Robert H. Widmer, a designer of military aircraft who was renowned for his stubborn advocacy of revolutionary over incremental changes in aviation design, died June 20 in Fort Worth. He was 95.
Long gone are the days when the turbofan nacelle was a relatively simple airframer-provided aerodynamic enclosure for the engine and structural support for the bypass duct, accessories and thrust reverser. Now, as designers delve ever deeper to wring out weight, noise, maintenance-cost and fuel-burn reductions, the focus is increasingly on integrated propulsion systems that will provide benefits greater than the sum of their parts.
Air France-KLM last week made changes to its holding structure. Pierre-Henri Gourgeon will focus on his job as the group's CEO and no longer deal with the day-to-day running of Air France. The holding company will also take on additional responsibilities such as alliances, purchasing and financial management. Air France-KLM says the changes are aimed at enabling more airlines to be added to the group.
Astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis were planning to test space-qualified versions of commercial camping gear as a backup source of drinking water on the International Space Station, with possible applications on future deep-space human missions. Developed at Kennedy Space Center, the test will involve six forward-osmosis purification kits (right) like those already used by hikers, the military and disaster-relief workers.
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center technicians are beginning final testing on the Tiangong-I space station, which reached the launch site in the Gobi Desert from its manufacturing facilty in Beijing on June 29, according to the Xinhua news agency. The single-module station is set for launch later this year on a Long March II-F rocket. It will be followed into orbit by the Shenzhou-8 human spacecraft, flying unmanned for a rendezvous and docking test in advance of the piloted flight of Shenzhou-9 to Tianngong-1 next year.
While Cassini was reaching out and touching the geysers of Enceladus (AW&ST July 4, p. 19), scientists were piecing together lessons from the tiny solar particles gathered by NASA's Genesis probe, which spent 886 days at the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L-1) collecting samples of the solar wind. Based on data published in the journal Science, the results suggest a very different evolution for the Sun and planets than originally believed.
Analysis of Neptune imagery collected by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager mission may one day provide astronomers with a better understanding of the inner structure of the gas-giant planets. Erich Karkoschka, a senior staff scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, studied 500 Hubble images of Neptune collected over 20 years in an effort to establish the planet's rotation.
Members of the House Science Committee are likely to have some sharp questions for NASA Administrator Charles Bolden this week over the status of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) Congress ordered in December. When it passed a three-year authorization then that includes the 130-metric-ton lifter, Congress gave NASA 90 days to develop a plan for the SLS. But now it looks like there may not be a final decision on the vehicle's configuration until late August, according to Bolden's deputy, Lori Garver.
After revelations this spring that Sen. James Inhofe, a private pilot, had landed on a closed runway last year and allegedly “sky-hopped” over ground crew working on the airstrip, the Oklahoma Republican announced that he had attended remedial lessons and declared the issue “over.” But now the firebrand conservative says he wants to help remedy “serious deficiencies” in how the government adjudicates cases of pilot malfeasance.
Meanwhile, the FAA has named Chief Counsel David Grizzle chief operating officer of its Air Traffic Organization (ATO) almost three months after Henry Krakowski resigned over a series of scandals involving inattentive air traffic controllers. Grizzle, who has been acting COO since Krakowski's departure, is the third person to head the ATO. Like his predecessors, he spent most of his career in the airline industry, including 22 years with Continental Airlines.
A crisis in defense spending is “imminent,” says former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), and Congress ought to encourage export-control reform and look to boost foreign military sales to support the domestic defense industrial base. “We can carry that industrial base if we add more military sales,” Talent, now an analyst at a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, told the House Budget Committee last week.
Aircraft builders walked away from the recent Paris air show buoyed by more than $100 billion worth of new orders. But meeting all of those delivery obligations may prove to be a trickier proposition than landing them.
After waiting seven years for what you hoped would be an airliner that would take the world by storm, it would be a shame to find that it did not fit your aerobridges.
Boeing's strategy of underwriting a portion of the U.S. Air Force's KC-46A tanker development contract may portend the approach other contractors will take as the Pentagon devises more fixed-price programs. Though other companies are skeptical that Boeing will recoup losses with production orders, this approach did not take Pentagon officials by surprise.
Rocked by the U.S. Army's 2008 cancellation of its over-budget ARH-70 armed reconnaissance helicopter program to replace the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, Bell Helicopter hatched a plan to recapture its customer by capitalizing on perhaps its most successful product, the OH-58D itself.
The last time the Lockheed P-3 was flying in Vietnam was during the Vietnam War and, thanks to China, this aircraft could be patrolling Vietnam's coastline again. Vietnamese authorities have expressed an interest in purchasing P-3 Orion aircraft (see photo) so the Southeast Asian nation can boost its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability, say sources familiar with the situation. But for a deal to take place, the U.S. and Vietnam will need to further develop defense relations, add the sources.
Uncertainty over the U.K.'s plans to reconstitute its carrier strike capability by the end of the decade will persist for at least another year. The British government's decision to allow an almost decade-long gap in its carrier strike capability remains the most controversial outcome of last year's Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR). The decision was made to help plug a massive budget shortfall, but combat operations in Libya have prompted critics to argue that the choice was foolish.
The Austrian Eurofighter Typhoon fleet is undergoing a major modernization effort to finally bring the aircraft to its full operational capability standard.
Shimmering, mirage-like, in the heat of California's Mojave Desert, the newly completed steel and concrete of the world's first commercial suborbital spaceship factory proves the goal of space tourism is nearing fruition.
The U.S. Air Transport Association (ATA) finally got its day in court in the battle over the EU's plan to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions of non-EU aircraft flying into and out of Europe. But a final verdict to resolve the situation may not be in hand before airlines become subject to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) at the beginning of next year.
The Italian airline landscape is once again shifting as carriers deal with increasing costs and changes in the competitive makeup of the market. A main facet of the latest turmoil is Lufthansa's decision to shutter its Italian venture, which alters the prospects for airports and airlines in the region.
Linking networks is a central goal of airline alliances, yet the latest announced addition to the Star Alliance, Air China affiliate Shenzhen Airlines, has few connections with the group's foreign partners. At first glance, the decision to admit Shenzhen next year looks like a great boost, since it adds to Star a fleet of 102 aircraft based in mainland China's richest city. And it gives the alliance a home in the Pearl River Delta, an area that has been an economic leader in China since the country began liberalizing in the late 1970s.
Shenzhen Airlines plans to expand its fleet to at least 171 aircraft by 2015, ramping up capacity by 10% a year in its role as the Air China group's challenger in the home territory of rival China Southern. That fleet forecast is conservative, says an airline official. “If possible, it will be more than 180,” she notes.
The FAA's NextGen air traffic modernization plan may not have slews of enemies on Capitol Hill, but to become a reality, it will still need the right kind of friends. Republicans are targeting domestic discretionary spending to deflate the deficit, and plan to roll back the Transportation Department's budget to 2007 levels. Since the FAA still needs to maintain the salaries of air traffic controllers and other essential personnel, even without lawmakers calling for NextGen's demise, the amount left over for the effort is under serious pressure.
