September 2011 Archives

 

European Space Agency fingers remain crossed as the countdown continues towards its much-anticipated Soyuz launch on 20 October.

Not only will the three-stage ST-B rocket will be making its first-ever flight from ESA's launch centre at  Kourou, French Guiana, its payload will be the first two satellites for Europe's Galileo navigation constellation.

Final assembly began on 12 September, following electrical and mechanical tests in August. The horizontal integration is taking place inside a purpose-built building at the spaceport, with rollout to the launch pad and a new 45m-tall mobile gantry was built specifically for Soyuz operations, planned for 14 October.

A second Soyuz launch, carrying two more Galileo spacecraft, is to follow in December. Then, thanks to cash freed up by some €500 million ($715 million)-worth of cost savings, ESA will embark on a fast-track push to purchase and launch enough satellites to provide near-global coverage by the end of 2014 - some seven years behind the original plan, but well ahead of expectations at the beginning of this year.

Some of the new satellites may prove more capable than existing designs, so the full extent of coverage available remains to be seen. UItimately, the complete Galileo plan calls for 27 spacecraft and three orbiting spares by 2019.

European Commission vice-president for industry Antonio Tajani has been Galileo's champion in Brussels, and has described October launch as of "historical importance" as Europe seeks to match or exceed US capability in a technology that will bring significant safety, operational and economic benefits to European citizens.

 

VEGA EN ROUTE

And meanwhile, to cap off what ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain has called a "year of launchers", components of ESA's first Vega rocket this week left Avio's factory in Colleferro, near Rome, for sea transport to Kourou in anticipation of the type's maiden flight in December or January.

The medium-lift Soyus and light category Vega will complement ESA's heavylift Ariane 5s to provide a fully flexible range of launch options at Kourou. Vega, whose first stage is one of the world's biggest carbon fibre single-piece structures, is designed to launch satellites up to 1.5 tonnes into 700km polar orbits. As French Guiana is much closer to the equator than Soyuz's normal launch site at Baikonur, added boost from the Earth's spin will nearly double its maximum payload to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to 3 tonnes. Ariane 5 can lift 10 tonnes to GTO, though ESA member governments are thought to be moving towards approval of a mid-life upgrade to increase payload capacity.

A longer-term project is also underway, to develop a a high-thrust cryogenic engine that could form the basis of ESA's next-generation launcher. It will not fly until about 2025, but is intended to provide a medium-lift capability in a modular design, with a re-ignitable upper stage and options for strap-on solid propellant boosters offering extra thrust.

BAE Systems' response to the UK 's defence budget downturn could hardly have come at a worse time for a country struggling to hold recession at bay. But while 2,930 job losses came as a hammer blow to the workers affected and their families and communities, the cuts must also be seen as inevitable.

With both the flagship Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin F-35 programmes facing delays and outright cutbacks, and other defence spending facing severe reductions, BAE responded as probably any of its peers would have done. As chief executive Ian King put it: "To ensure we remain competitive, both in the UK and internationally, we need to reduce the overall costs of our businesses in-line with our reduced workload."

Joseph Lampel, professor of strategy at the Cass Business School at London's City University, says this is "a very, very tough time for British aerospace". But, he adds, the Typhoon has been struggling for years with affordability, and as the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain have slowed acquisition or cut numbers, the cost of remaining aircraft has only risen. "I'm surprised there is surprise about what is happening," he says.

One analyst who's not surprised is Ian Godden, chairman of the UK's ADS aerospace industry trade group. On Monday, the day before BAE confirmed its plans, Godden issued a statement to coincide with the Labour Party national conference to warn that historical and recent government defence spending cuts would lead to a further 20,000 to 30,000 job losses in a sector that supports more than 300,000 jobs and was worth over £23 billion in 2010, with £9.5 billion of that coming from exports last year. As each job in a prime contractor like BAE Systems supports about two jobs in its supply chain, the cuts announced this week will probably result in a total loss of 9,000 jobs - about a third of what the ADS predicted would stem from the current budget squeeze.

Government promises to assist affected workers in retraining are of course welcome, but the geography of the problem will make it difficult to find new jobs for many if not most of them. There is, for example, little prospect of finding new aerospace jobs locally for many of the 900 workers being pushed out of BAE's Bough, Yorkshire factory. As Godden observes, there are several significant clusters around key UK factories such as Brough, Rolls-Royce in Derby, Airbus in Filton or Bombardier in Belfast. In such places, loss of the main factory - as at Brough - would be devastating to local aerospace employment.

