FEBRUARY 14, 2018
General Atomics, Boeing To Partner On US Navy MQ-25 Stingray Bid.
IHS Jane’s 360 (2/13) reports that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) will team with The Boeing Company on its bid for the US Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray Unmanned Carrier Aviation Air System (UCAAS) competition. Boeing Autonomous Systems Vice-President and General Manager Chris Raymond said in a statement that the company looks “forward to supporting GA-ASI with our aviation and autonomous experience.” GA-ASI announced that it will also partner with Pratt & Whitney, which will provide its PW815 engine; UTC Aerospace Systems, which will provide landing gear; Rockwell Collins, which will provide “navigation systems, networked communications, and a simulation framework to help de-risk” the program; BAE Systems, which will provide “software, including mission planning and cybersecurity”; and GKN Aerospace’s Fokker, which will contribute “landing gear technologies and [an] arrestor hook.” The team’s aircraft is “believed to be based on a marinised version of its Avenger (Predator C) UAV, known as the Sea Avenger.”
FEBRUARY 15, 2018
FAA Warns About Shutdown Risk For Pratt & Whitney PW-1100 Engines.
Reuters (2/14) reports that an FAA airworthiness directive warns that Pratt & Whitney PW-1100 engines used aboard the Airbus A320neo “pose a potential shutdown risk.” The FAA’s warning follows “similar action by European regulators,” and cites a “knife edge seal fracture” in the engines that could lead to engine stall “and consequent inflight shutdown and rejected takeoffs,” the FAA said in an airworthiness directive. The FAA directive is the “latest in a string of issues that have clouded the rollout of Pratt’s new engines, which compete with market-leader CFM International,” a joint venture of General Electric and Safran. Pratt has not halted “production or delivery of the engines, and the Connecticut-based company plans to submit a proposal to European regulators on Friday detailing how to fix the problem, according to a person familiar with the situation.” It is not clear how soon the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) would be able to approve the plan. The fracture only affects “PW-1100 series engines, not similar Pratt engines for Bombardier, Embraer or Mitsubishi jets, the source said.”
FlightGlobal (2/14) reports that both Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney “confirm that CSeries’ PW1500G geared turbofans” have not been affected by the “engine issues that recently grounded dozens of Airbus A320neo-family aircraft.” Bombardier confirmed that “no action is required for Bombardier or our customers at this time.”
FEBRUARY 13, 2018
US Air Force To Consolidate Bomber Fleet To B-21 And “Re-Engined” B-52 By 2040.
FlightGlobal (2/13) reports that the US Air Force has “confirmed plans to re-engine the Boeing B-52H fleet and retire the Northrop Grumman B-2 and the Rockwell B-1 as Northrop’s next-generation B-21 stealth bomber ramps up deliveries.” Proposals in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget will consolidate the Air Force’s “strategic bomber fleet to the B-21 and a re-engined B-52 fleet after around 2040.” The service has not released “details of the schedule for the B-21’s development, initial operational capability and deliveries,” but anticipates fielding the new aircraft in the mid-2020s. The service’s “plans to buy 80-100 B-21s roughly correlate to the existing fleet of 20 B-2s and 62 B-1s.” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said that if Congress supports the proposed force structure, “bases that have bombers now will have bombers in the future.” The Air Force also plans to replace the B-52 fleet’s Pratt & Whitney TF-33 engines with a new model, likely to be either the GE Aviation Passport, Pratt & Whitney Canada PW800, or the Rolls-Royce BR.725. The initial operational capability for the “re-engined B-52H is scheduled in 2029 under the most likely budget scenario.”