Category: Business

Airbus Says A320 W/GTF Could Be Ready in 30 Months

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They are saying that it would take two and half years to integrate P&W’s geared turbofan into the A320.

The end date would depend on when they started, and at this point, a stumbling block would be that P&W is not releasing maintenance costs specifics.

When one considers the fact that what killed Thielert was the frequency of maintenance, and that the primary concern over the GTF is maintenance, so I would not expect any effort to integrate the engine until Pratt & Whitney either gives some guarantees, or there is some data on the wing in commercial service.

JSF: It’s All About the Benjamins

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It’s the Dutch, so it would actually be Guilder, or Euro, Meijer, or Snip, or Geeltje, but in any case, the the kickback scheme that has the Netherlands as a JSF customer is now up for negotiation.

Basically, Dutch industry got a lot of offsets as a part of the F-35 deal, and the Dutch government is supposed to get a percentage of that revenue back from the defense contractors.

The problem is that the deal is not fully fleshed out, and the government is now asking for 10.3% of all revenue JSF related orders through 2053 as opposed to their original figure of 3.5%, because the falling US dollar will reduce public revenues in this scheme.

This may explain why the government is going through the charade of reexamining the procurement decision on the JSF, asking to look at the Eurofighter Typhoon (refused to respond with proposal), Dassault Rafale (Refused to respond with proposal), and SAAB Gripen.

They are using it as a lever to get more money out of their private defense contractors.

Moore’s Law* Hits AESA Radars

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It looks like manufacturers are starting to offer relatively inexpensive and low cost active, electronically-scanned array (AESA) radars as retrofits to existing aircraft. (Paid Subscription Required)

Basically, you have hundreds of solid state radars on a chip working together, and these chips are following the same trajectory as did processors and memory in the early days of the integrated circuit.

Raytheon is exhibiting its X-band Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar(RACR) at Farnborough†, which is designed to be lighter, cheaper, and require less power (and thus less cooling is required).

These radars are not up to the performance of, for example the F-22’s APG-77 radar, but they still provide a significant improvement in capability, including increased range, better resolution (with perhaps some anti-stealth capability), and the possibility of the radar being used for electronic warfare.

*Moore’s Law says that computer chips will double in power every 18 months (or 2 years depending on how you define power).
†If anyone knows of a way for me to get an all-expense-paid trip to either the Farnborough or the Paris air show, and they need a kidney….

Sukhoi as Red Headed Stepchild

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Bill Sweetman has in interesting insight into the corporate culture of Sukhoi.

The founder of the design bureau was not a member of the Communist party, and the deisgn bureau seemed to be routinely outmaneuvered in the Soviet era by the MiG deisgn bureau, Artem Mikgoyan was brother of senior politician Anastas Mikoyan, and Tupolev design bureau, which was always very tied in politically.

As a result, the Sukhoi design bureau is unlikely to be amenable to partnerships with its rivals, and tends to look outside the country for such deals, as evidenced with its recent work with India on the PAK-FA.

And Then They Lose Your Luggage

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The flight crew for a flight from Miami to LaGuardia showed up an hour and a quarter late, and they were roundly booed by the passengers.

Deciding that this constituted a “safety threat” because the environment was “hostile”, the flight crew refused to board the aircraft.

As a postscript, when the passengers were sent to LGA the next day, their luggage was “accidentally” sent to JFK airport.

At some point, we will have passengers dismantling an airliner with their bare hands.

Our Broken IP System

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Well, we are now finding that major technology players are forming patent cartels in order to defend themselves against patent trolls.

They have created Allied Security Trust, a non profit, that will aggressively buy up anything that might look like a valid patent to protect its members, currently, Verizon, Google ., Cisco , Ericsson, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard Co.

They throw a bunch of money in the pot, and they get a non-exclusive to whatever Allied Security Trust buys, and then the patents are resold.

It’s about a $5 million buy in.

As a start, congress needs to ban patents on software and business plans, which were never necessary, and on genes and species (though not gene splicing technologies) because it is unconscionable.

Additionally, they should change the law to allow people who think that a patent is invalid to file suit, as opposed to waiting for a suit to be filed, because, much like civil rights law, where a suit can be filed against a law without a complaint filed by the authorities, this allows people to fight the chilling effects of bad patents.

It would also help if the special patent appeals court were disbanded, as it has gone off the rails, which is why the Supreme Court is slapping it down on a regular basis now.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?*

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Stanford University’s law and business schools just completed a review of the various corporate governance rating firms, “which include the Corporate Library and RiskMetrics Group’s ISS Governance Services”, and conclude that their ratings on corporate governance have little to do with whether a company is actually well run.

This is not surprising. When we look at the credit rating firms such as S&P, Moody’s, etc. we see a very similar pattern.

A private ratings agency is always at risk from conflicts of interest.

*Most commonly translated from the Latin as “Who Watches the Watchmen”.

Supporting Lawyer-Client Confidentiality

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There has been a problem of late, with Federal prosecutors using coercive techniques to make companies waive confidentiality on discussions with lawyers, but there is now Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007, which codifies the oft-ignored McNulty Memorandum into law, and so would reduce the leverage that prosecutors might have to make companies waive confidentiality.

I support the change, it’s a basic bedrock principle of our legal system, but it also removes a tool in white collar crime, and we need a whole bunch more CEOs and Wall Street types doing the perp walk, because they are guilty as hell, which does not make me an enthusiastic support of the bill.

The Thielert Diesel Aircraft Engine Soap Opera Continues

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Relations between Thielert, and Diamond, its largest customer, who has had to halt production for lack of engines continues to be poor.

Diamond continues the rapid development of its aircraft diesel engine, the Austro, and even though Thielert has resumed production, Diamond is not taking any shipments, even though Thielert has moved to the next step of insolvency.

Diamond has a statement out on the situation. It’s basic points are:

  • Thielert has not involved Diamond in investment discussions (Thielert claims that Diamond has declined to be involved)
  • Recent issues with the clutch/reduction gear of serious concern.
  • Diamond has serious concerns with prompt delivery of spares, even when money is paid up front.
  • Even when spares are available, the prices are high, due to the captive nature of the market.
  • Diamond is working to develop it’s own support infrastructure for Thielert engine for existing infrastructure.
  • Diamond is looking at integrating a Lycoming AvGas engine into its DA-42.

This is an unbelievable mess.

The AMA: Part of the Problem, Not Part of the Solution

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Yes, the American Medical Association just voted to lobby to outlaw home births, because midwives are taking too much of OB/GYN’s business.

I would never have used a midwife or done home delivery with my wife, and if she had wanted it, I would have done everything in my power to make her go to a hospital instead, because she is a poster child for major birthing complications.

But that’s our choice. It’s not a profit center for doctors.

Congress Attempting to Regulate Satellite Launches Without US Content

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The House 2009 Defense Authorization Bill has a section that allows for punitive actions to be taken against “a foreign-owned company that is engaged with the People’s Republic of China in the development, manufacture or launch of certain satellites” (Paid Subscription Required).

This is about Thales Alenia Space, which has communications satellites that use no US content, and they are cleaning up by using the dirt cheap Chinese Long March boosters to launch satellites that have no ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) components.

It appears that something got Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) nose out of joint about this, but given the restrictions on what are commercial technology present in the ITAR regulations, it was inevitable that this would happen.

I wonder if the WTO will end up getting involved in this.