Pratt & Whitney's uniquely configured Boeing 747SP recently made its debut as the industry's newest engine flying testbed with Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW308C, and is now flying the PW1200G for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet. Pratt has adapted the aircraft, its second 747SP, to flight-test a wide range of airliner, business jet and turboprop engines. In addition, Pratt is flight-testing its second geared turbofan model (see p. 39). Spencer Sloan/Pratt & Whitney photo.
Frank Bodenhage has been appointed president and CEO of MTU Maintenance in Zhuhai, China, succeeding Holger Sindermann, who will become managing director and senior VP of MTU Maintenance in Hannover, Germany. Bodenhage has held management positions at MTU Hannover.
Hawker Beechcraft filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court as part of a restructuring plan that the privately owned aircraft builder says will eliminate $2.5 billion in debt. Lenders also agreed to provide $400 million in additional financing to enable struggling Hawker to continue operations and pay employees, suppliers and vendors.
Now that Congress has ordered the FAA to get moving on integrating unmanned aircraft into civil airspace, Northrop Grumman chief Wes Bush is talking up all the wondrous things UAVs can do. But he is also warning industry not to underestimate the need to address public concerns. Speaking to the Aero Club recently, he portrayed as a huge step the mandate that the FAA establish six UAV test ranges by this August and integrate such aircraft into the National Airspace System by September 2015.
Hussein Dabbas has been named VP for the Middle East and North Africa by the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association. He succeeds Majdi Sabri, who plans to retire in June. Dabbas has been CEO of Royal Jordanian Airlines.
U.S. military sales to India may have grown to $8 billion since 2005, but even as the relationship has become closer, U.S. officials are still trying to promote the idea that foreign military sales (FMS) are better than direct commercial sales (DCS). The U.S. has long battled the notion that it is giving preferential pricing through FMS to other countries—a cost imbalance can be attributed to differences in training and assistance. After returning from a recent trip to India, the State Department's Andrew Shapiro points out that FMS brings with it the backing of the U.S.
Clay Williams has become executive director of Gulfport-Biloxi (Miss.) International Airport. He will succeed Bruce Frallic, who is scheduled to retire in August. Williams is a government relations representative for Capitol Resources.
John Brasfield (see photo) has been promoted to manager from assistant manager of FlightSafety International's Cessna Aircraft Maintenance Learning Center in Wichita.
Isogrids are among the lightest and strongest of structures, the lattice pattern of integral stiffening ribs providing extremely high strength-to-weight ratios. Lightweight isogrid panels machined from aluminum plate to produce thin-walled, self-stiffened and damage-tolerant structures are used in launch vehicles and aircraft doors. Advanced grid structures made from composites have been used for components such as payload shrouds, but require time-consuming and costly manual layup. Isogrid Composites Canada Inc.
Composites may be replacing metals in aircraft structures, but the use of titanium is increasing both to reduce weight and because of the incompatibility of aluminum and carbon fiber. Boeing's 787 is 50% composite by structural weight, whereas its earlier 777 is only 12%, but a 787 contains almost 90 tons of titanium compared with 55 tons in a larger 777. And titanium can be around 10 times as expensive as aluminum, so pressure is on to reduce costs.
With ground to make up in the marketing battle with Airbus and the A320NEO, Boeing is going to new lengths to eke out improved aerodynamic efficiency on the competing 737 MAX.
As a former Darpa scientist and one of the world's foremost authorities on materials, Leo Christodoulou is accustomed to thinking out of the proverbial box when it comes to problem-solving. At the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, he applied his research expertise to developing revolutionary, new materials for the U.S. military.
Let's face facts: It has become nearly impossible to monitor Ryanair's economic model or to predict what's going to happen to Europe's lowest-fare airline in the next few years. The key question is how to determine whether the Ireland-based carrier can remain profitable in the face of declining traffic growth. In March, the airline carried 5.5 million passengers, a surprising 4% decrease. And, in the last 12 months, its traffic increased a relatively weak 5%. Clearly, this is no longer the two-digit growth to which the airline is accustomed.
Lockheed Martin has launched a small precision-guided weapon from an AAI RQ-7 Shadow 200 tactical unmanned aircraft under a company-funded R&D program. The 11-lb.-class, laser-guided Shadow Hawk glide weapon scored a direct hit on the target, the company says. The U.S. Army-funded test was conducted at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
Rarely in aerospace do the hopes of a company pivot almost entirely on the successful outcome of a single technology, but this is the gamble Pratt & Whitney faces as it embarks on flight tests of its second geared turbofan model and takes another key step toward revitalizing its civil engine fortunes.
The U.S. faces a dilemma over the possible sale of attack helicopters to Indonesia. Industry executives say Indonesia has issued a letter of request (LOR) to buy Boeing AH-64 Apaches. This LOR comes after the country's deputy defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, told state-run news agency Antara in February that Indonesia planned to order eight Apache attack helicopters.
When Chinese engineers began full-scale development of the ARJ21 regional jet in 2002, they must have doubted that they would meet the remarkably tight schedule to deliver the first unit in 2006. But it is unlikely that they imagined they would still be developing the aircraft 11 years later.
May 14-16—European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition 2012. Palexpo, Geneva. See www.ebace.aero/2012 May 14-16—International Air Transport Association/International Civil Aviation Organization's Global Runway Symposium. Intercontinental Hotel, Amman, Jordan. See www.iata.org/events May 14-17—Naval Helicopter Association's 2012 Symposium. Marriott Norfolk (Va.) Waterside. Call +1 (619) 435-7139 or see www.navalhelicopterassn.org
Nanotechnology-enabled materials are moving into aerospace. New Hampshire-based Nanocomp Technologies is scaling up production of electrically and thermally conductive yarn, sheet and tape made from long carbon nanotubes (CNT). Spun yarn is being used to replace copper in data cables in aircraft and spacecraft, potentially halving the weight of wiring harnesses. Sheet material was used on NASA's Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011, to provide electrostatic-discharge protection of attitude-control thruster and main-engine components.
The Pentagon has declared that the United Launch Alliance's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) project has exceeded its original per-unit cost by 58.4%, triggering a review under the Nunn-McCurdy program oversight law. The increase resulted from several factors. The 2004 baseline called for 137 projected launches, though only 91 have been manifested, owing largely to delays in satellite development and procurement efforts. Additionally, the cost of propulsion systems has gone up.
Robert Perlman and Sarah Kirby have been named to the board of directors of the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada by the Canadian Ministry of Transport. Perlman is CEO and director of Mediservice in Montreal, and Kirby is assistant dean of student services at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is offering two field-retrofittable options to extend the loiter time of its Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude unmanned aircraft. As the results of an internally funded endurance enhancement study, Option 1 calls for adding two fuel pods to the existing 66-ft.-span wing, increasing endurance to 37 from 27 hr. ; Option 2 sees the wing replaced with an 88-ft.-span unit and adds the two underwing fuel pods, increasing endurance to 42 hr.
