France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, has completed a 15-month €300-million ($389.5-million) overhaul and is preparing to power up for return to service. The overhaul, performed by naval systems specialist DCNS, included a control/command and communications system upgrade and modifications to allow the carrier to handle new Rafale F3 multirole fighters, ASMP-A nuclear strike missiles and Scalp cruise missiles due to be integrated next year.
The decision this month by General Motors and Ford to abruptly shutter their flight departments in response to public and congressional criticism reverberated throughout the business aviation community where the action is seen as an admission of corporate impropriety and waste unfairly sullying all. One veteran chief pilot says the sudden public uproar and carmakers’ actions “set business aviation back 25 years.” National Business Aviation Assn.
The parallels between today’s Pentagon leadership in military aviation and the auto industry 20 years ago are striking. Executives have had a lack of strategic vision, failed to identify major threats and been unable to contain costs.
Pentagon ambivalence about the F-22 is being reflected by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen. “The chief of staff of the Air Force has talked about a number that is another 50 or so more than the 183 [Raptors on contract] right now,” Mullen says. “I am concerned that it is such an expensive system.” However, late-production F-22s cost less than the early-production F-35s. Mullen goes on to say, “Our future is in the [F-35] Joint Strike Fighter.” Mullen does concede there are advantages with an aircraft in production compared to one that is not.
Trials about to start on a small engine stand in rural Oxfordshire, England, could open the door to full-scale development of a hybrid air-breathing rocket engine for single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) reusable launch vehicles.
Ellen M. Beatty has been named assistant chief financial officer and Daniel M. Wong principal director of the Treasury Directorate at The Aerospace Corp. , El Segundo, Calif. Patricia A. Williams has been promoted to principal director of Business Information Technology from senior financial adviser. Beatty was vice president-finance for the TXU Energy Corp. in Dallas. Wong succeeds Thomas R. O’Connor, who has retired.
Lockheed Martin has received a $500-million boost to its contract to develop the VH-71 U.S. presidential helicopter, to cover cost increases in Increment 1 of the program. Now budgeted at $2.56 billion, Increment 1 includes five pilot-production helicopters, the first of which arrived in the U.S. last week. The second has flown at AgustaWestland in the U.K. and will be delivered by year-end, joining five test vehicles. All five pilot-production helicopters are to enter service in 2010. A decision on Increment 2, covering 23 improved VH-71s, is planned for 2009.
NASA managers have scheduled the space shuttle STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope on May 12, 2009, in the belief that they will be able to flight-qualify a critical spare part before that date. Engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center expect to ship the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling System to Kennedy Space Center next spring, NASA says. The on-orbit unit failed on Sept. 27, forcing a delay in its planned Oct. 14 launch date while the spare was tested.
Japan’s F-X fighter competition results will determine next year whether the national industry can sustain its tradition of domestic production of fast jets or instead be forced to accept a suspension and the risk of losing skills.
Dassault expects the Rafale to gain an edge in the $10-billion-plus competition to build 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft for India’s air force because the French government has cleared its aerospace and defense industries to make technology transfers of all systems. “The French government has given us all clearance for technology transfer of key systems,” says Dassault Aviation Senior Vice President Jean Pierre Chabriol.
The space shuttle Endeavour returns to Kennedy Space Center on its Boeing 747 ferry aircraft this week after bad weather at the Florida site forced it to divert to Edwards AFB, Calif.
CMC Electronics has teamed with Finland’s Patria to market its glass cockpit upgrade for BAE Systems’ Hawk Mk 50/60 and 100 series jet trainers. Patria is installing CMC’s Cockpit 4000 package in 15 Finnish air force Hawk Mk 51 aircraft. First flight of the modification occurred in October. In addition to the avionics modification, Patria and the Finnish air force will jointly offer pilot training to foreign customers using the upgraded Hawks.
