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.
Obituary:Aaron Cohen, who helped the space shuttle program recover from the 1986 Challenger disaster as director of Johnson Space Center, died Feb. 25 in College Station, Tex., after a long illness. He was 79.
Robert Wall (Getafe, Spain), Douglas Barrie (London)
The downturn in commercial air travel is forcing the U.K. company that is buying A330 tankers to operate for the Royal Air Force to rethink its strategy as Airbus moves closer to first flight for the British aircraft.
Large U.S. aerospace companies that choose outsourcing to improve the bottom line by using skilled labor elsewhere should take note of the legal battle being fought by Pratt & Whitney .
Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. has purchased an advanced composites fiber placement system and two vertical profilers from MAG Industrial Automation Systems of Erlanger, Ky., for delivery in the first quarter of 2011. The MAG Viper and HyperMachTM Vertical profilers, valued at more than $9 million, will support production of MS-21 series of medium-range transport aircraft. Previously, MAG sold 26 machine tools to Ural Boeing Manufacturing and VSMPO-Avisma, which produce titanium components for Boeing and Airbus.
Bankrupt Japan Airlines, as it restructures under protection from creditors, may cut back or even close its cargo operation. The airline says it has given up plans to merge its air cargo service with that of shipping company Nippon Yusen KK. And Nippon Yusen was no longer committed to combining its Nippon Cargo Airlines unit with the ailing airline, according to the Jiji news agency. The government’s Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. is in charge of Japan Airlines’ reorganization.
Alabama’s two Republican senators relented somewhat last week in their procedural muscling in support of Northrop Grumman and EADS North America in the U.S. Air Force KC-X tanker competition. Late Mar. 4, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which includes Sen. Jeff Sessions, unanimously agreed to forward the nominations of six Defense Dept. officials for full Senate confirmation.
Boeing’s so-called NewGen Tanker, a 767-based design for the U.S. Air Force KC-X competition, will feature a new refueling boom and a flight deck based on the 787 airliner. Company officials say the airframe will be based on a 767, but they decline to say which variant. An artist’s concept appears to point to a 767-200.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
War in Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal areas—a training and command-and-control site for the Taliban and a source of recruits and supplies for attacks in Afghanistan—will see the introduction of precision strikes with 500-lb.-class bombs and night-fighting technology. These new weapons are an additional capability for the Pakistani air force and will serve as an indigenous adjunct to the U.S.’s Predator/Reaper remotely piloted aircraft that are conducting precision strike operations in the region with the 100-lb.-class Hellfire missile.
Europe’s air transport sector is facing another serious dispute over allegedly illegal state aid, after financially struggling Malev Hungarian Airlines was bought by the government. The move effectively saved Malev from collapse as its desperate financial situation already made funding ongoing operations all but impossible. Several competitors, among them low-fare carrier Wizz Air, have reportedly filed complaints with the European Commission about the government bailout.
In April, Etihad Airways will begin introducing the Tempus IC health monitoring system across its long- and ultra-long-haul fleet. In the event a passenger develops a medical problem in flight, the Remote Diagnostic Technologies (RDT) system enables crewmembers to gather vital diagnostic information about the individual—such as blood pressure (see photo), glucose readings and electrocardiograms— as well as to take photographs.
New airline Meridiana Fly, the product of the integration of the former Meridiana and Eurofly airlines, launched services Feb. 28 from airports in central and northern Italy. The carrier, owned by the Meridian Group, plans to offer services to seven intercontinental and 32 domestic destinations, as well as 48 mid-range routes in Europe. The group started its strategic expansion plan in 2006 with the acquisition of a stake in Eurofly, which previously was the charter arm of the former iteration of Alitalia.
ATR has begun flight testing the latest configuration of its ATR 42 turboprop, the -600. The 2-hr. first flight took place M ar. 4 in Toulouse . ATR expects the flight test campaign to last 75 hr. Flight testing of the ATR 72-600, a larger model with the same avionics and engine improvements, has been underway since last year. The ATR 72-600 is due to complete type certification by year-end, with first customer delivery planned in the first half of next year. Delivery of the ATR 42-600 is due by the end of 2011.
