Approval of hydrotreated renewable jet fuels derived from vegetable oils is a big step toward sustainable low-carbon biofuels for aircraft. But a hurdle must be crossed: scaling-up feedstock production to meet even a fraction of the demand for jet fuel.
France has a complex problem when it comes to flight crews. They seem to be part of a systemic dysfunction when it comes to adhering to chain-of-command decisions, and they often harbor a habit of balking at airline management. In the same vein, company executives, training managers and flight-safety officials show they are still unable to fully understand each other's specific concerns, let alone that of the pilots. The resulting disputes seem to be unique to France.
The recent debate about Essential Air Service subsidies in the U.S. may have been political theater but it has brought the issue to the fore, and legislators should take this opportunity to once and for all conclude a debate that has persisted since the country enacted the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
On a separate subject altogether, OnAir CEO Ian Dawkins has provided some interesting insight into how the inflight communications industry will develop in the coming years.
U.S. space-technology researchers soon will be able to start work on some of the first projects funded under the Obama administration's shift from an exploration program targeted on the Moon to one trying to enable human voyages beyond Earth's orbit.
After the hugely embarrassing two-week partial shutdown of the FAA, lawmakers are turning their attention to negotiations on a long-term reauthorization bill—something the agency has not had since 2007. However, that does not mean posturing on the Hill is being replaced with “Come, let us reason together.” Lawmakers return to town after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday with less than two weeks to agree to a long-term bill, pass the 22nd extension of the Airport and Airways Trust Fund authority or hit replay on the shutdown drama.
NASA bigwigs are bracing for an outside cost-analysis of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) reference design selected by Administrator Charles Bolden in June, which could be presented to them as early as this week. Booz Allen Hamilton has been working in parallel with internal NASA cost experts to figure out the best procurement strategy for an SLS that incorporates space shuttle main engines and solid-booster variants and the J-2X upper-stage engine originally developed for the defunct Ares I crew launch vehicle.
It might be summer in the northern hemisphere, but the time is coming for U.S. and Russian officials to show their “homework” for moving ahead with another new nuclear arms reduction treaty. So says Rose Gottemoeller, the assistant secretary of state charged with arms control. However, she admits the two sides still have a long way to go in defining mutual terms like what exactly a non-strategic nuclear weapon is, whether an overall limit on strategic and tactical weapons is applicable, and how transparency measures might be implemented.
Legislation in the Senate would impose harsher penalties on those who counterfeit parts and sell them to the military. But the government also needs to change its purchasing methods to keep counterfeits out of the supply chain, says Dan Ellsworth, a member of the board of the Independent Distributors of Electronics Association. The Defense Department and related buyers currently require proper documentation to ensure a part's authenticity.
The Chinese military is either confident that it can already win a battle in the Taiwan Strait, or it is confident that it can keep winning the budget battles back in Beijing. With the ex-Soviet carrier Varyag now mobile near the northern port of Dalian, China has joined the aircraft carrier club. And in completing the ship, with its limited use in narrow waters, the country has left behind one of the guiding principles of its defense acquisitions—that the first priority after nuclear deterrence is subjugating Taiwan.
Taiwan's ministry of national defense caused a sensation during the preview of the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition by displaying a billboard depicting an aircraft carrier being blown up by a Taiwanese Hsiung Feng III cruise missile. The preview was Aug. 10, the same day that China's first aircraft carrier, the Varyag, set sail. The billboard had the Chinese words for “carrier killer” along with a picture of a vessel resembling the Varyag.
Conspicuous by their absence at the aerospace and defense show here last week were many big companies that would normally tout their wares. Boeing, Airbus Military, Rockwell Collins, Dassault and Textron were just some of the major players that declined to appear. Many of them do business with Taiwan's defense establishment, but all refrained from exhibiting for fear of upsetting China.
The first commercial outing for Phazotron-NIIR's new active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar may have ended in failure, but rather than retrenching, the Russian company plans to further exploit the technology.
The dictionary definition of “decimate” is to remove 10%, and that is what could happen to U.S. defense spending over the next decade, now that Washington has set a course to cut as much as $2.4 trillion from accumulating annual deficits.
Lockheed Martin's Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is facing an existential threat on Capitol Hill. Senators are actively trying to end funding for the system and renegotiate the U.S. agreement to develop the missile with Italy and Germany. Rather than simply push back on the cuts, Lockheed Martin is making a run at the competition, arguing it will cost the government more in the long term to sustain Raytheon's Patriot missile system than to opt for Meads.
Development of the U.S. Air Force's proposed next-generation upper-stage engine is vital to inject new life into the industry, even though the operational requirement remains obscure, say supporters.
The two companies using NASA seed money to develop commercial cargo carriers for the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing for crucial launches before the end of the year, although both need some last-minute answers before they can fly.
If scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) get their way, in a few years' time there may be networked clusters of dozens or even hundreds of small, cheap, easily replaceable satellites working together to take the place of the large, expensive hardware currently floating around in orbit.
Ames Research Center, NASA's lead for small/low-cost satellite development, is tapping Swedish experts in space plug-and-play avionics (SPA) to further its design of cubesats. The 10-year partnership between NASA and the Swedish national space board will harness the miniaturization work of AAC Microtec of Uppsala, Sweden, which the board has funded. SPA technology includes interfaces, onboard computers and power subsystems that Ames will test in June 2012.
An anomaly on a satellite launched by Telesat Canada in May is having a ripple effect through the global satellite industry, delaying a mid-summer launch of the $400 million ViaSat-1 satellite to September and gumming up International Launch Services' (ILS) busy manifest.
The move to align AirAsia and national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS), after years of fierce competition, will have huge implications and comes at an opportune time for AirAsia's Tony Fernandes.
With Airbus and Boeing's airliners sold-out in the near term and passenger traffic on the rise, the aircraft leasing sector is experiencing renewed momentum. Flagging demand and difficult access to capital had kept deals in the leasing sector relatively flat ever since the market downturn in late 2007. But that has gradually changed in recent months. Leasing companies that had depleted their orderbooks have begun placing large commitments with major manufacturers, and more recently the sector has seen a slew of activity to realign portfolios.
This year's surge in orders is causing Airbus to fill the bulk of its orderbook for its A320NEO (new engine option), but there is concern the aircraft maker may face a mid-decade dip that could undermine its financial performance. Airbus has been finalizing deals announced at the Paris air show in June that have already put the aircraft maker well ahead of its 1,000-order target for the full year and marking the first time in four years that it holds more than 1,000 orders.
While regulators are allowing Tiger Airways Australia to fly again after a five-week-long grounding, the long-term viability of the low-cost carrier is shakier than ever. The airline was already a financial drain on its parent, the Singapore-based Tiger Airways group, before safety problems led to its suspension. Now Tiger will gradually relaunch domestic routes, but airline analysts question how much more patience group management will have with the troubled carrier.
As it closes in on a first delivery of the 787-8 in late September, Boeing is seeing daylight in its aspirations to move on to the stretched 787-9 model in its new family of composite twin-engine jets. Introduction of the 787-9, with nominal seating of 250-290 and a top range about 4% farther than the -8's, remains on track for 2013, says Scott Fancher, 787 general manager.
