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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1889.PDF
HEADLINES SPACEFLIGHT STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC & DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON Rutan and Virgin plan tourist trips Scaled Composites lands five-vehicle deal for SpaceShipOne, but major design changes may be needed Burt Rutans SpaceShipOne team enters this week with a newly minted licensing deal for five vehi cles, a chance to claim the $10 mil lion Ansari X-Prize with a third suc cessful suborbital round-trip and - thanks to«a publicly revealed design flaw - nagging concerns over vehi cle stability beyond the atmosphere. Scaled Composites pilot Mike Melville has landed two vehicles after suborbital flights compro mised by bouts of uncommanded roll, most notably recovering after more than 20 revolutions while soaring to 337,000ft (103,000m) on 29 September, the first of two qual ifying X-Prize flights. The episode eerily evoked SpaceShipOne's first suborbital flight on 21 June. In that case, an uncommanded roll upon rocket ignition was quickly recovered, but the stress caused a brief failure of primary flight controls as Melville reached the top of his climb. Again, Virgin Galactic promises commercial flights will start from 2007 Melville regained control with ease before re-entering the atmosphere a few minutes later. That both flights ended safely is a tribute to the robust design of SpaceShipOne and the skills of the unflappable Melville. But the inci dents may force Scaled Composites to consider major design changes before making the vehicle available for commercial service. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic Airways founder Sir Richard Branson launched Virgin Galactic at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on 27 September, promis ing the first commercial suborbital space flights early in 2007. According to Branson, Virgin Galactic's partnership with Scaled Composites is effectively the mar keting wing of the venture. Branson says he is investing $100 million in Virgin Galactic, but says the suborbital spaceflight technol ogy development will be left to Scaled Composites and its principal investor, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Rutan says he does not expect problems gaining certification for commercial space transport opera tions from the US Federal Aviation DEFENCE STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC US Army intentions in helicopter proposal provide bidding puzzle Industry officials have welcomed the US Army's release of a draft request for proposals for the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), yet many are still puzzled about the service's intentions for the project. Equipped with a target acquisi tion sensor suite, machine guns, rockets and laser-guided Hellfire missiles, the ARH assumes the role of the terminated Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche - an armed scout to replace the Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior. The army's plan to buy 368 ARHs has attracted an international mix of potential bid ders, but the draft RFP does little to narrow their options. "The army has left the opportunity for us to go in several directions," says Stephen Moss, president of AgustaWestland, which has four candidates - A109 Power, All9 Koala, the T800-pow- ered A129 international variant and the twin-engined AB139. Moss says AgustaWestland wants to know if "the army's emphasis is going to be on armed or is it going to be on reconnaissance?" Boeing plans to offer a concept based on an upgraded MD Heli copters AH/MH-6 Little Bird design already ordered by US Special Operations Command. MDHI has teamed with Boeing to offer the MD 530-based Little Bird, but the agree ment is on hold pending new financing arrangements, says MDHI chief executive Henk Schaeken. Bell Helicopter is planning to offer a military variant of the Bell 427, says Alan Moffatt, Bell's ARH programme director. The draft RFP, released on 24 September, provided the first evidence that the army had overcome objections from an appro priations panel in the US Congress. EADS North America intends to reveal its ARH plans this week. Sikorsky also says it is reviewing the requirement. Administration's Commercial Space Transportation agency. Branson's business plan, how ever, risks outpacing the regulatory agency, which now lacks the authority to establish standards for space vehicles carrying paying pas sengers. New legislation intending to provide that authority, HR 3752, is held up by the US Senate. The fate of the bill once hinged on a deadlock about the bill's defini tion of a suborbital vehicle, which had neglected to include hybrid rocket-jet propulsion designs. Legis lators have hurdled that debate, but face a new challenge against the bill's plan to leave passengers to fly at their own risk, sources say. Instead, a panel of Senate Democrats wants the FAA to estab lish vehicle safety rules. Authors of the legislation in the US House, however, contend the field of sub orbital vehicle technology is too young to burden with regulations. In Virgin Galactic's early days from 2007, Branson envisages a fleet of five vehicles, the first to be named Virgin Space Ship Enterprise, each able to carry five passengers. The first flights would cost about $150,000 per passenger. FATIGUE BLAMED The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says an uncon- tained failure of a General Electric CF6-80A engine on an Air New Zealand Boeing 767- 200ER in December 2002 was the result of fatigue cracking in the blade slots of a high-pres sure turbine disk. GE has already implemented changes to the manufacture and repair shot peening processes that the ATSB says may have con tributed to the crack formation. The failure led to mechanical and structural damage to the engine and nacelle, distortion and structural damage to the engine pylon and surface dam age to a leading-edge slat. 6 5-11 OCTOBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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