Boeing sets back 787 following blaze on test plane

Boeing Co. is modifying portions of the electrical system on its forthcoming Dreamliner, after an in-flight fire aboard a test plane two weeks ago again threw the timetable for the flagship program into doubt.

Boeing-787 Dreamliner

 

Boeing said the Dreamliner fire was “most likely caused by the presence of foreign debris.”

The move marks just the latest setback for the Dreamliner, which is running nearly three years behind schedule and is in danger of again missing a key milestone: its first delivery to a customer, which Boeing has projected for early next year.

Boeing didn’t provide a new delivery or flight-certification timetable. The Chicago-based company said Wednesday it was assessing how long it would take to implement “minor design changes” and software upgrades and what effect that would have on the overall program. The company said it expected to have a new schedule in the next few weeks.

Boeing has suspended test flights since the fire.

Boeing isn’t alone in grappling with design complications. European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. recently warned that deliveries of its Airbus A380 might be delayed next year because of problems discovered after an engine blowout on a Qantas Airways Ltd. flight Nov. 4. Qantas grounded its A380 fleet for several weeks.
Whatever solution Boeing and its suppliers devise for the electric and software problems would be subject to regulatory approval, which could further delay full implementation of the fix.

Boeing didn’t mention when the fleet of six test Dreamliners would resume flight.

- Wall Street Jourmal

X-37B Spacecraft May Be Nearing Mission’s End

Skywatchers say that a U.S. Air Force robotic space plane continues to maneuver in Earth orbit. Air officials comment that the reusable space drone has been carrying out tasks using a suite of classified sensors and may be nearing its mission’s end.

The spacecraft is the Air Force’s X-37B space plane, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 1, which launched on its maiden flight on April 22 atop an Atlas 5 rocket.

The winged orbiter’s mission has been shrouded in secrecy, but Air Force officials have said it was built for 270-day spaceflights, suggesting that it may be in the flight homestretch and preparing to make an atmospheric re-entry and landing – all on autopilot. Official details regarding the space plane’s whereabouts, its classified payload and projected landing date are scarce — more mum than informative.

U.S. Air Force Major, Tracy Bunko, a spokeswoman for the mission at the Pentagon’s Air Force press desk, said “The first flight of the X-37B/OTV-1 is ongoing and continues to focus on checking out the on-orbit performance of the vehicle and proving the technologies required for long-duration, re-usable space vehicles with autonomous re-entry and landing capabilities.”

Bunko said that after the X-37B test objectives are satisfied, “we look forward to a successful re-entry and recovery at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.” She adds that no landing date has been scheduled.

Meanwhile, amateur skywatchers are keeping tabs – as best they can – regarding the orbital antics of the mystery space plane. As to what the overall mission is of the vehicle, they too can only guess.

“The shortest and best answer is that I don’t know,” said space sleuth and veteran skywatcher Ted Molczan, a leader in a network of heads-up amateurs around the world monitoring the actions of the X-37B spacecraft.

“It has made four significant maneuvers, including the latest one. All of its previous orbits resulted in ground tracks that nearly repeated after two, three, four or six days,” Molczan said. “Ground tracks that nearly repeat after two, three or four days have long been a feature of U.S. imaging reconnaissance satellites, which leads me to suspect that X-37B is carrying experimental sensors for that purpose.”

Molczan’s theory appears to be backed up by similar thoughts from other veteran space watchers.

“The mission is demonstrating one of the primary uses planned for the X-37B: flying attached sensor payloads so that their performance can be assessed before they are integrated with much more costly free-flying systems,” wrote veteran space reporter Craig Covault in the November issue of the magazine Aerospace America, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The reusable X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 was built by Boeing Phantom Works. It is about 9 meters long and has a wingspan of just over 4 meters across. It stands just over 3 meters tall and tips the scales at about 5,000 kg.

The X-37B program is under the banner of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office in Washington, D.C., with one job description dedicated to demonstrating a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the United States Air Force.

The space plane is being operated under the direction of Air Force Space Command’s 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron, a space control unit located at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.

