fredag 27. februar 2015

Airbus - Går så det suuuuuser - Maks utebetaling til investorene

Confident Airbus juggles jet output and pays record dividend

MUNICH, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Airbus Group defied warnings of a slowdown in the jetliner market with a steep production boost for its top-selling A320 and announced its biggest ever dividend.

The firm's confidence about demand and a switch to the new A320 model lifted its shares and came despite a fresh charge of 551 million euros due to delays to the A400M military transporter.

The world's second-largest aerospace group after Boeing said it would increase production of the A320 jet family to a record 50 a month in early 2017.

Both the scale and accelerated timing for the move, confirmed details reported by Reuters earlier this week..

The confidence shown by the production boost overrode concerns about a simultaneous "temporary" drop in production of the wide-body A330 jet, which is enduring slow sales ahead of its own revamp in 2017.

Both models are seen as cash cows for the company.

The A330 production rate was cut to six a month from the first quarter of 2016, having already been cut to nine a month from the fourth quarter of this year.

"Airbus has bitten the bullet on the A330," said Edison Investment Research analyst Sash Tusa, adding that the move was widely expected.

The hike from 42 A320s a month to 50 by the first quarter of 2017, closely chasing Boeing's plans for its 737, "could to an extent offset the A330 effect in that year," he said in a note.

Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders dismissed recent market concerns that the commercial aerospace cycle has peaked.

"We have heard that last year and the year before," he told a news conference. "We don't see it as long as the world doesn't come tumbling down. The demand is clearly there."

When your trusted authority fails totally - Australia

Pilot lashes out at air-safety watchdogs' crash report (Australia)

THE two government agencies responsible for policing aviation "publicly lied" about the full circumstances of a 2009 Pel-Air crash off Norfolk Island, the plane's pilot has claimed.

Dominic James, who had his pilot's licence temporarily suspended following the incident, said the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had "significantly altered the findings" of an accident report. "Once this misconduct was disclosed, the (agencies) then lied quite publicly about what they knew and defended this unsound report," Mr James told The Australian.

Two people involved in the crash of the medevac flight, nurse Karen Casey and doctor David Helm, have sued Pel-Air - an arm of Regional Express, or Rex - with the case being heard in the NSW Supreme Court this week.

After the accident it was revealed an ATSB investigation had failed to mention 57 breaches or "serious deficiencies" at Pel-Air which had been identified by CASA. Those revelations sparked a parliamentary inquiry that reported in December, leading the federal government to call on the ATSB to launch a new probe.

An external investigation was also undertaken by the Canadian Transport Bureau, which also found major problems with the existing report.

Questions are being asked over Rex's government relationships after the small listed company donated almost $400,000 to the federal ALP and LNP between July and November 2012, while the ATSB and CASA investigations were ongoing.

Rex has repeatedly declined to comment when asked by The Australian why it made those political donations with shareholder funds.

The company has not made any donations since then and the only other political donations the company had ever made was $3486 to the ALP in the year to June 2004.

There were six people aboard the Pel-Air flight when it ditched into the ocean near Norfolk Island after running out of fuel, but no lives were lost.

Lawyers for Ms Casey, who was seriously injured in the crash, told judge Monika Schmidt she has suffered from severe physical and mental problems following the crash and will never be able to work again. Ms Casey and Dr Helm are seeking damages, while Rex is arguing it has no obligation to make any payments.

The case continues.

Crash - Know your hardware and its software

Float plane crashed, killing three, because pilot unfamiliar with modified airplane: TSB

Float plane crashed, killing three, because pilot unfamiliar with modified airplane: TSB

Wreckage and tree strike damage. The pilot of a commercial Air Cab float plane that crashed on West Cracroft Island was new to the company and unaware of how multiple modifications affected the airplane's performance and handling, the federal transportation safety board has determined.
Photograph by: Vancouver Sun , Transportation Safety Board
The pilot of a commercial Air Cab float plane that crashed on West Cracroft Island was new to the company and unaware of how multiple modifications affected the airplane's performance and handling, the federal transportation safety board has determined.

Pilot Kevin Williams and passengers Norm Slavik of Surrey and Fred Wiley of Merville died after the 1970 Cessna C-185E stalled shortly before landing and crashed onto a small island on Potts Lagoon east of Port McNeill at 11:40 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2013.

