Russia and India will sign a deal soon, covering the latter’s participation in Moscow’s fifth-generation fighter program, says Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan. Sukhoi’s T-50 prototype is being developed to meet the Russian air force’s PAK FA requirement. A first flight is expected next year. Pogosyan last week accompanied Russian defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov to China. Discussions likely included the potential sale of the Su-33 naval variant of the Su-27 Flanker, as well as Chinese interest in the Su-35 modernization of the Flanker.
Swedish charter operator Novair will conduct Required Navigation Performance approaches next year as RNP gains a foothold in Europe as part of a drive for greater air traffic efficiency. The project—called MINT (minimum CO2 in the terminal management area)—is being sponsored by the Sesar (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking organization and will be led by Avtech of Stockholm. Novair will conduct 10 flights into Stockholm Arlanda Airport with three Airbus A321-200s.
Mike Bender, who is corporate director for National Security and Commercial Space Programs at Alliant Techsystems Inc., has been elected chairman of the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Space Enterprise Council . Darcie Durham Brooks, who is associate director for Government Relations at the Orbital Sciences Corp., was elected vice chairman.
Delta does not need to place any new aircraft orders to take advantage of its expanded post-merger network and has no immediate plans to replace its 114 MD-88s in spite of their relatively low fuel efficiency, executives said at Delta’s Investor Day conference Dec. 9. The airline said it saves more in ownership costs per aircraft per year on the MD-88 ($3.5 million) than it loses in fuel efficiency ($1.1 million) when compared with Boeing 737-800s that could replace them. Delta remained coy about its 787 orders, which it inherited when it acquired Northwest Airlines.
An International Launch Services Proton Breeze M rocket has launched Ciel 2, the first dedicated spacecraft to be operated by Canadian startup Ciel Satellite Most of the capacity on the 5.6-metric-ton Thales Alenia Space-built satellite is intended to meet demand in Canada and the U.S. for high-definition TV and other video services.
The Brazilian air force has ordered 12 Mi-35M Hind attack helicopters from Russia’s Rosoboronexport, with deliveries to begin in 2009. Brazil rejected the Eurocopter Tiger as being too expensive and shortlisted the AgustaWestland AW129 and Mi-35M. A key factor in selecting the Russian helicopter was Brazil’s requirement for short-term delivery of a fully capable combat helicopter.
Lufthansa’s acquisition ambitions are still not satisfied, even after securing Austrian Airlines (see p. 37). Lufthansa has expressed an interest in resuming takeover talks with Iberia, should its planned merger with British Airways not be realized. Lufthansa Chairman/CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber says the top priority is to “execute the strategy” at BMI in which it will have a share of 80%. Virgin Atlantic confirmed last week it is in talks with Lufthansa about potential cooperation with BMI.
A Rolls-Royce Trent 700 recently powered the first scheduled flight of Aeroflot’s Airbus A330-200, which marks the engine’s debut into service in Russia.
The F-16 nailed an autonomous landing as partners Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School demonstrated the capability this month at Edwards AFB, Calif., marking the first time an F-16 has landed entirely under computer control. The demo lays the groundwork for consistent, repeatable and controlled automatic landings of the aircraft in various wind conditions and airfield situations, according to the manufacturer. The autoland sequence is initiated during flight by an onboard safety pilot.
Using $4.4 million in funding provided by Congress, Proxy Aviation Systems plans to demonstrate the ability for one operator to control four unmanned air vehicles, two small Tier II-class tactical UAVs and two of Proxy’s larger SkyRaider vehicles. The demonstration for the U.S. Air Force next year is expected to involve the company’s rule-based expert system software, which allows multiple dissimilar UAVs to cooperate autonomously. Using the software, the vehicles will be managed by one commander, but via existing UAV ground stations and communications links.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress about a number of weapons sales to Iraq. Baghdad has been approved to buy 36 Hawker Beechcraft T-6B Texan II turboprop trainers worth $520 million. Twenty T-6A Texans will be purchased in a separate deal worth $210 million. A $336-million sale of 26 Bell 407 helicopters rounds out the buy.
The rapid growth of large, long-haul carriers such as Emirates could put the squeeze on midsize airlines in the region. Now, Gulf Air and Royal Jordanian are exploring more expansive cooperation—not just to counter the bigger players, but also to strengthen their own growth agendas.
