The Trent XWB engine for the Airbus A350 made its first flight from Toulouse on Feb. 18, attached to the wing of an A380 testbed. Airbus says the engine performed “flawlessly” during the 5-hr.-plus flight, which tested the initial operating envelope to 43,000 ft and Mach 0.9. With a fan diameter of 118 in., the Trent XWB is the largest Rolls-Royce engine to have flown. It is mounted in the No. 2 inboard position in place of the A380's standard Trent 900. The A380 used for the engine tests is the original prototype, MSN 001.
The looming French presidential election set against a backdrop of economic turmoil and pressure to reduce spending may in themselves be enough to spark worries in France's defense industry. But government officials are also signaling that regardless of the outcome of the election, the fundamental tenets of France's long-term military spending plans are up for review.
Dennis Tewell has been appointed president and CEO of Apache Enterprises, Grand Prairie, Texas. He has held leadership roles in private industry following 25 years in the USAF.
USAF Gen. (ret.) John Michael Loh (Williamsburg, Va. )
The “Un-extravagant Bomber” (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 27) cited several excellent reasons for a new bomber but overlooked the most compelling—the deterrent value of a long-range, nuclear, penetrating bomber.
The budgets for at least three air-launched, directed-energy weapons are being fully protected by the U.S. Air Force in fiscal 2013 budget plans, says a senior Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) official. Plans for U.S. Army anti-electronics weapons are less developed, but basic research in associated disciplines continues.
China's aerospace industry is reaching out to Indonesia's state-owned airframer in an effort to further open the Southeast Asian nation to Chinese-made aircraft. This strategic move, if successful, could make it harder for ATR, Bombardier and other Western manufacturers to secure sales in Indonesia.
Byard D. Wood, department head and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University, has received the Utah Governor's Science and Technology Medal for 2011 from the State Advisory Council for Science and Technology. Wood was honored for his work on developing sustainable, renewable energies, including solar and biofuels.
Reader Comments On Commercial Space Crew Push, Web Readers
Aviation Week's “New Bomber Force May Need 200 Aircraft,” about the requirement for the Long Range Strike-Bomber program elicited: warrant9 opining: With the current USAF program management track record, one can have little faith that a capable stealth bomber can be developed at a reasonable cost. This project will require leadership and vision, not management skills.
With a pared-down fiscal 2013 budget request on Capitol Hill and delays in the massive Joint Strike Fighter program, the U.S. Air Force is having to abandon a decade's worth of modernization plans for its workhorse airlifter and fighter fleets. Instead of buying hundreds of new F-35s early this decade and retiring F-16s and A-10s, the service is trying to avoid a possible gap. And, rather than embracing an ambitious, decade-long $6.4 billion upgrade for its C-130 fleet, the service is taking an appetite suppressant.
Intelsat General will provide satellite communications to the Iraqi defense ministry under a subcontract to 3DI Technologies, with almost a full transponder on Intelsat's IS-901 satellite and an iDirect network of 150 terminals served by Intelsat General's Mountainside teleport in Maryland. 3DI, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp., won an $80 million contract from the direct military sales branch of the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command.
China plans to perform its first manned space docking operation this year, with the Shenzhou 9 capsule and three crewmembers due to be launched between June and August. Following what national space contractor CAST calls the “thoroughly successful” Shenzhou 8 unmanned and automated docking trial last year, the Shenzhou 9 crew will use manual control to join their craft to Tiangong 1, an orbital laboratory and docking target launched last September.
In this city where politics and policies collide, some put their faith in the executive branch, while others bet on Congress to provide the last word. A multinational missile defense program finds itself yet again in a tussle between both branches. The U.S., Italy and Germany have agreed to provide funding for development of Lockheed Martin's Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) in fiscal 2012 and 2013. Any unilateral exit from that agreement would bring with it steep termination fees. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledges the U.S.
Joseph C. Downie (see photo) has been appointed site director of Falls Church, Va.-based Northrop Grumman's Amherst Systems unit. He was simulation systems director.
A U.S. Air Force C-5 has delivered the second Lockheed Martin Advanced Extremely High-Frequency communications satellite to Cape Canaveral in preparation for launch on a United Space Alliance Atlas 5 on Apr. 27.
Trials of end-to-end performance-based navigation (PBN) procedures on a busy Latin American route mark another incremental step in global PBN development. LAN Peru launched the trials Feb. 23 using flights between Lima and major tourism gateway Cusco. General Electric Aviation has installed required navigation performance (RNP) procedures at both airports, which cover the entire flight of almost 1 hr. RNP is an advanced type of PBN that allows aircraft to fly precise—and more efficient—routes using aircraft flight-management systems.
In 2009, Southwest Airlines unveiled an ambitious plan to switch out its original Boeing 737 cabin in favor of a sustainable one called the Green Plane. Two years later, the airline has finished rigorous tests of lighter, recyclable aircraft components and tallied survey results from passengers who commented on the new amenities. The project has culminated in Evolve, an interior design that includes newly engineered seats, carpets and bulkheads.
The U.S. Air Force, in its ongoing battle with cybertheft, is concerned about industries that are victimized by digital attack, but it is unwilling to subsidize those losses by allowing those costs to be added to its weapons programs.
Malaysia has too few military aircraft, but the shortage of military pilots poses an even greater threat to the country's defense capability. The shortfall has been exacerbated by the fact that some air force pilots, particularly those who operate helicopters, have been assigned to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and the country's fire services. Overall, there is a general shortage of helicopter pilots throughout Malaysia, largely as a result of the nation's booming oil and gas industry, which uses helicopters to serve offshore rigs.
In The World section in the Feb. 13 issue (p. 14), the name of software developer Ultramain Systems was misspelled in an item about its use with the Boeing Electronic Logbook.
A foliage-penetrating radar developed by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Army has been deployed to South America by U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom) to support anti-terrorism and other operations. Mounted under a Beechcraft C-12 King Air, the Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-concealment-Enabled Radar (Tracer) has replaced an earlier foliage-penetration radar, which has been operational since 2005.
Sandwiched between Malaysia and Indonesia, and a short hop from the Philippines, the city-state of Singapore has built itself into a transportation hub on the strength of its airport, the world's busiest shipping port and its renowned national carrier, Singapore Airlines. But now the island nation is seeing its regional dominance in maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) challenged as first-world wages threaten to price it out of the market.
Gary Drossel (see photo) has been named VP-product strategy for Virtium Technology, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. He was VP-product planning at SiliconSystems and a developer of STEC's solid-state drive portfolio.
