August 17, 2022 - No. 34 In This Issue : Northrop Grumman taps Firefly Aerospace to upgrade its Antares rocket to American-built engines : Korea Aerospace Industries forecasts a market for up to 100 FA-50 in Egypt : Embraer signs a service agreement to support Avantto’s executive jet fleet : Heads Up Technologies Acquires STG Aerospace : Slipstream receives funding boost for space technology development : UT Arlington, Texas A&M Partner to Advance Aerospace Manufacturing in Texas : Boeing, Northrop to join White House-backed advanced manufacturing program : Aerospace engineer calls for more female representation in the industry Northrop Grumman taps Firefly Aerospace to upgrade its Antares rocket to American-built engines Northrop Grumman has announced that it will partner with startup Firefly Aerospace to build an all-American version of its workhorse Antares rocket, which currently flies with Russian-built RD-181 engines. Due to the continuing war in Ukraine, Russia halted all sales of its rocket engines to the United States in March this year. (The former head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency famously quipped at the time: “Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don’t know what.”) “Through our collaboration, we will first develop a fully domestic version of our Antares rocket, the Antares 330, for Cygnus space station commercial resupply services, followed by an entirely new medium class launch vehicle,” Scott Lehr, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and general manager of launch and missile defense systems, said in a press release. “Northrop Grumman and Firefly have been working on a combined strategy and technical development plan to meet current and future launch requirements.” Those requirements include Cygnus cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station for NASA. Enter multi-touch attribution. Get assessments that truly reflect customer journeys, equipping you with easy-to-understand insights to maximize return on ad spend. The new Antares will be outfitted with seven of Firefly’s Miranda engines, as well as “composites technology for the first stage structures and tanks,” according to the press release. The two companies will also collaborate on an all-new medium launch vehicle. It should be noted that Firefly has not yet reached orbit with its Alpha rocket (the first and only launch attempt ended with an anomaly that triggered the Flight Termination System last year). And the company is currently without a CEO after it demoted co-founder Tom Markusic to chief technical advisor and full-time board member in June. That in itself followed a major shakeup several months prior, when private equity firm AE Industrial Partners bought out the former majority shareholder, Ukrainian Max Polyakov, over national security concerns. But Firefly is still an active participant in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, designing the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander to carry 10 payloads to the moon. The lander is expected to launch in 2023, hitching a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/08/northrop-grumman-taps-firefly-aerospace-to-upgrade-its-antares-rocket-to-american-built-engines/ Korea Aerospace Industries forecasts a market for up to 100 FA-50 in Egypt Korea Aerospace Industries is looking to establish an industrial partnership for the production and marketing of the FA-50 in Africa and the Middle East, and Egypt is a strong candidate. The Black Eagles aerobatic team of the Republic of South Korea Air Force (ROKAF) performed the first aerobatics demonstration during the recent Pyramid Air Show 2022. The participation of the Black Eagles’ T-50Bs is no coincidence, as it marks the importance of the Egyptian market for Korea. The company reported that Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) strengthened local marketing activities during the August 3 air show, which took place over the spectacular pyramids of Giza. KAI is targeting a lucrative advanced trainer business for the Egyptian Air Force, which is in the process of selecting a model by 2023, and this potential demand for advanced trainers represents the second largest market, after the United States, as it could amount to approximately 100 aircraft. Other contenders include China’s AVIC L-15 and Italy’s Leonardo M346, but KAI contends that the FA-50 has a high compatibility with the Egyptian Air Force’s primary fighter, the F-16 (with more than 160 fighters in service), with which it shares much of its ground logistics, and is an aircraft designed to ease and accelerate the pilot’s transition to the F-16. These same arguments were what won the FA-50 a victory in Poland, which recently signed a contract for the purchase of 48 units. See also: Why did the FA-50 win in Poland? F-15EX and KF-21 on the horizon As in the Polish case, offset and technology transfer represent a central pillar in the negotiations between Egypt and Korea. In this regard, Lee Bong-geun, general manager of KAI’s Export Innovation Center, said: «KAI will promote joint production and joint marketing in Egypt. Egypt is pursuing an extensive program to modernize its Armed Forces, including the renewal of the Egyptian Air Force’s combat assets. Examples include the purchase of the MiG-29 M/M2 from Russia a few years ago (and the frustrated purchase of Su-35 fighters), the CH-47F Chinook from the USA or the 30 new Dassault Rafale from France, which will be added to the 24 aircraft already received. See also: Egypt authorized to purchase some twenty CH-47F Chinook helicopters The Egyptian