LEMV Surveillance Airship Taking Shape

Six months after contract award, elements of Northrop Grumman’s long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) hybrid airship are coming together.

The persistent-surveillance LEMV is designed to have an endurance when operating unmanned for 21 days at 20,000 ft. carrying a 2,500-lb. payload of sensors and communications equipment.

The critical design review was completed at the end of November, final assembly is to begin in February and first flight is planned for the end of July 2011.

“It’s a fast-moving train,” says Alan Metzger, LEMV program manager. Northrop won the $517 million U.S. Army demonstration contract in July. The first airship should be ready for deployment to Afghanistan at the end of 2011 for a military assessment.

Envelope fabricator ILC Dover has begun seaming together components using fabric supplied by Warwick Mills, Metzger says. These will be delivered beginning in February to the final-assembly site, where the airship will be assembled, inflated and checked for leaks.

The U.K.’s Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which is leading the vehicle’s design, has begun construction of the Group A equipment that will be integrated with the completed envelope. This includes mission and fuel modules, engines and hard structures.

HAV will begin assembly of the Group A equipment in mid-January, with integration of the air vehicle planned to begin in the U.S. in early May.

Prime contractor Northrop, meanwhile, has set up several LEMV test facilities at its Melbourne, Fla., plant. These include development environments for the air-vehicle control and sensor data processing, exploitation and dissemination systems.

A payload testbed has been constructed that mimics the “Murphy bay” infrastructure in the airship, Metzger says. Full-motion video, radar and communications-intelligence payloads provided off the shelf by the Army have been delivered to Melbourne.

Development of the autonomous control software is underway at Northrop’s unmanned systems operation in California. The LEMV will be operated using the Army’s One System ground-control station, developed by team member AAI.

A One System station at the launch and recovery site will operate the vehicle throughout its mission, Metzger says, while payload data will be processed and disseminated via the Army’s DCGS-A distributed common ground system.

After development flight tests of the first LEMV at the final-assembly site, conducted with a safety pilot on board, the airship is to be ferried to Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., in November 2011 for unmanned, long-endurance test flights.

Northrop has responded to requests for information on heavy-lift airships from U.S. Transportation Command and the Army. Metzger says LEMV is designed so the mission and fuel modules can be removed and replaced with cargo modules.

SS2 Glide Tests Exceed Expected Progress

Scaled Composites hopes to achieve one additional glide test of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) by year-end and says that even if bad weather prevents the attempt, the program is already ahead of schedule following a trouble-free initial unpowered flight on Oct. 10.

“Testing has been going quite a bit better than we’d originally hoped, and we’ve been able to make glide flights ahead of what we’d anticipated in terms of flight-to-flight turn-around time,” says Pete Siebold, Scaled director of flight operations. The Virgin Galactic program therefore remains on target to becoming the world’s first commercial space line, with routine suborbital operations from Spaceport America, N.M., as early as 2012.

For the glide tests, the 60-ft.-long, 42-ft.-wingspan SS2 is released from the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft. This is about 5,000 ft. lower than the planned release altitude for rocket-powered flights because the WK2 is currently flying with landing gear down and locked pending a modification. This design change, made following a partial gear collapse on a training flight in August, is “really close” to being implemented, says Siebold. “We have tests planned, and we’re working to get it done as soon as it’s ready,” he adds. Even with gear down, Siebold says WK2’s performance “continues to amaze us, and speaks volumes about what it will be able to do in the near future.”

The gear restriction results in reduced flight times of 5-10%, meaning that more testing has to be packed into each glide. “One of the challenges in testing a glider with a restricted lift/drag ratio [around 7:1 for SS2], is that by definition the flights can’t be very long,” Siebold says. Although the theoretical maximum is as much as 15 min., the first flight is so far the longest duration of around 13 min.

Since the initial drop in October, Scaled has progressively increased the flight envelope of SS2 over three glide flights. The latest, on Nov. 17, increased top speed to 246 KEAS (knots equivalent airspeed) and loads to 3.5g. Lasting approximately 11.5 min., the last flight also further explored the flutter envelope, stall characteristics, and SS2’s stability and control. As part of the buildup to powered tests with the rocket motor, and with weights representative of passenger loads, the vehicle has also been fitted with a water ballast tank to expand the aft center of gravity (cg).