A second X-37B – called Orbital Test Vehicle 2 – is also in development, headed for a test mission slated for 2011.

 

-planenews.com

-space.com

 

Search for Black Box of Air France AF447 to Resume

The French government said yesterday, Nov. 25, that the search for the wreckage and black boxes of an Air France aircraft which crashed into the Atlantic last year killing all 228 people on board will resume in February.

Flight AF447, an Airbus A330, crashed into the sea between Rio de Janeiro and Paris on June 1, 2009. An initial search found wreckage and bodies but the flight recorders, which could provide clues to what happened, have not been located.

A statement from the French Transport Ministry said “The fourth search phase should start in February, 2011, in line with the hypotheses that were put forward on October 5 at the last information committee of the families.”

Families of the victims, who met with the ministry and the air accident investigation agency, had at the meeting questioned the way the third search was handled.

Search teams looking for the missing black box recorders called off operations in May after failing to locate them.

Finding the data recorders is seen as essential to help crash experts and relatives understand why flight 447 crashed into a remote part of the Atlantic during an equatorial storm.

Speculation about the cause of the crash has focused on possible icing of the A330 aircraft’s speed sensors, which appeared to give inconsistent readings seconds before the plane vanished.

Developed by Airbus, the A330 is a large-capacity, wide-body, twin-engine, medium-to-long-range commercial passenger airliner.

 

-news.airwise.com

-wikipedia.org

 

LM pitching lunar dream for Orion spacecraft

While NASA has officially given up its plans to send humans back to the surface of the moon anytime soon, a contractor is proposing a mission to send a crew to a stationary spot in orbit over the far side of Earth’s neighbor.

Lockheed Martin has begun pitching an L2-Farside Mission using its Orion spacecraft under development.

Lockheed Martin says its Orion spacecraft, designed for a now-scuttled lunar landing, could be re-purposed to study the far side of the moon while in orbit. The company says such an effort would help develop techniques and technologies for future missions to an asteroid or to Mars.

The company says such an endeavor could sharpen skills and technologies needed for a trip to an asteroid – as well as showcase techniques useful for exploring Mars by teleoperation as astronauts orbit the red planet. Both are stated goals under the new direction for NASA outlined by President Obama.

Last February, the White House issued its proposed NASA budget that aced out former President George W. Bush’s Constellation program. That plan had benchmarked 2020 as the date to replant the feet of U.S. astronauts on the moon after the last set of moonwalkers departed the landscape back in 1972.

Instead, President Obama laid out the goal of sending astronauts beyond the moon and into deep space. He aimed to land people on an asteroid for the first time in history by 2025, and send a crew to Mars by the mid-2030s.

Space planners at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver proposed using their Orion capsule to support an L2 farside moon mission – one that allows an astronaut crew to have continuous line-of-sight visibility to both the entire far side of the moon and Earth.

- space.com

Jatropha-derived fuel used for TAM A320 test flight

TAM Airlines Airbus A320 aircraft

On Nov. 23, Brazil’s TAM Airlines and Airbus announced that they conducted a 45-minute A320 test flight using fuel partially derived from locally sourced jatropha.

The flight out of Rio de Janeiro was conducted in conjunction with Airbus and CFM International (the A320 is powered by CFM56-5Bs), utilizing biofuel derived from jatropha oil refined by Honeywell’s UOP. It was the first biofuel test flight aboard a commercial aircraft in Latin America.

According to a statement from Airbus, “The biofuel…was a 50% blend of locally sourced Brazilian japtropha-based bio-kerosene and conventional aviation kerosene.” The A320 aircraft carried 20 passengers, all TAM or Airbus employees.

Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders said “Airbus and TAM have taken an important step toward establishing an aviation biofuel solution that is both commercially viable and sustainable, with positive impact on the environment.” TAM President Libano Barroso added, “This experimental flight materializes TAM’s participation in a vast project to develop a production chain for renewable biofuel, with the purpose of creating a Brazilian platform for sustainable aviation bio-kerosene.”

