The announcement by Airbus Group that it was putting €2 billion in defense and space businesses up for sale is an important milestone not only for Airbus but also for European A&D.
When a Qantas A380 landed at Dallas/Fort Worth for the first time, it marked the latest escalation in the hotly contested market between North America and Australasia.
Penny-pinching politicians and those who reject the evidence that human activity is changing Earth’s climate are making it hard for scientists to continue providing the data from space needed to monitor and try to manage the effects of inaction
If signed, the deal with an undisclosed customer would allow UrtheCast to develop two sensors, a high-resolution, dual-mode optical/video camera and a high-resolution dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that will be capable of imaging simultaneously in L and X bands.
Multiple articles discussed the comet Siding Spring and its close approach to Mars ( AW&ST Sept. 8, pp. 38-39) including coverage of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile evolution (Maven) and Mangalyaan orbiters, but only a very brief mention of MRO—Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter—and no mention of the Odyssey. Those two have been in orbit around Mars for a combined two decades.
Russia’s Proton M/Briz M heavy-lift launch vehicle returned to flight Sept. 28, sending a Russian military satellite to geosynchronous orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The vehicle, which has been grounded since a May incident that led to the loss of Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC) AM4R satellite, lifted off at 12:23 a.m. Moscow time, marking the fifth launch of a Proton rocket this year.
If the KF-X survives while production of older European and U.S. aircraft winds up, then next decade it may be the only alternative to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning as a fighter engineered for compatibility with Western weapons and communications
Sierra Nevada Corp. is underscoring its position as a potential human spaceflight provider for a global market, despite its rejection by NASA as one of two commercial operators to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
Lockheed Martin’s full-scale mock-up of its Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) contender was unveiled in late September when CNBC reporter Jane Wells tweeted a photo from the company’s Skunk Works unit.
NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to take U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) as a way to stop paying Russia $76 million a pop for seats (and training) in the Soyuz capsule after early 2018. But even in this era of cooling relations between the countries, it doesn’t mean astronauts will stop flying Soyuz. And cosmonauts probably will fly in the new U.S. vehicles, to restore the “dissimilar redundancy” in ISS crew transport that has been missing since the space shuttle retired.
Production of Boeing 737s is expected to rise to an unprecedented 52 per month in 2018. The company, which already announced plans to increase the production rate to 47 per month in 2017, hinted last month that the even higher assembly rate was being considered in response to market demand. Once established, the new rate means more than 620 aircraft a year will be built, roughly equivalent to the cumulative production for the first 13 years of the 737. Boeing has a firm order backlog of more than 4,000 737s: over 1,700 for 737 NGs and 2,294 for the 737 MAX family.
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.
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).
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