“We’ve been flying at a nominal cg, but on the last flight we flew with jettisonable ballast to allow us to explore any aft-cg issues,” says Siebold. “We launched at a further aft-cg location and demonstrated the ballast-dump capability before landing at a forward cg.” Stored in the trailing-cone location where the Sierra Nevada RM2 hybrid rocket will be located for powered flights, the ballast container is believed to store at least 1,200 lb. of water, or sufficient to simulate the weight of six passengers.

Although additional RM2 ground tests are planned, Siebold says parts of the propulsion system will be incorporated gradually into SS2 as they are ready. “We plan to [load] an equal weight to passengers as we build up, as well as the rocket motor and its components.” Full-up weight for SS2 is 30,000 lb.

Unpowered glide testing is being used to refine the vehicle’s aerodynamics and low-speed handling qualities. Building on the incremental envelope-expansion approach established with the SpaceShipOne (SS1), the next test phase will involve higher-speed subsonic flight with a short burst of power from the RM2. A follow-on test phase, using longer rocket burns, will open up the supersonic, higher-altitude corner of the SS2 envelope.

Initial rocket trials will be preceded by cold-flow tests in which all the propulsion system components will be exercised, including the flow of oxidizer, without ignition. In the SS1 trials, “this tested the basic functionality of the propulsion system and was a great dress rehearsal for the first powered flight,” Siebold notes.

At the time, FAA regulations limited initial powered burns to 15 sec., but was still sufficient to enable SS1 to go supersonic. “We’d anticipate a very similar progress, with changes as required consistent with the differences between SS1 and SS2,” he adds. On SS1, apogee increased from 67,800 ft. on the first flight to 105,000 ft. after a 40-sec. burn on the second flight.

Right now, the focus remains on lower-speed handling-qualities assessment and performance. Flutter tests, which verify that the aircraft had good structural damping as the speed increases, are yet to be completed. “There’s more to do, but we’ve got some new instrumentation that allows us to make real-time calls on flutter readings. Demonstration of a flutter-free vehicle is one of the main objectives,” Siebold says.

Other evaluations are also on track. Initial approach to stalls were flown on the first three missions. Described by Siebold as the most important maneuver on a first flight, the approach to stall defines the low-speed end of the envelope. “We’ve increased the maximum angle of attack on each flight and decreased the minimum speed, and we’re meeting all the anticipated results—so no surprises to date.” Although Siebold says there “are some small areas where we’d like to make improvements in the long term, they’re just subtle changes [related to] handling qualities. But I’m really pleased with what we came out of the box with.”

Visibility and pilot situational awareness are “far better” than on SS1, and “from the cockpit it’s a very comfortable descent. This aircraft has plenty of control power for descent, and plenty of power for the flare.” Although exact numbers are withheld, approach and touchdown speeds for SS2 are “not substantially different” from those of SS1 at around 130 kt. and 100 kt., respectively. A belly-mounted speed brake provides good control of the glide ratio, says Siebold, providing an additional option to using the turn radius of the approach to control the descent rate and helping pilots to achieve more accurate touchdowns consistently to within 1,000 ft.

Weather Causes Heavy Disruption Across Europe

Heavy snowfall over the weekend has caused severe disruption at several European airports, with London’s Heathrow being the worst affected.

In an unprecedented move, Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport, closed both its runways on Saturday and remained closed on Sunday as the airport authority attempted to make its runways safe for operation. Thousands of stranded travelers slept overnight in the airport’s terminals throughout the weekend.

More than 200,000 passengers were expected to depart from Heathrow on Sunday. One runway opened on Monday morning with the airport operating very limited arrivals and departures. Over one million passengers are due to travel from the airport this week.

Up to eight inches of snow fell in parts of the U.K. over the weekend. The travel disruption is set to continue as further snow flurries and freezing fog are expected this week.