Results from the flight, in terms of fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions, were not released.

Produced from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, the jatropha oil is used to produce biodiesel. Air New Zealand flew the first successful test flight using a blend of jatropha-derived fuel and jet A-1 fuel on December 30, 2008. A Boeing 747 was used for the said test flight.

Jatropha plant

-atwonline.com

-wikipedia.org

 

USAF worries over F-35 delivery delay

The U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz said on Tuesday he was concerned software development and production issues could delay the service’s plan to start using new F-35 fighter jets in April 2016.

General Norton Schwartz said the Air Force variant of the Lockheed Martin Corp fighter jet was doing better in testing and development than the Navy and Marine Corps’ versions, but it was not clear whether software issues would delay the start of their use in combat.

Vice Admiral David Venlet, the defense official in charge of the F-35 program, briefed Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter and other senior defense officials at a three-hour meeting on Monday about the preliminary findings of his months-long comprehensive review of the program.

The Pentagon earlier this year restructured the $382 billion fighter program, adding 13 months to the development phase. Venlet’s review is pointing to a further possible delay of up to three years and added costs of up to $5 billion, sources familiar with the program said earlier this month.

“I’m still concerned on schedule primarily,” he said. “Software appears to be a potential pacing item here and that has me concerned in terms of deliveries.”

Lockheed spokesman John Kent said the company was bringing in more software engineers and adding a new test line to accelerate work on the F-35′s complicated software system, which involves over 8 million lines of code on board the new plane, and 20 million lines for the overall program.

Schwartz said the Air Force would examine the need to upgrade its existing F-16 fighters through structural modifications, and radar and avionics improvements, if the F-35 fighter wound up being delayed.

Asked if such moves would siphon off needed funding from the F-35 program, Schwartz said: “If the airplanes are not ready to put on the ramp, we’ll work alternatives. It’s not the preferred solution to be sure, but we’ll do what’s required.”

- reuters

Orion UAS Rolls Out

On Monday, Nov. 22, Aurora Flight Sciences unveiled the Orion unmanned aerial system, a flight vehicle demonstrator that will stay aloft for up to five days. Orion was selected by the US Air Force Research Laboratory in late August to meet the objectives of the Medium Altitude Global ISR and Communications (MAGIC) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD).

Aurora CEO John Langford said “Orion was developed under the MAGIC JCTD program to meet CENTCOM’s urgent operational need and deliver this capability rapidly to our nation’s war fighters.”

Sponsored by US CENTCOM, the MAGIC JCTD is tasked to meet its demands for persistent ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance). The JCTD’s goal is to demonstrate five day flight of the Orion UAS at 20,000 feet with 1,000 pounds of payload. In the JCTD ranking process last year, five US Combatant Commands ranked Orion as their number one priority.

US Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker attended the Orion rollout ceremony. “We can be proud that Aurora’s facility in Columbus is giving our Armed Forces an unmanned aerial vehicle with the potential for new surveillance capabilities,” said Cochran, vice chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “Aurora has once again demonstrated the innovation and can-do spirit of its Mississippi workforce by producing the first Orion only ninety days after receiving the contract award,” said Wicker. “This will provide help for our troops on an expedited basis.”

John Tylko, Aurora’s Vice President for Development, stated that the “Orion is a model for several of the new acquisition efficiency goals recently announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates,” also adding “It uses open system architectures to support a continuous competitive environment. It involves dynamic small businesses in key roles in defense acquisition. It helps restore competition, affordability and productivity in defense spending and it encourages the rapid assimilation of disruptive technologies.”

The Orion vehicle which rolled out on Monday will be the first to be flight-tested to demonstrate endurance flights of 120 hours. Orion’s first flight will take place in mid 2011. Orion was developed under the sponsorship of both the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command and with Aurora private funding.

-planenews.com

Boeing Proposes Partnership with Embraer on Super Hornet

Boeing Company is seeking a partnership with Brazilian planemaker Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA to strengthen its bid to make 36 fighter jets for the country’s airforce, Valor Economico recently reported.

