Model Airplanes

AFSOC in Pacific Welcomes MC-130J

WASHINGTON — The first two copies of the US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) MC-130J Commando II have arrived in the Pacific, as the command retires 57 of the venerable MC-130 E, H and P models.

The MC-130Js and AC-130J Ghostrider gunship, still in development, “represent a leap in capability as it can fly higher, faster, farther and carry more cargo than any of the legacy aircraft,” said AFSOC spokesman Maj. Craig Savage. “With the addition of terrain-following radar and advanced survivability modifications over the next several years, the MC-130J Commando II will allow [Special Operations Command] USSOCOM to replace the legacy MC-130E/H/P fleet size.”

Digital Show Daily: Complete coverage of SO/LIC 2015

Lockheed Martin is scheduled to deliver AFSOC’s final MC-130J in 2024, with AFSOC scheduled to retire the last legacy MC-130 in 2026. Approximately 10 MC-130Js will be ultimately based at Kadena Air Base in Japan.

Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group, said the new aircraft will be an asset in the Pacific. “It has a completely new modern engine, with a much lower fuel burden, which is useful when there is a shortage of places to land,” Aboulafia said.

Heroux-Devtek to record $5.8 million non-cash charge in Q3 related to Learjet 85

LONGUEUIL, Que. – Aerospace parts manufacturer Heroux-Devtek (TSX:HRX) is taking a $5.8-million charge related to Bombardier’s decision to suspend work on a new Learjet model.

The Montreal-area company said its results for its third-quarter, ended Dec. 31, will include a non-cash charge equal to about 16 cents per diluted share.

The charge reflects the impaired value of the Heroux-Devtek’s capitalized costs for developing landing gear for the Learjet 85, which was to be an addition to Bombardier’s line of business jets.

Bombardier announced on Jan. 15 that it has put development of the Learjet 85 on hold due to weak customer interest.

Article source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/HerouxDevtek+record+million+noncash+charge+related+Learjet/10764004/story.html

Boeing’s first North Charleston-built 787 ‘Dash-9’ Dreamliner rolls off …

The first Dash-9 Dreamliner to be built at Boeing Co.’s North Charleston campus rolled off the production line Monday and is slated for delivery to United Airlines in early March, Boeing officials said Tuesday.

“What this final assembly team has accomplished is incredible,” Eric Van Avery, final assembly director for Boeing South Carolina, told employees in a statement Tuesday. “Just like in football, teams who prepare in advance succeed on game day,” he said, adding that a plan for the first 787-9 assembly began last July and that “the team executed the plan flawlessly.”

“Now, we get to delight our delivery center customer by delivering a clean airplane ahead of schedule,” Van Avery said.

Boeing announced that United would be North Charleston’s first 787-9 customer when the plane went into final assembly just before Thanksgiving.

United is Boeing’s largest North American customer for Dreamliners, and this plane will be the fourth delivery of a Dash-9 model. The airline already has two 787-9s in its fleet with a third — made at the company’s Everett, Wash., plant — scheduled for delivery next month, according to the “All Things 787” blog written by Wall Street banker and Dreamliner tracker Uresh Sheth.

In addition, United has a dozen 787-8 models in its fleet, according to the airline’s website.

“The 787-9 builds on the Dreamliner’s fuel-efficiency and

Article source: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150127/PC05/150129459

Porter says terminal sale will help it with expansion plans to more destinations

TORONTO – The head of Porter Aviation Holdings Inc. says the sale of Porter’s passenger terminal at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport frees the airline to focus on expanding to more destinations in North America and the Caribbean.

“(The sale) really does position Porter for the future,” said president and chief executive Robert Deluce in an interview Tuesday.

“When you’re sitting with a strong balance sheet, it allows you take on new destinations, it allows you take on potentially a new type of aircraft and it definitely facilitates a continuation of the growth and development of our route network. All of those things are real pluses.”

Deluce said the airline is still exploring the possibility of flying to a variety of new destinations in Western Canada, Florida, California and the Caribbean.

And although the airline now has the cash to add these destinations, the plans depend on it receiving approval to fly jets from Toronto’s waterfront airport, a hot button issue in the city. Among other things, allowing jets to use the airport would require extending the runway at both ends by filling in parts of Lake Ontario.

Deluce said the airline is also considering using the money to operate more flights to its current destinations and upgrade its airport lounge.

The sale, finalized Tuesday, will see Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners GP, a consortium of infrastructure investors, take over the operations at the terminal over the next few months. Nieuport Aviation includes InstarAGF Asset Management Inc., Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. Ltd., Partners Group and

Article source: http://www.yorktonthisweek.com/news/national-news/porter-says-terminal-sale-will-help-it-with-expansion-plans-to-more-destinations-1.1743943

The Drone Defender

Twenty-nine floors up, inside a conference room of the New York law office of Kramer Levin Naftalis Frankel, Brendan Schulman is hovering a drone in front of my face. It’s a Blade Nano QX—barely 2 inches tall—a four-rotor, radio-controlled copter that weighs half an ounce, costs less than $100 and easily fits into an adult’s outstretched palm. The drone makes a buzzing sound, like a swarm of bees circling a hive, as Schulman navigates it through the corner conference room overlooking the rain-soaked Avenue of the Americas—first toward the wall-mounted flat-screen television, then backward through the air above the conference table. “I usually get a bigger conference room,” he says.

The room actually seems to suit this gentle in-office flight. But while puny compared with the larger, military-grade drones most Americans are familiar with—the Predators dispatched on sorties in the skies over the Middle East—diminutive drones like Schulman’s Blade Nano find themselves at the center of an uncertain controversy over technology, aviation and federal policy. By the end of this month, the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to release a set of proposed regulations it believes should govern the commercial flights of civilian drone pilots in the United States—the agency’s first attempt at regulating any kind of radio-controlled unmanned aircraft used for purposes other than university research, law enforcement, firefighting and other “government operational missions.” That means farmers using lightweight drones flown to inspect crops, realtors photographing houses, videographers

Article source: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/brendan-schulman-drone-lawyer-114648.html

Obama moves beyond Cold War with India as Russian tanks roll

On a rainy Monday in New Delhi, that’s exactly what President Barack Obama did as the invited “chief guest” at India’s Republic Day parade.

His presence personified the closer U.S.-Indian ties that officials have been at pains to highlight during the president’s three-day visit. Obama looked on as Russian-made T-72 tanks — once a mainstay of the defunct Warsaw Pact — rolled past underneath a canopy of streaking Russian fighters.

“India obviously has a longstanding defense relationship with Russia, but the relationship with us is on the upswing,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters in New Delhi on Monday. “It’s a Cold War context. That has been in the past part of the source of mistrust and differences between our two countries. But we’re moving beyond that.”

Reverberations from that movement are being felt in Moscow — and even more so in Beijing, where the Chinese government has reacted to this week’s Indo-U.S. summit with a mixture of scorn and defensiveness.

Global Times, a state-run paper, said “the west is egging India on” while Xinhua claimed the Obama visit was eclipsed by a “growing rapport between Beijing and New Delhi.”

A joint India-U.S. statement highlighted the need to safeguard maritime security in the South China Sea, where neither has territorial claims. That prompted a rebuttal from China, which said non-claimants should butt out.

‘Closer Partners’

More than anything, the Obama administration is billing the deepening relationship with India as aligning two large democracies in a battle for Asia’s future.

In a speech on

Article source: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Beyond&title=obama-moves-beyond-cold-war-with-india-as-russian-tanks-roll&id=101599

Stafford Planning commission running airport land-use plan by board first