The severe weather has also affected operations Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris with up to 40% of flight cancelations. Italy’s Florence airport was also closed following heavy snowstorms. Despite its runway not being affected by snow and ice, Frankfurt airport, Germany’s largest hub, has also cancelled hundreds of flights due to the problems facing other European airports and the displacement of aircraft and crew.

Rail and road travel across Europe is also severely disrupted due to the icy conditions. The weather will leave hundreds of thousands of travelers across Europe stranded ahead of the holiday period.

This week’s severe weather follows the unprecedented heavy snowfall at the end of November that caused widespread closures of airport across Europe. It is the third major disruption to European airspace after the volcanic ash crisis earlier this year caused a Europe-wide shutdown for several days.

Qantas Buys Air Charter Operator

Australian flag carrier Qantas will enter the air charter business after announcing plans to buy Network Aviation. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Network Aviation was established in 1998, and is based in Perth, Australia, says Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton. The company’s 150 employees fly aircraft to and from mining and resources operators including Xstrata, Sinosteel Midwest, Jabiru Metals, Pilbara Manganese and Woodside Energy. Network Aviation operates a fleet of two 100-seat Fokker 100s and six 30-seat Embraer Brasilias.

Network Aviation will keep its current management, employees and operating structure and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qantas Group after the deal is finalized.

Green Light For Virgin Blue, Air NZ Alliance

The New Zealand government has approved an alliance between Air New Zealand and Australia’s Virgin Blue, removing the last regulatory hurdle to the carriers’ linkup.

The decision, issued by Transport Minister Steven Joyce, follows a similar approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Dec. 16. The carriers are now free to code share on routes between the two nations, as well as collaborating on pricing, scheduling and route planning.

According to their application, the carriers intend to begin selling tickets on combined operations in about four months, with services beginning in six-to-seven months.

The ACCC initially announced it would reject the deal, but the airlines assuaged regulators’ concerns by providing new capacity commitments. The carriers promised to at least maintain their trans-Tasman capacity, and increase capacity on the half-dozen routes of most concern to the ACCC. New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport (MoT) says these commitments were important to gaining approval. The carriers must report their compliance with the capacity commitments twice a year.

Like its Australian counterpart, the MoT has put a shorter-than-normal duration on its authorization. The carriers must reapply after three years, and the MoT says this is the first time such a limit has been imposed under New Zelaand’s civil aviation regulations. The MoT says this “places a strong incentive on the two airlines to operate in a competitive manner.”

In its recommendation to Joyce, the MoT agrees with the airlines that the alliance will help them compete with Qantas and Jetstar. It will “enable more sustainable competition between the two major airline groups” in this market, the MoT says.

Consumers will benefit from improved service levels, connections, frequencies and frequent flyer programs, the MoT says. However, it notes that “the magnitude of these benefits is uncertain and in some cases we assess it as more modest than that put forward by the applicants.”

An important factor was the inclusion of domestic routes in both countries in the alliance. This will give Air New Zealand a presence in the Australian domestic market for the first time since Ansett Australia collapsed in 2001, and it will also renew Virgin Blue’s presence in the New Zealand domestic market after it pulled out earlier this year.

The MoT also says it considered what would happen if the alliance was rejected. It believes that the status quo would not continue, as the airlines have stated they will review a number of trans-Tasman routes if the alliance did not go ahead. This warning “has some credibility,” the MoT says. This is supported by the fact that Air New Zealand withdrew some services when its alliance with Qantas was rejected in 2006, and by the Virgin Blue group’s recent withdrawal from unprofitable routes.

Boeing Accelerates 777 Production Rate Plan

Boosted by continuing demand and a hefty backlog, Boeing has announced plans to increase 777 production to 8.3 per month in the first quarter of 2013.

The move marks a record rate for the twinjet and comes on the heels of Boeing’s announcement in March to increase 777 production from five to seven aircraft per month in mid-2011. This rate increase, in turn, was brought forward by around nine months, following signs of a strong long-haul market recovery in early 2010.