Air Force not only has a need to replace its fleet of 40 advanced Alpha Jet trainers, but also older fighters such as the Mirage 5E (modernized) and Mirage 2000. The FA-50 can fulfill both advanced training/LIFT and combat missions and, depending on the chosen configuration, can engage air targets beyond visual range, or attack ground and naval targets with modern weaponry, from safe distances, complementing well with more advanced assets such as the 4.5 generation fighters. https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/08/korea-aerospace-industries-forecasts-a-market-for-up-to-100-fa-50-in-egypt/ Embraer signs a service agreement to support Avantto’s executive jet fleet Embraer Executive Care Program will support Avantto's Phenom fleet. Contract was announced during LABACE 2022 in Brazil. SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - Embraer and Avantto announced during LABACE 2022, the signing of a contract for the Embraer Executive Care Program to support the company's executive jet fleet. A leader in the aircraft sharing business in Brazil, Avantto currently has a fleet of seven Phenom jets, four of which are Phenom 100s and three Phenom 300s. Globally, more than 700 aircraft are currently part of the Embraer Executive Care Program. “Relying on the manufacturer's support and service expertise is always the smartest solution for the customer. Even more so in the case of Embraer Executive Care, with which we can plan maintenance costs way in advance and without surprises, which ultimately ends up also benefiting our customer as we can offer extremely competitive prices for our aircraft’s sharing business model,” said Rogério Andrade, CEO and Founder of Avantto. “Avantto has been a great partner of Embraer, and we are glad to extend our collaboration to support its Phenom fleet in Brazil. The Embraer Executive Care Program provides the best value for our customers, and we continue to grow and improve the service based on feedback that we receive every day. This is all part of our commitment to put our customers first and provide the ultimate experience in business aviation,” explains Marsha Woelber, Vice President of Worldwide Customer Support & Aftermarket Sales, Embraer Services & Support. The Embraer Executive Care Program, which completed 15 years in 2021, is a comprehensive airframe maintenance program carefully designed and managed by Embraer to provide a simple and predictable way of budgeting aircraft maintenance costs. Planning, budgeting, and support are rolled together under a fixed monthly fee, plus an hourly charge for flight-hours flown, to make support straightforward and simple for customers to manage. Costs for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance items are set and known upon enrollment in the program. Covering maintenance, parts, freight, labor, and even rescue teams, and guided by Embraer’s OEM expertise and support, the program can be tailored according to one of three coverage options: Prime Parts, Standard and Enhanced. Throughout a five-year cycle, the benefits of the program include savings compared to the actual costs of scheduled and unscheduled events in the same term, providing a hedge against price inflation, and ease of doing business with Embraer and their partners. Additionally, Embraer offers preferred pricing for customers enrolled in Executive Care for various services. Recently, Embraer’s customer support was ranked in 1st place according to the 2022 Product Support Survey by the trade magazine Aviation International News (AIN). The survey is among the most important in the industry, generating statistical assessments by aircraft operators about the quality of customer support provided by manufacturers in the last year. https://www.traveldailynews.com/post/embraer-signs-a-service-agreement-to-support-avanttos-executive-jet-fleet Heads Up Technologies Acquires STG Aerospace Aircraft lighting, cabin management systems, and flight deck safety products manufacturer Heads Up Technologies has acquired STG Aerospace. Based in Cwmbran, UK, and Miami, STG also makes aircraft cabin lighting products, including the first photoluminescent emergency guidance systems. STG also pioneered the LED mood lighting system for aircraft. “We are thrilled to welcome the STG Aerospace team to Heads Up Technologies to leverage our collective lighting solutions to meet critical OEM and operator needs across the entire aviation market,” said Heads Up Technologies president and CEO Robert Harshaw. “STG Aerospace’s concept-to-certification capability and extensive intellectual property are excellent complements to Heads Up Technologies’ portfolio of lighting innovations.” This marks the first acquisition by Texas-based Heads Up Technologies since being purchased by JLL Partners in September 2019. Heads Up designs, engineers and manufactures complex cockpit, cabin, and aircraft electrical components and systems for the business and commercial aviation markets. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2022-08-16/heads-technologies-acquires-stg-aerospace Slipstream receives funding boost for space technology development 0 Slipstream Engineering Design is one of five UK organisations in the UK to receive a share of £1 million (US$1.2 million) funding through the Space to Innovate Campaign – Bravo Drop. Space to Innovate Campaign – Bravo Drop is a collaboration between the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the UK Space Agency and the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA). It is the next step on from the Alpha Drop, where £1.6 million worth of contracts were awarded to eight UK organisations to support the identification of visualisation tools to enable space operators to exploit information gathered from multiple data sources, and novel methods for characterising objects in space and their intent. The campaign format is unique from other DASA competitions and comprises space-related challenges that are released periodically. Slipstream Engineering Design was £199,054 for the project which aims to produce adaptable radio hardware for space applications. The other companies awarded funding were AltaRange ( £199,054) Fraunhofer UK Research Ltd and Fraunhofer Centre or Applied Photonics (£318,152) Astroscale ( £ 96,466), and AVoptics (£195,920). Dr Mike Roberts, Slipstream Engineering Design technical director and co-founder said, “Our solution is designed to improve the signal-to-noise performance of space-related communications and sensing capabilities. “On CubeSats, where payload space is at a premium, having hardware that can carry out multiple communication and sensing operations would be a major advantage. Our aim is to produce an adaptable radio platform which is software configurable and can switch between different types of wideband radio waveforms.” Bravo Drop is the second ‘challenge drop’, which invited innovators to submit technologies and solutions to help overcome specified challenges. Slipstream were in attendance at Farnborough International Air Show as a partner of Team Tempest, the enterprise working to create the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS). Commercial director Sarah Gregory said, “Team Tempest is a technology initiative aimed at advancing combat air technology, involving the Ministry of Defence and UK industry partners including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo UK and MBDA UK. It is a highly ambitious programme requiring the design and development of many ‘world firsts’ in aviation, with a flying demonstrator on track for delivery in five years’ time.” Gregory said, “Through our work with Leonardo UK, we are contributing specialised digital radio frequency expertise to the project, allowing cutting edge technologies to be developed at speed.” https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/electronics-business-receives-funding-boost-for-space-technology-development.html UT Arlington, Texas A&M Partner to Advance Aerospace Manufacturing in Texas From Lockheed Martin to NASA to SpaceX, Texas is a hotbed of aerospace activity. Now UT Arlington and Texas A&M want to make that hotbed even hotter—by collaborating to advance the state's aerospace defense manufacturing community. From Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth to NASA in Houston to SpaceX’s first commercial launch site in South Texas, the Lone Star State is already a hotbed of aerospace activity. But now UT Arlington and Texas A&M have signed an agreement to advance the state’s aerospace defense manufacturing community even further. The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and UT Arlington have signed an agreement to increase their collaboration to strengthen the state’s leadership in the sector, the universities announced this week. Growing an already thriving sector From left: Jeremy Forsberg, UTA assistant vice president for Research; Rodney Reddic, TMAC interim executive director; Rob Gorham, executive director of manufacturing initiatives, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and SecureAmerica Institute executive director; Monica Cortez, TMAC director of operations; Scott Terry, director of community and small business initiatives, SecureAmerica Institute; and Kiley Wren, TEES executive director of office of strategic business development, and SecureAmerica Institute executive associate director. There are already 138,515 people employed in Texas in aerospace, aviation, and defense jobs, working for 1,739 establishments and driving $3.3 billion in total wages, according to the Texas Economic Development Corporation. And both UTA and Texas A&M have been doing their part. UTA holds the cooperative agreement for Texas with the National Institution of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which provides the funding for its local affiliate, the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC). TMAC connects manufacturers with technology, contract opportunities, and competitive solutions. At Texas A&M, TEES powers a public-private research collaborative called the Secure America Institute—which connects industry, governments, and academia to ensure U.S. manufacturing resilience, especially in the country’s defense industrial sector. Applying advanced tech and workforce training Scott Terry, director of community and small business initiatives at Texas A&M’s Secure America Institute, sees workforce training and smart tools as key factors in moving Texas forward in the sector. “Working with our strategic partners at TMAC will enhance the development of the aerospace defense manufacturing community through the application of advanced technology and workforce training,” Terry said in a statement. “By infusing smart manufacturing tools and processes into the manufacturing industrial base, we can solidify Texas’ leadership role in the global manufacturing economy.” Both SAI and TMAC are working to build Texas’ manufacturing industrial base by implementing advanced manufacturing technologies and driving workforce training. Their goal: improving quality and delivery lead time for Texas manufacturers to bolster their profits and sustainability. ‘Boots on the ground’ support for sector companies across Texas