But, says Godden, a notable characteristic of UK aerospace is the geographic diversity of the supply chain, which reflects the huge range of technologies drawn on by the industry - and suggests that the impact of BAE's cuts will be very widespread. Indeed, while the big numbers being cut by BAE are at four locations - Brough and, in Lancashire at Samlesbury (565 jobs) and Warton and Preston (843) - BAE is also cutting smaller numbers at many locations around the UK.

Some comfort can be taken from the growth of civil aerospace activity, where a production boom is sure to see suppliers hiring over the next several years. But Godden sees no prospect for civil activity to absorb the bulk of the people being hit by defence cuts. Civil aerospace output was up 6% in 2010, but owing to productivity improvements that growth resulted in no net job gains. Over the coming two or three years, though, Godden reckons the UK's civil aerospace industry may add up to 5,000 jobs because "there's not much slack" in the supply chain today. But that total, while welcome, clearly falls far short of the losses on the defence side. "We're in a net loss situation," he says.

MARKET SHARE

The significance to the UK economy of these job losses should not be underestimated. The ADS likes to point out that the UK is second only to the USA in its share of the world aerospace business, accounting for 9% of defence output and 17% on the civil side, making the industry a major net exporter. The automotive business is another UK success story, but its net exports are more or less zero; the UK manufactures about 3% of the world's cars, the same as it consumes. Thus if the UK's biggest aerospace companies are struggling then it will be very difficult to replace the employment they support.

Godden is bullish about the long-term future in one respect, though. The UK, he says, cannot hope to hold the market share it enjoys today, but even if that share were cut in half then, assuming current civil aerospace growth trends, UK output would in 20 years still be bigger than it is today.

To get there, he says, the government needs to increase investment in research and technology, and make three key changes to its defence procurement practices. One is to abandon an attitude which he describes as "laissez faire gone mad" and bargain hard with the USA, to secure UK work as part of any major purchase. No other country, he says, would spend hundreds of millions on, say, Chinook helicopters without negotiating an offset deal.

Second, says Godden, the UK needs to reduce its focus on the USA as a trading partner and get better at collaborating on development programmes with its European allies. The UK-France co-operation treaty is the right idea, but not big enough to make a major difference.

And, third, UK governments of all parties need to stop pretending they don't want or need a defence industrial policy and recognise that each procurement decision sets a policy. Industry, says Godden, would be far better off if it that de facto policy was at least consistent.

FAILING POLICY

One aspect of the situation which spells particular trouble for the UK defence industry, the armed forces and the government, though, is that the existing defence industrial policy, whether set by accident or design, is built around big, expensive programmes - and has been failing.

Typhoon is perhaps the best example. As Lampel notes, it has been clear for some time that the RAF's frontline fighter is not living up to expectations in terms of either strategic or economic benefits. Typhoon, he says, represents the last generation of manned fighter jet and a better strategic decision years ago might have been to skip this generation and go straight to a new era of much smaller drone programmes. Whether the fighter programme once joking referred to as "yesterday's aircraft at tomorrow's prices" ends sooner or later, the defence industry is going to have to learn to live without such wildly expensive weapons, because the government doesn't have the cash to sustain them.

To recover from BAE's job cuts, Lampel says the clear priority for the UK aerospace industry is to shift as much emphasis as possible from defence business to civil. The good news is that the "hard line" between defence and civil technology has softened over the past 15 years or so, and thus it is increasingly possible to apply defence-developed technologies to civil projects, he says. The bad news, though, is that success in civil markets demands a more flexible, entrepreneurial culture than tends to exist in defence companies, which are conditioned to work in the single supplier, single customer world of government procurement.

For this transition to civil-focussed business to work, says Lampel, there needs to be a combination of "entrepreneurial rigour" and significant private sector investment. Government can support that private sector investment, he says, but throwing public money at the problem is not an answer - even if that money existed.

 

The Chinook performed its first flight 50 years ago today and the rorotrcraft were introduced in 1962.

For more information on the remarkable rotorcraft see Flightglobal's profile and browse through the Flightglobal Image Store to buy images and cutaways of the aircraft.  

Helicopter Profile: Boeing CH-47 Chinook

Flightglobal Image Store - images and cutaways of the Chinook

The Chinook arrives (HC1s)

RAF Chinook - in service at last  

Commercial Chinook - What Boeing is offering

Chinook trial by ice

Chinook report criticises Boeing and authorities 

Boeing's Chinook page

 

 

Speaking in London yesterday to outline the Airbus forecast for world airliner sales, chief salesman John Leahy said the company is increasingly worried about a possible "dollar crunch" as European banks struggle under the weight of the eurozone financial crisis to raise the dollar finance that Airbus's customers need to buy its aircraft. The result may  be a move by Airbus to vendor financing, to keep aircraft moving from assembly lines to airlines.

