MOORESTOWN, N.J. — To develop Aegis Ashore, a team of Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and other contractors had to discern ways across the board to do in hours what it would take days to do for previous shipboard Aegis installations. “It was such a tight schedule,” Brendan Scanlon, Lockheed Martin Aegis Ashore program director, tells the Aviation Week Intelligence Network. “We had to find ways to do things faster.”
MD Helicopters (MDHI) is studying the possibility of producing a hybrid-powered helicopter, its owner says. Speaking at Heli-Expo 2014 in Anaheim, Calif., Feb. 25, owner and CEO Lynn Tilton said company engineers were examining what options and technologies are available, and that 3D printing of components was also being considered.
USCG CHIEF: President Obama plans to nominate Vice Adm. Paul F. Zukunft as the 25th Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard to replace Adm. Robert Papp, who is slated to turn over command this spring. A 37-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, Zukunft coordinated the federal response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He now commands U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area, is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and holds advanced degrees from the U.S. Naval War College and Webster University.
With the Pentagon in its fiscal 2015 budget request beginning to put programmatic spending behind its strategy of emphasizing future military technology over near-term force structure size — i.e., capability over capacity — the military departments’ research chiefs are outlining where they want to go.
Turkey has begun firing trials of an indigenously produced, precision-guided, air-launched anti-tank missile. The first live firings of the Mirsak-U, also known as the Umtas—developed by Turkish missile manufacturer Roketsan—were announced by Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) on March 3. The firings saw the weapon launched from a Turkish land forces AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter, and fly some 3,500 meters (11,500 ft.) to impact the target.
Aerospace and defense companies feature prominently as partners in two public-private advanced manufacturing institutes launched by the Obama administration. Led by EWI and headquartered in Detriot, the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII) is a 60-member consortium that includes Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric and United Technologies Research Center.
Lockheed Martin is working on a series of upgrades to the Desert Hawk small, hand-launched unmanned aircraft system principally used by the British army in Afghanistan. A digital data link to improve signal quality and increase information security will be demonstrated soon, says Steve Fortson, the company’s small UAS business development manager.
Romania’s ARCA has begun flight testing the Air Strato electric-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft. The vehicle is aimed at surveillance and scientific missions. The aircraft made a short first flight on Feb. 13, reaching an altitude of 25 meters (80 ft.) and speed of 72 km/hr. (39 kt.). The takeoff was from rough ground and the right main gear suspension system was damaged on touchdown, ARCA says.
Flight-simulator manufacturer CAE is to receive a C$250 million ($225 million) repayable investment from the Canadian government to support its Project Innovate program to develop new modeling and simulation technologies. Investment in the company’s research and development program, which will continue into 2020, is being made under the federal government’s Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative (SADI).
The U.K.’s Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. (HAV) has begun reassembling a large airship acquired from the U.S. Army, following cancellation of the Northrop Grumman-led Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program. Cardington-based HAV plans to use the 302-ft.-long HAV304 hybrid airship, which flew only once in August 2012 at Lakehurst, N.J., as a prototype and demonstrator for its planned Airlander 50 commercial heavy-lift airship. The first U.K. flight is expected by year’s end.
After a strong fourth quarter in which it shipped 40% of the aircraft it delivered last year, Embraer is forecasting a similar level of activity in 2014, but with a slight shift in the balance between commercial and business jets. The year-end rush allowed the Brazilian manufacturer to meet its financial targets for 2013, with its highest-ever quarterly revenues of $2.3 billion boosting net revenues for the year to $6.2 billion, up slightly over 2012.
1. Electronics for All Markets Company: Esterline CMC Electronics Services: Located in Montreal, Esterline CMC Electronics focuses equally on its business, commercial and military aviation markets, with a wide product line including FMS/GPS, enhanced vision system sensors, satellite communications antennas and cockpit systems integration. The company recently certified its CMA-9000 FMS for retrofit on the Airbus A310, offering operators a replacement for older FMS components with more limited memory capacity.
Amy Butler (Washington), Michael Bruno (Washington)
The Pentagon is trying to balance demands for restoring readiness and pushing for next-generation technologies in its fiscal 2015 budget request, despite congressional spending limits imposing a $45 billion cut to its expected plan.
Some aircraft are regarded as seminal, as having defined or shaped a market, as Boeing's 707 did for the jetliner and General Atomics' Predator has for unmanned aircraft. Such a status could be due the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max helicopter as soon as unmanned cargo delivery becomes routine.
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch two new, secretly developed satellites this year to spy on activities in the densely populated geosynchronous orbit belt, according to Gen. William Shelton, who leads Air Force Space Command. The spacecraft, classified until Shelton revealed their existence Feb. 21, were developed by the Air Force and Orbital Sciences Corp. under the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), service officials say.
Developed with a Cold War mind-set, communications for stealthy aircraft were largely intended to be limited. But that has become a hindrance to operating the F-22 and F-35 on the modern battlefield.
It may be decades away, but the U.S. Army is working to protect the plan to replace its massive fleet of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks from near-term budget cutting that could derail the program. While facing major reductions in force structure, the Army is spending money to develop the technology, define the requirements and decide what is affordable in a future rotorcraft.
Flying the Piaggio P180 Avanti twin-turboprop pusher from the front seat is a unique experience, but taking control of the same Avanti using a sidestick and a virtual windscreen from a side-facing seat in the rear of the cabin is a rare treat indeed.