In a report released Wednesday, the board said the pilot had accumulated about 3,137 hours total flight time, 1,682 hours of those in seaplane operations.

The pilot had started working for the company 10 days before the accident. The accident occurred on the pilot's first day of unsupervised flying for Air Cab. The pilot had not flown to the Potts Lagoon area and had not flown the accident aircraft before the day of the crash.

The airplane had received multiple approved modifications over the years, and the pilot would not have known how all these would have changed the performance of the airplane.

"The aircraft's high bank angle, steep descent, short wreckage trail, and low airspeed were consistent with the occurrence of an accelerated aerodynamic stall at an altitude from which recovery was not possible," the board found.

The aircraft had been involved in three prior accidents, most recently in September 2012, when it was significantly damaged after it stalled in a low-level left turn and crashed into water.

At the time of repair, the aircraft received a wing-extension modification, which followed earlier installations of two takeoff-and-landing kits. The plane had also been fitted with larger floats.

Because the modifications resulted in performance and handling characteristics unique to the aircraft, the actual stall speed of the aircraft "remained unknown and could only be estimated" and may have compromised the ability of the stall warning system to indicate an impending stall.

An advanced stall warning system may have made a difference.

The board concluded that the "installation of multiple modifications without adequate guidance on how to evaluate and document the effects on aircraft handling" may result in pilots losing control due to unknown aircraft performance.

Drone har fått jobb - Hammerhead MALE

MALE: Medium Altitude Long Endurance

HammerHead Takes Flight, Gains First Order

by David Donald

- February 26, 2015, 1:21 PM

The Piaggio P.1HH HammerHead takes off for its first flight. (Photo: Piaggio Aerospace)

The Piaggio P.1HH Hammerhead MALE UAV made its first flight late last year, and has been ordered by the Italian Air Force, the company announced this week during the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Piaggio Aerospace is majority-owned by UAE company Mubadala.

The HammerHead is an unmanned derivative of the P.180 Avanti twin-turboprop business aircraft, with Selex ESproviding vehicle management, vehicle control, datalink and ground control systems. The maiden flight took place on December 22 from Trapani-Birgi air base in Sicily, during which aircraft systems and datalink were checked out at varying speeds and altitudes. The basic functions of the ground control segment were also proved. The first flight was preceded by approximately 50 flights with the HammerHead demo aircraft, a manned Avanti testbed fitted with the P.1HH’s systems. “You can run more risk with a manned flight; there is a pilot to take control if things go wrong,” remarked Piaggio CEO Carlo Logli. “With unmanned you need a greater level of maturity.”

“We are very pleased with the result of the maiden flight,” reported project pilot Sergio Paloni. “The aerial vehicle was seamlessly operated remotely with no flaws experienced.” For the first flight the P.1HH was controlled manually via the datalink. Now the test campaign is moving toward providing an interim capability with automatic takeoff and landing (ATOL) and some sensor capabilities. This phase is expected to be complete by the summer and will encompass 150 hours of flight. Piaggio is building a second P.1HH prototype, which will begin flying later this year with full autonomous capability and mission systems.

Italian intentions to buy the P.1HH were first made public in June 2013 at the Paris airshow. The air force is to acquire an initial batch of three P.1HH systems, each comprising a ground station and two air vehicles. The first system is due for delivery in early 2016.

Meanwhile, Piaggio is forging ahead with another military Avanti derivative, the Multi-purpose Patrol Aircraft (MPA). This is being developed in conjunction with ADASI, which is part of the newly created Emirates Defence Industries Company that brings together defense-related elements of the Mubadala, Tawazun and EAIcompanies into a single organization. The MPA version has longer-span wings, foreplanes and tailplanes than the P.180 Avanti, to provide greater endurance for patrol missions. Saab is providing the mission suite. A prototype is set to fly in the third quarter of this year, with the aim of making its public debut at the Dubai airshow in November.

Under radaren

– Faktum er at det er veldig dårlig radardekning for den type flytrafikk som ikke vil at den skal bli oppdaget, sier tidligere luftkontrollinspektør og generalmajor i Luftforsvaret, Lars Myraune, til NRK.

