Many thanks for the very sensible Viewpoint “Rethinking Crew Fatigue” (AW&ST Dec. 7, 2009, p. 78). As a military aviator during the Cold War, many times I walked out to a jet completely fatigued for a flight through crowded airspace. We were taught, even then, that the first casualty of fatigue was judgment, which is exactly what we pay for in an airline pilot.
Pakistan has fielded the first of four Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76 aerial-refueling tanker aircraft. The other modified Il-76s, designated Il-78MPs, are to be delivered by Ukraine by mid-year. Pakistan’s air force also accepted the first of four Saab 2000 airborne early warning and control aircraft at Kamra AB on Dec. 29. The remaining three will be delivered this year.
Michael Rudolphi (see photos) has been appointed deputy vice president/general manager of Space Launch Systems for ATK in Utah. He was head of the company’s operations at Huntsville, Ala. Rudolphi has been succeeded by Jim Halsell, who was a vice president-exploration systems and headed the ATK team that supported development of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Robert Herman has become a vice president-exploration systems and head of Kennedy Space Center operations.
American Airlines and British Airways won’t know until late January at the earliest whether U.S. regulators will bless a joint venture to combine their transatlantic operations. The Transportation Dept. has opened yet another comment period for this case, with submissions due Jan. 11. This latest round was prompted mainly by the Justice Dept., which last month outlined a list of objections to the airline partnership. Transportation ultimately has the authority to grant the antitrust immunity needed for the joint venture, but must first consider input from Justice.
Owing to a fight with Italy’s civil aviation authority, ENAC, over passenger identification requirements, Ryanair says it will suspend its domestic Italian operations starting Jan. 23. The suspension will remain in place until ENAC rescinds its directive, which requires Ryanair to accept other forms of passenger identification than a passport or national ID card, including fishing licenses. Ryanair says the ENAC directive issued in November could lead to the airline’s handling agents being detained if they do not accept other forms of identification.
Eight months after the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced a renewed interest in technologies for “early intercept” of ballistic missiles, plans are beginning to take shape with a focus on the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for ballistic missile target tracking. Requirements are not yet firm for this capability, but several architecture studies will provide data on how the agency will proceed and where it plans to put its funding in the forthcoming budgets.
Emirates plans to launch daily nonstop Airbus A330 service to Prague from Dubai starting July 1. The aircraft has a two-class configuration—27 seats in business class and 251 in economy. The airline now provides service to the popular tourist destination through European connections. The new service will reduce travel time to about 6 hr., according to Emirates.
The second F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing test aircraft, BF-2, arrived at NAS Patuxent River, Md., on Dec. 29 to join aircraft BF-1, which returned to flight on Dec. 23. BF-1 had been grounded for maintenance since it arrived at the U.S. Navy’s flight-test center on Nov. 19. BF-2 completed a 3.4-hr. non-stop ferry flight from Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant with an aerial refueling en route from a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130 tanker.
Egypt has agreed to buy 20 F-16C/Ds for delivery in 2012, in a deal valued at $1.6 billion. The contract will extend production of the F-16 at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant by a further year, to the end of 2012. Egypt has already taken delivery of 220 F-16s, and the new aircraft will be additional Block 52s with the General Electric F110 engine.
Richard McMillon has been named general manager of the General Dynamics Aviation Services facility at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. He was the operations manager and succeeds Brian Waymire, who is now at Gulfstream Aerospace headquarters, Savannah, Ga.
Douglas Swoish of the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Aerospace Systems Sector and Joseph Farina of the Technical Services Sector have won awards from the Assn. of Old Crows (AOC). Swoish received the Col. Anton D. Brees Life Achievement Award, which recognizes AOC members for service to the association and the field of electronic warfare and information operations. Farina received the AOC’s Industry Award for 2009 for contributions to electronic warfare, information operations and related efforts.
Jan. 11-14—Practical Aeronautics Short Course: “Introduction to Aeronautics: A Practical Perspective.” National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Va. And, Jan. 20-21Holiday Inn Express, Niceville, Fla. Call +1 (970) 887-3155 or see www.practicalaero.com Jan. 20-21— American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Strategic and Tactical Missile Systems Conference. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. Call +1 (703) 264-7500 or see www.aiaa.org
As 2009 drew to a close last week, the news media were full of articles lamenting the stock market’s “lost decade.” The tumultuous ‘00s were far from a lost cause for aerospace and defense stocks, however. Shares in many A&D companies doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in value. Airline stocks were a different story, but let’s start with the good news.