TMAC’s interim executive director, Rodney Reddic, believes the new agreement will bolster aerospace manufacturing across Texas. “The partnership with TEES will allow TMAC to reach additional manufacturers across the state through the many workshops and seminars sponsored jointly,” Reddic said in the statement. “TMAC will provide boots-on-the ground field staff support for the delivery of advanced manufacturing technology services, cybersecurity services, and workforce training.” Partnering with schools to create the aerospace ‘workforce of the future’ In addition to their efforts in supporting manufacturers, SAI and TMAC will collaborate to work with K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and industry partners to develop advanced manufacturing tech workforce training. The goal of this effort? Nothing less than “to help create the aerospace industrial base workforce of the future.” https://dallasinnovates.com/ut-arlington-texas-am-partner-to-advance-aerospace-manufacturing-in-texas/ Boeing, Northrop to join White House-backed advanced manufacturing program WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman (NOC.N) are joining a White House-backed compact to help smaller U.S.-based suppliers increase the use of 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing technologies. The voluntary program, unveiled by President Joe Biden in May, seeks to boost suppliers' use of additive manufacturing (AM). Driven by 3D printing, the technology allows complex shapes to be built in layers from particles of plastic or metal. The Biden administration views it as an innovation that will enable U.S. manufacturers to flourish and create jobs. read more The program, Additive Manufacturing Forward (AM Forward) is organized by non-profit Applied Science & Technology Research Organization of America (ASTRO America). "The supply chain crisis isn’t just about building out ports. It’s about building up parts – right here in America’s small business factories," said ASTRO America's CEO, Neal Orringer. GE Aviation (GE.N), Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE), Raytheon Technologies (RTX.N), Honeywell (HON.O) and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) were the initial companies to make commitments. The manufacturers say they will purchase additively produced parts from smaller U.S. suppliers; train supplier workers on new additive technologies; provide technical assistance; and engage in standards development and certification. Boeing and Northrop Grumman both aim to increase the number of small- and medium-sized suppliers competing over quote packages for products using additive manufacturing. Boeing will also aim to increase its qualified small and medium supplier capacity by 30% and provide technical guidance to meet qualification requirements. "We know the competitiveness of the U.S. industrial base, including Boeing, relies on the capability of a wide spectrum of suppliers producing and post-processing critical aerospace parts," said Melissa Orme, Boeing's vice president for additive manufacturing. Such technologies can reduce part lead times and materials cost by 90%, and cut energy use in half. The White House says not enough American companies are using 3D printing or other high-performance advanced manufacturing technologies. A Biden administration official told Reuters the program could expand to the automotive or semiconductor sectors. https://www.reuters.com/technology/boeing-northrop-join-white-house-backed-advanced-manufacturing-program-2022-08-17/ Aerospace engineer calls for more female representation in the industry HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – The aerospace and defense industry is in the midst of a major expansion, but some say talent is a limiting factor. The current A&D workforce is aging and some companies are struggling to fill key roles which will only get harder as the demand increases. At this year’s Space and Missile Defense Symposium, organizers told News19 there’s more female representation than in the past. One aerospace engineer at the symposium is looking to inspire and advance the female presence in the industry, which is considered to be male-dominated. “That’s been a problem for many, many years,” stated Deborah Fraley, Quantum Research Business Development Manager. She is an aerospace engineer and has worked in the industry for about 40 years. “About 20 years on the technical side and about 20 years on the business development side,” added Fraley. Fraley currently works for Quantum Research, a defense contractor that provides services and products for several government agencies. She says in the 1970s when she was in college, she was one of two women in aerospace engineering. “There are more now and over the years since I’ve been out of college which has been 40-plus years. There have been a lot more women in engineering but it’s still not enough,” replied Fraley. Fraley is encouraging any female thinking about a career in the A&D industry to take the leap and go for it. “It’s not like it used to be years ago when I was coming up. It really is a lot better now and I think most of the companies that are hiring folks look at your resume and see what you can or cannot do. They’re not looking at who you are or what you look like or how you’re built,” said Fraley. There are several professional organizations that support women in the defense industry. The Women in Defense Tennessee Valley Chapter is located right here in Huntsville. https://whnt.com/community/smd-symposium/aerospace-engineer-calls-for-more-female-representation-in-the-industry/ Curt Lewis