Airbus parent EADS may be sitting on an €11 billion cash pile - fed largely by deposits and other pre-delivery payments by airlines and aircraft leasing companies which have filled its order backlog to bursting - but is the company wise to open a bank? As its fear of a "dollar crunch" testifies, that business is difficult enough these days for the specialists - who don't have to worry about all the commercial risks associated with forecasting markets and designing and building aircraft.

Growth of vendor financing is historically a sign of wobbly markets, and it's hard to avoid that conclusion here. Ultimately Airbus, and arch-rival Boeing, rely on customers - airlines - who are facing a financial hurricane of high fuel  prices and recession-level demand for travel.

Berlin's EADS problem may be taking an interesting turn. The government was quick earlier this month to deny Financial Times reports that it was,  however reluctantly, moving toward nationalisation as the way to relieve Mercedes-Benz carmaker Daimler of the burden of owning Germany's 22.46% share of the company behind Airbus and Eurocopter - carefully balanced by exactly 22.46% held by the French state and its proxy, the media group Lagardere.

But now Der Spiegel says representatives of the Qatari government have been to Berlin to discuss a purchase by the Gulf state of a 7.5% share, which is, conveniently enough, the amount held on Daimler's behalf by a consortium of German banks - who understandably want out of an "investment" that pays paltry dividends and that they are not free to sell. Sources in Germany suggest that the meetings have been real, though we have no idea whether Berlin considers a deal as either desirable or even politically possible.

The EADS problem is a real one for the German government, though. Daimler won't want to buy those shares back, so Berlin needs to come up with some solution over the next several months. Neither trade nor institutional investors can be found within Germany, so the Qataris may be the only alternative to nationalisation, which is strongly opposed on ideological grounds by some partners in Germany's governing coalition.

Unfortunately, one key reason that Berlin and Paris opted to control nearly half of EADS when they formed the company a decade ago out of national aerospace champions was to prevent foreign takeover of a European strategic asset. So, even if the Germans decide that Qatar's offer looks attractive, they may struggle to convince the French to permit such a sale. Surely, Qatar would expect to see investment in its own nascent aerospace industry in exchange for its investment.

However it works out, full marks to Der Spiegel for summing up the situation perfectly. The strapline over its story reads: Industrial Politics.

Engineers like the phrase "design spiral", to refer to a development process characterised by a series of iterative improvements and additions, particularly where they may be needed to meet evolving requirements. The term comes from software design, and is seen as a dramatic improvement on the linear design process which usually characterises more traditional manufactured products.

What makes the spiral attractive is the potential to continuously renew a system so that it always incorporates the latest technologies and meets the latest needs. In a linear design process, specified requirements would be followed by design, prototyping, testing and manufacturing. Each step is completed before work flows over to the next stage, and hence the process is sometimes referred as the "waterfall" design method.

Big aircraft programmes which begin with a request for proposals that lead to carefully detailed performance specifications are good examples of the waterfall approach. Given the enormous investment in tooling and materials required to make such a complex physical (as opposed to software) system, this linear approach seems unavoidable. However, because it's easy to fall off a waterfall but very difficult to go back up, adding new technologies or changing components is very expensive once an aircraft is in production.

To cite a specific and very current example, one of the factors contributing to Boeing's travails with its much-delayed 787 airliner programme is arguably what amounted to an attempt at highly compressed spiral design, by carrying out the prototyping, testing and manufacturing phases simultaneously. Looked at from that perspective, the 787 would illustrate why in popular language the word "spiral" is so often associated with the phrase "out of control".

But the language made a small spiral forward this week at the DSEi defence equipment exhibition in London. Gianfranco Terrando, senior vice president for unmanned air systems at Finmeccanica's Selex Galileo unit, referred to a flight test planned for later this year on a General Atomics Predator B of a new open architecture concept in payload integration as "spiral zero".

The concept is to create a family of options for packaging sensors and data management software so that customers can, ultimately, combine any sensors and data handling techniques with whatever airframe they like. A spiral development process makes such a concept possible - if each new requirement demanded that engineers go back to stage one and devise a system from scratch, the cost and time involved would, clearly be prohibitive.

It's fast approaching your last chance to vote for who you think has the best and brightest aviation mind in the Flightglobal Achievement Awards.

