Commercial aircraft ferrying Defense Dept. personnel and cargo into danger zones like Iraq have no need for onboard surface-to-air missile defenses, says the head of U.S. Transportation Command (Transcom).
L-3 Communications will be bringing a company-owned aircraft representative of the USAF MC-12 variant to the upcoming Paris air show. The aircraft, based on a Hawker Beechcraft KingAir 350ER, will be on static display during the show at Le Bourget. L-3 officials see potential for a fair amount of defense business in the small-aircraft market, especially for specialized missions such as ISR collection.
NASA says it will pay $51 million each for seats on Russia’s Soyuz crew vehicle after the space shuttle retires, under a new $306-million contract modification for crew transportation and related services in 2012-13. The price includes training, launch preparation, crew rescue and landing for six International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers.
As the global economic downturn impacts the aerospace industry, Aviation Week & Space Technology’s 13th annual Top-Performing Companies (TPC) Study offers clues on how individual companies are positioned to withstand tough times. The sophisticated metrics used to rank each company’s operational performances show that record backlogs and more efficient operations are shielding the industry, to a degree. Three sets of rankings tables begin on p. 52.
2009 FIVE-YEAR MOST IMPROVEDREVENUE BETWEEN $1-5 BILLION AVERAGE SCORE TOTAL 5-YEAR SCORE Rank COMPANY DATE SCORE IMPROVEMENT 1 MTU Aero Engines Holdings Dec.
Spurred by several attacks on its Afghanistan-deployed forces, the German defense ministry has awarded Rheinmetall a €120-million ($167-million) counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system contract. The effort is an evolution of the Skyshield to detect threats and disarm them using six 35-mm. automatic guns able to fire 1,000 rounds per min. The system also includes a fire control center and two sensor units.
As a follow-on to a 2005 agreement between Safran and the Civil Aviation University of China (CUAC), the Safran Group has supplied a Turmo IVC engine to CUAC, the main aeronautical engineering school in China. Safran’s presence in China reaches back to the 1970s.
Ukraine’s commercial aviation sector is being reshaped by government moves toward further privatization, even if efforts to create an open-skies agreement with the European Union are taking longer than anticipated. The sector has benefited in recent years from a healthy economy, growing passenger numbers and the emergence of several leading carriers. Unsurprisingly, however, it is not immune from the global financial downturn, and has seen traffic decline in the first quarter of this year.
An evaluation of unmanned aircraft in anti-drug operations is underway in Central America, with the U.S. Navy flying a leased Israel Aerospace Industries Heron from El Salvador to detect and identify maritime targets. Funded from the U.S. counter-narcoterrorism budget, the 100 flight-hour demonstration will be completed this month. Further unmanned aircraft system (UAS) trials are planned in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations, including deployment of radar-equipped unmanned helicopters to locate drug laboratories through the rain forest canopy.
Recovery is nowhere in sight. International Air Transport Assn. figures for April show a 3.1% decline in passenger demand and a 21.7% drop in cargo compared with the same period last year. April’s passenger traffic dip and 74.4% load factor may appear as clear improvements in contrast with the 11.1% drop in demand and 72.1% load factor recorded in March—but IATA cautions that April’s high volume of holiday travel could be skewing data by at least 2%. Asia-Pacific carriers continued to see the most significant deterioration, with an 8.6% decline in passenger demand.
Albuquerque, N.M.-based Sandia National Laboratories and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have agreed to conduct and share research in such areas as photovoltaics, nanoelectronics and nanomaterials. Staff exchanges between the labs and information-sharing via jointly held workshops are on the agenda.
Peru’s aviation regulatory authority has authorized LAN Peru to fly Required Navigation Performance procedures systemwide. The move followed the carrier’s completion on May 22 of a revenue flight to Cuzco using an Airbus A319 with Naverus-developed RNP. The capability is a form of performance-based navigation, which allows aircraft to fly precision paths independent of ground-based navaids. RNP is expected to greatly reduce delays and diversions caused by bad weather. The authorization paves the way for more flights to Machu Picchu, a popular destination.