Forsvarets fellesoperative doktrine slår fast at «Forsvaret har et selvstendig ansvar for å hindre terroranslag ført frem gjennom luftrommet. Håndteringen av en slik situasjon er svært tidskritisk og krever kontinuerlig luftovervåkning, kampfly- og /eller luftvernberedskap for å kunne engasjere luftmål».
Men både Myraune og en rekke forsvarskilder Vi Menn har snakket med sår tvil om Forsvaret er i stand til å oppfylle dette kravet.
– Den mangelfulle radardekningen representerer en alvorlig risikofaktor som gjør oss langt mer sårbare mot trusler mot rikets sikkerhet, sier en anonym forsvarskilde til magasinet fredag.

Går under radaren

Kilder bekrefter overfor Vi Menn at situasjonen i dag er den samme som da utviklingsavdelingen i Luftforsvarsstaben i 2011 sendte et brev til Forsvarsdepartementet. Ett år senere fikk Tønsbergs blad tak i dokumentet som slo alarm om at Norge ikke har en «tilfredsstillende militær luftromsovervåkning over det sentrale Østlandet»:

Ifølge brevet skyldes problemene at det ikke ble etablert en god nok erstatning da radaren på Mågerø ble avviklet i 2003.
I dag er fjellanlegget på Mågerø i Vestfold avhengig av signaler som kommer fra en gammel radar i Kongsvinger. Men måten radaren er plassert på gjør at den ikke gir en tilfredsstillende dekning i middels og lav høyde av luftrommet over Oslo og videre sørover.
Vi Menn skriver at selv om sivile radarer kan fange opp mange flybevegelser, så vil de ikke oppdage fly som har slått av transponderen.

En kilde, som ifølge magasinet har detaljert innsikt i Luftforsvarets operative virksomhet, mener at offentlig tilgjengelig kunnskap gjør det mulig for en fremmed stat å sende spesialstyrker til Norge, la dem utføre oppdrag, og deretter hente dem ut luftveien uten at Norge verken ser hva som skjer eller får muligheten til å stanse dem.

– Vil ikke avdekke 11. september-angrep

Ifølge Myraune svekker svakhetene i radardekningen også Norges evne til å avverge terrorangrep fra luften, likt det New York ble utsatt for i 2001.
– Det er begrenset med muligheter for å oppdage det, spesielt i Sør-Norge fordi vi ikke ser i lavdekningen. Hvis noen flyr inn lavt for å gjøre skade, kan det bli vanskelig for oss. Derfor er det så viktig at det jobbes med å få inn nye radarer, sier han til NRK.

Myraune forteller at det allerede i 1999, da han gikk av som luftkontrollinspektør i Kongsvinger, var planer om å bedre radardekningen i sør.
– Det ble til en viss grad gjort i vest, men i øst ble det aldri noe mer, sier han.
– Er du overrasket over at det har tatt så lang tid?
– Ja, jeg er det. Jeg synes det har tatt usedvanlig langt tid, det er nok en prioritering jeg ikke ville stilt meg bak om jeg var fortsatt var aktiv.
– Hva tenker du om dagens situasjon?
– Den er ikke særlig bra. Å sørge for at vi har dekning over luftrommet rundt hovedstadsområdet burde få en av de absolutt høyeste prioriteringene i Forsvaret, sier Myraune.

Forsvaret: Dekningen er tilfredsstillende

Morten Haga Lunde, sjef for Forsvarets operative hovedkvarter, sier til NRK at topografien gjør at man aldri kan garantere full radardekning av hele landet til enhver tid.
– Det vil alltid være radarskygger, men Forsvaret vurderer dekningen som tilfredsstillende så langt.

På spørsmål om Norge er rustet til å avverge et eventuelt terroranslag mot Oslo fra luften, svarer Lunde:
– Radardekningen over Sør-Norge, i tillegg til det sikringsarbeidet som skjer på flyplassene i landet, er god nok til å forebygge så langt det er menneskelig mulig.
Lunde medgir samtidig at «teknologien begynner å bli gammel».
– Det er tatt initiativ til, og det er prosjekter i utviklingsfasen, for å erstatte aldrende radarutstyr som vi har i dag, sier han.
– Betyr det at radaren i Kongsvinger blir erstattet?
– Akkurat hva som skjer etter 2020 skal jeg ikke spekulere i, men at det blir en radardekning over Sør-Norge som vil dekke de behov vi har, det kommer til å skje, sier Lunde.

