Differences in structure and timing between European and U.S. airspace transformation programs are keeping alive the spectre of divergent equipment and training solutions mucking up the transition to next-generation operations. These divergences could result in international airlines having to purchase, install and train pilots for separate avionics systems to be used in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere, an outcome industry says will tip the equipage cost-benefit scales in the wrong direction.
Pierre Sparaco's “The End of Redundancy,” which addresses the possibility of one-man or unmanned cockpits (AW&ST June 24, p. 20), brought to mind a venerable joke: In the future, airplanes will be flown by one pilot and a dog. Why the dog? To make sure the pilot doesn't touch anything. Zurich, Switzerland
Germany has retired its long-serving fleet of McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs after 40 years of operation. The last day of flight operations took place on June 25. Despite the introduction of the Eurofighter into service with the Luftwaffe back in 2006, the Phantom remained in front-line operation, providing an armed quick-reaction alert capability to potential aerial threats in German airspace.
If some joker had mislabeled a box set of the Coen brothers' movies as a management textbook, it would explain much of the history of European unmanned air system developments. It's a good story and the bickering among the participants produces classic quotes, but by the time the Stranger or Tommy Lee Jones delivers his closing speech, you are sometimes left wondering what the whole thing was about. My impression at the Paris air show was that some kind of direction may be emerging from the chaos.
Shenzhou 10, China's longest human mission, ended safely early June 26 with a parachute landing in Inner Mongolia. Touchdown of the mission's return capsule with its crew of two men and a woman came at 8:07 a.m. local time (8:07 p.m. June 26 EDT), 15 days after it was launched from the Jiuquan launch site on a Long March 2F rocket. Astronauts Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping emerged from the lander, smiling and apparently healthy. Nie, the mission commander, was ending his second spaceflight. Wang is China's second female astronaut.
A political move to cancel Italy's plan to buy of 90 F-35s threatened to split the country's governing coalition June 26, but was averted by a last-minute compromise that makes future batches of aircraft subject to prior parliamentary approval. Opposition groups, including the fast-growing M5S party are working with members of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's center-left Democratic Party (PD) to block the F-35 plan, but the coalition government, comprising the PD and right-wing parties, supports it.
Reader Marvin L Melsha, Jr., asked the cause or source of “a dark (sic) gaseous extension of perhaps 8 ft. before you see flame glow” (AW&ST June 24, p. 10). The dark extension consists of a “screen” of carbon-particle residue in the comparatively cool fuel-rich gas-generator exhaust used to cool the metal shingle extension of the liquid-cooled tubes wall of the upper portion of the nozzle exit bell. At close range, one can see that the engine nozzle consists of two sections.
I note that the authors of the Viewpoint “Small UAVs Pose No Civil Threat” (AW&ST May 27, p. 58) are attorneys based in Washington, D.C. I'd like to see their client list. Would it possibly include UAV manufacturers? In light of the recent abuse of power by the Internal Revenue Service, the National Security Agency and numerous other scandals, are we supposed to believe UAVs won't be misused? I am skeptical about that and suspect I'm not alone.
Mark Smith (see photos) has joined Airbus Americas, Mobile, Ala., as manager of health, safety and environment, and Darren Gates has been named facilities manager. Smith was health and safety manager for Georgia Pacific. Gates has been a facilities and operations manager at ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA.
The Defense Department says it will take steps to better employ the potentially under-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), even as the U.S. transitions from a wartime posture. The Pentagon supplements its military aircraft with cargo and passenger services from commercial U.S. carriers eager for the guaranteed government business, which includes minimum spending in peacetime.
July 15-17—49th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronatics/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit. San Jose, Calif. See www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=16854 July 16-17—RotorTech Asia-Pacific Conference & Exhibition 2013. Singapore. See www.rotortechasia.com July 16-18—Second ISS Research and Deve-lopment Conference. Denver Marriott City Center. See www.astronautical.org/node/96 Aug. 11-15—AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. Hilton Head, S.C. See www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=13178
4,300 Number of jet engines that GE Aviation plans to produce annually by 2020, up from 2,800 in 2010. 242 Number of new jobs that GE Aviation plans to create in North Carolina. The company unveiled plans to build an advanced ceramic matrix composite plant in Ashville.
S. Ramadorai has been named chairman of New Delhi-based Air Asia India. He is a former CEO of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Tata Sons Ltd. Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has been named the airline's chief adviser and Mittu Chandilya as CEO.
Though late to sign on to the network of nations purchasing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Israel will be the first international customer to operate the fifth-generation fighter, according to Steve O'Bryan, Lockheed Martin's vice president for F-35 program integration and business development. The first F-35I combat squadron is expected to achieve initial operational capability in 2018.
The automatic U.S. budget cuts known as “sequestration” went into effect on March 1, but the sky has not fallen as far as investors and traders are concerned. There is no pure defense stock-price index but shares of the largest U.S. defense primes have outperformed both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average since March 1. Small and mid-size stocks have also performed well and even the major U.S. defense services contractors—Booz Allen, CACI, ManTech and SAIC—have seen their shares appreciate more than broader market indices.
A Trans States Airlines Embraer ERJ 145LR that slid off the end of a runway after landing in Ottawa in June 2010 became the impetus for Canadian regulators to publish guidance on how to cut grooves into runway pavements.
The U.S. Defense Department is close to wrapping up a Counterfeit Prevention Policy to minimize the introduction of counterfeit parts into the supply chain, according to the White House's new Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement. The policy follows guidance the Defense Department issued due to a mandate in the fiscal 2012 defense authorization act. Already, the Defense Logistics Agency is requiring an advanced type of DNA markings on high-reliability microcircuits, and offering to reimburse contractors that use the technology.
Boeing and Airbus have backlogs bulging with orders and would like to see production rates increase. The question is can their supply chains meet the schedule and quality marks needed. “We have to think through whether we want to go for higher rates,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said as the Paris air show got underway last week. Airbus is in the same cautious position of not wanting to let its desire for higher rates exceed its supply chain's capacity. Still, the pressure to get aircraft out the door faster is relentless.
Pratt & Whitney Chief Operating Officer Paul R. Adams and engineer Scott Beecher have been inducted into the University of Connecticut's Academy of Distinguished Engineers. Adams received the 2013 Distinguished Engineering Leadership Award for his career accomplishments and dedication to the future generation of engineers. Beecher won the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, which is presented to University of Connecticut School of Engineering alumni for contributions to the engineering profession.
Within the next couple of months, the U.S. Navy/Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) team plans to wind up the program by recovering one of the two air vehicles on an aircraft carrier in a Navy test range area 100 mi. off the Virginia coast.
Last week's delivery of a Superjet 100 to its first Western customer—Interjet—was to be celebrated as the international breakthrough for the Russian-build regional aircraft. But now Finmeccanica, Sukhoi's partner in the Superjet International joint venture, is threatening to pull out.
