The Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127M that will power ATR 42/72 turboprop aircraft has received type certification from Transport Canada and the European Aviation Safety Agency. It is a derivative of the PW127F and PW127E engines that power the ATR 42-500 and 72-500, respectively. A design change was made to boost performance in hot weather and high-altitude conditions encountered by many ATR customers. Increased speed was not a design criterion. The engine will first be used on -500 model ATRs, followed by the -600 now in development.
Inconceivable. For months, that’s how people described the notion of the Pentagon buying an Airbus aircraft as the future U.S. tanker. That’s clearly not the case after the Defense Dept.’s momentous decision to put its operational interests ahead of political prudence by selecting the Northrop Grumman/EADS A330-based tankers for the KC-45.
The Pentagon and Congress have to make “hard strategic and budgetary choices now” to optimize unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to a congressional study on military roles and missions. The report, by a House Armed Services Committee panel, recommends more joint operations and procurement as a way to make the Defense Dept. more efficient.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Transportation Affairs John Byerly and his counterpart across the pond, Daniel Calleja, director of the Air Transport Directorate of the European Commission of the European Union, were honored with the laureate award for their tireless work to reach an historic aviation liberalization agreement on Apr. 30, 2007.
Managers from NASA, the European Space Agency and seven national space agencies will begin formulating a new robotic International Lunar Network (ILN) that will dramatically accelerate the first multinational operations on the surface of the Moon. Representatives from Russia, South Korea, the U.K., India, Japan, Canada and Italy joined ESA and NASA at Johnson Space Center (JSC) here to kick off planning the new network, says Alan Stern, associate NASA administrator for science.
Australia will proceed with an order for 24 Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets, local media report. The order has become a political football as the new Labor government has used it to criticize the performance of the previous Liberal-National defense minister, now opposition leader, Brendan Nelson.
Selecting a European-made tanker for the U.S. military was a huge mistake. Choosing EADS is bad enough but the real mistake was inviting it in the first place: The outcome was clear because of European government support for the venture; price would secure the bid. This mistake jeopardizes the U.S. airplane business. China and Japan are moving into the passenger aircraft market and Russia is returning, mostly on the back of our technology and with cheap labor. Can Boeing survive operating in the U.S. with all its rules? President Bush should cancel this deal.
Gulfstream Aerospace believes future supersonic transports, and particularly business jets, will win market success only if they are capable of unrestricted supersonic flight over land. This is prohibited by many countries because of the unacceptably loud sonic boom generated by any aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds.
Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe will become head of GE Aviation’s Washington operations June 2, succeeding Thomas Cooper, who is retiring. O’Keefe left NASA in 2005 to serve as chancellor of Louisiana State University, a position he lost in a conflict with the LSU board this year. He also has been Navy secretary and deputy White House budget director.
Apr. 15-16—AVIATION WEEK Interiors, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Apr. 15-17—MRO Conference and Exhibition, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Sept. 23-25—MRO Europe, Madrid. Oct. 14-16—MRO Asia, Singapore. PARTNERSHIPS Mar. 31-Apr. 6—FIDAE, Santiago, Chile. Apr. 1-3—JEC Composites, Paris. Apr. 7-10—U.S. Space Foundation, Colorado Springs. May 27-June 1—ILA Berlin air show. June 16-18—Aircraft Interiors-Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Space Station Solar Array Repair Team The operations laureates combined teamwork and skill with old-fashioned courage to keep assembly of the International Space Station on track in the face of an ugly mishap.
Adm. William Fallon’s resignation as chief of Central Command is portrayed as being prompted by his public—but minor—disagreements with the White House over the war in Iraq. But the differences were actually fundamental. A senior Air Force general says Fallon was “siding with the Joint Staff, in particular the Army and Marines, in urging the President to get out of Iraq faster because it’s undermining the U.S. military. . . . Top Army and Marine Corps leaders know the military is not designed to carry on a long-term war.
