Belgium joins European FCAS warplane program as observer

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  16 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  Can UAM, Advanced Air Mobility Escape From The Hype Phase?

  Michael Bruno Stop me if you have heard this before: A whole new class of aircraft will democratize and revolutionize seemingly everything, starting with air travel. Will it be advanced air mobility or maybe very light jets? Aviation consultant Brian Foley recalls the latter while thinking of the former, since both are in the news recently. Disruptive paradigms are not a new threat to aviation, even this century, he notes. The Eclipse very light jet (VLJ) was intended to make airborne commuting more of a reality before it became a $1.5 billion “smoking crater in the ground.” In November, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware authorized the sale of Eclipse Aerospace and the Eclipse Aircraft project to AML Global Eclipse, backed by British businessman Christopher Harborne, for $5.25 million. Now some observers wonder whether urban air mobility (UAM) and advanced air mobility (AAM) will experience something similar. “There are two sides of the fence, and you're either on one side or another,” Foley pointed out in a recent edition of the Aerospace Executive Podcast with talent finder Craig Picken. “One side of the fence is that this is disruptive technology, and this will just change the whole landscape of how people travel in cities and between regional points. Some investors believe that, too, and they are putting some chips down on the different potential winners if this thing does come out on the other end and is successful. “There are others that are a little bit curious to see how this thing works,” Foley continued. “We've had helicopter service for years, which isn't all that much different. There are some concerns over noise—these things are overgrown drones.” Yes, billions of dollars are pouring into UAM/AAM, but is it actually significant yet? Silicon Valley is behind this, as are multiple other investors. But UAM/AAM represents a fraction of their investments, which are otherwise cast far and wide and could include UAM/AAM only as a one-off gamble. “Even though it seems like a big number to us, it's just pocket change to them,” Foley said. “They hope there is a return. Right now, there are as many arguments why it's going to succeed and won't succeed.” Such context is easy to forget amid the flurry of recent headlines, such as Joby Aviation's takeover of Uber Elevate and a reported public trading debut on the horizon. What is more, consultants continue to publish eye-catching reports about the market's value in coming decades. The latest from Deloitte consultancy and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) says the UAM/AAM sector could be worth $115 billion a year by 2035, employing more than 280,000 “high-paying” aerospace workers and generating an annual $20 billion in U.S. exports. “It's become increasingly apparent that this particular area has become more real,” AIA Vice President for Civil Aviation David Silver told Aviation Week ahead of the release of the Jan. 26 study. “This is very real technology that is just on the horizon, and there is no single silver bullet that is going to make it happen.” Deloitte's global and U.S. aerospace and defense leader, Robin Lineberger, concurred during the interview. The report pushes for a sustained, collaborative approach by the public and private sectors for electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft to be widely accepted and adopted, sooner rather than later. “With the market poised to grow sevenfold between 2025 and 2035, it's important for U.S. policymakers and industries to cooperate now to ensure American leadership in this transformative emerging sector,” he said. Already, the global race for AAM leadership is intensifying, the groups said, and the U.S. faces strong competition from China, Germany and South Korea. As a result, the AIA-Deloitte document calls for streamlined eVTOL testing and certification as well as seamlessly integrating aircraft into the U.S. airspace system. Silver said it is important to shed light on the issue now, at the beginning of the Biden administration, as Washington is expected again to consider domestic infrastructure development as a key priority. The point is to broaden policymakers' horizons, he said, so that they wonder, “Are we even asking the right questions?” Still, other observers point out that—like almost everything in aerospace—paradigm shifts come slowly compared with other business sectors. Take the City-Airbus vision from the European giant: “Realistically, we will have to wait until the end of the decade to see more than a demonstrator,” Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even acknowledged in a November press briefing. Even's boss, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, was even more clear-eyed days later in a separate online debate with an automotive CEO. Faury explained that eVTOL projects, such as the Vahana two-seater and the CityAirbus four-seater, should be seen primarily as low-cost demonstrators for future technology on commercial aircraft. Faury stressed: “There will be a market eventually, but profitability will be tricky at the start." https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/urban-unmanned-aviation/can-uam-advanced-air-mobility-escape-hype-phase

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  6 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Boeing Defense And Space’s Leanne Caret: ‘We’re Owning Our Mistakes’

