Royal Saudi Air Force Selects Pilatus PC-21 for Pilot Training

Pilatus Aircraft Ltd is proud to announce that a contract has been signed with BAE Systems to supply the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) with a fleet of 55 Pilatus PC-21 turboprop aircraft, together with an integrated ground based training system and a comprehensive logistics support package. This makes it by far the biggest ever order in the history of Pilatus.

Following agreement between the Governments of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, under the Saudi British Defence Cooperation Programme (SBDCP), deliveries of the aircraft, ground based training systems and the logistics support package are scheduled to commence in 2014. The aircraft will provide basic flying training in Riyadh to the RSAF and will replace the PC-9 with the state of the art PC-21 platform in the shortest possible time

25 years have passed since the initial batch of Pilatus PC-9 training aircraft were delivered to the RSAF under an agreement with BAE Systems. After so many years of sterling service the RSAF has selected the PC-21 aircraft and ground based training system following a thorough evaluation both here in Stans and under hot weather conditions in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.

This is yet another major success for Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, confirming the confidence and the trust our customers place in the quality of our aircraft and the cost effectiveness of our through life support services.

After Switzerland, Singapore and the UAE, Saudi Arabia is now the fourth country to procure the PC-21 aircraft. This is in line with today’s changing training philosophies which are required for advanced operational aircraft now coming into service with major air forces around the world.

Pilatus is very glad to continue serving the Royal Saudi Air Force by delivering and supporting the most advanced turboprop trainer aircraft in the world – the Pilatus PC-21.

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News Source: Defensetalk.com

2 Small Planes collide in Virginia

The FAA and Virginia State Police reported Monday on CNN, a pilot and passenger were killed as two small planes collided in the air above Fauquier County, Virginia.

The collision happened above Fauquier County about five miles south of the Warrenton-Fauquier Airport.

The midair collision happened about five miles south of the Warrenton-Fauquier Airport around 4 p.m.

“One plane has been destroyed by fire,” Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller told CNN. “In that plane, which is believed to be a six-seater aircraft, two bodies have been recovered. State Police are in the process of identifying the pilot and passenger.”

One of the planes involved in the collision is identified as a Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee (tail number N23SC) registered to T.R. Proven of Broad Run, Va., according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

The second plane’s pilot, an adult male, was transported to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, according to state police.

The two planes crashed to the ground approximately a mile apart from one another, state police said. Parts of the planes and debris were scattered between the two crash sites in a secluded and difficult to access area, state police said.

As to what caused the crash some 50 miles from Washington, D.C., “that remains under investigation at this time” state police said.

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News Source: http://www.examiner.com

Famous Battleship Takes Final Voyage

The USS Iowa is a gun ship vessel which saw action during the World War II and the Korean War. It took its last voyage from San Francisco Bay to South Carolina last Saturday.

The USS Iowa was first commissioned in 1943. It once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to meet with Josef Stalin, and Chiang Kai-Shek. Apart from the World War II and Korean War, it also too part in the Persian War performing escort duties for the tankers.

The battleship carries 80 anti-aircraft guns and 40 anti-aircraft cannons. In 1984, its improvements include 32 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 16 Harpoon Anti-ship missiles.

On Saturday, USS Iowa passed under the Golden Gate Bridge surrounded by surrounded by pleasure boats and other vessels. Crowds gathered at both sides of the bridge to watch its final voyage.

The USS Iowa gun ship vessel will now stay at Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro where it will be under the care of Pacific Battleship Center. The center plans to make it into an interactive naval museum where guests can experience what it is life at sea feels like when you are on active duty.

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News source: http://www.guardian.com.uk

NASA Building A New Unmanned Aircraft: X-56A MUTT

NASA’s Research Center, Dryden Flight, will soon have an unmanned aircraft named X-56A MUTT – short for Multi-Use Technology Testbed – it is being developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to start on testing technologies needed for new kinds of lightweight and flexible aircraft.

The newly-built aircraft is under contract to Lockheed Martin Corp., it is being made in California and will conduct the  flight experiments for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). X-56A MUTT is one of the Air Force’s newest designed X-planes. The 7.5 foot-long aircraft has a 28-foot wingspan and will be powered by two 52-pound thrust has JetCat P200 SX turbine engines.