Advarer mot å legge ned Mågerø

Myraune er glad for at Forsvaret jobber med saken. Men han er svært bekymret over planene om å legge ned luftforsvarets stasjon på Mågerø i løpet av 2016. Tanken er at all radarovervåkning for hele landet skal samles hos Forsvarets kontroll- og varslingssenter på Sørreisa i Troms. Men ifølge Vi Menns kilder har Forsvaret i dag en svært sårbar infrastruktur for videreformidling av radarbilder mellom Sør- og Nord-Norge.
– Det gjør oss veldig sårbare. Det hjelper ikke med en ny radar hvis du mister forbindelsen med kontrollsentralen i Nord-Norge, sier Myraune.
Som luftkontrollinspektør tok han initiativ til og gjennomførte en rekke nedleggelser av flere mindre kontrollstasjoner i Norge.
– Vi gjennomførte en ganske drastisk nedleggelse på 1990-tallet. Tanken på at noen i ettertid skulle komme på å legge ned den ene av de to som ble igjen, slo meg ikke en gang, sier Myraune i dag.
NRK har tidligere snakket med kapteiner på luftforsvarets stasjon på Mågerø som mener en nedleggelse fører til hull i overvåkningen av Norges luftrom. Økt russisk aktivitet i Nordområdene bekymrer spesielt.

Pressetalsmann for Forsvarssjefen, Eystein Kvarving, skriver i en e-post til NRK at planene om å legge ned Luftforsvarets stasjon på Mågerø innen 2016 ligger fast.
Han viser til at det også er bestemt at det skal etableres et Luftoperasjonssenter på Reitan, som skal kan stå for kontroll og varsling dersom det oppstår problemer ved Sørreisa.
– Fordi det ikke er tilgjengelig plass på Reitan i 2016 har Forsvarsstaben (FST) sendt frem et forslag om å etablere denne funksjonaliteten på Ørland, opplyser Kvarving.
Han henviser til Lunde når det kommer til påstanden om at sikkerheten knyttet til videreformidling av radarbilder mellom Sør- og Nord-Norge ikke er god nok.
– Det ønsker jeg ikke å gå inn i, for det er ting vi vurderer i forbindelse med Forsvarssjefens fagmilitære råd (kommer i oktober, journ. anm.), sier FOH-sjefen.
Lunde viser også til at Stortinget har konkludert med at Forsvarets planer for dette er tilfredsstillende.

SAS - Uro der og - Danskene igjen

Både SAS og Norwegian kjemper mot fagforeninger. Foto: Gunnar Blöndal les mer

Kan bli turbulent helg for både SAS og Norwegian

Mens Norwegian og pilotene megler her hjemme, ulmer det mellom SAS og den danske kabinforeningen.

Line Kaspersen

Publisert: 27.02.2015 — 10:09

Men det er ikke bare Norwegian som kan gå en turbulent helg i møte. Også i SAS brygger det opp til strid, skriver Check-in.dk.
Den danske kabinforeningen (CAU) aksepterer ikke dårligere vilkår for de 120 kabinansatte som etter planen skal overføres til Cimber.
Dermed kan starten på helgen by på trafikkforstyrrelser på flere skandinaviske flyplasser.
Styret i CAU har innkalt kabinpersonalet hos SAS til et medlemsmøte fredag morgen på Hilton-hotellet ved Københavns Lufthavn.

Frustrasjon

Et medlemsmøte tirsdag utviklet seg til et faglig møte der de kabinansatte i et par timer la ned arbeidet i frustrasjon over det utspillet SAS har kommet med i forbindelse med overføringen av SAS-personale til Cimber, som skal være et nytt produksjonsselskap for SAS.
Medlemsmøtet i dag kommer som en reaksjon på at forhandlingene mellom CAU og SAS brøt sammen onsdag kveld.
- Vi anerkjenner ikke situasjonen som en virksomhetsoverdragelse. Vi betrakter det som et forsøk på å omgå overenskomsten vår, sa formann Merete Scheel i CAU tidligere denne uken.
Og mens kabinpersonalet og SAS kjemper en kamp i Danmark, er det også uro i Norge. Meglingen mellom Norwegian og pilotene fortsetter i dag i et forsøk på å unngå pilotstreik.
Partene har siden oktober ifjor hatt en rekke møter for å arbeide frem en felles plattform som tar hensyn til konkurransesituasjonen, arbeidsplassene og et felles mål om å sikre selskapet .