The Achievement Awards celebrate and recognise the finest individuals in the aviation and aerospace industries.

You've only got three days left until voting closes for the Flightglobal Achievement Awards so we need you to choose who you think is deserving a winner from the shortlist our panel of experts has compiled.  

There are three categories:

- Leader

- Innovator

- Aviator

And we need you to choose three outstanding people or teams that you think are deserving of the awards.

Nominees have been selected by you and shortlisted by a panel of industry experts.

The Flightglobal Achievement Awards ceremony will take place at the Al Badia Golf Club on Saturday 12th November 2011.

Voting closes 19th September 2011.

Don't lose your vote. Get voting now!

This post was written by Abbie Ridge, work experience student currently working with Flightglobal 

In 1980 the US Air Force wanted a new tactical airlifter that could be refuelled in flight and land with large loads on austere landing strips. The C-17 was the answer and it would be built to replace the Lockheed Martin C-141 Starlifter tactical cargo aircraft.  

Stephen Trimble, Flightglobal's Americas managing editor, wrote a post on his DEW Line blog : IMAGES: Lockheed's stealth C-130 successor revealed

In the archive:

C-17 profile page including content from Flightglobal and the wider web  

RIAT: New tail scheme marks RAF's first decade of C-17 use

Heavy duty: RAF prepares to mark first decade of C-17 use

10th anniversary of C-17's RAF operations

Buy a C-17 model

Buy a C-17 cutaway print

Asian Skies blog: Could SIngapore buy C-17s?

 

By Abbie Ridge

Let's hear it for the 'Beluga', the whale-shaped aircraft that today is celebrating 17 years since its first flight.

Love it or hate it, the Airbus A300-600ST certainly has character, its eye-catching design allowing it to transport key aircraft components from all over Europe to Toulouse and Hamburg for final assembly.

Built to replace  four modified 'Super Guppies', this aircraft flew from Toulouse for four hours, with Gilbert Defer and Lucien Bernard piloting and key engineers Jean-Pierre Flamant and Didier Ronceray also on-board. The A300-600ST was certified in October 1995, after 335 test hours and went into service in January 1996. 

Since the two aircraft ploughed into the twin towers in New York and other attacks on the US Pentagon, airport and airline security has had to change to prevent hijacks and ground attacks. But it has affected the ease of people travelling.

Flight has reported on developments from the security industry including a Honeywell device to be fitted to Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s called the pilot override system that works as a recovery system using the automatic flight control system in fly-by-wire airliners to override pilots who set a course that would enter restricted airspace or intentionally collide with buildings.

Another article headlined USA acts to avoid 9/11 repetition with temporary flight restrictions, one of which includes a a 30 minute which involves a "30min seat rule" on commercial flights where passengers will be required to remain seated for 30min after take-off and prior to landing, and limiting general aviation flights.

Have new measure been effective? This article was published in 2006 in which Safety and operations editor David Learmount concluded that there had been no hijack attempt since September 2001, "with the exception of an event in Colombia where lawless elements dominate some parts of the country. But even then the aircraft and its passengers survived."

• What are your views on airport and airline security?
• Is there less of a threat of terrorism now which should lead to rules and regulations being relaxed?
• Have the security measures put in place been a success? 

See a whole host of other security related features post 9/11 in the Flightglobal Historic pages to see how the industry has changed.
 

• Security concerns cockpit lock  
• AAR cockpit security attracts strong interest
• Air Canada Jazz pilot trapped on 'wrong side' of cockpit door incident re-opens security questions
• On Board defences   
• USA pilots speak
• Eye-in cabin 
• Winning passengers confidence of security back 
• Industry upturn after 9/11 
• Beating the Bombers
• Table of illegal interference with aircraft since 9/11
• Slump since 9/11
• 9/11 not cause of downturn
• 10 year anniversary pushes security
• Short Term and long term effects

It has been a decade since the terrorist attacks in America.

That decade wrought changes, including a new meaning of what it means to be an airline.

Perhaps surprisingly to anyone who recently went through airport security, its essence is a heightening of many of the same themes that gave aviation its attraction in the first place.

Ten years ago American Airlines made this clip of what it meant to be a post-9/11 airline.

Today, it is just as relevant.

By Niall O'Keeffe, Managing Editor, Flight International

When that second plane hit, I was watching live images on a TV screen in a murky American-jazz-themed bar in Manila, to which I'd travelled to profile Lufthansa Technik Philippines. A band was onstage - Manila is 12 hours ahead of New York - but they quickly abandoned their instruments to find out what was so distracting their audience.

