Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is performing system checks on the first MRJ in preparation for a first flight due in the second quarter of 2015. Nearby in the same Nagoya factory building, MHI technicians have progressed far into final assembly of the second aircraft and started working on the third.
A design fault in the thermal system of the Soyuz Fregat upper stage is behind the botched launch of Europe’s first two fully operational Galileo navigation, positioning and timing satellites, which were deployed to the wrong orbit following their Aug. 22 launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
The devastating two-week pilot strike at Air France has cost the airline around €500 million ($635 million), and a lot of the company’s strategic questions remain unanswered. French pilot union SNPL only ended the strike after Air France-KLM CEO Alexandre de Juniac agreed to drop a key part of his restructuring plan—growing low-cost carrier Transavia into a pan-European airline. What remains unsolved is how big Transavia France can become and how Air France can achieve cost cuts in its legacy operation.
Galileo satellite prime contractor OHB System of Germany is assessing options for salvaging the first two satellites in support of the full Galileo constellation. Kristian Pauly, deputy program manager for Galileo at OHB, says in their current elliptical orbit the spacecraft’s Earth-view sensors see the planet as overly large at the orbit’s perigee, sending their Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) into safe mode and rendering them intermittently inoperable.
The U.S. Army is refining strategies for pairing manned/unmanned air platforms, such as its new General Atomics Gray Eagle UAS and Boeing AH-64E "Echo" Apache attack helicopter, to eventually include remote weapons release.
Startup helicopter manufacturer Marenco Swisshelicopter put its SKYe SH09 single-engine light helicopter through its paces on Oct. 2. The aircraft was maneuvered in hover in a series of five test flights that lasted about 20 min. at the company’s test facility at Mollis, near Zurich, with chief test pilot Dwayne Williams in charge. The delayed flight comes 10 months after the rollout of the initial prototype on Nov. 28, 2013.
Miami-based Eastern Air Lines, which is not yet flying, has confirmed its order for 20 Mitsubishi Aircraft 92-seat MRJ90 regional jets. Deliveries are due to begin in 2019, about two years after the MRJ enters service. Mitsubishi now has orders for 191 MRJs, which should increase to 223 when Japan Airlines confirms an order for 32 covered by a letter of intent. In addition, customers hold options and purchase rights on another 184 MRJ90s. Eastern will use the name and livery of the historic but unrelated U.S. airline that closed in 1991.
Blackpool International Airport in the U.K. has announced that commercial flights could end by the middle of October if a buyer is not found for the loss-making facility. The airport owner, infrastructure company Balfour Beatty said Sept. 29 that if no buyer can be found before Oct. 7, airport operations will end on Oct. 15. The airport currently has flights to resort destinations in Spain and Turkey with U.K. low-cost airline Jet2 and flights to Ireland and the Isle of Man by Aer Lingus and Citywing.
As part of ongoing moves to streamline its defense and space business, Boeing is moving the majority of its service and support-related work from Washington State to Oklahoma City and St. Louis. The move will take around three years and affect about 2,000 employees principally working on service and support of the E-3 AWACS, 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control and F-22 combat aircraft. Boeing says up to 900 jobs could be added in Oklahoma and 500 in St. Louis, and that further work will be moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and Patuxent River, Maryland.
Australia has contracted with BAE Systems to upgrade the launcher subsystem of the Nulka naval defense system, with the aim of ensuring the hovering-rocket decoy can remain in use despite the obsolescence of some parts. Nulka, an Australian product that BAE calls “the world’s most effective soft-kill anti-ship missile defense,” is in service on more than 140 vessels in the U.S., Canadian and Australian navies. Unlike reflective chaff and transmitters suspended under parachutes, Nulka decoys are designed to to lure anti-ship missiles away from targeted ships.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has stood down one of its AgustaWestland EH101 Merlin squadrons and handed over the aircraft to the Royal Navy. The former RAF Merlin Mk3s will replace Westland Sea King Mk4s that were the backbone of the Commando Helicopter Force but are due to be retired in March 2016. The RAF’s 78 Sqdn. stood down on Sept. 30 at RAF Benson with the handover, while the RN reactivated 846 Naval Air Sqdn. (NAS).
The British Army’s Watchkeeper UAV has finally been deployed to Afghanistan, only months before the U.K. ends combat operations there. At least two of the Thales-built Watchkeeper platforms have been deployed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province. Watchkeeper is expected to return to the U.K. following the handover of Camp Bastion to the Afghan government, which is expected before year-end.
Esterline Technologies’ roughly $200 million acquisition of Barco’s aerospace and defense display unit is likely the former’s last major addition for about two years as it implements a multiyear cost-cutting and restructuring program, Canaccord Genuity analysts believe. The deal, announced last week, merges Barco’s display operation into Esterline’s avionics and controls business.
Metals giant Alcoa is continuing its push into Indiana and the aerospace business, with the formal opening last week of “the world’s largest” aluminum-lithium plant in Lafayette. The company says its cast house there, next to its extrusion plant, can produce more than 20,000 metric tons of aluminum-lithium annually. The $90 million facility is capable of making aluminum-lithium ingots big enough “to make any single-piece component on today’s aircraft,” says Alcoa.
Airbus this month closed its takeover of the former optronics subsidiary of Carl Zeiss. Airbus had held 75% ownership but in October 2012 moved to take over the remainder. The 800-person unit, previously known as Cassidian Optronics, with headquarters in Oberkochen, Germany, now will be called Airbus DS Optronics. It designs and produces optronic, optical and precision-engineered products for satellites and UAVs.
