In his letter “Transports Need TCAS” (AW&ST Nov. 23, 2009, p. 10), Scott Cooper asserts that the Oct. 29 mid-air collision between a U.S. Coast Guard HC-130H and U.S. Marine Corps AH-1 could have been averted by the installation of a Traffic-alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) on the HC-130H. I was the avionics officer for the HC-130H home unit at USCG Air Station Sacramento, Calif., from 1997-2000, so know all USCG HC-130Hs have been TCAS-equipped for many years.
Some 200 NASA and contractor employees are undergoing drug tests after a bag containing a small amount of cocaine was found inside the Orbiter Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, a restricted area where the space shuttle Discovery is being readied for a mission to the International Space Station in March. Agency officials termed the find “a rare and isolated incident,” and said it should have no impact on shuttle safety.
British think-tank Royal United Services Institute suggests the U.K. military faces real-term budget cuts of 10-15% over the next six years. “Capability Cost Trends,” the institute’s latest paper on the pending defense review, argues that London faces the cut in defense spending, coupled with annual cost growth of 1-2%. The author, Prof. Malcolm Chalmers, argues this could result in an overall drop of 20% in personnel to 2016, along with further reductions in platform numbers.
Airbus is confident it has now found a way to manage the long-planned production ramp-up of its flagship A380 program. The A380’s production schedule is lagging considerably behind original plans. According to the initial schedule, Airbus should be producing 45 A380s this year, but the latest plans call for only around 20 aircraft. Last year, more than 30 aircraft were initially planned, but at the beginning of the year Airbus predicted it would be able to handle just 18. In fact, it delivered 10.
The article “Boeing’s Orders at 40-Year Low” (Jan. 11, p. 36) included an incorrect year for when Boeing’s posted its most recent low point in orders. The correct year was 1994, when the company netted 125 net.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposes to restore curbs on energy speculation it lifted in 2001. The CFTC would use the authority of the Commodity Exchange Act to set limits on oil and other energy futures. Importantly for the airline industry, however, the proposed rule would carve out exemptions for large energy consumers to hedge oil by excluding “bona fide hedging transactions.” The CFTC’s proposed rule is seen as a reaction to the oil-price spike of 2008, when crude oil prices reached $147 per barrel.
AeroTech Research Inc. this month plans to start developing a real-time wake vortex encounter reporting system for commercial airliners. The company declined to disclose the value of the two-year contract awarded by NASA Phase II Small Business Innovative Research program and announced last week. The In-situ Wake Vortex Encounter Detection and Reporting System would use sensor and data link capability installed on most airlines to detect wake vortices and report the information to air traffic controllers and other aircraft.
Perm-based Aviadvigatel has completed certification of the PS-90A2 engine, the latest major upgrade of the basic PS-90A turbofan used on Tupolev Tu-204/214 and Ilyushin Il-96 airliners. Developed with Pratt & Whitney, the “A2” version features a new high-pressure turbine with single-crystal blades and enhanced engine control system. It also draws on several minor upgrades to the design and manufacturing processes. As a result, the PS-90A2 is expected to halve maintenance time and should yield 35-37% lower life-cycle costs. The powerplant, with its 35,240 lb.
Composite structural suppliers for Airbus have turned to waterjet manufacturer Flow International of Kent, Wash., for new machines to support multiple projects. Flow announced $11 million in new orders last week for machines to be delivered over the next 12-18 months, the majority for Airbus suppliers. Flow’s machines are used to cut composites for the Boeing 787.
Mike Delaney has been named vice president-Airplane Performance and Product Architecture within Boeing Commercial Airplanes , as part of a restructuring of the division and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), Delaney was vice president/chief project engineer for the 787 program. Keith Leverkuhn will remain vice president/general manager of Propulsion Systems. Jim Ogonowski has become vice president-Airplane Structures and Mike Sinnett vice president-Airplane Systems.
Boeing’s Long Beach, Calif., C-17 manufacturing line is still going strong, and there are no indications of a reduction in the annual production rate, says Dennis Muilenburg, president of Boeing Defense, Space and Security. Despite lackluster support from the primary customer, the U.S. Air Force, Muilenburg predicts more foreign and domestic orders for the C-17 Globemaster. Last year, the company explored halving the 12-15 annual production rate, but found price would be affected too much.
The Pentagon has provided $344.3 million for portions of 15 more low-rate initial production aircraft in the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP). Early production began, but approval was pending for this bunch of airlifters. Through this program, Lockheed Martin is replacing old engines with new GE CF6-80C2s, each of which provides 22% more thrust than their predecessors. The funding covers installation on three aircraft, fabrication of five kits and long-lead funding for seven aircraft.