As we struggled to process the news that this was not a freak accident but a planned atrocity, one of my hosts rushed outside to phone an New York-based relative - who, it turned out, was safe, but had visited the World Trade Center the day before, for a work meeting.

Inevitably, I spent most of the night watching 24-hour news in my hotel room. When I stepped into the lift the following morning, a French tourist asked, in faltering English, if I'd seen what was happening in New York. He seemed to be hoping that he'd just had a bad dream.

An eerie atmosphere prevailed during my day of interviews at Lufthansa Technik. One interviewee was an alumnus of an Ivy League university, and had lost friends in the attacks. Another briefly excused himself to cancel a holiday in San Francisco.

'Filipino Time Saves Lives'. So ran a headline in a local newspaper. Filipinos are famously unpunctual, and many New York-based ex-pats were en route to jobs in the World Trade Center when the aircraft struck. Being late, that morning, saved their lives.

Later on in my stay, Manila was swept by a rumour that a pilot arrested at the city's airport had turned out to be the victim of an identity theft perpetrated by a 9/11 hijacker.

The Philippines is a country you have to pay to leave, but I was hardly in a mood to complain as I passed through the airport at the end of my visit. Naturally enough, strict security was in place. It was a taste of things to come.

I was lucky enough not be detained, though the guard who inspected my bag seemed disgusted by my possession of a JG Ballard novel with a woman in a cocktail dress on its cover. "Nice book," he said sarcastically as he handed it back to me.
 
I'd become an aviation journalist six months before 9/11. Overnight, I found myself reporting a lot more bad news, to a much more interested audience. For the next couple of years, everyone in the industry - my then-colleagues and I included - seemed very obviously on the brink of losing their jobs. Many did lose them. But it seemed tasteless to worry too much, or indulge in self-pity, since others had lost so much more.
 

By Kate Sarsfield, Business and General Aviation Editor

I remember the tragedy of 9/11 unfolding before my eyes.  I was sitting heavily pregnant in the office, glancing casually at the TV in the corner of the room.  My nonchalance turned to horror as I watched an airliner plunge into the North Tower of New York's iconic World Trade Centre. Before I had time to gather my thoughts, a second aircraft hit the South Tower. There were cries of disbelief from my colleagues. We all watched transfixed as the tragedy continued to play out in front of us.  I will never ever forget the horrifying images of people falling 1000's of ft to their deaths and the sight of the towers - packed with innocent people - crumbling to the ground.

It did not occur to me at first that this calamity was an act of terrorism - it was incomprehensible that someone would be prepared to commit mass murder on such a scale. How naive I was.

Of course. The repercussions of the terrorist attack reverberated throughout the business and general aviation community. While corporate/charter aircraft movements escalated in the aftermath of the attacks -boosted by throngs of anxious, wealthy individuals turning their backs on the airlines - the industry became one of the many scapegoats for the US government.

Fearful that terrorists could use business and light aircraft as a weapon for another massacre, US authorities promptly imposed a ban on all visual flight rules (VFR) flights within Class B airspace and introduced a plethora of Temporary Flight Restrictions across the country.  These measures led the grounding of thousands of light aircraft many of which were still banned from flying weeks after their commercial counterparts were allowed to resume operation.  As a result, many GA business -  including flight schools - suffered hefty financial losses, which forced the closure of some companies.  

The industry was (and remains) fully aware of its vulnerability as a terrorist tool and a target for unwanted government attention. To head off potentially unworkable and costly regulations - the business and GA community drew up and adopted a host of safety and security measures designed to positively identify pilots and passengers and prevent unauthorised use of private aircraft.  We will never know whether these measures have deterred would be terrorists from using a business or general aviation aircraft to inflict mass casualties, but this industry will continue to be vigilant and security conscious as long as the threat of terrorism remains.   

Everyone remembers where they were on that fateful day of 11 September 2011.
 


On the tenth-year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy Flightglobal's looking at its legacy, asking for your recollections of where you were and HOW you think it has changed the aviation industry. The Flightglobal team will be providing their memories throughout the week so keep an eye out on Flightglobal.com/september11.
 


We also want to hear from you and what you think HAS been the legacy of such a world-changing event. We have created a legacy area that will include our own journalists' views and for you to add your comments.
 


You can share your views on the legacy of 9/11 by replying to Flightglobal on Twitter, commenting on our Facebook profile or underneath any of our blog posts or our Airspace forum discussions.