  Jen DiMascio Joe Anselmo Michael Bruno Steve Trimble July 01, 2020 Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, spoke via teleconference with Aviation Week editors in the run-up to what would have been the Farnborough Airshow. AW&ST: In addition to the turnover among Boeing executives, the company's stock and reputation have taken a beating in the past year. How is Boeing a different company today than it was 18 months ago? I am confident in the Boeing Co., and we have an enormously bright future. It's because of the incredible women and men who work for this company and bring their best every day. We have become a very introspective company, very pragmatic. We're owning our mistakes, and we're committing to address those. That is the centerpiece of what you have to do to have trust, especially in an industry as critically important as ours is, where people are flying and using our products every day, whether commercially or defending nations and allies. How has COVID-19 affected the goals that Boeing Defense set at the start of the year? The defense industry has been deemed mission-essential. We need to make certain we're continuing to deliver product to our customers, we keep our supply base healthy, and we all have an eye to the future. I really appreciate the partnership and conversations we've had with the Pentagon. You've heard [Boeing CEO/President] David Calhoun mention that, after what has happened in the commercial aerospace market, the defense business is important to the Boeing Co.—has been and always will be. After COVID-19, what does the future hold for defense spending? We have a very pragmatic view of the future. I don't anticipate significant budget increases. We have always planned that at some point we could see a regression in defense budgets. Wall Street is expecting about a 2% increase in revenue for Boeing over the next couple of years. That is on the lower end of where your peers are. They are in the mid-single digits. What rate of growth do you see? I think it's important to note where we are in the life cycle of many of the products in our portfolio. Where you will continue to see opportunity for us as we move into production on some of those key franchise programs that we won a few years ago is the [T-7 advanced trainer, MQ-25 unmanned carrier-based refueling aircraft and MH-139 helicopter]. We're all going to see the marketplace adjust as a result of COVID-19. Around the world, we've already seen some delays and some very large competitions that have been slighted because customers are having to assess where they are. I want our team to have as its centerpiece meeting our customers' needs and expectations, and I believe that the outcome of that will be growing the business and strong financial performance. Many big programs are coming down the line, such as the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft, the Advanced Battle Management System, the Next--Generation Air Dominance or the Future Vertical Lift programs. The Pentagon is emphasizing procurement with more control over intellectual property, fewer hooks into the sustainment phase and more competition. How will Boeing adapt to that over time? Will it require fundamental changes? In the last decade, we were focused on redefining how we designed and built aircraft. We were anticipating that the customer was going to commoditize the type of product that we have traditionally built. We have a foundation in model-based systems engineering to bring the collective best from industry together, so that when a system is in the field, we have developed it with maintainers in mind. That's where our build process has really paid off. In 2016, we had not won the T-7 or MQ-25 contracts or certainly not had any thought of the F-15EX yet. All three of those used this concept, which is to use advanced engineering and design toolsets to address the customer's vision. We placed our bets on changing the way we did business, and we have positioned ourselves nicely. Please update us on the KC-46. Where do things stand with the foreign object debris (FOD) situation? I'm not going to be happy until we're perfect, and we're not perfect yet. My focus is to make sure we don't deliver any aircraft with FOD to the U.S. government. If that means I need to hold back a delivery because a member of our team identified an issue, we're going to do the right thing. The most important thing is to deliver a perfect product to the customer. I think it is a testament to the steps that we have taken that we will not pass a defect to our customer. It speaks to the culture change that we have instituted over the last 1.5 years. Quite frankly, we have used KC-46 as the bully pulpit to redefine what we want to do as a company, and I'm really proud of the team for leading the way. Is Boeing on track for fixing the KC-46's remote vision system (RVS) in fiscal 2023? We are looking to demonstrate RVS 1.5 later this summer. It is a building block to what we call RVS 2.0. We have put in place a standard and an agreement that we are all aligned around, that really transcends what the original contract anticipated in terms of RVS. What we are incorporating posi-tions this fleet for not only a leap forward in technology but for autonomous operations in the future. We are on track in this partnership with the U.S. Air Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory. And yes, the timeline is in 2023. What is the outlook for selling F-18s internationally, given the potential for pandemic-related budget reductions in the future? We've secured a number of orders with F-18s that have kept our production line hot. Coupled with that, we're doing the service life modernization program with the U.S. Navy, where we're bringing every one of the aircraft back through and increasing capabilities that eventually will include Block 3 capabilities. We have seen signs that campaigns in Canada, Finland, Germany, India and Switzerland are sliding a bit to the right. None of them have been, to my knowledge, canceled or stopped. One of the things that we've seen them dealing with is the impact of COVID. Many times, they have the budget, but the budget may go out a longer period of time. Or right now they are impacted by staff shortages. These are some big opportunities, and I think the F-18 is positioned nicely, both from the aspects of an acquisition cost and the cost per flying hour. What is the outlook for the F-15? We just did our F-15 Qatar flight a few weeks back. We have continued to demonstrate the ability of the F-15 with our Saudi and Qatari customers and the U.S. Air Force. We're really excited about that opportunity, and it won't be your grandma's F-15. Boeing is a bit late on delivering the Space Launch System (SLS), and it was left out of NASA's competition to build a lunar lander. What are you doing to turn those programs around? On Space Launch Systems, I am really proud of the team for the amazing capabilities they developed with the world's largest rocket. She's sitting on the stand at Stennis Space Center. After watching how this team has battled through the COVID crisis, I'm looking forward to having a hot-fire [test] later this year. Early on, we struggled on SLS from an execution phase. There were also different challenges from a funding perspective and other things. Over the course of the last 1.5-2 years, the team has been hitting its milestones and commitments. On the civil space side, SpaceX beat Boeing to the punch on the first Commercial Crew mission. Are you looking to change your approach? On Starliner, we did not execute the full mission profile, and the right thing to do is to refly. I think that's the right decision, and the teams are focused on that. Our partnership with NASA dates back more than 60 years, and we're incredibly proud of this heritage. But our future isn't defined by our past. It's about making certain that we can continue to innovate and deliver today. This year marks 20 years for the International Space Station. I just couldn't be more thrilled for the team as Doug [Hurley] and Bob [Behnken] were able to join the other astronauts aboard this station. Human space exploration is not for the faint of heart. It changes mankind. We are going to continue to be a great partner, and we're going to continue to advocate for everyone's success when it comes to human space exploration—because it is that important for all of us. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/boeing-defense-spaces-leanne-caret-were-owning-our-mistakes

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  3 février 2023 | International, C4ISR

  Pentagon tester gives thumbs up to US Army electronic warfare planner

  Little information about EWPMT was included in the weapon tester’s previous public report, with details restricted to a select group.