More than four weeks after the 11th-hour cancellation of the maiden flight of the 787, Boeing’s leaders are not providing basic details about how the problem of a failed wing test will be corrected and when the new jet will fly.
Lockheed Martin nabbed the second of two $10-million awards for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile program. The project is designed to field a weapon for the U.S. Navy as soon as possible. The first award went to Lockheed’s missile facility in Orlando, Fla., with the second for its Grand Prairie, Tex., location. The initial, nine-month contracts will support preliminary design and risk reduction. Another, 27-month phase could follow for refinement of missile design and flight tests. Procurements could begin in Fiscal 2010.
Prof. Claudio Bruno University of Rome (Rome, Italy)
I have been in aerospace since 1968 as a graduate student at Princeton University and now I am teaching aerospace subjects in Rome. Better education and training, early selection of bright young people, inspiration and so on are all well and good, but the salaries of aerospace engineers do not compare to those in other professions, and their careers are subject to the vagaries of industrial politics, with the inevitable program cancellations, layoffs, etc.
Former Cessna Aircraft Co. Chairman and CEO Russ Meyer has been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame . Other 2009 inductees are astronauts Eileen Collins and the late Edward White as well as the late actor Jimmy Stewart.
A Russian submarine-fired Volna rocket is due to launch the European Space Agency’s Experimental Reentry Testbed (Expert) next year, under an €18-million ($25-million) full-scale development contract with Thales Alenia Space for the atmospheric reentry demonstrator. Intended to study critical reentry aerothermodynamic phenomena, the reduced-scale capsule-shaped vehicle will be released from an altitude of 100 km. (62 mi.) and perform a suborbital ballistic reentry at an entry speed of 5 km./sec.
Switzerland is proceding to fit its F/A-18Cs with Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared pod. The Pentagon has awarded Raytheon a $41-million contract to purchase 14 of the pods for the Swiss government. Switzerland last year acquired one pod as part of a $51-million contract the U.S. Navy placed with Raytheon to also buy 18 targeting pods to be used on Australia’s F/A-18Fs. Delivery of the Swiss systems is to be completed by early 2011.
U.S. air traffic controllers are meeting new requirements for reporting operational errors, for example, when proper aircraft separation is not maintained. Effective last week, a controller’s identity will be known only at the facility where the event took place and omitted in error reports sent to FAA headquarters. The controller would face disciplinary action and retraining only when necessary. The new procedure allows the FAA to move away from its blame-and-punishment culture and focus on identifying and remedying safety issues.
Regarding your pilot report on the TBM850 (AW&ST June 15, p. 138), it is a fine plane and the order book reflects that. However, to compare it with the Cessna Citation Mustang or Embraer Phenom 100 very light jets is misleading. They offer twin-engine redundancy, Fadec engine controls and 10,000-ft.-higher cruise capability. The price differential is not great. People buy multi-engine airplanes for a reason. The risk of engine or systems failure with the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A is low, but must be considered.
MTN Satellite Services, a global VSAT network operated by SeaMobile, has concluded a multiyear capacity deal with SES Americom-New Skies to provide mobile broadband, broadcasting and phone service to commercial and military vessels operating in the Indian Ocean. The capacity, equivalent to one and a half transponders, will be provided by NSS-12, an 88-transponder Ku-band spacecraft to be launched to 57 deg. E. Long. this fall.
The Japanese government has its worries—North Korean ballistic missiles, advanced Chinese fighters and cruise missiles, as well as disputed islands and a dearth of bases and modern aircraft to protect them. These problems are coupled with a military force structure that cannot expand and a defense budget that is unlikely to grow.
Boeing has been tapped by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to build a spin mechanism that will allow the Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) observatory’s key instrument—a radiometric and high resolution radar—to rotate smoothly and continuously (AW&ST June 15, p. 145). The instrument will measure surface soil moisture and the freeze/thaw cycle to benefit scientists studying regional and global water cycles in order to understand the processes involved in water, energy and carbon cycles. A launch date is expected to be set in 2010-13.
With overhead cranes lifting fore and aft fuselages into place, the first 747-8 Freighter, RC501, went from a pair of bare wings last week to a joined airframe in the Building 40-22 assembly bay in Everett, Wash.
