Airport groups have asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for major revisions of proposed regulations for controlling runoff of aircraft deicing fluids, contending the rules as written are inflexible and would cripple airports with high costs.
Closing New York JFK International Airport’s Runway 31Left/13Right through June for repaving and widening will create traffic conditions similar to summertime peaks, according to the FAA. Domestic airlines, including JFK’s largest, JetBlue, have reduced flights by 10% to help ease the traffic burden. The 14,500-ft. runway, also called the Bay Runway, handles one-third of JFK operations, according to the airport’s operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The International Space Station, almost complete in orbit after a decade of assembly, is the recipient of the 2009 Robert J. Collier Trophy. The National Aeronautic Assn. announced the award “for the design, development and assembly of the world’s largest spacecraft, an orbiting laboratory that promises new discoveries for mankind and sets new standards for international cooperation in space.” Recipients are NASA, the U.S.
While your editorial on what you characterize as misguided Asian airline bailouts (AW&ST Feb. 15, p. 58) makes several valid points, it is difficult for a reader outside the U.S. not to succumb to a wry smile. Has the writer forgotten the billions of dollars in federal largesse handed out to U.S. carriers after 9/11, to the disadvantage of less-fortunate competitors?
Radical aerodynamic and structural design technologies offering potential fuel-saving and noise-reduction breakthroughs will be tested in back-to-back experiments by NASA in partnership with the U.S. Air Force.
Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington), Michael Bruno (Washington)
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says a major cost overrun in the multi-national F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is probable, and under the Nunn- McCurdy statute it would trigger a mandatory review of alternatives.
A major upgrade in surface-surveillance technology is close to completion at the largest U.S. airports, laying the foundation for other projects designed to reduce the risk of runway incursions. These programs have been receiving a lot of attention due to a major runway-safety campaign undertaken by the FAA . While a sharp drop in runway-incursion numbers occurred in Fiscal 2009, the FAA continues to look for new ways to improve situational awareness for both pilots and controllers.
The Obama administration’s proposed boost of funding for NASA’s Earth science enterprise will allow scheduling of several missions highlighted by the most recent National Academies decadal survey on Earth science to be advanced, NASA science chief Ed Weiler says. Specifically, launch of the Soil Moisture Active & Passive mission will be moved up to November 2014, ICESat 2 is being advanced to October 2015, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Destiny missions and the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory mission will be launched in 2017.
When the space shuttle Discovery lifts off for the International Space Station next month, a small commercial payload called a NanoRack, tucked into its middeck cargo space, could be a harbinger of how the U.S. hopes to do business in space in the years to come. Discovery’s crew will take a few minutes during the busy mission to transfer the Express Rack locker insert carrying the NanoRack into the ISS. Later, a station crewmember will plug it into an open Express Rack slot in Japan’s Kibo laboratory module.
A tumble in the euro triggered by Greece’s debt crisis is providing some much-needed good news to EADS NV as the European aerospace giant braces for another big earnings hit from the troubled A400M military airlifter program. The A400M charge likely will be well in excess of €2 billion ($2.7 billion), adding to €2.4 billion in charges already taken on the project, which is running three years behind schedule.
European Space Agency scientists are analyzing radio-science data from the closest flyby ever of the Martian moon Phobos, in the hope they can use it to estimate the density variation across the tiny object that is believed to be nothing more than a pile of relatively loosely gathered planetary rubble. The European spacecraft began a series of 12 Phobos flybys last month, and will begin collecting high-resolution images of the surface on the next pass before wrapping up the sequence by the end of the month.
Aurora Flight Sciences has completed a test wing section built with company funds to support its bid for Phase 2 of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vulture program, to demonstrate technology for a five-year-endurance solar-powered stratospheric unmanned aircraft. With a span of 22 ft. and chord of 15 ft., the test wing section is made from advanced composites and lightweight plastics . The upper surface is covered with solar cells.
Target tracking, hostile-fire indication, anti-brownout and three-dimensional audio capabilities are being added to an infrared sensor system designed to provide 360-deg. situational awareness to helicopter pilots.
Lockheed Martin has received an initial $213 million in long-lead funding for 20 Advanced Block 52 F-16s for Egypt. Delivery of the 16 single-seat F-16Cs and four two-seat F-16Ds, powered by Pratt & Whitney F100-220 EEP engines, will be completed in 2013. Egypt has received 240 F-16s since 1980.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is purchasing General Dynamics’ satellite development and manufacturing business. The deal includes the company’s Gilbert, Ariz., manufacturing facility. Called Spectrum Astro until it was purchased by GD, the facility once specialized in small satellites but has stepped up to develop a medium-class satellite platform. This capability gives Orbital “quick entry into a mid-class satellite that serves and is optimized for the government customer,” says Barron Beneski, an Orbital official.
The U.S. Navy’s next generation jammer (NGJ) is slated for operations in 2018. Depending on the winning design, it is expected to bring with it the ability to invade enemy networks from the air. NGJ is expected to have the software to generate a data stream and place within it wave forms and algorithms that can see what’s going on inside that network and, at some point, take over control of the network if desired or perhaps just rest there relaying data to friendly forces.
The FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive that would require operators of Embraer 170 and 190 aircraft to inspect engine low-pressure check valves for excessive wear—a condition that could lead to an uncommanded inflight engine shutdown. Required actions under the proposed directive published Mar. 4 include repetitive replacements of the valves and seals of the left- and right-hand engine bleed system. The FAA’s action follows earlier directives issued by Brazil’s aviation authority, the Agencia Nacional de Aviacao Civil (ANAC).
The extent of the reduction in U.K. air assets in all three services since the mid-1990s was spelled out in Parliament last week by Quentin Davies, the minister for defense equipment and support. Fighter and strike aircraft numbers have fallen to 297 in January of this year from 408 in March 1997. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and maritime patrol aircraft numbers dwindled to 18 from 45.
The U.S. government’s push to convert tens of thousands of defense contractor jobs into civil service positions has begun, and is already causing consternation among contractors, who face the exodus of top talent and the dwindling of an already shallow pool of qualified candidates.
Embraer will focus its efforts to develop the KC-390 tanker transport by securing key suppliers—and potentially program partners—before starting to define the new aircraft in detail next year.
The challenge of defeating infrared missiles will always be difficult when it comes to helicopters, especially large noisy ones such as the CH-47 Chinook. When you look at the threat versus the weapon system, it is a virtual turkey shoot. The missiles are small and fast, and helicopters are big and slow. We are glad there has been success in defending these assets (AW&ST Jan. 18, p. 38).
Former Qantas executive John Borghetti will be the new CEO of rival Virgin Blue Airlines, replacing co-founder Brett Godfrey, who is retiring. Qantas says its chief financial officer, Colin Storrie, has resigned for personal and health reasons.
Engineers at NASA’s Johnson and Marshall field centers are trying to find a way to accelerate work on a new heavy-lift rocket in Fiscal 2011, but it must fall within the Obama administration’s budget limits for the agency. Administrator Charles Bolden asked the center directors to look into it, but NASA officials emphasize he is not seeking a compromise with unhappy lawmakers over the budget. “I’m open to hearing ideas from any member of the NASA team, but I did not ask anybody for an alternative to the president’s plan and budget,” Bolden states through a spokesman.