F/A-18E Super Hornet flying at sunset

Boeing has offered to partner with Embraer on 10 projects, including construction of a plant in Brazil, which would supply parts for the U.S. plane maker’s F-18 Super Hornets. The factory would probably be in Sao Jose dos Campos, where Embraer is based, Valor said.

Boeing also wants to join up with Embraer to make KC-390 cargo planes.

Boeing hasn’t been in contact with Brazil’s airforce since January and the government still hasn’t decided which aircraft it will buy, according to the report, citing Joseph T. McAndrew, Boeing’s vice president for Europe, Israel and America.

Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a twin-engine 4.5 generatio carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft. It has an internal 20 mm gun and can carry air-to-air missiles and air-to-surface weapons. Additional fuel can be carried with up to five external fuel tanks and the aircraft can be configured as an airborne tanker by adding an external air refueling system.

- Bloomberg -
- Wikipedia -

20 F-35 JSF Offered To Israel By U.S.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft

The Israeli government is being pressed by its defense establishment to accept a U.S. offer of 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in return for a renewal of the moratorium on West Bank settlement-building.

Eager to resume the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Washington is offering the F-35s, valued at $3 billion, if Israel halts the construction that Palestinians cite as a barrier to negotiations. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirms the offer was made while the U.S. State Department refused to comment on the said offer. Barak said “In the past, we wanted to procure 40 F-35s but due to budget constraints we could only afford 20.” He adds “Now the U.S. is offering to give us the additional 20 in exchange for a 90-day freeze on settlements.”

The U.S. also pledges to provide Israel with more technology and capability to counter the threat from Iran, veto any anti-Israeli resolution in the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy Agency and sign a defense treaty with Israel if a peace accord with the Palestinians can be achieved.

According to Israeli defense sources, the offer was initially presented in September, as a 10-month moratorium on settlements was about to expire, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it. The offer was renewed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a 7-hour meeting with Netanyahu in New York on Nov. 11. It is assumed that Clinton demanded, in addition to the moratorium, that Israel accept the U.S. guidelines for the negotiations with the Palestinians and remove some objections that have stalled the peace process so far.

This time, Netanyahu asked to receive the U.S. proposal in a presidential letter, which he will put before his cabinet, a move that stirred vocal opposition from his own party and other coalition partners. Barak comments that “Twenty fighters are much more important in the long term than the current political friction between Netanyahu and his party members.”

Without commenting directly on the U.S. offer, Israel air force commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nachoshtan notes that “the F-35s will provide us a significant strategic capability. They have a key role in the building of Israel’s air force in the face of a developing arena.”

Israel signed a $2.75-billion contract in October to buy a first squadron of 20 F-35As, to be financed through U.S. foreign military aid funds and delivered in 2015-17. The 20 aircraft the U.S. are offering now would not be delivered until the end of the decade. Late last week, Israel had not yet received the U.S. letter of commitment.

 

-aviationweek.com

-jsf.mil

Poland to Host U.S. F-16 and C-130 from 2013

Poland’s Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said F-16 fighter jets and Hercules transport aircraft will be deployed in the country on a rotating basis as of 2013.

“Poland has decided to accept the U.S. proposal of hosting rotations of F-16 and C-130 aircraft and their crews” on its territory, Klich told Poland’s TOK FM commercial radio station.

“The Americans will come, conduct exercises with Poles and return home. Then, they will return periodically to Polish soil,” the minister said.

Klich added the F-16 and Hurcules rotations will be similar to those of U.S. Patriot missiles which began rotations in Poland in May.

“The American presence on our territory constitutes an additional guarantee, an additional assurance that we are in an alliance (NATO) where our allies would come to our aid if the situation warranted,” said Klich.

The minister also announced that Poland and the three Baltic states in 2013 will host in an exercise of the NATO Response Force (NRF), a multinational contingent of about 25,000 troops available for rapid deployment in crisis management, stabilization or collective defense.

- DefenseNews