The 777 has a backlog of more than 250, as well as a large installed operator base with some 907 aircraft in service. Despite the boost to the 777 line Boeing so far shows no sign of changing the scheduled ramp-up rate for the 747-8, the first freighter version of which is due to commence deliveries in mid-2012. As currently planned the company plans to increase the 747 production to two aircraft per month from the initially scheduled 1.5 planes. That increase, announced in March, will take effect in mid-2012 rather than mid-2013.

Report Stirs Anticipation Of Chinese Carrier Plan

A Chinese state document has referred to the government having “put forward” a plan in 2009 to build aircraft carriers, adding to widespread expectations that such a program is in hand or imminent.

The “Sunday Morning Post,” a Hong Kong newspaper that obtained the document, presents it as the first official confirmation of a carrier program, but the wording seems less than categorical.

“In 2009, China put forward an idea and plan for building aircraft carriers. These indicate China has entered the historical era of building a maritime superpower,” the government says in its 2010 Ocean Development Report, according to the newspaper’s translation.

“Building China as a maritime power is the mission of China in the whole 21st century, and 2010 to 2020 is the critical period for accomplishing this strategic mission, with the goal to place China among mid-tier maritime powers.”

Evidence has been mounting for years that China plans to build aircraft carriers. Early reports seemed premature and led to skepticism about later statements. But the evidence of Chinese ambitions has been piling up, especially over the past two years, with officials making remarks that have defended the country’s interest in operating such ships.

The Ocean Development Report’s reference to making China a mid-tier maritime player suggests that it aims to deploy a force comparable with that of Britain, Japan or France. That raises the question of how far it is behind those countries, if at all, and how far it would expect to deploy. Would it want to operate far from its own territory, as the Royal Navy is used to doing, or only close to its ports, like the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force?

Some analysts believe that China is initially interested only in defending what it regards as territorial waters — though in Beijing’s definition those territorial waters include much of the South China Sea.

Lumexis IFE Flying On Flydubai 737-800s

Flydubai, the launch customer of Lumexis’s new lightweight fiber-to-the-screen (FTTS) inflight entertainment system, now has three aircraft successfully operating with the new system, and a fourth due to be delivered next week. In total, the IFE system will be rolled out across 45 Flydubai Boeing 737-800s equipped with the new Sky Interior fleet.

The lightweight system, weighing in at 2.3kg per seat, is a third the weight of comparable systems, which can weigh up to 6.4kg, making the Lumexis offering much more financially feasible for low-cost carriers, according to Doug Cline, CEO of Lumexis.

While it is too early to judge how reliable the product is, Flydubai so far is happy with its decision. The airline’s in-flight product manager, Dan Kerrison, told Aviation Week that the weight saving offered by the Lumexis system is no less important for short- to medium-haul operators than it is for longer haul operators. “We have a lot more cycles on our airplanes, around 14-16 per day. Any additional weight will displace our payload on those cycles.”

The Lumexis system allows more legroom as the individual underseat power supply units have been replaced by one box that is fitted into a side panel. Each unit powers 15 passenger control units. If a power unit fails, it would affect all 15 screens. However Kerrison says that the unit can easily be swapped out during a night-stop operation. “It only takes an hour and we just need to remove a row of three seats to swap it out”, he said.

“We have now established that we can bring a product to the low-cost market,” said Cline. “Traditionally, low-cost carriers just don’t put IFE on board aircraft. It is expensive to install and expensive to maintain.” Cline said. ”The hardware is simple in the Lumexis system. It’s super durable and the parts count is lower. The simplicity of the design makes it more cost-effective to both install and maintain.”

The Lumexis system is not currently available directly off Boeing’s production line. Instead, new aircraft from Boeing are ferried to Seattle-based installation partner Aviation Technical Services (ATS), where the system is installed.

Cline says Flydubai specified that the first four aircraft must be fitted with IFE within five weeks post delivery from Boeing. “The typical timeframe for first installation of an IFE system is usually a couple of months, but with ATS, Lumexis has successfully installed it onto three aircraft in just 23 days,” he said. ATS has reduced retrofit time to just three days per aircraft.

The prospect of having the Lumexis system available off the production line is important to Flydubai. The airline’s chief operating officer, Kenneth Gile, told Aviation Week that when the system is eventually line-fitted, it will allow the airline to generate three days revenue that otherwise would have been lost during retrofit.

