Avic and partners have test flown a pilotless version of the Brantly B-2B helicopter, promoting it as having military and civilian uses including surveillance and search-and-rescue missions. With the V750, the helicopter has a gross weight of 757 kg (1,670 lb.), payload of 80 kg and a range of 500 km (310 mi.), say the Chinese companies, Weifang Tianxiang Aerospace Industry, Qingdao Haili Helicopters and Avic's trading company, CATIC. The piloted Brantly B-2B got its type certificate from the FAA in 1959.
As a commercial freight pilot who works the same hours as controllers, I can only imagine what's in store for the industry when the FAA's “new” crew duty/rest rules are released this year. I can only hope they have not decided to implement the controllers duty/rest requirements, along with staffing of only one operator for a shift. Sounds like “it's OK to talk about problems at the FAA, it's not OK to talk about the FAA's problems.” Terminate Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for sleeping on the job, not the controllers.
Bill Sweetman (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
Photography of U.S. military technology left behind in the May 1 raid against Osama bin Laden shows that previously unseen stealth-like enhancements to rotorcraft played a critical role in the mission to take down the Al Qaeda leader.
Orbital Sciences Corp. will launch a test version of its Taurus II rocket from Wallops Island, Va., in early- to mid-October as a risk-reduction step on the way to full-up commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station. With congressional approval of a funding resolution for the remainder of fiscal 2011, NASA has added the $100 million flight to Orbital's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) work, underscoring the importance to the U.S. space agency of commercial cargo deliveries once the space shuttle stops flying.
Barring some surprise unlikely for a Washington insider who has faced Senate confirmation more than once before, Leon Panetta will become the 23rd U.S. secretary of defense. On a good day, the job is nearly impossible, says Johns Hopkins University scholar Charles A. Stevenson. Only half of those serving as SecDef last more than 18 months, he points out in his authoritative book about the post. Eight have been fired or allowed to resign. One committed suicide shortly after leaving.
Dori Robau Alvarez (see photo) has been appointed senior representative of corporate communications for American Airlines' Mexico, Caribbean and Latin America division. She was media relations manager for Macy's Southeast region and had been a television news anchor for the Miami Herald Media Co.
Helicopter orders from the Russian military are up and commitments for new types are on the horizon, marking a stark turnaround from the days when military orders were unable to sustain Russia's domestic manufacturing industry.
When two airlines agreed in March to drop a lawsuit that prevented Chicago's O'Hare International Airport from issuing $1 billion in bonds for a new runway, it cleared an obstruction for one of the world's largest airport construction programs. The O'Hare program, now estimated at $6.6 billion, also surmounted a hurdle in January when officials won a long-standing legal battle with a church regarding a cemetery that needed to be relocated so that a runway could be completed.
The European Aviation Safety Agency is calling on operators of the Airbus A320 family of aircraft to address problems with the cargo loading system and cracking fuselage nuts. A May 5 airworthiness directive (AD) addresses a previously identified problem with tie-down points of YZ latches on the cargo loading systems, which do not withstand maximum loading requirements and thereby potentially allow unrestrained cargo to damage the lower deck cargo holds. EASA says the rectifying action, called for in 2006, has not been properly installed across the fleet.
Rick Stephens' Viewpoint on the problems of educating children for the work world was spot on (AW&ST April 4, p. 84). Yes, there is indeed much more to an educated person than the ability to regurgitate rote memory learning on a test, or to simply memorize keypad inputs to achieve a passing result on some sort of computer “scenario.”
The Russian air force is one step closer to fielding the latest upgrade to the Su-27 Flanker now that Sukhoi has begun flight tests of the first production Su-35S. The 1.5-hr. maiden flight took place on May 3 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur assembly site in Russia's Far East. After completing factory trials, the aircraft will be delivered to the air force.
After a slow start, the U.S. and Australian Hypersonic International Flight Research Experiment (HIFire) is poised for seven more flights in quick succession.
The Virgin Blue Group will be unifying its various international and domestic operations under a single brand—Virgin Australia—by the end of this year, an important step for a carrier looking to challenge its legacy rival Qantas.
Paul Neal has become a principal consultant in the Washington office of Parsons Brinckerhoff. He was head of surface transport for the London Olympic Delivery Authority and a management consultant handling assignments related to airport access and transportation planning for special events. Honors and Elections
French military test personnel late last month demonstrated the AASM's ability to engage a fast-moving ground vehicle even in difficult engagement scenarios. The test involved the laser-guided version of AASM, which in its basic GPS-guidance and infrared-seeker mode is already being used operationally. The air-to-ground weapon was launched from a Rafale fighter at the Biscarosse test range at a range of more than 15 km (9.4 mi.) with the aircraft flying off-axis by 90 deg. from the target, which was itself moving at 80 kph.
Beijing continues to reveal new additions to its growing fighter inventory. The latest pictures feature its Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark design, which is intended to populate the decks of the country's first aircraft carrier.
Andrew P. Pearce (see photo) has been appointed London-based director of aircraft sales for the U.K., Europe and the Middle East at Montreal-based Innotech-Execaire Aviation Group.
Boeing is using its lobbying power to threaten the authority of the National Labor Relations Board to uphold workers' rights to collective bargaining, says Local 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which prompted the NLRB's proposal that the company not be allowed to open a $2 billion South Carolina factory to build 787s.
Mike Papay (see photos) has been named vice president of cyber initiatives in the McLean, Va.-based Information Systems Sector of the Northrop GrummanCorp. and the company lead for cybersecurity. Mitchell B. Waldman has been appointed vice president of government and customer relations at the Shipbuilding Sector. Papay was director of engineering strategy for Informations Systems, and Waldman was vice president for business development of advanced programs and technology for the company's Aerospace Systems Sector.
The European Commission issued passengers false and misleading advice during last year's volcanic ash crisis, European Ombudsman P.P. Nikiforos Diamandouros has determined. He effectively has upheld a complaint lodged by the European Regions Airline Association. Diamandouros also notes this was not the first time the EC published erroneous air passenger information, and has asked the EC to explain the circumstances by the end of June. In his ruling, Diamandourous writes: “This constitutes an instance of maladministration.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
Despite the tight veil of security thrown over Boeing Phantom Ray unmanned aircraft demonstration program, several industry officials revealed that the stealth-shaped aircraft made its first flight at Edwards AFB, Calif., on April 27.
The storm was just too long for Jack Pelton to ride out. For the past decade, the chairman, president and CEO of Cessna Aircraft was a force in business aviation, taking up the industry's battle in Washington when President Barack Obama and members of Congress singled out corporate jets as a symbol of excess to score political points. And for a time, the amiable salesman could do no wrong, with Cessna accounting for more than half of the profits at parent company Textron in 2006 and 2007.
Mike Papay (see photos) has been named vice president of cyber initiatives in the McLean, Va.-based Information Systems Sector of the Northrop GrummanCorp. and the company lead for cybersecurity. Mitchell B. Waldman has been appointed vice president of government and customer relations at the Shipbuilding Sector. Papay was director of engineering strategy for Informations Systems, and Waldman was vice president for business development of advanced programs and technology for the company's Aerospace Systems Sector.
Science teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Proxemy Research Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., and the University of Maryland will receive $3 million each from NASA to advance concepts for a Discovery-class planetary mission in 2016. JPL's Geophysical Monitoring Station, headed by Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt, would study the interior structure of Mars. The Titan Mare Explorer, proposed by Ellen Stofan of Proxemy Research, would land in a hydrocarbon sea on Saturn's moon Titan.
