General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has tested an MQ-1 Predator carrying two disposable, 60-lb. Finder mini-UAVs. This UAV-on-UAV program was funded by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Defense Threat Reduction Agency. An MQ-1 can carry two Finders or a Finder and a Hellfire missile. The Army’s Warrior and Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper can carry mixes of multiple Finders and Hellfires. General Atomics is developing the Avenger, which is expected to enter service after 2015, as its candidate for the U.S.
Struggling Sea Launch says it has received letters of support from satellite operators DirecTV, Eutelsat, Intelsat, SkyPerfect JSAT of Japan and Telesat, promising launch business. The company hopes the letters will help convince the U.S. Bankruptcy Court handling its Chapter 11 proceedings that it has a viable recovery plan.
Norman Augustine tells of his experience when he “was deemed unqualified to teach eighth-grade math” in his state. Perhaps my experience will add to the need for a change in mindset on the part of high-school administrators. Several years ago, I was at a meeting with the president of the Los Angeles teachers’ union. He was bemoaning the fact that a large percentage of high-school seniors were unable to pass the Algebra I requirement for graduation.
Abu Dhabi Airports Co. this month rolled out free WiFi and Internet access throughout Abu Dhabi International Airport. Sixty-five touch-screen walk-up kiosks are now available—50 in Terminal 3 join the 15 launched in Terminal 1 in 2008. Passengers will have 20 min. of free Internet access per session.
LOT Polish Airlines last week added to its fleet an Embraer 175—the 600th produced in the “E-Jet” family of four 70-122-seat aircraft—the Embraer 170, 175, 190 and 195. The new aircraft, which will seat 82 people in one-class configuration, joins 10 Embraer 170s and six 175s now in service. The carrier expects delivery of 11 additional 175s under an order placed in January 2008. In that same contract, the airline, which was launch customer for the Embraer 170 in March 2004, holds two options for the 175 and 10 purchase rights.
We should not have waited for the Air France Flight 447 crash to suspect something might be fundamentally wrong with the exclusive dependency on air speed indication (ASI) by the auto-pilot (AP)/flight director (FD) system.
The European Aviation Safety Agency this week will hold its first meeting with stakeholders on the contentious issue of crew flight time limitations, as the agency sets out to add regulation of flight operations to its roles in setting aviation rules for the European Union.
South Korea will focus on developing a Generation-4.5 fighter under a proposed program that previously aimed at an equivalent of the fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-35. The government is due to decide in November whether to proceed with the program, called KFX, which industrialists hope will meet the air force’s distant F-XX fighter requirement for the 2020s. Lockheed Martin and Boeing are battling for another prize called F-X Phase III, under which the air force proposes to buy 60 fighters next decade.
Top Pentagon civilians are still trying to ensure that the General Electric/Rolls-Royce alternative F136 Joint Strike Fighter engine is dead. After the failure of a Pratt & Whitney F135 test engine, officials hurry to say it does not change their preference for a single engine program. Says Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s press aide, Geoff Morrell: “The mishap . . . is unfortunate, but not unexpected. [Gates] is not satisfied at this moment with how Pratt & Whitney is handling this. Reputations are at stake.
MyAir, the Italian low-fare carrier that had its air operator certificate revoked because of its weak financial position, could resume flights in December. A group of investors is considering injecting capital into the carrier, although several hurdles have to be overcome in bankruptcy proceedings. A hearing in the bankruptcy proceedings is planned for Oct. 3.
While the FAA is likely to propose new flight- and duty-time regulations for pilots by year-end, flight attendants will have to be satisfied with taking part in new field research for now. There still is no scientific data that conclusively shows passenger safety is compromised by fatigued flight attendants. The FAA’s rulemaking committee was directed by the agency not to include flight attendants, according to the Air Transport Assn.’s (ATA) vice president of communications, David Castleveter.
U.S. Cyber Command is supposed to dominate the new digital battlefield, but how it will work is still a mystery, since personnel, training and coordination are lagging. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the command must “integrate the different elements, from exploitation to defense . . . all in one place so that we have unity of effort and then work with the individual service components.” There also are concerns about coordination between the Pentagon and civil agencies.