The German civil aviation authority (LBA) has granted AeroLogic its air operators certificate in preparation for the beginning of commercial operations on June 29. The freight joint venture between Lufthansa Cargo and DHL Express, formed in 2007, is based in Leipzig/Halle and will operate a fleet of Boeing 777 freighters. Boeing delivered the first this month. Eight 777Fs are on order through Deucalion Capital. AeroLogic operates the first 777s registered in Germany, the LBA says. The second aircraft is due in July, and two more in December.
The top admiral in charge of the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command says the sea service needs to craft an “aggressive and effective” integration and testing plan for new, so-called organic mine countermeasure (MCM) capabilities before it retires legacy systems such as workhorse rotorcraft. The new systems, which would be based on board the nascent Littoral Combat Ship and others, include airborne MCM such as the Raytheon AN/AQS-20, a towed deep-water mine detection system.
The Pentagon is in talks with Egypt for the sale of 12 AH-64D Block II Apache Longbow attack helicopters. Notification of the potential foreign military sales deal worth up to $820 million went to Congress late last month. It would also include 27 T700-GE-701D engines, 14 ALQ-144(V)3 infrared jammers, 28 M299 Hellfire Longbow missile launchers and other sets of equipment. The country already has 35 AH-64Ds.
Japan is preparing to drop its blanket ban on arms exports, a potentially far-reaching move that should result in the country finally beginning to integrate itself with the military industries of the Western democracies. After decades of trying to go it alone or seeking only inward technology transfer, Japan will accept joint development and production of weapons that can be sold abroad. It is not, however, likely to become a major exporter of equipment that it largely builds on its own.
Private Afghan carrier Safi Airways plans to become the country’s primary international airline, taking advantage of the increased political focus on Afghanistan and the travel demand of Afghans abroad. The airline aims to expand its network soon to include more European and Asian destinations following the start of thrice-weekly services from Kabul to Frankfurt June 15. Safi is considering Amsterdam, London or Paris as a next step and plans to renew and enlarge its aging fleet. It is also looking into Moscow and New Delhi as potential destinations.
The Pentagon has yet to decide whether the Air Force will oversee procurement of its own No. 1 acquisition priority: a replacement for the KC-135 aerial refueling tanker. At issue is the service’s poor track record with the embattled tanker program and other procurement efforts. David Ahern, director of portfolio systems at the Pentagon’s acquisition office, says the Defense Dept. still plans to release a request for proposals for the tanker replacement program this summer.
U.K.-based Qinetiq has received a $44.9-million U.S. Navy contract to deliver seven Zephyr solar-powered long-endurance unmanned aircraft by 2014 for accelerated testing leading to an operational deployment, possibly within 18 months. The hand-launched Zephyr 7 will be able to carry a small payload to high altitude for a week or more.
Boeing set the clock ticking toward first flight of the 787 next month by starting the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on the test aircraft, ZA001, on May 21. Those Trent 1000s are configured to an interim standard for the start of flight tests, and will be superseded by an improved-build-standard -4A version on the later test aircraft, ZA004. The first engine for this upgrade, which is based mainly on a revised low-pressure turbine design, is due to run this month at Rolls’s Derby plant in the U.K.
Michael Bruno (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington), Bettina H. Chavanne (Washington), John M. Doyle (Washington)
Congress is mounting relatively minor and uncoordinated opposition, so far, to the Fiscal 2010 budget request proffered by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meaning the so-called reform budget unveiled earlier this month could be largely enacted.
Although the primary cause of the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 appears to be a failure to exercise basic airmanship, a contributing factor of crew fatigue also is being explored. And during NTSB hearings, one Colgan executive defended the routine industry practice of 16-hr. duty days. Deregulation may have led to squeezed pilot pay and benefits, but the core functions and responsibilities of the airline industry, not the least aircrews, have grown more challenging.