Pakistan’s stability is one of the concerns raised in a report by the Pentagon’s Joint Forces Command. The Joint Operating Environment (JOE) 2008 report takes a broad look at expected operational, technological, strategic and economic problems over the next 25 years.
You can’t blame U.S. aerospace and defense industry leaders for being nervous in these tumultuous economic times. Automakers, banks, insurance companies and state governments have lined up for massive federal bailouts. President-elect Barack Obama wants to spend yet more money on job creation and infrastructure projects. But there’s been scant talk about how Uncle Sam is going to pay for it all. Those hefty expenditures on defense are a tempting target.
Adam Rasheed, a senior aerospace engineer at GE Global Research, Niskayuna, N.Y., has been named to receive the 2009 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Lawrence Sperry Award. It honors contributions by an individual under 35 in aeronautics and astronautics. Rasheed will be cited for his work with hypersonics and pulse detonation engines, and for innovative research in propulsion. He leads an experimental effort of the Pulse Detonation Engine Advanced Technology program at GE Global Research.
Mark Bryant (see photo) has been appointed vice president of the external tank program at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Honors and elections
Air Canada and regional partner Jazz recorded 77.6% consolidated load factor for November, an increase of 1.9 percentage points compared to same month in 2007. Traffic was down 5.2%, based on a capacity reduction of 7.5% system-wide. The mainline had a record 78.5% load factor, 2.4 percentage points higher than last November; Jazz had a 69.6% load factor, down 2.6 percentage points.
The dynamics of the Obama transition team’s selection process is mystifying those hoping to replace Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, acquisition chief John Young and other Pentagon leaders. Transition honcho John Poedesta “seems to be in control of all the appointments,” says an Obama adviser and a Pentagon posting hopeful.
The Jamaican government has set up a web site—www.airjamaicatransaction.org—to sell its 100% stake in flag carrier Air Jamaica by March 2009. The government wants a company or a consortium to take over full or majority ownership and recapitalize the airline, pay off some of its debt and ensure its long-term sustainability. In supporting the sale, the site pointed out due diligence conducted by airline consultancy GRA Inc., which concluded that the carrier represents “a significant turnaround opportunity.”
UAL Corp. has entered into distribution agreements with J.P. Morgan Securities and Morgan Stanley & Co. to sell shares up to a value of $200 million, not to exceed 32.2 million shares. Funds would be used for general corporate purposes, which could include payment of debts or funding capital projects. UAL stock (UAUA) has been on a roller coaster this year, peaking at more than $41 per share in February and lapsing to an under-$5 low in July. Share prices were restored, closing at $11.25 on Nov.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. William T. Crosby has been promoted to program executive officer for aviation from deputy executive officer at the Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
President-elect Barack Obama announced last week that Robert Gates will become the first Defense secretary ever asked by an incoming president to stay on. Hours later, Gates outlined his plans for the next administration in an exclusive interview with Senior Pentagon Editor Amy Butler on board USAF C-37A. Robert Gates, empowered by a mandate from President-elect Barack Obama to continue serving as Defense secretary, is turning his attention to the thorny issues of acquisition reform and tradeoffs involving the size of the military services’ fleets.
Globalia will add six Embraer 195s to its subsidiary Air Europa’s fleet under a firm order signed Dec. 2 with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer. The order, valued at $237-million list price, was previously listed as “undisclosed” in Embraer’s third-quarter firm order backlog. Air Europa plans to operate the aircraft in a single-class 122-seat configuration on routes in Spain, the Balearic and Canary Islands as well as Europe. Air Europa expects delivery of the first Embraer 195 under the deal in mid-2010.
Amy Butler (Colorado Springs), Michael Mecham (El Segundo, Calif. )
As the Pentagon debates how to proceed with the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program, Lockheed Martin is continuing work on its first Advanced Extremely High Frequency spacecraft. This AEHF system will be part a new series of satellites that will follow the Milstar constellation, five of which are in orbit. The AEHF system will also provide jam-proof communications for users until the next program, likely a revised TSAT, moves forward.