The World Trade Organization reportedly has ruled that European government loans to Airbus are no more than partly illegal and has dismissed 70% of the U.S. trade representative’s complaints over aircraft subsidies. However, no details are yet available, as the WTO’s 1,000-page preliminary ruling has not been made public, and a final ruling is not expected until 2010.
Japan’s unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) approaches the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 Sept. 17, just before NASA astronaut Nicole Stott used it to grapple the 16.5-metric-ton cargo carrier in darkness 225 mi. above Romania. The capture and subsequent berthing of the HTV to the nadir port of the station’s Harmony pressurized node capped an almost perfect inaugural mission for the Japanese spacecraft, which was launched Sept. 10 (AW&ST Sept. 14, p. 20).
Signaling growing ambitions in commercial human spaceflight, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will test its Dragon spacecraft earlier than expected on the first flight of its Falcon 9 launcher, while fellow NASA commercial partner Orbital Sciences begins studies of a human-rated version of its Cygnus cargo delivery spacecraft.
“Go! Flight 1002, are you having an emergency?” For 18 min., concerned air traffic controllers radioed the pilots. No response. The crew had not acknowledged instructions to proceed to an intersection in preparation for descent to Hilo, Hawaii. Radar showed the aircraft traveling at 21,000 ft. past its destination toward open ocean. The 40 passengers were unaware that their flight crew had entered the Land of Nod halfway through the 51-min. flight on Feb. 13, 2008.
Asia-Pacific carriers may have been the hardest hit by the industry downturn, but they are now poised for a more dramatic rebound than their European and North American counterparts.
South Korea will buy Elta Systems Green Pine Block-B radars for its nascent ballistic-missile defense system, planning to install them in central and northern parts of the country in 2012. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration says the Green Pine outperformed a rival system from Thales in a test in August. Thales offered the M3R radar derived from its Ground Master 400 system. The administration has said it would buy ballistic-missile defense radars by the end of this year.
L-3 Communications’ Geneva Aerospace Div. has won a potential five-year, $250-million contract to supply U.S. Special Operations Command with expeditionary unmanned aircraft systems. The Viking 400 is a 530-lb. gross-weight tactical unmanned air vehicle with an 8-10-hr. endurance carrying a 75-100-lb. payload and operating conventionally from unimproved expeditionary runways.
On June 1, an Airbus A330 went down in the Atlantic. Due to the depth of the ocean and the rough undersea terrain, the flight data recorder (FDR) will probably never be recovered. Already, calls are going out throughout government and industry to institute technology to transmit FDR data from aircraft via satellite or other uplink. Before we launch satellites and fit aircraft with costly, high-bandwidth, real-time uplink systems, let us consider another option.
Cathay Pacific Airways has bolstered its balance sheet by selling a stake in its maintenance offshoot and selling and leasing back six Boeing 777-300ERs. The carrier has raised HK$1.9 billion ($245 million) by selling 12.45% of maintenance business Haeco to Swire Pacific, a conglomerate that holds major shareholdings in both companies. Cathay’s holding in Haeco will fall to 15%, while Swire’s rises to 45.96%.
Rockwell Collins is rig-testing a full-performance active sidestick controller for civil aircraft, and hopes to launch the next-generation cockpit feature by partnering with an airframe maker to develop the initial application.
Scientists and engineers are beginning to realize that the unique microgravity environment on the International Space Station is available for them to use—free of charge—for research and testing. But getting there remains the big hurdle to full U.S. utilization of the orbiting national laboratory.
Demand for air travel could begin growing again late this year or early in 2010, enabling Boeing and Airbus to maintain their narrow-body production rates, concludes a new analysis by Jefferies & Co. Year-over-year traffic declines among a group of 13 airlines worldwide shrank to 2.5% in August, down from 8.8% in May and represent the third consecutive monthly improvement. The trend suggests that traffic growth among the group could be back in positive territory within several months.
