Scientists are covetously eyeing the suborbital seats being built for wealthy space tourists by Virgin Galactic, XCOR, Blue Origins and others (see p. 54). They plan a major conference in Boulder, Colo., next February to discuss what to do with them. The conference will bring together specialists in atmospheric, microgravity, planetary and space life science, solar physics and other disciplines for two days of meetings on the new vehicles’ capabilities and the researchers’ requirements.
A new study sponsored largely by business aviation interests argues that corporations using business aircraft deliver better financial performance than those eschewing that form of travel. “Business Aviation In A Changing Economy—An Enterprise Value Perspective,” was produced by NEXA Advisors, LLC, an Arlington, Va.-based corporate finance consultancy, for the National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA), the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. (GAMA), and others, including Aviation Week.
Growing numbers of airlines are starting to fall behind on payment commitments, signaling that even as passenger traffic declines level off, carriers are far from secure.
The new governing Democratic Party of Japan is rich with former members of the Liberal Democrat ic Party’s political machine that it replaces. Its momentum at the polls was generated by discontent with a decade-old recession, lack of economy-boosting initiatives from the ruling party, and evidence of “old-boy” networking that filled the coffers of a few.
Thales has concluded an agreement to market Xsight System’s foreign object debris (FOD) detection equipment worldwide. Known as FODetect, the system uses radio and electro-optical sensors integrated with runway edge lighting to detect debris while using existing power and communications infrastructure to minimize size and weight. A central processing system automatically generates an alert and investigates debris.
September is shaping up positively for Korean Air. Prebookings on higher-revenue international flights were up 21% over last year, while available seat miles increased 9%. Japan, South Korea’s long-time biggest country pair, is leading the charge with a 59% increase in demand, followed by the Americas’ 12%, Europe’s 10%, Southeast Asia’s 7% and Oceana’s 6% rise. But demand from China, a major growth area for much of the decade, is flat.
Bombardier Aerospace is coming under increasing pressure to revise production rates across its entire portfolio after recording 80 executive jet cancellations in its fiscal second quarter, and only one regional jet deal in nine months.
Raytheon struck a deal to acquire BBN Technologies, a privately-held, 700-employee security software companies that specializes in advanced networking, speech and language technologies, information technologies, sensor systems and cybersecurity. Founded in 1948 by two MIT professors, BBN played a key role in the early 1970s in the development of Arpanet, the forerunner to the Internet. The company’s current products include the Boomerang acoustic-based shooter detection system deployed with U.S. forces to detect incoming small arms fire.
Southwest Airlines and the FAA reached an agreement on Sept. 1 that will let the airline keep flying Boeing 737 aircraft with an unapproved part that came from a subcontractor, provided the part is inspected for wear and tear every seven days and is replaced on all of the aircraft by Dec. 24. The unapproved part is a hinge fitting for the exhaust gate assembly, which helps protect the aircraft flaps from engine heat, and Southwest says that by Sept.
The FAA expects its revised procedures for operating in or near the Hudson River VFR Corridor go into effect Nov. 19—to coincide with the release of revised aeronautical charts. The new procedures, many of which make current recommended operating practices mandatory, were recommended by the “New York Airspace Task Force” last week. The working group was convened by the FAA last month to review the region’s airspace procedures following the Aug. 8 midair collision of a single-engine aircraft and sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River.
German geospatial information provider RapidEye says it has selected a half dozen distributors in the 12 months since its five-satellite constellation was launched, and expects to add another dozen over the next year. Distributors include MDA Federal and MakaLani of the U.S., Beijing Earth Observation, Russia’s Sovzond and Bufete de Ingenieria en Telecomunicaciones y Sistemas of Mexico.
The U.S. Navy has completed the final developmental test of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (Aargm). During the eighth and final test Aug. 7, the missile was launched from an F/A-18C and flown in a short time of flight against heavy countermeasures. The missile destroyed the air defense target. Aargm is being developed by the U.S. Navy for its use and for Italy. The first production unit is set for delivery to the Navy in January.