Telesat reported an 11% jump in revenues for 2009, to C$787 million ($763 million), and a 14% improvement in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization , to $560 million. The company netted $414 million, after a $822-million loss the previous year, and its backlog leapt 50% to $5.5 billion.
The FAA last week placed a New York JFK International Airport tower supervisor and air traffic controller on administrative leave, pending completion of the agency’s investigation of an incident in which a child was permitted to talk with flight crew on an ATC radio frequency. Meanwhile, the FAA has suspended unofficial visits to ATC operational areas, such as radar rooms and towers. In addition, an agency team is conducting a “full-scale” review of ATC policies and procedures for facility visits.
Large-screen displays are beginning to fill up at ITT’s network operations center just outside Washington, charting the course of more ground stations coming on line under the FAA’s automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) infrastructure deployment program.
The U.S. Air Force has checked the third Wideband Global Satcom into service after completing its in-orbit testing. Its Dec. 5 launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV led to completion of the first block of the broadband constellation that Boeing is building to replace the Defense Satellite Communications System. Each WGS has about the capability of the 10-satellite DSCS combined.
Japan Space Exploration Agency has scheduled a May 18 launch for its Venus Climate Orbiter—Akatsuki—as the 17th mission for the Mitsubishi H-IIA medium-lift booster from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center .
As a software designer and developer for more than 20 years, I can say without hesitation there is no such thing as bug-free software . The more complex the software, the more room for error. All the testing in the world will not turn up every combination of failure modes.
Douglas Barrie (Boscombe Down, England), Robert Wall (London)
Alliance efforts to rebuild an Afghan air capability are progressing—though at a varying pace—with both rotary and fixed-wing projects nearing fruition. The end of this month will see the conclusion of the U.K.’s originally classified Project Curium—an Afghan aircrew training program for the Mil Mi-17 Hip. The Afghan military already operates the Hip medium-transport helicopter, and U.S. military officials believe the fleet of the type is likely to grow to 56.
China’s plans to launch its second lunar orbiter are still on track for October, according to Chinese press reports, but construction of the docking target designed as the next step toward achieving its own space station has been delayed until next year. Qi Faren, who led design of the Shenzhou human-rated capsules that have carried six Chinese astronauts to orbit, was quoted as saying the Tiangong-1 docking target won’t be launched until 2011.
The issue of icing-tail stall recovery may have been in the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crew’s thinking, but regardless, nothing explains how a pilot would yank the nose up to more than 30 deg. To additionally retract the flaps once the nose is coming up shows a great lack of understanding. I agree with the NTSB regarding “shock and confusion.”
The German weather service will use a laser-based wind shear detection system for Frankfurt and Munich, the country’s two busiest airports. Selex Systems Integration GmbH is to provide the low-level wind shear alert system, which includes the company’s Meteor 50DX Dual Polarization Weather Radar, WindTracer Doppler lidar and sensor data integration based on Rainbow5 software. Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies produces WindTracer, a low-level system that covers terminal areas.
New published findings from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) on India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter suggest there are more than 600 million metric tons of water ice preserved in the permanent darkness at the bottom of an array of small craters at the Moon’s north pole. Data from the U.S.-supplied Mini-SAR instrument on the Indian orbiter, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, add to the growing body of evidence that the long-theorized ice exists at both lunar poles.
The world still awaits the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, once expected Feb. 1, but a few things are already known: It will entail cuts to the nuclear arsenal, and it could redefine how such weapons would be used. But the details of those policies are what matter and those also are what apparently are holding up the review, now expected by April. Numerous think-tanks suggest a heated debate is still going on over whether there should be a new nuclear policy declaration. Options include everything from declaring the U.S.
