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.
Within the next 10 months, Boeing plans to conduct first flights of two company-developed unmanned air system demonstrators—a sleek, stealthy flying wing and a lumbering, high-altitude, hydrogen-powered vehicle intended to fly at least four days nonstop.
Defense giant Northrop Grumman has flown the first in a new series of Bat unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) . The 12-ft.-wingspan UAV is outfitted with a Hirth engine and a low-acoustic five-blade propeller. The Bat product line, acquired from Swift Engineering in April 2009, has undergone a fairly aggressive demonstration schedule in that time. In tests earlier this winter, both 10- and 12-ft. versions were launched from an AAI Corp. UAS Shadow and autonomously operated from a single ground control station before recovery in a net (right).
Republic Airways’ $3-billion order of 40 CSeries jets, with options for 40 more, is a major win for Canadian aircraft builder Bombardier Inc. The 110-145-seat jet, launched in mid-2008 with no firm orders and numerous skeptics, now has 90 orders from three customers: Republic, Lufthansa and Dublin-based Lease Corp. International. Republic, which owns Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines and operates regional air service for major carriers under contract, is the first CSeries customer from North America.
Rolls-Royce has selected Hamilton Sundstrand as exclusive supplier of a new full-authority digital engine control system (Fadec) for gas turbines under 2,000 shp., for all civil and military rotary- and fixed-wing applications. The first application is a dual-channel Fadec under development for the U.S. Army’s Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed scout, which is powered by Rolls’ M250-C30R/3 (military designation T703-700) turboshaft .
The Government Accountability Office is urging the Transportation Dept. to give funding priority to airport projects that have developed plans for regional systems. A GAO report on regional airports issued last week suggests coordinating the plans with FAA and airport management decisions. The GAO says the advisory nature of planning documents hinders their implementation, and took note of competition among local airports that can result in differences in how a regional should address congestion problems.
Lufthansa will follow a different strategy than most other airlines when it takes delivery of its first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental next year. O ther long-haul carriers—Lufthansa’s main European rivals Air France and British Airways, along with Qantas—have recently decided to replace their aging 747-400 fleets with a few Airbus A380s and a larger number of smaller long-range jets, such as the Boeing 777-300ER or Airbus A350-1000.
Bombardier Aerospace’s aircraft dismantling operations have been accredited by the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Assn. (AFRA). The endorsement covers teardowns of CRJ100/200 regional jets at the manufacturer’s service centers in Bridgeport, W.Va., and Tucson, Ariz. AFRA promotes best practices for salvaging and recycling components during disassembly .
J. Scott Hunter (see photos) has been promoted to director of maintenance training sales from director of maintenance training sales for regional airlines and Jeffery McPhie to director from manager of customer support, both for New York-based FlightSafety International . Hunter succeeds Doug Bowen, who has become director of maintenance training services. McPhie follows Debbie Jones, who is now manager of FSI’s Hawker Beechcraft Learning Center, Wichita, Kan.
The U.S. Air Force is shifting the orbit of three of its GPS satellites to improve worldwide coverage and assist soldiers in areas such as Afghanistan, where rugged terrain can block signals and reduce accuracy. Previously organized around of 24 slots in six orbital planes in medium Earth orbit, the constellation is being adjusted to provide positions for 27 satellites. The shift is including only spacecraft that are already in orbit and should not affect either satellite lifetimes or planned replenishment schedules.
Qinetiq North America and Brewer Science and Applied Systems Intelligence are working toward developing an autonomous, self-deploying sensor that will serve as a roving, early-warning detector of biological warfare activity. The primary work on the project, which is being funded the U.S. Army Research Office, will be conducted at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center at Missouri State University in Springfield, as well as at Qinetiq’s Waltham, Mass., Technologies Solutions Group.
The extent of the gap between the U.K.’s recent military helicopter acquisition aspirations and available funding was made clear in the government‘s response last week to a parliamentary report on helicopter capability. The budget profile for the now-shelved Future Medium Helicopter project and its Puma and Sea King Mk. 4 fleet life-extension programs would have resulted in a “substantial gap in lift helicopter numbers from 2012 until at least 2017,” according to the government.
Christoph Franz and Stefan Lauer have been appointed to the board of directors of Swiss International Air Lines . Franz was CEO before being named to the executive board of parent Lufthansa. Lauer was head of Swiss’s corporate human resources and now has that role for all Lufthansa group airlines. They have succeeded Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chairman of the Lufthansa executive board; and Klaus Schlede, a member of the Lufthansa supervisory board.
Mark B. Tischler, who is senior scientist and flight control group leader for the U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., has been named to receive the 2009 Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Senior Professional on May 6. The award is granted for a sustained record of professional, technical and/or scientific achievement on a national or international level.