Gary Martin, the Deputy Project Manager for NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project at Dryden Flight said to the press, “flexible wings and fuselages can result in significant reductions in the structural weight of aircraft. To maintain the long-term health of the structure and ride quality in a more flexible airplane, we need to actively alleviate gust loads on the airplane and suppress flutter, so gust load alleviation and active flutter suppression are two of the key technologies that NASA is working to advance.”

The MUTT is designed to address this problem by enabling engineers to practice suppressing flutter by adjusting software programs in the aircraft’s flight control computer. Researchers also expect to learn how better to ease gust loads, which will make flexible airplanes safer when they experience in-flight turbulence. The knowledge gained about flutter and gust suppression will be used in designing the proposed supersonic X-54, an aircraft that will demonstrate sonic boom-quieting technologies that could someday alleviate the noise concerns currently preventing supersonic commercial flight over land in the United States.

Dryden Research Center will oversee the flights for AFRL during summer 2012, and then take ownership of the X-56A MUTT for follow-on research after the Air Force tests are finished in early autumn.

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Source: http://www.nasa.gov

Boeing Delivers the 5th C-17 Globemaster III to UAE Air Force

Earlier this month, the Boeing was able to deliver the fifth C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force. The other four C-17s was already delivered  last 2011 and the UAE Air Force is waiting for one more airlifter later this year.

UAE Air Force is Boeing’s sixth C-17 international customer. The UAE Air Force received their first airlifter on May 10, 2011. Since then, the UAE Air Force and Air Defence C-17 had more than 2,000 flight hours and carried more than 3,000 passengers and about 4 million pounds of cargo.

“It’s amazing to see all that the UAE has accomplished with its fleet of C-17s in such a short time, including standing up a new base; qualifying three aircraft commanders and four mission-ready loadmasters; and conducting humanitarian aid and peacekeeping missions,” said Bob Ciesla, Boeing Airlift Vice President and C-17 Program Manager. “We’re proud to be a part of the UAE Air Force and Air Defence mission long after each C-17 is delivered. With a mission-capable rate above 90 percent, UAE C-17s are ready to save lives and deliver hope whenever they are needed.”

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is known as a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas in which later merged with the Boeing company. The C-17 is widely-used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo to main operating bases or forward operating bases all over the world. The C-17 Globemaster III can also perform tactical airlift, medical evacuation and airdrop missions.

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Source: http://www.defencetalk.com

First Boeing 787 made in South Carolina to take flight

The first Boeing 787 made in South Carolina goes up for a test flight this week.

Boeing spokeswoman Candy Eslinger confirms that the first flight is planned for Wednesday. The plane will take off from the Charleston International Airport near the company’s new $750 million North Charleston assembly plant.

The commercial plane, which was rolled out in a ceremony last month, has been purchased by Air India.

The plant should turn out four completed aircraft by year’s end. By the end of 2013, the plant should be producing about three-and-a-half of the speedy, light aircraft a month. The planes are made partly from composite material of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic.

Manufactured by developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a long-range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner.

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News source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

NORAD Intercepts Two Aircraft During G8 Summit

This year’s G8 Summit, where the leaders of the most powerful nations are gathered to talk about the economy, is held at Camp David in Maryland. For security purposes, the skies above and near Camp David are restricted airspace. Because of it, the North American Aerospace Defence Command ordered it military jets to intercept two Cessna 172 aircraft. The two aircraft which entered the 30 mile restricted were both out of radio communication. The restricted area were expanded due to the G8 summit.

The NORAD provides airspace warning and defense for U.S. and Canada.

Max Millien, secret service spokesperson, said that the violation of the two aircraft are not considered threatening.

An F-15 fighter jet intercepted the first plane and it landed at York Airport in Thomasville, Pennsylvania. After 15 minutes, another F-15 and a Black Hawk helicopter intercepted the second plane and it landed on a grass runway in Pennsylvania.

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News source: http://www.the star.com

737 MAX engine undergoing modifications

Boeing is continuing to tweak the design of its coming 737 MAX, the update to its workhorse single-aisle jet due in 2017, and has decided to increase the crucial engine-fan diameter from 68 to 69 inches.

Boeing spokeswoman Lauren Penning said the change stemmed from wind-tunnel testing that was completed last week and continuing work with engine-maker CFM International, a joint venture between GE and Snecma of France.

Despite the size increase, the nose landing gear won’t need to be raised for ground clearance beyond the 8 inches previously announced, she said.