On 6 September - yesterday - the ADS aerospace, defence and security industry association hosted a chief executive's forum entitled "A View From The Top", a name perhaps not long on originality - but quite appropriate, being a forum of chief executives gathered on the 29th floor of London's Millbank Tower to discuss UK aerospace export and investment prospects.

Hosted by BBC Newsnight economics editor Stephanie Flanders, the discussion of featured two panel groups made up from Babcock International boss Peter Rogers, BAE Systems' Ian King, Qinetiq's Leo Quinn, Airbus UK executive VP Tom Williams, Tony Wood of Rolls-Royce, JJ Churchill's Andrew Churchill, Control Risks chief Richard Fenning, David Williams of Avanti Communications and Marcus Bryson of GKN Aerospace.

Owing to a technical malfunction, a live twitter feed from the event stayed put in your correspondent's "smart" phone - but has been reproduced here:

 

Aerospace CEO's forum starts at Millbank Tower

BBC's Stephanie Flanders opens: economic outlook grim with some "chinks of light"

Aerospace CEO's conference: Session 1, "Going for Growth" - defence cuts deep, but US spend stays high, so private industry opportunities remain.

Aerospace #CEO's conference: Leo Quinn of #Qinetiq - embrace real change (example: QWERTY keyboard inefficient, but no will to drive new standards.

Aerospace #CEO's conference: more from #Quinn - r&d cuts will do damage, possibly in skills lost forever.

Aerospace #CEO's conference: Babcock boss and ADS pres Peter Rogers - UK not so good at creating "UK solution" for whole-life arms export to big markets.

Aerospace #CEO's conference: Control Risks boss Richard Fenning: post-9/11 world richer, freer despite our preoccupation with 2 wars and financial crisis.

Aerospace #CEO's conference: more from Control Risks boss Richard Fenning - our clients more diverse today: emerging mkt clients sophisticated, but different.

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: ADS chair Ian Godden: Brits are individualists, idealists - but must present collective front to succeed in emerging mkts

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: more from Ian Godden: UK "missed boat" in security biz, but has emerging mkt opportunities

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: BAE boss Ian King: UK strong in SMEs to support big players; 1/2 BAE revenue in through-life support - "UK has an edge"

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: Control Risks boss Fenning disagrees with King: UK support SMEs struggle to catch overseas opportunities despite lead from OEMs.

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: Finmeccanica UK boss: "used by UK forces" brand key to exports, but shrinking UK manuf base means worry for future

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: Northrop Grumman UK boss - UK forces kit use key to exports, so we need guidance from gov't to continue export success

UK aerospace #CEO's conference: aerospace industry needs clarity soon - good news or bad! - from UK defence white paper.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Babcock boss Rogers agrees: UK exporters need to know gov't stance on UK defence/security spending and support for EM exports

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: CSC boss asks, when do strong exports turn "UK" companies into something else?

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Babcock's Rogers - UK MoD most difficult customer!

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: #Australia another tough mkt - "they don't like us, but still want to support the relationship" while doing most biz with USA. 

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Qinetiq's Quinn - USA most challenging mkt, "enormous pitfalls"

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: BAE's King - defence mkt not global, but local, so to succeed you must develop intimate relations with local customers

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: more from BAE's King - don't send UK export trade missions! Your local company has to do the business; be local to each market.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: more on defence exports - do business as a local indigenous supplier, and watch wealth flow back to UK "home" base.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: brand UK needs to be flexible; Gaddafi's attitude to our brand values has changed recently!

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: BAE's King - defence ex mkts growing (India, Oz, Brazil) but access to Russia, China for civil products will expand

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Deloitte asks, should UK companies work with Euro ptnrs - not Americans - to avoid US defence export controls?

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: #Airbus UK Tom Williams: we need UK suppliers with the critical mass to design, build and finance programmes

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference session 2: investment ops in UK

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: #Rolls-Royce's Tony Wood: advanced engineering is the key to tech of the future, to export mkt success, and to UK prosperity

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: #Rolls-Royce Wood - 2" turbine blade is product of 75 high-tech companies' R&D and manufacturing. Optimism for UK manufacturing

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: GKN Aero's Marcus Bryson: UK high-tech growth today based on 80s investments; is today's investment enough to compete tomorrow?