In the article “Nearing Burnout” (AW&ST June 29, p. 35), I see that the Defense Dept. is still concerned about inadequate investment in the solid rocket motor (SRM) industrial base. A report to Congress warns that the SRM industry is in jeopardy of losing its capability to design and produce new-generation motors. Some call the SRM industrial base a “national strategic asset.” The White House and Congress can throw billions of dollars at an unprofitable, uncompetitive U.S. auto industry that is not a strategic asset. But the SRM industry is barely breathing.
Two of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s new Boeing KC-767 aerial refuelers fly in formation over the U.S. just prior to delivery. The JASDF also operates a new squadron of E-767 AWACS aircraft. Both are part of the foundation of an expeditionary force that can defend outlying Japanese islands against occupation, the mainland against cruise missile attack, or participate in international activities such as anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean or humanitarian relief.
Release of the NASA review panel’s report on the launch failure of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission does not move the agency any closer to deciding how to replace the mission, but a decision is expected by early fall.
Ryanair has decided to redeploy 16 London Stansted-based Boeing 737-800s to other locations during the coming winter season, leaving 24 aircraft at the facility. The reason for the shift? The airline is citing Stansted’s high airport charges and Britain’s air passenger duty tax on tickets, which is due to increase in November. The move represents a 40% reduction in capacity, or 670 flights. Ten routes will be canceled and 30 more will see frequencies reduced.
Sweden’s airport and air traffic control service LFV and SAS Scandinavian Airlines last week conducted a test of low-power continuous descents into 12 airports across the nation as part of an effort to save fuel and reduce noise and emissions. The “green” approach, implemented on a small scale at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, reduces carbon dioxide emissions for each descent by at least 150 kg. (330 lb.), according to the airline and LFV. The technique has been developed and refined since 2006.
Larry Dufraimont, who is director of flight test and flight operations at the Bombardier Test Flight Center, Wichita, Kan., has received the Trans-Canada Trophy from the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute . He was honored for achievements in air operations.
Raytheon officials say a round of recently completed captive carriage flight tests prove its trimode seeker design is mature enough for entry into the Small Diameter Bomb II completion. The U.S. Air Force is expected to release a formal request for proposals by the end of July. Captive carriage tests for 2.5 weeks in late spring included those of a seeker unit mounted on a UH-1 helicopter. Raytheon is expected to compete with a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team to develop the 250-lb.-class weapon capable of striking moving targets through bad weather.
South Korea has requested the potential $1-billion purchase of eight Sikorsky MH-60S helicopters equipped for airborne mine countermeasures missions. The South Korean navy also had been evaluating the AgustaWestland AW101. The MH-60s would be equipped with acoustic, magnetic and laser mine-detection sensors, a mine neutralization system and a 30mm. gun that fires supercavitating projectiles.
A six-man crew has completed a 105-day ground simulation intended to show the ability of astronauts to undergo the long confinement and heavy scientific workload that will be required during a manned mission to Mars. The simulation, at a specially designed isolation facility in Moscow, began on Mar. 31 and included four Russian cosmonauts and astronauts from France and Germany. It was intended as a precursor to a full 520-day mission simulation to start in early 2010 under ESA’s Mars 500 program.
The Airport Surface Detection Equipment-Model X advanced ground radar system is helping controllers to improve runway safety at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), a Continental Airlines hub. The system, which was commissioned this month, shows controllers the location of aircraft and vehicles on runways and taxiways.
The FAA is seeking comments on a potential rule that would require development of a Safety Management Systems (SMS) by providers of aviation products and services under Parts 21, 119, 121, 125, 135, 141, 142 and 145. The FAA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking does not propose specific regulatory changes. Rather, the FAA aims to establish a rulemaking committee that would assess public comments on the proposal and make recommendations for a possible SMS rule. The FAA is accepting comments on Docket No. 2009-0671 on or before Oct. 21.
After two decades of service that have seen it image the equivalent of the Earth’s total surface 46 times, Europe’s Spot 2 is headed for retirement. The spacecraft, launched in 1990, will be removed from its low-Earth trajectory on July 30 and left in a harmless orbit from which it will reenter the atmosphere 25 years hence. Spot Image, which operates the satellite, can still call on Spot 4 and 5 until Spot 6 and 7 are deployed in 2012-14.
