Fiscal 2014—not 2013—will be the worst year for federal contractors, including defense companies, if the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration take effect in January 2013, says Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council. That is because sequestration will not cause a sharp drop-off in contracting opportunities until then. Federal contract spending will return to growth thereafter, but under lower top-line budgets outlined by the 2011 law known as the Budget Control Act.
The Russian air force has taken delivery of its first two Sukhoi Su-30SM fighters, domestic variants of the export best-seller Su-30MKI. Thirty aircraft were ordered in March 2012. Deliveries are scheduled to continue through 2015.
Airbus has moved the A350-900 static test airframe from its final assembly hall at Toulouse across the airport to the L34 static test building. The airframe will be put into a rig in advance of about one year of static testing, which will include ultimate-load evaluations and margin research. The static test airframe is for the first A350 to have undergone final assembly. One other airframe, MSN001, is in the final assembly jigs in the Roger Beteille hall. MSN001 will be the first A350 to fly. Airbus says first flight will take place next summer.
Taiwan carrier China Airlines (CAL) is hoping for another round of liberalization between China and Taiwan so it can further expand its services to mainland China as well as cater to transit traffic.
Royal Brunei Airlines is hoping the opening of a new airport terminal at its home base of Bandar Seri Begawan, and the introduction of Boeing 787-8s, will transform its business. The Sultanate of Brunei's flag carrier will be the first in Southeast Asia to operate the 787, says Deputy Chairman Dermot Mannion, who joined Royal Brunei in 2010. He has served as CEO of Aer Lingus and president of group services for Emirates.
Limiting congressional terms brings in fresh blood, but that also means a change in direction. House Republicans are capping leadership terms at six years, which means that Rep. John Mica (Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will hand over his gavel next year. Mica may have rubbed colleagues the wrong way with his continued war against the Transportation Security Administration. But he was a strong advocate for the FAA's NextGen air traffic modernization system who came up through the aviation subcommittee.
Aviation is crucial to the U.K. Not only is it responsible for about 1 million jobs, £50 billion GDP ($80 billion) and £8 billion tax revenues, it provides the infrastructure vital to the country's ability to function as an internationally connected trading nation. With three quarters of inbound tourists flying to the U.K. and 40% of the nation's exports (by value) transported by air—not to mention the obvious importance of maintaining links with existing markets and developing new ones to emerging markets—you would have thought the U.K.
Technology may take a backseat to customer and training value in the flight simulator of the near future. Though work on potentially breakthrough technologies continues in academia and in the laboratories of simulator manufacturers like CAE, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins and Thales, there is a growing call from the safety and user communities to figure out the optimum use of investments already made and technology already available.
Bob Smith Chief Technology Officer, Honeywell Aerospace Age: 48 Education: Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, University of Texas; advanced degrees in engineering and applied mathematics from Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.
The jigsaw pieces are coming together for a future “all-electric” commercial airliner by the second half of the 2020s. Seeking higher efficiencies, lower costs and easier maintenance, airframers and equipment manufacturers alike are pushing ahead with development of electrically powered replacements for today's pneumatic, mechanical and hydraulic systems.
NASA and Roscosmos have selected two veteran International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers for a year-long assignment to the 14-year-old orbiting science laboratory. The mission is intended to shed new light on human adaptation to long-duration spaceflight and other challenges facing explorers on deep-space missions. Scott Kelly, a 48-year-old U.S. Navy captain, and Mikhail Kornienko, a 52-year-old RSC Energia test engineer, will begin a two-year training program for the mission early next year.
Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned combat aircraft system demonstrator was hoisted aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Truman at NAS Norfolk, Va., on Nov. 26 ,to begin several weeks of deck handling trials, both in port and underway. The trials with Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) are a precursor to autonomous carrier takeoffs and landings planned for 2013.
Rolls-Royce will be introducing a new maintenance program for Fokker 70s and 100s that promises to reduce the cost of overhauling their Tay engines. Fokker, however, is being a little coy about releasing the details just yet. “Rolls-Royce is working on a dedicated program to reduce the cost of the heavy checks for the Tay engine. More detail than that cannot be provided due to the fact Rolls-Royce first needs to inform our operators,” says a Fokker spokesman.
James E. Leddy has been appointed senior VP and treasurer of New York-based JetBlue Airways. He was senior VP of treasury and cash management at NBCUniversal.
India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) on Nov. 28 conducted the first flight of a Jaguar strike aircraft with upgraded avionics, known as the Darin III. The updated aircraft is equipped with a new mission computer, flight and engine instrument systems, a solid-state digital recording system, and data recorder, autopilot, radar, GPS and radar warning receiver. The Indian air force is upgrading its roughly 100 Jaguars from the initial Darin I version under a 2008 contract signed with HAL. India also signed a deal with the U.S.
Showtime for the biennial Middle East Business Aviation convention is set for Dec. 11-13 at Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport-Dubai World Central. Previous commitments in the U.S. that week preclude my attending, which is too bad, since the previous gathering (photo) was an eye opener for this first-time visitor to the glittering UAE, and well worth the ticket price.
How do you maneuver an unmanned aircraft around the carrier deck without a pilot onboard? By using a wireless hand-controller strapped to your arm. That's what the U.S. Navy is doing during testing of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland. See the video on the Ares defense blog. Mac says:
Brian Hogan, Steven Allen and Charles Johnson have been named management partners of U.K.-based Mango Aviation. Hogan and Allen were CEO adviser and chief compliance adviser, respectively, at Zest Airways. Johnson was promoted to partner for product & ancillary revenue.
NASA plans to hold a workshop in February on possible uses for two 2.4-meter telescope mirrors transferred in June by the National Reconnaissance Office. Although the optics have been proposed for a wide-field infrared survey of the sky, other possible uses are for focused space-technology research, human exploration and operations, heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science. The mirrors were crafted but never used for terrestrial reconnaissance.