NASA’s first use of a low-cost, modular spacecraft design will be put into an unusually low orbit of the Moon to sample its atmosphere and dust and create a profile that will be useful for studies throughout the Solar System.
Israel’s Urban Aeronautics has completed initial tethered hover tests of its AirMule vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned cargo/medevac aircraft. The company says the tests demonstrated the fly-by-wire control system’s ability to automatically stabilize the vehicle in roll, pitch and yaw. Control is via vanes on the fore and aft ducted rotors, which are driven by a 730-shp. Turbomeca Arriel 1 turboshaft engine. So far, the AirMule has hovered at a height of about 2 ft., just out of ground effect.
Scott Donnelly, who is president/CEO of Textron Inc., has been elected chairman of the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. for 2010. He succeeds Robert J. Stevens, president/chairman/CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corp. James F. Albaugh was elected vice chairman. He is executive vice president of the Boeing Co. and president/CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Marion C. Blakey was reelected AIA president/CEO and Ginette C. Colot secretary-treasurer. Additional members of the 2010 Board of Governors Executive Committee are: Wes D.
Frank Ayers has been named executive vice president of the Prescott, Ariz., campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University . He was chairman of the Flight Training Dept. at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. Ayers succeeds Dan Carrell, who is retiring.
Former NASA Chief of Staff and White House liaison Courtney Stadd, already on probation for an ethics law conviction, faces new charges. A federal grand jury in Mississippi returned a nine-count indictment against Stadd, alleging conspiracy, fraud and obstruction in connection with a $600,000 sole-source NASA contract to Mississippi State University, a Stadd client, for a remote-sensing study. Stadd, who served at NASA in the administration of President George W. Bush, pleaded innocent. He is scheduled to go on trial on Mar. 1.
With radar-cross-section (RCS) trials for Boeing’s Silent Eagle semi-stealthy F-15 prototype complete, company officials are now focusing on South Korea as a possible first customer.
A new poll by Morgan Stanley finds investors deeply divided about whether defense stocks will track, beat or lag the S&P 500 index in 2010. Respondents were bullish on General Dynamics Corp., bearish on Northrop Grumman Corp. and split down the middle on Lockheed Martin Corp. But a thoughtful new analysis by Boenning & Scattergood analyst Michael F. Ciarmoli suggests that investors’ best prospects for success lie down the industry’s food chain.
An Su-27SM performing advanced aerobatic maneuvers at Dzengi air base in the Far Eastern Command crashed on Jan. 14 with a senior pilot on board. The base is home to the GAZ-126 Sukhoi plant and the 23rd Interceptor Aviation Regiment, which flies the Su-27. A search for the wreckage and pilot continued after dark with temperatures expected to reach -42F. The aircraft disappeared off the base radar with no communications from the pilot, Lt. Col. Vladimir Sobolev, a 1,300-flight-hour veteran, say U.S. analysts.
All three finalists for NASA’s 2018 New Frontiers space science mission aim to reach out and touch a nearby heavenly body. NASA will spend about $3.3 million on each of the finalists this year for mission-concept studies that will help in the final selection of the agency’s third New Frontiers spacecraft by mid-2011. That mission will be capped at $650 million, plus launch costs. “These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to NASA this year,” says Ed Weiler, associate administrator for science.
Pentagon officials apparently took to heart President Barack Obama’s message of friendship with allies when he came into office last year. Maybe too much so. An early draft of the Pentagon’s long-awaited “space posture review,” due to Congress with Obama’s Fiscal 2011 budget request expected Feb. 1, went so far as to suggest splitting responsibility for buying its key constellations in the distant future.
Boeing’s second 747-8—the RC521—(rear) has joined the first aircraft—RC501—on the flight line at Everett, Wash., where preparations for the start of flight tests are underway. A long list of system checks, or engineering work authorizations (EWAs), on RC501 (center) are being run before starting a final series of rigorous ‘flight-line gauntlet’ trials. Boeing says EWA tests are conducted “anytime there are changes, improvements or new components and/or functionality.
SES Astra will host a second payload for Europe’s Egnos GPS augmentation service under a contract from the European Commission. The L-band payload will be carried by Astra 5B, one of four new spacecraft ordered from EADS Astrium late last year (AW&ST Dec. 7, 2009, p. 22). Astra 5B is to be launched to a slot at 31.5 deg. E. Long. in the third quarter of 2013. Astra had previously been awarded a contract to host an Egnos payload on Sirius 5, a Space Systems/Loral satellite to be orbited to 5 deg. E. Long. in the second half of 2011.
