Despite a stinging rebuke by Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, the Obama administration and Democratic allies in the Senate are pressing ahead for ratification of the U.S.-Russian New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty in December—before the GOP-infused 112th Congress takes over. Kyl, deputized by his party to negotiate Senate ratification with the White House, sent shock waves from Washington to Moscow last week when he said he would not support a Senate vote during the “lame-duck,” post-election session of the 111th Congress.
Concern over the pace of the Airbus A350XWB’s systems-installation design has prompted Airbus to warn of a potential schedule slip, as memories of the A380’s production line dramas continue to haunt the manufacturer.
Iain Blackhall has been appointed managing director-civil aviation at Aviation Week . Blackhall was managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
While controversy over the TSA’s latest airport security screening fills web pages and cable news channels, lawmakers and federal officials face several more aviation security issues. Even as some airline passengers complain over the “law-enforcement” pat-downs, the US Airline Pilots Association (Usapa) and Allied Pilots Association tell member pilots to choose them over Advanced Imaging Technology scans to help limit their total potential radiation exposure.
GKN Aerospace is examining how technologies developed for the all-electric deicing system on the Boeing 787 can be adapted to address other issues arising with new aircraft designs, particularly the widespread use of composites in airframes.
Marvin Díaz (see photo) has been named managing director for Mexico by American Airlines . He was managing director of finance for Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. Marixa Franco was appointed managing director of ramp services at Miami International Airport.
Eric Cote (see photo) of Syracuse Research Corp., has been selected for the Technology Outreach Program of the National Reconnaissance Office . William Penny, CBE, was made an honorary doctor of technology by Bournemouth University in England. He is best known for his leading role in developing the “black box” flight recorder.
I read “Designs for Success” with bemused amazement, especially the discussion of a need for a new approach to the design and implementation of complex systems. Today’s systems engineering approach lacks respect for following through on the complete process. When heritage designs are scaled into new territory and trade studies are short-circuited, “elegance” is hard to achieve. When budgets are formulated without allowing for sufficient test time, robustness similarly suffers.
Sukhoi plans to hand over a new batch of four Su-34 fighters to the Russian air force by year-end, with the aircraft currently undergoing flight testing.
As the Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation progresses into the Nov. 4 in-flight uncontained failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine on a Qantas Airbus A380, it has emerged that Rolls may have known about deficiencies well before the incident.
Scientists in Japan and elsewhere will have a new batch of extraterrestrial samples to study, following confirmation that Japan’s Hayabusa sample-return probe collected and returned material from the asteroid Itokawa in its troubled seven-year mission.
Saul Solomon (see photo) has been appointed to the board of commissioners of the Metropolitan Nashville (Tenn.) Airport Authority. New commissioner Deborah Wright is one of the board’s neighborhood representatives.
Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin is due back on Earth this week after he and Oleg Skripochka completed a 6-hr. spacewalk outside the International Space Station Nov. 15. The two Russian space travelers attached an external work platform and retrieved and installed science experiments, making extensive use of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to improve visual oversight by Mission Control Center-Moscow.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne plans to complete certification tests of the RS-68A heavy-lift liquid fuel rocket at the end of this month in the run-up to final tests and delivery of the first production units to United Launch Alliance. The company originally hoped to complete hot-fire tests on a second certification engine in April, but the program schedule was disrupted by a fire on the test stand caused by a fuel spillage.
Kelly Allender (see photo) has been promoted to assistant manager of FlightSafety International ’s Cessna Learning Center in Wichita, Kan. He was director-programs at the Wichita Cessna Learning Center.
“Designs for Success” (AW&ST Nov. 1/8, p. 72) is the most significant article you have written in a long time. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) goals are earthshaking for an industry that has clearly become out of sync with good development practice. The integrated circuit (IC) and automobile technologies are interesting to look at, but production of ICs focuses on size reduction and for cars focuses on automation, neither of which are likely in airplanes.
As hard as Boeing tries, the airframe manufacturer seems unable to get as close to the perfect airplane factory as it would like. Its managers keep thinking of ways to improve what they created only a few years before.
The two X-34 reusable launch vehicle technology testbeds, kept in storage at Edwards AFB, Calif., since the program was canceled in 2001, were moved to nearby Mojave Air and Space Port on Nov. 16.
Despite strong traffic growth rates in China, domestic and foreign regional aircraft-makers may have to wait a while longer before enjoying the order boom the providers of larger aircraft are already seeing. While Airbus can show that China accounts for more than 20% of its total production, some regional aircraft producers have been unable to make sales in China. ATR has not sold an aircraft in China since the 1990s, and it has been at least seven years since Bombardier sold a commercial aircraft in China.
As the global aircraft industry warily watches Comac’s progress in developing the C919 narrowbody airliner, new data suggests that the designers are not achieving the low weights expected of an advanced new design. And while Comac is promising a 10% reduction in direct operating costs, the first batch of orders reveal that Chinese state airlines are even more reluctant to buy the aircraft than expected.
Preliminary findings of an investigation into a malfunction on the Pentagon’s newest communications satellite, worth more than $2 billion, indicate that an onboard engine failure was an anomaly and not the result of a design failure. This is clearing the way for the second of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites to be slated for launch as early as March 2012.
What’s the real meaning of “long term” for the aviation community? Let’s say 2050 and beyond, keeping in mind the slow pace needed to forge new technologies and transform innovative ideas into mature systems. Frequently, confusion and misunderstandings roil the waters of progress, especially when scientists and engineering teams confront financial officers.