The size of the fan on the new jet has been a matter of contention because Airbus is able to offer a much bigger fan on the coming update to its rival single-aisle family, the A320neo.

A bigger fan produces more efficient propulsion. On the negative side, it also adds weight and drag. Engineers must come up with the optimal engine size to produce the greatest overall benefit to the airplane.

Penning said 69 inches is “looking like the best balance of weight, drag and performance.”

However, on fan size, Airbus insists that bigger is better. Its executives argue that Boeing simply can’t make the 737 MAX fan as big as it would like because the jet sits lower to the ground than the Airbus A320 and there isn’t enough clearance to fit a bigger fan.

On the MAX, Boeing is offering just one engine: CFM’s LEAP-1B.

Airbus is offering a choice between a variant of CFM’s LEAP with a 78-inch fan and a Pratt & Whitney geared engine with an 81-inch fan.

In April, Boeing announced a series of design changes to the MAX, including the 8-inch lift to the nose gear, a change in shape of the tail cone and the introduction of fly-by-wire spoilers on the wings. Then earlier this month, it revealed a new type of winglet for the MAX.

Some in the industry have speculated that, because of the ground-clearance limitation on fan size, Boeing is struggling to come up with a design that will match the fuel efficiency of the Airbus neo.

But in a note to clients Wednesday, Richard Safran, aerospace analyst with Buckingham Research Group, wrote that “the revised engine fan size has more to do with optimizing the engine than a means to overcome performance deficiencies.”

And Scott Hamilton, industry analyst with Leeham.net, said that with the MAX still five years away from entry into service, “Boeing is doing what it ought to be doing in trying to get every little advantage out of its redesign.”

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News source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

Pentagon restricts F-22 Raptor Flights

Due to the reported suffering in lack of oxygen of the F-22 Raptor pilots, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the Air Force to restrict flights of its most advanced fighter jet, F-22, officials said last Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Some pilots complained of dizzy spells and blackouts but engineers have yet to figure out how to fix the problem.

The F-22 Raptor will no longer be conducting longer-range flights and would stay within the reach of their runaways to ensure the pilot could do an emergency landing, George Little, Pentagon’s Spokesman told the reporters. Under Panetta’s decision, “effective immediately, all F-22 flights will remain within the proximity of potential landing locations to enable quick recovery and landing when a pilot encounter another physiological conditions during flight.”

Panetta also advised the Air Force to assist their men in the installation of the back-up oxygen system in the F-22 planes and provide a monthly progress report on the efforts to control and fix the undiagnosed technical problem. Panetta’s officials said that the first back-up systems would be installed by December 2012.

Known as the most sophisticated fighter in the world, F-22 has yet to be deployed in  combat. According to the Air Force, the F-22 flies at a higher altitude than other jets, above 50,000 feet and relies solely on pressurized oxygen instead of a mixture of oxygen under pressure and air in the cockpit. The plane is also faster and more active than older jet fighters as the pilots face more gravitational forces than in other planes.

Manufactured by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Boeing Defense, Space and Security, this stealth air superiority fighter possesses capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare and signals intelligence roles. According to the Air Chief Marshal, Angus Houston, former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, said in 2004 that the “F-22 will be the most outstanding fighter plane ever built.”

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News Source: defencetalk.com

Indonesia Finds SuperJet Black Box

An official stated that Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency has found the black box flight recorder from the Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed during a demonstration flight killing all 45 people on board.

The aircraft crashed on May 9 on the slopes of a dormant volcano about 40 miles (64 km) south of Jakarta.

Those on the flight included Indonesian businessmen, Russian embassy officials and journalists.

Wreckage was found a day later on a steep ridge of Mount Salak.

“The item found is the CVR, cockpit voice recorder. I have asked officers on the ground and rescuers to continue the search of FDR (flight data recorder) as well as the evacuation operation,” agency head Daryatmo told reporters near the crash site.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 was developed with Western design advice and technology from companies including Italy’s Finmeccanica, as well as avionics and engine equipment from French aerospace firms Thales and Safran.

The Superjet, with a capacity of up to 103 passengers, is already in service with Russia’s Aeroflot and Armenian carrier Armavia and is half way through a 15,500-km (9,630-mile), six-nation Asian tour to try to drum up more international customers.

The Superjet 100 aircraft is being marketed internationally in partnership with Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica.

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News Source: Aviationweek.com