There may be an unsuspected upside for aerospace in the billions the government is committing to rescue Wall Street and Detroit, according to Aerospace Industries Assn. President and CEO Marion Blakey. When the budget deficit is tomorrow’s problem, she says, it may be easier for President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to increase NASA’s budget to close the gap in human spaceflight capability between retirement of the shuttle and introduction of the Orion vehicle. Obama has said he wants to close the gap. “When the focus is on the deficit, it’s hard to add funding.
I would like to expand on the first point of the Viewpoint “How To Ease Engineering Gap” (AW&ST Nov. 17, p. 62): increase engineering utilization by “not burdening engineers with administrative responsibilities and other tasks that distract them from higher-value design work.” Much valuable engineering time is wasted on searching for technical data, including “surfing” the Internet, which contains much unverified information.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines will participate voluntarily in a trial of a Japanese emissions trading scheme. JAL plans to cut its 2010-12 CO2 emissions per seat to 84% of its 1990 level.
The Eumetsat Council agreed to extend cooperation with India to cover polar and ocean altimetry spacecraft—to permit wider sharing of Indian weather data—and not just geostationary satellites; authorized the agency to begin working on ocean services based on the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Sentinel 3 spacecraft, which will provide altimetry data complementary to Jason’s; and OK’d talks to discuss a second-generation polar weather satellite system with the U.S. National Ocanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Continental Airlines has scheduled the first biofuel demonstration flight to include algae in the mix of fuel sources. A Boeing 737-800 will take off on the non-revenue flight from Houston Jan. 7. The 737’s No. 2 (right) CFM56-7B engine will burn a blend of 50% jet fuel and 50% biofuel produced from algae and jatropha oil, which are both regarded as sustainable, second-generation fuel sources that do not affect food or water and do not contribute to deforestation. The fuel has been produced using processing technology developed by Honeywell company UOP.
Subodh Karnik has been named executive vice president-commercial services and Howard Hall senior vice president/chief financial officer of Air Jamaica .
Chaker Chahrour has been appointed executive vice president of CFM International , Evendale, Ohio, effective Feb. 1. He will succeed Bill Clapper, who will be retiring. Chahrour has been Asia-Pacific sales executive for GE Aviation.
Fielding of the rocket/ramjet-powered Meteor air-to-air missile on the Eurofighter Typhoon is being pushed back two years. The move is part of a wider rescoping of weapon-integration plans.
Intelsat is forming a joint venture with partners in South Africa to meet hot demand in the region for broadcast, broadband and wireless backhaul services. The venture, known as New Dawn, will employ local financing and market savvy to add new capacity for African users without forcing Intelsat to fork out much cash or debt. “[This] represents a solution for Africa by Africa,” said Andile Ngcaba, chairman of Convergence Partners, a South African-based investment company specialized in telecommunications and media that will partner with Intelsat.
Aerojet has demonstrated its Advanced Materials Bipropellant Rocket engine at 150 lb. thrust and a specific impulse of 333.5 sec., setting the stage for the engine to reach Technology Readiness Level 6 when it completes environmental testing. Using an iridium-lined rhenium combustion chamber in a 100-lb.-thrust engine design, the hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide powerplant was built and tested with NASA funds under a program that aims to reduce cost, mass and travel times of space science missions.
Spanair has to at least break even in 2010 after winning approval from Spanish authorities to reduce its workforce. As part of a restructuring plan, 517 jobs will be eliminated and 185 switched to part-time status, to cut €90 million.
Software for the F-35 has entered flight testing six months ahead of the initial flight of a Joint Strike Fighter equipped with mission system. Lockheed Martin’s CATBird avionics testbed, a highly modified Boeing 737-300, has begun testing the “flight candidate release” (FCR) software load that will be on the first mission-system test F-35, aircraft BF-4, when it flies in mid-2009.
French armaments agency DGA says urgent operational requirement (UOR) spending could double next year as part of an ongoing effort to bolster the protection, projection and combat readiness of forces in Afghanistan and other foreign theaters. Although the list of new equipment is not yet decided, it is likely to include jammers, optical/radar sensors, Rover tactical data links and SIDM medium-altitude UAVs. A study to assess the possibility of accelerating qualification of the Tiger attack helicopter so it can be fielded in 2009 is also underway.