Drone av det spesielle slaget - Uclass for USN

Opinion: Looking For Answers To The Navy’s Uclass Mystery

Secret clues to the Navy’s tangled drone story

Mar 27, 2015Bill Sweetman Aviation Week & Space Technology

Spot the Spook

What’s going on with the Pentagon’s longest-running drama, the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) program? After years of factional intrigue that made Borgia politics look like a Dick & Jane reader, the debate about Uclass specifications has been declared not over, but deferred. (How can there not be enough data to make a decision?) But instead of redoubling their lobbying,Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman appear to have walked away.

In January, market analysts grilled Boeing CEO Jim McNerney about the future of the company’s St. Louis operations, which were facing the shutdown of their fighter programs. He seemed unworried—and whatever you think of Boeing/Lockheed Martin’s chances in the Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRSB) contest, neither side has a contract in hand.

Then the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings website reported that Uclass had been designated RAQ-25. Under Pentagon rules, programs don’t get designators; only vehicles do.

Credit: Northrop Grumman

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), a member of the cabal that has been pushing for a high-end Uclass, was discreet in an early-February discussion. “I’m pretty comfortable with the direction that the program is taking,” he said. “I’m not trying to be vague. I just don’t want to go to jail.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work (a supporter of unmanned combat air systems in his previous jobs) explained the Uclass delay in February comments: “In addition to looking at capabilities that we already have and using them differently, we’re going to make sure . . . that when we go after a new platform, it’s the platform that we need from a joint perspective.”

A joint platform is a U.S. Air Force/Navy program—the term can have no other meaning—but if Work is arranging a marriage for Uclass, where’s the bridegroom? When orbital patterns are so disturbed, it’s time to look for a dark planet somewhere in the system.

In October 2010, Maj. Gen. Dave Scott, head of the Air Force’s operational requirements directorate, gave a briefing that disclosed the service’s plans for a long-range strike family of systems (LRS-FoS)—plans that then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved a few months later.

Three family members are real today: LRSB, the Long-Range Standoff cruise missile and a “penetrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” (P-ISR) vehicle, which is Northrop Grumman’s secret RQ-180. (A fourth, Conventional Prompt Global Strike, was dropped like a bad habit as soon as the Pentagon’s exit door closed behind its leading advocate, and was replaced by the Minuteman follow-on.)

That leaves one: Penetrating Airborne Electronic Attack (P-AEA). In the LRS-FoS plan, RQ-180 would find targets for LRSB and the P-AEA would suppress defenses. Together, they fill the capabilities gap between the cost-constrained LRSB and the Battlestar-Galactica Next-Generation Bomber (NGB) that Gates canceled in 2009.

Also, after P-AEA appeared in Scott’s briefing, the Air Force terminated its nascent MQ-X project, leaving itself with no visible solution to an obvious problem, which is a large force of MQ-9 Reapers that can be shot down with World War II weapons.

P-AEA appears in no known plan, but you need not dig very deep into the Air Force’s fiscal 2016 budget to find $7 billion in classified acquisition money that is neither part of the cash that the Pentagon launders for the intelligence community, nor the LRSB.

And between early 2007, when Boeing became Lockheed Martin’s partner on the NGB, and October 2013, when the companies re-partnered with Boeing in the front seat, St. Louis proved it had the chops to be publicly and unequivocally identified as the lead on that huge, critical and complex program. Boeing’s stealth expertise has been shown in the X-36, X-45, Bird of Prey and Phantom Ray, but that’s still not the same as delivering and sustaining a complete system.

What follows is a speculative scenario, an exercise in the risky art of connect-the-dots:

A classified P-AEA program started in 2011-12. It may have involved flight demonstrations. Quite recently, Boeing won it, hence McNerney’s confidence about St Louis’s future. It’s been designated RAQ-25, indicating it has a strike capability, and as well as pathfinding for the LRSB, it takes on the MQ-X role. RAQ-25 is somewhere in that $7 billion slush fund.

Work’s comments about “capabilities that we already have” indicate he and other leaders are pushing for a joint Air Force/Navy program based on the RAQ-25. The delay in Uclass allows time for a carrier variant to be demonstrated, and competitors have deemed the battle half over.

Returning to known facts:

This would be exactly the same as the solution proposed in October by a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments paper on the Pentagon’s Third Offset plan for a future U.S. military. You almost wonder if they knew something.

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