leaves.
Key air force procurement ambitions will be deliberated in the Malaysian parliament by July, possibly determining the fate of fighter and airborne early-warning aircraft acquisitions.
The protracted effort to bring Sea Launch out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection has forced Intelsat to turn to Arianespace to launch its Intelsat 17 commercial telecom satellite. A Ku-/C-band spacecraft being supplied by Space Systems/Loral to serve Africa, the Indian Ocean region, Russia, the Middle East and Europe, Intelsat 17 was initially on the Sea Launch manifest.
Honeywell’s Boeing 757 testbed is used to evaluate an HTF7000 engine on a special fuselage-mounted strut attachment as it banks over Catalina Island, Calif. Engine manufacturers are stepping up investment in flying testbeds despite the availability of sophisticated ground test facilities (see p. 52). In coming weeks, the number of dedicated engine testbeds in North America will grow to comprise an unprecedented fleet of four Boeing 747s and a 757. Paul Bowen photo.
Amy Butler (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Orbital Sciences Corp. expects its acquisition of the satellite business of General Dynamics to spur the company’s drive to joint the ranks of the major government satellite prime contrators.