Scaled Composites has reactivated the WhiteKnight One mothership in readiness for another flight test program. The aircraft has been in mothballs for around a year since flight testing an anti-Manpads infrared countermeasures pod under contract to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security as part of Project CHLOE. Scaled Composites test pilot Pete Siebold took the WK1 for its first shake down flight from the Northrop Grumman-owned company’s base in Mojave, Calif., on Aug. 24.
The Pentagon’s new procurement chief says improving the relationship with aerospace contractors and shoring up program management are among his top priorities.
I read with interest this comment in a recent A European Perspective column concerning the Air France 447 accident (AW&ST Aug. 17, p. 37): “The end result, right or wrong, is to make decisions based on doubts and assumptions, not facts.” That sounds like what some are doing in their condemnation of the pitot tubes and their potential contribution to the accident. I’ve always wondered why aircraft manufacturers and aircrews, especially those that have flown aircraft equipped with angle-of-attack displays, have not clamored for aircraft with that feature.
Columnist Pierre Sparaco’s plea regarding replacements for pitot tubes is not so much science as psychology. Test pilots tuft wings in order to see the breakdown of the boundary layer flow on top of a wing, and undoubtedly there are many other existing technologies for monitoring boundary layer flow. Such a device corrects for ice and rain in ways that Angle of Attack indicators cannot.
NASA is putting the finishing touches on plans for its first new aeronautics research program in almost a decade knowing that any shift away from human spaceflight will increase the pressure to produce results aircraft manufacturers and operators can use.
Japan’s unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle is in final preparations for liftoff from Tanegashima Space Center on its first cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station on Sept. 11 local time, having passed its NASA flight readiness review. Late last month, the encapsulated vehicle was transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Tanegashima in southern Japan, where it was mated to the second stage of its H-IIB rocket and had the final elements of its pressurized cargo installed.
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has recognized a business aircraft operations standard issued by the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) as an official standard for bizav operations in Europe. The move will enable the standard, known as the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) to be used as an acceptable implementation basis for EASA’s bizav new operating rules, now in development.
Private contractors currently make up 57% of the Pentagon’s total force in Afghanistan, according to an August report by the Congressional Research Service—and more could be on their way. The new head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has recently floated the idea of bringing home as many as 14,000 U.S. military support personnel in favor of sending in the same number of combat troops into theater. In turn, most support duties in Afghanistan, including base security, would fall to private contractors.
Germany has begun the first foreign operational deployment of its Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft with the type deployed for the Baltic air policing task at the start of September. The German air force took over from the Czech air force to fulfil the NATO mission to provide air policing for the Baltic states. The German deployment at Siauliai air base in Lithuania will be split between the Eurofighter and the F-4F The NATO commitment has now been extended at least until the end of 2014, with the Baltic states hoping this will extend at 2018, if not beyond.
Starting today with a clean sheet of paper—amid irregular wars and an increasingly global economy—the U.S. likely would craft export controls quite different from those in place. Forged in an era of superpower confrontation, today’s controls jealously guard U.S. technology and keep allies at arm’s length, while putting U.S. manufacturers in a competitive straitjacket.
Northrop Grumman and Boeing are being considered for work on the U.S. Air Force’s $950-million MC-12W Project Liberty program to modify 37 Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350 and 350ERs with full-motion video and signal intelligence payloads. L-3 Communications is modifying the aircraft at its facilities in Waco and Greenville, Tex., and ATK is providing additional capacity. To expedite dispatch to the field, senior Air Force officials are considering a fourth modification site. Six MC-12Ws are in Iraq and one is being used for training in Mississippi.
Mitre and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are very different companies, but they share one important attribute. Both are providing the workplace challenges, flexibility, diversity and career opportunities that aerospace and defense employees say are most important when looking at career options.
Philippe Bruggisser has been named CEO and Scott Plumb chief commercial officer of London-based VistaJet . Bruggisser was vice chairman of Miami-based Centurion Cargo and chief operating officer of Swissair. Plumb was vice president-North American sales for Gulfstream Aerospace. John W. Boo has become a non-executive director. He is CEO of Comprendium. Honors and Elections