LAN Airlines is buying 30 more Airbus A320s under a firm order completed late last year. The deal puts the total number of Airbus aircraft ordered by LAN above 100. Additionally, Malaysia Airlines has agreed in principle to buy 15 A330-300s and has taken options for 10 more aircraft of the type. The move remains to be converted into a firm order, but would total around $5 billion at list price if all options are exercised. Delivery would unfold between 2011 and 2016.
Thales and Airservices Australia have delivered major performance and safety enhancements to Australia’s Air Traffic Management system. The upgrades are part of an ongoing initiative to The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS). In the latest round of software improvements, known as TAAATS V12, more than 1.3 million lines of code were developed and modified. The software supports the introduction of radar surveillance tracking, safety-net monitoring and radar bypass services, among others.
Newly declassified documents show the inner workings of President Gerald Ford’s White House on the momentous matter of what to name the first space shuttle orbiter, the one used for approach and landing tests. The documents are part of a series on “global issues” that the State Dept. is required to release to provide comprehensive documentation of “major foreign policy decisions.” How this relates to foreign policy or why it was ever classified is not explained. In a 1976 decision memorandum for the president, aide William F.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued EADS Astrium a €150-million ($216-million) contract for definition of a higher-power variant of the Ariane 5 intended to keep in step with growing telecom satellite mass and allow the heavy-lift booster to compete against new boosters such as China’s Long March 5 and Russia’s Angara. Expected to make its first flight around 2017, the new version, known as the Ariane 5 ME (Midlife Evolution), will feature a new upper stage, a re-ignitable Vinci upper-stage engine and enhanced avionics and flight software.
Vernon Smith (see photo) has been named senior vice president-business development and head of ViP-TV for EchoStar Satellite Services , Englewood, Colo. He succeeds Steve Skalski, vice president-satellite services, who has moved to Taiwan to manage operations for EchoStar’s joint venture pursuing the launch of a direct-to-home platform.
Orbital Sciences Corp. finished the year in a flourish with three contracts—a pair of broadband satellites from Swedish-based startup OverHorizon and Avanti Communications, and Intelsat’s IS-23. The OverHorizon satellite, a Ku-band unit to be delivered in early 2012, will be supplied jointly with Thales Alenia Space, which will provide an onboard processing payload. The deals gave Orbital Sciences four telecom satellite awards for 2009 and Thales Alenia five.
As publisher of Aviation Week & Space Technology in the 1970s, I had a front-row seat to observe the development and demise of the Boeing SST program. Hypersonics will go the same path unless Congress gets behind it and radical environmentalists are neutralized.
The International Space Station is fully staffed again after Soyuz TMA‑17 docked without incident Dec. 22, bringing cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA’s Timothy Creamer to join Expedition 22 commander Jeff Williams of NASA and Russian flight engineer Maxim Suraev. Now at full strength, Expedition 22 will spend more time on science than previous crews, who focused on assembly and outfitting. On Jan.
Dave Mutzel has been named director of flight operations, Doug Wilson director of business development and marketing, Chris Bollert operations manager and Nancy Sheckler-Cecchi client services manager, all for Galvin Flying Services of Seattle. Mutzel was director of flight training, while Bollert was training and safety manager. Wilson will continue as director of the line and real estate departments.
The Pentagon has approved plans to demonstrate a long-endurance unmanned surveillance airship that will be deployed to Afghanistan for operational evaluation. A request for proposals for the five-year Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) technology demonstration is to be released at the end of January, with flight testing to begin 18 months after contract award. The LEMV is required to operate unmanned for three weeks at 25,000 ft., carrying a 2,500-lb.
The U.S. Air Force has completed critical design reviews (CDRs) for the final two Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) geosynchronous (GEO) satellites as well as two follow-on single payloads for flight on classified host satellites in highly elliptical orbit (HEO). The $10.4-billion Sbirs, made by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, is a space-based missile warning system that will eventually replace the Defense Support Program satellites in orbit. The HEO payload portion of the CDR was the capstone event after 21 months of efforts to replace obsolete parts.
