Evergreen International Aviation demonstrated its Boeing 747 water bomber in Europe last week as part of a campaign to sell the new firefighting aircraft worldwide. The modified 747 was presented at Chateauroux Airport, 150 mi. south of Paris, by London-based Air Charter Service.
ExxonMobil has launched a $600-million program to research and develop biofuels, including jet fuel, from photosynthetic algae. The oil giant has formed an alliance with biotech company Synthetic Genomic to develop the capability for large-scale production of biofuel.
The British armed forces once again face a decade-long wait for a new medium helicopter following the government’s decision not to bring forward the requirement, despite its being an option flagged initially by at least one government minister.
The NTSB, in seeking the cause of a July 13 Southwest Airlines inflight depressurization, is looking at an area of fuselage skin not previously suspected as being vulnerable to fatigue cracking.
U.S. Air Force and Defense Dept. personnel, as well as industry representatives, will be briefed on the Air Force’s long-term unmanned aircraft systems road map, the UAS Flight Plan, on July 28-30. Approved by Air Force leadership last month, the Flight Plan outlines a vision to 2047 for integration of unmanned aircraft across all the service’s operations, identifying unmanned alternatives for some manned missions.
Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin were all recipients of $30-million contracts for the first phase of a system design and prototype of the Space Fence system. The initiative is intended to provide the U.S. Air Force with enhanced space surveillance capability to detect and report space objects. The multiphase acquisition will eventually lead to up to three globally positioned S-band radars capable of interoperation with the Space Surveillance Network.
Beijing will get four daily services to Tokyo’s downtown airport, Haneda, starting Oct. 25. The flights, to be shared equally between Chinese and Japanese carriers, follow an 2007 agreement under which services are flown between Haneda and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport.
NASA could still kill its Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover if cost growth in the troubled program continues, science chief Ed Weiler tells the NASA Advisory Committee. Weiler will run his own “personal” milestone review in September, he tells the committee, focusing on actuators and avionics with a small group that will include the directors of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center. An agency review of the project is scheduled for November.
Investigators have begun the hunt for solid clues to the cause of a Caspian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M accident on July 15, only 16 min. after takeoff from Tehran-Imam Khomeini International Airport. Flight 7908 crashed in a field near Qazvin, Iran, and all 15 crew and 153 passengers on board were killed in Iran’s fourth accident involving that aircraft type since 2002.
Australia expects to take delivery in November of the first two of six Boeing Wedgetails it has ordered, but the 737-based airborne warning and control aircraft will not have full operational capability at first.
Larry Kellner plans to leave Continental Airlines at the end of 2009 after five years as chairman and CEO, and 14 years with the U.S. carrier. He will be succeeded by Jeff Smisek, the airline’s president and chief operating officer. Kellner, 50, is leaving to take the helm of Emerald Creek Group, a new Houston-based private investment firm.
Sikorsky Global Helicopters has delivered an S-300C to UND Aerospace at the University of North Dakota. Sikorsky aircraft have been a part of the curriculum since 1983 and this new addition brings the school’s fleet to seven. Three more S-300Cs are on order for this year. There are 800 students enrolled in fixed-wing and helicopter training at UND, and Assistant Dean of Student Services Ken Polovitz says the helicopter program is garnering even more interest, with many enrollees eyeing the helo industry as a full-time career.
During the past 10 years, funding for unmanned aerial vehicles in the U.S. alone has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 29%, according to financial analysts at Macquarie Capital. The Wall Street advisers expect global UAV funding to continue to grow to about $10 billion within a decade from $4.5 billion per year now. “The low cost of these platforms has driven this demand and subsequently it tends to be the ‘cheaper’ midsize and smaller UAVs that are targeted for international procurement,” the analysts told clients recently.
An industry team developing ways to deliver GPS augmentation signals through the Iridium low-Earth-orbit communications satellite constellation has passed two significant milestones on the way to a system-level demonstration later this year. Iridium and Boeing Phantom Works’ Advanced Network and Space Systems have completed software modifications for the Iridium satellites that will allow them to broadcast GPS-augmentation signals. The team also has demonstrated GPS signal acquisition from a move vehicle under “substantial” jamming conditions. Managed by the U.S.
Beijing-based Air China has become Boeing’s first customer and its biggest by far for 737 operators for the company’s Airplane Health Management (AHM) system. The carrier has agreed to cover 117 737s that it already has in service or on order. AHM is a software-based inflight monitoring system that uses Acars (aircraft communications and reporting system) or other such systems to provide ground controllers with real-time information about system performance. That way, mechanics can make preparations for repairs before the aircraft lands.
R . Bradley Lawrence has been appointed president/chief operating officer of the Esterline Corp. , Bellevue, Wash. He succeeds Robert W. Cremin as president. Cremin continues as chairman/CEO. Lawrence was vice president of the company’s Interface Technologies Group.
Supersonic travel is far from the minds of manufacturers and operators in this economy, but European researchers believe an environmentally acceptable small supersonic aircraft is technically feasible and could be ready by 2020. Feasibility is not enough, however, as regulators have yet to be persuaded to rewrite the rules and allow supersonic flight over land, a change of heart most researchers believe can only be achieved by flying a low-boom demonstrator.
Douglas Barrie (London), Robert Wall (Paris), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
London is lining up to approve launch aid for the Airbus A350XWB in the next couple of weeks, though the amount will likely be well below the U.K. industry original target.
NASA is funding the development of a turbulence/severe weather detection system for use in remote ocean regions. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at Boulder, Colo., and University of Wisconsin will design the system using satellite data and computer weather models with artificial intelligence techniques. Some of the worst turbulence occurs over oceans and is a key cause of injuries in commercial aviation.
FAA, in its quest to hire 15,000 controllers in the next decade, has opened recruitment to the general public. The agency is accepting applications for entry-level controller positions through July 17. For details on qualifications and how to apply for the Air Traffic Control Specialist trainee position, go to www.faa.gov “news and updates”