UK #aerospace #CEO conference: JJ Churchill's Andrew Churchill: skills in UK a concern for future; SMEs must inspire/train young engineers, not rely on OEMs

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: JJ Churchill - gov't tax/finance incentives for SME innovation must be rejigged to aid cash flow not later profit

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: gov't must do better to swing #Euro #jobs rules to support high-tech #job creation by UK SMEs.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Avanti Comm's David Williams - UK too obsessed with the #City and markets, "which don't matter much" to "real" economy.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Avanti Comm's David Williams - to fix financial system, stop banks over-leveraging. Investment banks are working fine for SMEs.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Avanti Comm's David Williams: 40-yr structural decline in qual of UK education needs 20 yrs to fix

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: Airbus's Tom Williams - Airbus brand attracts top graduates so we don't see shortage - but still have to do remedial education!

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: BBC's Stephanie Flanders jokes, how about a GCSE in corporate espionage? "Get 'em while they're young!"

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference: keynote Stephen (Lord) Green, #minister of state #trade and #investment

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green (ex-banker): UK's challenge to learn from crisis, fix financial framework

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: macro challenge is global imbalances - #job growth in finance, construction, not manufacturing, agriculture

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: challenge - UK current acct balance "always fragile", last surplus 1984! 

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: Next financial crisis to be triggered by a balance of payments crisis.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: new UK growth model must be based on trade + investment, not consumption; China has opposite problem

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: key UK econ challenges is exports 

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: UK econ broad-based, but no complacency - rising competence in emerging economies

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: "pruning back regulation" is a job that's never done.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: in Germany, SME-gov't relations more robust - but that's not a model suitable for UK

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: looking for ways to encourage SMEs to engage with int'l mkts.

UK #aerospace #CEO's conference, Lord Green: Finance key, and banks' SME role crucial. Business banking has been sector Cinderella - this must change

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Picture credit: Concorde G-BOAC being rolled out in 1977

A successful attempt to bring a British Airways Concorde "back to life" in time for the London Olympics has been thwarted by health and safety concerns.

A group of Concorde enthusiasts - Heritage Concorde - has for several months been carrying out repairs to the cockpit windows and visor of G-BOAC at Manchester Airport's Runway Visitor Park, its home since 2003.

Picture credit: Rex Features  British Airways Concorde on static display at Manchester Airport Aviation Viewing Park 

In order to lower the nose to replace the co-pilots windshield, engineers had to use the aircraft's electrical and hydraulic systems.

 

To do this, in March, G-BOAC was powered-up, via a ground unit, for the first time in eight years.

Since then, the aircraft has had been powered several times, including for six hours on 26 August.

Heritage Concorde founder Steve de Sausmarez said the ultimate aim was to get the Concorde to droop its nose on special occasions, including the 31 October anniversary of its arrival at Manchester Airport, and the Olympics opening ceremony.

Eventually, some in the group believe, it might even have been possible to return G-BOAC to flight.

However, according to de Sausmarez, officials at the museum have ordered Heritage Concorde to drain the hydraulics and kill the electrics because of insurance and safety issues.

"Against the odds, a British Concorde was returned to life by Heritage Concorde engineers, only to be killed once again by people without vision," he bemoans.

This post was written by Murdo Morrison, Flight International Editor

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By Zach Rosenberg, UAV reporter

I was at my quiet Quaker high school the morning of the 11th, tucked away in the North Carolina woods. By the end of my second class the attacks were well underway. We all crowded quietly around the TV as rumours flooded in: a third plane was near Washington; no, it had already hit the Pentagon; a car bomb exploded at the State Department; a plane was radio-out over Pennsylvania...
 
It was clear the US was at war with somebody and Osama bin Laden's name was on everybody's lips. Bin Laden was in Afghanistan, a chaotic and factionalised place that another great military power, the Soviet Union, had tried and failed to conquer after a long, bloody struggle. The bloody legacy of the endless Vietnam War was in everyone's mind. It was clear even then that the direct consequences of 9/11 would not be so catastrophic as the war that followed.
 
It became apparent that UAVs would be prominent in the conflict after a CIA Predator drone destroyed a Yemeni car in November, 2002, a role previously reserved for manned aircraft. They have since become an inseparable part of American asymmetric warfare, from convoy overwatch to communications relay to covert bombings. Where once the symbol of unquestionable American air power was camouflaged Hueys touching down in a rice paddy or F-16s over burning oil wells, now it is the grey Predator drone, flying in circles with an unblinking EO/IR turret and Hellfire missiles hanging off the sides.
 
So long as the US remains in Afghanistan or Iraq, the grey drones will be there. And wherever American forces go, the grey drones will precede them. And of course, they will also be places that no Americans are supposed to be. Other nations have long since caught on: as a legacy of their operation in Afghanistan and Iraq, they will soon be permanent features of any conflict between sizeable armed groups. Even nonstate actors -- most recently the rebels in Libya - have gotten in on the action.
 
