Farnborough 2008 Show News - July 17, 2008 - (Page 14)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 Take Your Partners for the Boeing Excuse-Me Boeing’s Farnborough press conference on the progress of the P-8A Poseidon 737-based maritime reconnaissance aircraft program included a projection of a world map indicating potential export customers. Fluttering just off the coast of the European mainland was a Union Jack. BAE Systems is under the impression that it has this particular market sewn-up with the Nimrod MRA.4, despite that aircraft’s severely protracted development period and cost overruns. Does Boeing know something about the Nimrod program that we don’t? Tony Parasida. “No,” said Tony Parasida, vice president/general manager for Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare and Intelligence, Surveillance Reconnaissance Systems at Boeing. “The P-8 Poseidon is a highly capable aircraft. If things don’t work out on Nimrod, there’s an opportunity.” Most kind of you, Tony. We’ll let you know. —Paul Jackson Storm Shadow for Saudi Looks on Target MBDA CEO Antoine Bouvier appears to confirm that Saudi Arabia will acquire the Storm Shadow cruise missile for its Tornado strike aircraft upgraded under the BAE Systems-led Tornado Sustainment Program (TSP). Once fiercely denied, a Storm Shadow sale to the Royal Saudi Air Force has always been part of the TSP plan and the missile has been test flown on Saudi jets. Now Bouvier notes, “The Saudi contract will be very important to us in terms of air-to-air, air-to-ground and stand-off weapons.” The Storm Shadow is MBDA’s primary standoff weapon. MBDA is at Chalet K1-2. Elbit Acquires EORD Elbit Systems (Hall 1, Stand C17) has acquired all of the shares of Electro Optic Research and Development Co. Ltd. (EORD) from former shareholders Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. and Bynet Electronics Ltd. EORD is an Israeli company, engaged in research and development of acoustic and seismic sensors and systems for military and security applications. The deal was concluded a week after Elbit Systems bought Bar-Kal Systems. Tunisair Signs for 16 More Airbus Aircraft Tunisair has signed a firm contract with Airbus for three A350-800s, three A330-200s and 10 A320s, becoming the third African airline to order the new A350 XWB. The A320s will allow Tunisair to renew and expand its regional operations with more efficient aircraft, while the A330s will enable it to modernize its wide-body fleet. With the A350s the airline will be able to realize its planned long-haul route to North America and Asia. Boeing Picks Honeywell Ozone Converters Honeywell has won a three-year contract to provide catalytic ozone converters for Boeing civil transports, including the Next-Generation 737, 747, 767 and 747-8. The ozone converters, which will be standard on the 747-8 and optional on the other models, are designed to enhance passenger comfort by reducing cabin ozone levels. In operation, an ozone converter decomposes ambient ozone gas entering an aircraft through its air conditioning system at cruising altitudes. Steve Pitts, Honeywell’s vice president for Boeing Business, says the “high reliability of the Honeywell converters will result in fewer maintenance delays attributed to inactive ozone converters.” Northrop Grumman: Eyes and Ears of F-35 Mark Gaertner, Northrop Grumman’s director for marketing and business development at the Aerospace Division, gave a brief Wednesday on the Lockheed Martin F-35’s Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (EO DAS). The DAS is revolutionary in that it allows the pilot to “see-through” the body of the aircraft with a set of six optical sensors that give the system 360-degree hemispherical coverage. The CGI film that NG is showing at this year’s FIA depicts F-35s using this system to get the jump on what are clearly Sukhoi Su-35s and shooting them down. However, a Eurofighter in the same film is destroyed by an Su-35 firing a missile. The clear message is that if you are flying an F-35, your survivability is almost guaranteed because of the situational awareness the DAS provides. Conversely, in the Eurofighter, which does not have this system, you are more likely to be shot down. —Reuben F. Johnson UK Goes SWISS for Sea Wolf MBDA and BAE Systems have both been awarded contracts by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to maintain the Royal Navy’s Seawolf air defense missile system. The SWISS (Seawolf In Service Support) contract will sustain the capability of the Seawolf system and ensure its readiness and availability for deployment with the Type 22 and Type 23 frigates over the next 10 years. The value of SWISS to MBDA is £177 million ($354 million) and £141 million ($282 million) to BAE. Typhoon Tranche 3 Talks Begin in Earnest Eurofighter GmbH has submitted the full set of formal Tranche 3 production contractual documents to the NETMA procurement agency on June 28. Eurofighter CEO Ays Rauen announced at Farnborough, “That proposal is now on the table, preparing the route to the Tranche 3 contract. The declared aim is to have a signature by the end of this year, or maybe early 2009. We await the response to the package we have put forward and there are no indications that anyone wants to cut the number from 236 aircraft. The customer wants to go ahead with this and their adherence to the schedule gives us great confidence.” Eurofighter is at Chalet A34-35. 14 July 17, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

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