Evoking the spirit and pride of legions that have gone before, “Never Forget” was the theme underlying the christening of the USS New York, an amphibious transport dock ship (LPD 21) in New Orleans on Mar. 1. The ship is the fifth landing platform dock in the San Antonio Class, which is the newest addition to the U.S. Navy’s 21st-century amphibious assault force. LPD 21 also is the fifth ship to bear the New York moniker—one notable predecessor, battleship USS New York, served as flagship in World War I and participated in the invasion of Okinawa in World War II.
In “Bad Vibes” (AW&ST Jan. 28, p. 400), human tolerance limits are described as 0.6g rms (root mean square) for 1 min. However, this average number is meaningless without a definition of a specific frequency envelope. Absent a frequency profile, there are an infinite number of vibration profiles that could produce this g-rms value.
The U.S. Air Force held a retirement ceremony for the F-117A Nighthawk at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. There were 59 production stealth aircraft built, and they have been in service for 27 years. Seven were lost, one in Serbia during combat. The survivors will be placed in recallable storage at their original base, the Tonapah airfield on the Nevada Test Ranges, by next month.
Chinese aircraft group Avic 1 is sending 150 engineers to Britain’s Cranfield University to study commercial airframe and engine design. The company wants half of its students to focus on engines, an area where China has negligible capacity to compete with Western industry.
Robert Wall (NAS Patuxent River, Md.), Amy Butler (NAS Patuxent River, Md.)
The U.S. Navy has launched an all-out effort to field improved helicopter countermeasures for combat forces, with the focus on getting some of the most advanced developmental equipment into the hands of troops.
Pilots ratified a four-year amended contract with AStar Air Cargo, which provides lift for DHL in the U.S., giving the carrier “a platform for future business growth,” says Chairman/CEO John Dasburg. The contract closes a wage gap between pilots at AStar and ABX Air, which also carries DHL cargo.
Regional, business and amphibious aircraft-maker Bombardier saw its delivery rates climb 10% to 361 aircraft in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31. Orders nearly doubled to 698 from 363. Business jets accounted for 232 of the deliveries and 452 of the orders. Deliveries for regional jets reached 128 compared to 112 in 2006, while orders rose to 238, up from 87 the year before.
Don’t blame JetBlue Airways for the delays at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (AW&ST Jan. 14, p. 7). JFK was slot-controlled when the High Density Rule took effect on Apr. 27, 1969. Unlike Washington National, New York LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare airports, which also fell under the rule, slots at JFK were only required between 3 and 7:59 p.m., with an initial allocation of 80 air carrier, 15 commuter and two general aviation slots for each hour.
Dnata Airport Operations, the ground and passenger handling agent at Dubai International Airport, says it will begin servicing about 700 flights per week when Dubai’s expanded Terminal 2 opens at month’s end. The 37,000-sq.-ft. extension will increase the airport’s surface area to 93,000 sq. ft. The terminal is expecting to handle 320 cargo and 380 passenger flights per week.
Hong Kong International Airport should consult with its tenant airlines as it mulls a feasibility study for a third runway, says Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler. Installing new air traffic control equipment to increase movements will only delay the airport from becoming fully slot-constrained, he warns. “Hubs like Guangzhou and Shanghai are planning third, fourth and even fifth runways. Hong Kong faces the very real danger of giving our competitive advantage away unless we move quickly and decisively on the third runway,” says Tyler.
Political footballs come in all shapes and sizes. The one being tossed around the aerospace/defense playing field of late by select members of Congress and some industry players happens to have wings and a refueling boom sticking out of its tail. And like most political footballs, this one has the same look and feel of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement.
A heavy round of spacewalking on the upcoming International Space Station assembly mission will leave future crews with a Canadian-built robotic alternative to going outside the orbiting facility for repairs. Also on the agenda for STS-123/1J/A, set for a launch early on Mar. 11, is delivery of the pressurized attic that will give Japan’s big Kibo laboratory module storage space for eight experiment racks. Japan’s new Kibo control center in Tsukuba, Japan, will join the ISS communications networks during the mission (see p. 51).
USAF has awarded a $17.2-million contract to General Atomics for engineering development of Advanced Cockpit Increment 2 for the Predator/Reaper UAV control station. The company also received an $18.6-million Army contract for continued development and demonstration of the extended range/multi-purpose UAV.