UAV technology is still a bit on the fringe: they are still largely considered force multipliers. But as tactics continue to change, the strategies have not. At least, not yet.

Reports from the Financial Times in Germany suggest Berlin is finally prepared to take action on the longstanding question of ownership of EADS, by buying out at least most of the 22.46% of the company owned or controlled by Daimler. The story has been denied by the German government, but still reveals much about the ongoing discomfort over the agreement between France and Germany to hold exactly-balancing national stakes in the aerospace group.

Daimler, whose aerospace division formed the core of the German pillar of EADS when the Airbus and Eurocopter parent was formed a decade ago out of French, German, Spanish and UK national aerospace companies, has remained Berlin's proxy holder of the German share of the company. But the car maker wants out. And, at least according to FT sources inside the German government, Berlin has reached the conclusion that neither financial nor industry buyers are to be found.

Political opposition to a government buyout is apparently weakening, so a €2.5 billion deal to buy 15% of EADS over the next year or so may be on the cards.

Such nationalisation would still leave a short 7.5% with Daimler, whose finance chief Bodo Uebber - who doubles as EADS chairman - has said intends to retain "industrial leadership" of Germany's interest in the aerospace giant.

What might be shifting political opposition to nationalising the stake is the price. EADS is now trading right in the middle of its 52-week price range, which bottomed out at €16.62 last November and peaked at more than €25 in June, before stock markets tanked this summer.

Thus, Berlin can buy in at what might well be sold to uncertain members of the coalition government as a reasonable price, which values the company at €16.7 billion - a shade below its market capitalisation at the moment, but neither at the top nor bottom of the market.

Government action now might also help steady market nerves, as EADS's main business, Airbus, is entering an uncertain period. The coming couple years are its opportunity to prove that it can bring to market a major new product - the A350XWB twin-aisle jetliner - without stumbling through the sort of costly delays and engineering hiccups that have marred arch-rival Boeing's reputation while it struggled with the 787.

Also, it's worth remembering that Daimler's anxiety about holding the EADS stake resulted in a deal that saw a consortium of German banks buy a third of the stake - 7.46% of the company - and hold it temporarily on the understanding that Daimler would ultimately buy it back. If instead the government steps in soon and buys those shares, it avoids a battle with Daimler in the next year or so over the matter.

And, such a move would bolster those German banks' balance sheets by €1.25 billion. In the grand scheme of responding to the eurozone crisis that is not a pivotal sum. But Berlin would presumably welcome the opportunity to pump it into its fragile banking sector without having to fight the political battle that is bank recapitalisation - a battle so much bigger than any disagreement over whether the state should own part of EADS.

 

Image credit AirTeamImages.com

BAe (British Aerospace) 146 performed its first flight on 3 Septmeber 1981 but the aircraft design is based on the Hawker Siddely HS 146 as described in an article in 1973. See also the cutaway drawing in the piece.

In the article BAe 146 described, published in the 2 May 1981 issue of Flight International, the aircraft would be able to fly 12-15 sectors a day. 165 miles in North America and 120 miles in Europe. It would chalk up 2,750 flying hours in a year and likely to be kept for 12-15 years before being sold.

BAe was asking for $10.5m for an 82-seat 146-100 and $11m for the 146-200. Read more about the benefits of the aircraft's design including the wing design and the benefits of its t-tail.

It had 100, 200 and -300 variations. The equivalent Avro RJ versions are designated RJ70, RJ85, and RJ100.

The RJ85 was the first RJ development of the BAe 146 family, features an improved cabin and used more efficient LF 507 engines. Deliveries of the RJ85 began in April 1993.

Flightglobal's Commercial Aircraft Directory noted that on "27 November 2001, BAE Systems announced the cancellation of the entire RJX programme, citing the poor sales prospects for the type in the aftermath of the "9/11" attacks in the USA. When the last Avro RJ off the Woodford production line was delivered to Air Botnia in November 2003, total Avro RJ production had reached 173, of which 87 were RJ85s."

In the archive: /.....BAe 146

BAE test RJ waters

Bae 146 described

Milestones

Cutaway BAe 146-200

Profile in commercial aircraft directory BAe 146-100 Flightglobal Image Store

http://www.flightglobalimages.com/dmcs_search.html?find=bae+146

BAe 146 on AirSpace

RJ85 on AirSpace