Testing of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS) at Edwards AFB, Calif., was halted pending investigation of a May 28 emergency landing that was prompted by a spoiler malfunction during a test sortie.
France has agreed to acquire 1,200 additional Mk82 guided bombs as part of a plan to meet urgent operational requirements with economic stimulus funding. The 250-kg. (550-lb.) general-use bombs, to be delivered by weapons-maker SAMP in 2009-10 under a €9-million ($12-million) contract, will be integrated into the AASM precision weapon—carried by Rafale fighter aircraft. The deliveries are intended to meet requirements through 2014.
Bental Industries will integrate its MicroBat-275 starter generator systems on Innocon’s Micro Falcon UAVs. Bental’s systems are already on Innocon’s Mini Falcon UAV platforms. This new agreement will intensify the level of cooperation between the Israeli companies. The MicroBat operational system is integrated on air and land UAVs as well as on a variety of other platforms. The small, compact, stabilized payload system for mini and micro UAVs meets surveillance, reconnaissance and observation missions needs.
The paucity of information about the whereabouts of the downed Air France Flight 447 Airbus A330, combined with strong currents that threaten to quickly disperse debris, is pushing aviation authorities to deploy an unusually vast fleet of air, sea and space assets (see p. 24).
Another key component of the Watchkeeper unmanned air system project was logged when Qinetiq and other stakeholders delivered the needed infrastructure and facilities at ParcAberporth, Ceredigion, South Wales, as part of its ongoing £5-million ($8.1 million) support contract, all but ensuring that the Watchkeeper trials program can begin at the site this fall. Thales, the Watchkeeper prime contractor, is now cleared to migrate the test program to the U.K. by October 2009.
July 16—Demonstrating the Value of Corporate Aircraft Management Forum. New York. Aug. 5-6—Required Navigation Performance Management Forum. Dallas. Aug. 12-13—Program Risk Management Forum. Washington. Sept. 22—Green Europe. Hamburg. Sept. 22-24—MRO Europe Conference & Exhibition. Hamburg. Oct. 6-7—Human Capital and Talent Acquisition/Labor Management Forum. Chicago. Oct. 13-14—Aircraft Parts Recycling Management Forum. Miami. Oct. 21-22—Supply Chain Management Forum. San Diego.
The British Royal Air Force last week marked the end of 19 years of Iraq combat operations with the return of XIII Sqn. Tornado GR4 strike aircraft and 101 Sqn. VC10 tanker aircraft. Since 2003, GR4s have been based at Al Udeid in Qatar as part of 901 Expeditionary air wing. The GR4s returned to RAF Marham in Norfolk, while the VC10s went back to their home base of RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Tornado GR4s are due to replace Harrier GR9s in Afghanistan beginning of next month.
Prognosticators agree that 2012 will be the turnaround year in which business aviation will move out of its current new aircraft decline. A report issued in May by The Teal Group of Fairfax, Va., described 2011 as a “trough year” in which business jet deliveries will fall 40% below 2008’s record, but then will begin to recover the following year with a 10% increase that will continue for each of the subsequent four years. The report predicts deliveries of 9,875 business jets and executive jetliners worth $183.5 billion over the next decade.
Doug Tutt, who is president/chief operating officer of Global Energy Services at CapRock Communications, has been named 2009 Teleport Executive of the Year by the New York-based World Teleport Assn. He was cited for developing CapRock into a global satellite communications provider.
AeroVironment is to build the third Global Observer liquid hydrogen-fueled high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft for a U.S. government joint capability technology demonstration (JCTD). The GO-1 Global Observer is designed to carry a 380-lb. payload to 55,000-65,000 ft. for up to a week. The 175-ft. wingspan UAV is expected to fly for the first time late this year or early in 2010. Awarded in 2007, the JCTD contract is now worth $120 million, including testing of three air vehicles and two launch and recovery elements.
USMC Brig. Gens. George J. Allen, Raymond C. Fox, Charles M. Gurganus and David R. Heinz have been nominated for promotion to major general. Allen is Washington-based director of C4/chief information officer, while Fox is commanding general of the First Marine Aircraft Wing, Okinawa, Japan. Gurganus is commanding general of the MAGTF Training Command and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif., while Heinz is Washington-based deputy executive director of the Joint Strike Fighter program. Reserve Brig. Gen. John M.