Gile says that Flydubai is not entertaining the idea of sending its existing fleet of nine 737-800NGs, which are not fitted with the Sky Interior, back to Seattle for a retrofit of the Lumexis system. Instead, it plans to swap those aircraft to shorter-haul routes when the rest of the Lumexis-installed Sky Interior fleet is delivered.

“It’s important to recognize just how big a risk Flydubai took. Imagine the devastation to Flydubai if we didn’t deliver on time,” said Cline. “They’ve shown an immense amount of confidence in us. When they signed up with us last November, we had an undeveloped, unproven technology. In less than a year, we’ve gone from a first generation Lumexis product, to developing, certifying and installing the system onto three aircraft.”

“A lot of airlines and manufacturers will ride with Flydubai to see how this system works,” said Cline. US Airways, he says, might be revisiting their contract with Lumexis after other issues prevented them from going ahead with the system after successful tests on board an Airbus A320 last year.

As for Lumexis’ prospects, Cline said: “I think it will be line offerable on wide- and narrowbody aircraft sooner than you expect.

2010 Better Than Expected For Airports

The year 2010 is turning out to be much better than expected for world airports as passenger traffic is gauged to increase 6% increase and freight volumes more than 15% from 2009 levels.

Gross domestic product (GDP) for many nations expanded robustly and unemployment did not worsen the economic situation, says Angela Gittens, director of the Airports Council International (ACI). Demand for premium travel has returned, and consumer business confidence is rated as positive, according to the ACI Airport Economics Survey for 2010. Survey information is based on reports from 646 airports that handled an aggregate 3.23 billion passengers or 67.5% of worldwide traffic in 2009.

Capital expenditures for 2010 are expected to rise 11% to $38.5 billion, which compares with a weakened 2009, when such expenditures fell 20% to $34.6 billion. The 2009 figures do not reflect expenditures for new airports or the building costs in the Middle East and China, where significant amounts of capital are being invested.

The report focuses on the final tabulation of 2009 revenues, costs and expenditures based on an extrapolation from survey results. Total airport revenues in 2009 reached $95 billion, a 2% decline from 2008. The global industry generated $51 billion in 2009 aeronautical revenues, a 2.5% drop from 2008. Non-aeronautical revenues fell 1.5%.

However, revenues from commercial outlets rose 3% in 2009, driven by a 2% increase in retail sales, 10% in real estate, 9% in rental car concessions, and 7% from food and beverages. The diversification of airport revenues “cushioned the impact of lower passenger and freight volumes,” Gittens said.

Operating revenues in 2009 incurred $57 billion in operating expenses. Personnel costs represented the largest expense, 39.5%. Based on two years of data, ACI has revised its calculation of global airport industry debt upwards from $240 billion to $280 billion. The debt is three times higher than annual industry revenues.

Airlines Calculate Boeing 787 Delay Damage

With airlines bracing for yet another slip in Boeing’s 787 delivery schedule, some of the program’s key customers are considering how much longer they can reshuffle their current fleets and what the damage will be to their long-term plans.

Boeing has yet to tell airlines how many months the latest delay will be after problems during flight-testing forced a timetable review. For every customer, the pain threshold is a little different. They can cope in the short term, but eventually the delays will severely cramp the growth plans that were based on the promise of the 787’s range and efficiency.

Three of the most important 787 customers spoke to Aviation Week about the program delays during a Star Alliance event here Dec. 13-14. All Nippon Airways is the launch customer of the initial 787-8 variant, United Airlines is slated to be the first North American operator and Air New Zealand is the launch customer for the 787-9.

ANA CEO Shinichiro Ito says the airline has contin­gency plans to cope with additional delays, but it will face serious headaches if the first handover is pushed into 2012.

The carrier has already taken “substantial measures” in case Boeing could not meet the current delivery target of the first quarter of 2011, says Ito. “We can cover their delay for one year [beyond the current target] without major damage” to ANA’s operations or plans, he says.

ANA has orders for 55 of the 787-8 and -9 versions. It was originally supposed to receive the first aircraft in mid-2008.

