Top NASA managers are preparing for the day when foreign governments and private businesses help defray the cost of U.S. space operations through the purchase of transportation and accommodation on U.S. commercial human spaceflight assets in low Earth orbit.
The Pentagon’s first National Security Space Strategy and its recently released budget request for space are attempting to prioritize procurement and operations after a decade of problematic performance. But work still needs to be done.
NASA’s plan to halve its funding for hypersonic research in fiscal 2012 and redirect $24.7 million to “higher-priority” projects to increase airport capacity and aircraft safety and reduce environmental impact has been met with disappointed resignation by advocates of high-speed flight. The decision to cut back research on turbine-based combined-cycle (TBCC) engines could adversely affect Air Force plans for a larger demonstrator to follow the scramjet-powered X-51A Waverider, believes the Hypersonic Industry Team.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget request is largely good news for the Pentagon. Though the $671 billion defense blueprint is 5% lower than the president’s request last year, much of the reduction comes from the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq. Other modest cuts already were telegraphed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Pentagon’s core budget would actually rise slightly, to $553 billion, though not enough to keep pace with inflation.
The A Train of Earth-observing satellites that NASA leads is set to get a new member with the Feb. 23 launch of Glory. The $424 million mission focuses on the subtle ways solar radiance influences the planet’s climate. While climatologists have developed an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the role that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide play in climate change, they are less certain about how solar variability and aerosols factor into the climate-change equation.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
In the Pentagon’s latest budget request, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is attempting to terminate more unneeded programs in the name of higher-priority efforts, but he will be forced to leave several major issues undecided in what will likely be his last months in the post.
Pratt & Whitney is preparing to ship its first PW1524G geared turbofan for Bombardier’s CSeries to Manitoba for ice testing following the completion of initial ground tests at its West Palm Beach, Fla., facility. Testing of Engine 001, set for March, will follow nearly 200 hr. of ground evaluation, which showed “the engine continues to exceed our expectations,” says Bob Saia, vice president of the Next Generation Product Family. Assemblies of the second and third PW1524G development engines are nearing completion.
There is a good chance that aerospace/defense again could be fundamentally reshaped in the years ahead as the industry enters a new era of flat or declining budgets following a decade of double-digit growth. Procurement chief Ashton Carter has signaled the Pentagon will not stand in the way of market forces that drive lower-tier suppliers toward more mergers and acquisitions (AW&ST Feb. 14, p. 24). Pardon us if we don’t jump for joy.
Steve Walden has become director of sales for commercial engines and airframes in EMEA for CT Aerospace , Carrollton, Texas. He has worked for Inventory Navigators, Monarch Aircraft Engineering and Rockwell Collins. Pamela Parsons has been appointed director of special projects at Backstage Cargo, the entertainment freight division of Los Angeles-based Consolidators International.
Michael Curto, a Patton Boggs partner and deputy chair of the Washington firm’s Business Department, has been named to the board of the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority .
James R. Meltsner has been appointed vice president-government relations and communications at Alenia North America , Washington. He was vice president for congressional affairs for Northrop Grumman Corp., following a stint as vice president/general counsel of the Evans Group.
I’m not surprised that technical issues are coming to light on the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) aircraft, as reported in recent issues of AW&ST. The aircraft has a very complex clutch-drive system. What really surprised me was the Defense Department’s attempting a “Joint” Strike Fighter on the assumption it could satisfy all three service requirements with a single platform. Haven’t we been down that road before?
President Barack Obama’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget would increase Transportation Department spending to $128.6 billion, about $52 billion more than the department might spend this year. But it offers only a glimmer of hope to airlines seeking financial assistance to equip aircraft for the NextGen satellite-based air traffic control system and provides minimal comfort for small communities counting on federal subsidies to maintain or bring back airline service.
The U.S. Navy plans to change the airframe of the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopter to extend endurance and payload to meet an urgent special-operations requirement for a sea-based medium-range surveillance platform to be operational by 2015. Funds are requested in fiscal 2012 for the first 12 MQ-8Cs, based on the Bell 407 commercial helicopter rather than the smaller Schweizer 333 on which the MQ-8B is built, but using the same avionics, payloads and ground station.
The Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft may already have the ability to detect stealthy aircraft and cruise missiles that are under development, and it may emerge on the world market during the next decade. The aircraft’s advanced radar also has the potential to serve as a non-kinetic weapon capable of electronically attacking enemy sensors or serving as a network-invasion node.
Karen A. Williams has become vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s new Defense Technologies Division in McLean, Va. Williams was vice president for Air and Missile Defense Systems and had been vice president of Mission Support Systems.
Jeffrey McRae is the new president of Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Integrated Programs Div. , Wayne, Pa. He was general manager for United Defense’s Armament Systems Div.
The Royal Australian Air Force’s long-serving F-111s were retired late last year, but some veteran aircrews are turning their strike experience to creating the first two squadrons of the 24-aircraft F/A-18F Super Hornet force.
New instabilities in the Middle East triggered events that reveal immediate pressures on the aviation aftermarket. On Jan. 31, oil prices hit $100 per barrel for the first time since 2008, soaring on word of protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. This sharp increase sent international jet fuel prices up to more than $115 per barrel, with those in the Northwest Europe market peaking at just over $120 per barrel (see chart, p. 46). When fuel prices belled two years ago, airline cost-cutting behaviors put new stresses on aircraft maintenance providers.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is expected to slip 12-14 months as a result of Congress’s failure to pass new appropriations for fiscal 2011. JPSS is the civil follow-on to the canceled National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System on which NOAA was partnered with the U.S. Air Force and NASA. JPSS had been targeted for a first launch in 2014. The Air Force is now pursuing its own polar Defense Weather Satellite System in parallel .
The Obama administration’s new NASA budget request sets up a ready-made conflict with lawmakers who ordered faster work on government-built vehicles and less emphasis on commercial travel to low Earth orbit. The request does not keep the six-year pace set for a new heavy-lift launch vehicle in the three-year NASA authorization enacted in December, and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) quickly threw down the gauntlet. “In this time of necessary budget cuts, NASA does well compared to most other agencies,” he says.
The Wedgetail early warning and control aircraft, the heart of the Royal Australian Air Force’s new, airborne network-centric organization, will become operational later this year. Its introduction comes after more than four painful, but perhaps technologically and operationally important, years of delay.
Clark Gordon has become director of marketing for Pro Star Aviation , Londonderry, N.H. He was vice president of sales for TruNorth Avionics and is chairman of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association.
John Morgan is Kuwait-based Wataniya Airways ’ new chief commercial officer. He was vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa of Dubai-based Eos Airline and vice president-commercial activities for Royal Jet in Abu Dhabi.
Greg Marshall has been appointed Melbourne, Australia-based director of the Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Safety Foundation ’s Basic Aviation Risk Standard program. He was head of safety and security for Australia’s Sharp Airlines.