The Swedish government has agreed to commit €25.5 million ($36 million) to the Ariane launch vehicle program for 2009-11, boosting prospects for this key European space program (see p. 35). The money will be earmarked for the Ariane 5 ME midlife update, the ARTA Ariane 5 continuing engineering initiative and the Future Preparatory Launcher Program. Volvo Aero supplies turbopumps and nozzles for the Ariane program and plans two tests later this year to demonstrate turbine and nozzle technologies.
Archie Dickey, who has been a principal investigator for the FAA’s bird-strike studies for years, is heading the International Center for Aviation and Wildlife Risk Mitigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., where he is an associate professor. “We created this center to support data collection efforts, develop better solutions to reduce wildlife strike hazards, and serve as a clearinghouse to share this information with industry and organizations that need it,” he says. One goal is to separate out strategies that work from those that don’t.
As a retired Boeing 747 captain who was an Air Line Pilots Assn. (ALPA) member for 34 years, I was aggravated by the inaccuracies and other erroneous material in David A. Skilling’s letter (AW&ST May 25, p. 8). The Age 60 Rule was established in 1959, the year I graduated from high school. Anyone who hired on after that date had to be aware of the mandatory retirement rule. To cry about it and blame ALPA after the fact is tantamount to wanting to change the rules after the game has been lost. I also was not happy to be retired, but I knew the rules.
Congratulations in the highest to the crew of space shuttle Atlantis for repairing and improving the Hubble Space Telescope (AW&ST May 25, p. 26). We can all look forward to much more serious astronomy and amazing photos over the next 5-10 years. One thing puzzles me about the long-term plans for Hubble. As I understand it, NASA wants to send a rocket up to dock with Hubble and de-orbit it into the Pacific Ocean. This is certainly prudent, given the problem of space junk, if no other option is available.
As Congress again takes up the vexed question of a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, program officials warn that funding the alternate powerplant within the existing F-35 budget will impact production and push up cost.
Back then, they were called remotely piloted vehicles, or simply drones, but unmanned aircraft have proved themselves useful in wartime before, only to be ignored in peacetime. Not this time round—not after Iraq. Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signaled the seismic shift in April when he said unmanned Predators and Reapers were beginning to supplant some of the mission space occupied by F-15s and F-16s, allowing the U.S. Air Force to retire 250 older manned fighters.
International Launch Services has a new contract to orbit the second spacecraft intended for the hybrid mobile satellite network being built by SkyTerra (formerly Mobile Satellite Ventures). It was the seventh launch award for ILS this year, including three spacecraft to be orbited under a multi-launch agreement with SES. ILS completed its second mission of the year, Protostar-2, on May 16 (AW&ST May 25, p. 16) and is poised to launch its third, Sirius FM-5.
Lockheed Martin has received $1.5 billion in funding to build HEO-3, the third highly elliptical orbit payload, and the third geosynchronous orbit spacecraft (GEO-3) for the U.S. Air Force’s Space-Based Infrared System constellation. A contract for HEO-4 and GEO-4 is expected later this year. The first two HEOs are in orbit; final integration of the first two GEO satellites is underway at Lockheed’s Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. GEO-1 is due for launch next year.
As Airbus celebrates its 40th anniversary the occasion, though quite joyous, is not without some bumps along the way. Two dates could vie for the historic honor, either May 29, 1969, when the A300B program was launched or January 1970, when the Airbus Industrie industrial grouping was established in Paris. This marked the European manufacturer’s first innovation—launching a commercial transport endeavor, then creating the legal structure to shore it up eight months later.
Eumetsat and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are discussing ways to work more closely in weather forecasting and operational oceanography. Eumetsat could allow ISRO to access its EumetCast data-dissemination system and provide a near-real-time processing and distribution service for the Altika Ka-band altimeter on India’s Saral oceanography satellite to be orbited next year. The move must be approved at the Eumetsat summer council meeting.
Michael Bruno (Washington), John M. Doyle (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Washington is roiling about ostensible cancellations of several high-profile Defense Dept. acquisition efforts, but debate is growing over how—or whether—to truly stop any of them. Moreover, what constitutes a cancellation is increasingly unclear. In the end, several programs could be merely revamped or even reinvigorated under pressure from looming military requirements, political pressure and costs—past and future.