Ito is resigned to the fact that the latest technical issues will “most likely lead to another delay,” and he has been asking Boeing to present a revised timeline “as soon as possible.” He notes that ANA has endured six delays already, and a seventh will be “disappointing.”

The contingency measures ANA has put in place include postponing retirement of older Airbus A320s and Boeing 767s. The carrier has also acquired additional newer 767-300ERs to help fill the gap.

But the 767s “can’t cover everything” that the carrier intended for the 787, Ito notes. Another lengthy delay will affect its plans to launch new long-haul flights that were earmarked for the 787, such as new routes to the Eastern U.S. and Europe from Tokyo Haneda Airport.

Meanwhile, Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe concedes it is “probable” that the delays to the 787-8 will spill over to the -9. Before Boeing’s most recent problems, Air New Zealand was facing a three-year delay in its eight 787-9 orders. They were originally scheduled for delivery in late 2010, but are now slated for late 2013.

“Clearly there is frustration for us in those delays, as it is restricting some of our plans in terms of retiring older aircraft and in terms of some of the new routes we’re interested in,” Fyfe says. While ANA is going ahead with its plans to phase out its last 747-400s from international service in March, the 787 delays have prompted Air New Zealand to purchase a 747-400 that it had wanted to return to its lessor. This goes against its plan to shrink the 747 fleet. Additional measures include extending 777-200 leases and retaining 767-300ERs longer than planned. As with the other 787 customers, there have been compensation discussions between Air New Zealand and Boeing, although Fyfe will not reveal details. However, he says no matter how much compensation is received, the delivery delays still create considerable strategic risk for the carrier. Many of the routes Air New Zealand targets are too thin to support more than one carrier. So if a further 787 delay results in another airline entering a market that Air New Zealand was contemplating, it could be locked out of that market. Overall, Fyfe is still convinced the 787 will be a “game-changer” for Air New Zealand. “There is no lack of enthusiasm [for the aircraft]; we just want to get our hands on it,” he says. Jeffery Smisek, CEO of United Continental Holdings, believes Boeing is being “purposefully cautious” in revising the 787 timetable. The stakes are high for the airlines, because they rely on the delivery schedule to plan expensive investments in training and equipment, Smisek says. The newly merged carrier has 50 787s on order, half from United and half from Continental. The most recent update had first delivery slipping from August 2011 into 2012, but Smisek says Boeing has yet to reveal the extent of the latest revision. Smisek says the continuing delivery delays create other major problems for United. The aircraft is a pivotal part of the carrier’s plans to open new routes and make its fleet more efficient, he says. “We’ve got a lot of plans for the 787, and every day of delay [represents] dollars that we could have made that we are not making.” For example, United has postponed plans to launch a route from Houston to Auckland in November 2011, which was to be one of the first to use the 787. This was “100% caused by the [787] delay,” Smisek says. United believes that being the North American launch customer will give it a competitive advantage in the region. “So we would like to start this competitive advantage as soon as possible,” says Smisek. Delays to the 787 program began in September 2007, shortly after rollout, when widespread issues with the supply chain became apparent. Bedeviled by persistent problems involving “re-work” on parts already delivered or in flow, Boeing announced additional delays in October 2007, as well as in January, April and November 2008. The latter hold-up was attributed to incorrect installation of fasteners and the knock-on effects of a debilitating machinists’ strike at Boeing. The sixth major delay came in June 2009, just as the aircraft was poised for first flight, when structural tests revealed the need to strengthen the wing-to-body join area. Although flight tests eventually began in December 2009, the planned first delivery slipped from late 2010 into early 2011 following more production and flight-test issues, culminating in problems with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine. An electrical fire last month on a test aircraft in Texas—and the subsequent suspension of flight tests and grounding of the fleet—is now set to trigger a seventh major delay. Boeing has acknowledged the systems redesign and certification issues caused by the Nov. 9 electrical fire have effectively rendered its current targets unachievable. The aircraft maker says it will announce a new schedule when that work is complete. Analysts predict the latest delay will be anywhere from 4-6 months.