The pilot profession has lost an enormous amount of compensation as well as dignity since 9/11. The airline leaders have used the supply/demand argument—and the experience level—to cut wages to the lowest denominator. We have pilots with less than six months’ cockpit experience flying America’s unsuspecting passengers under the disguise of major airlines’ banners. When is this issue going to be addressed?
M7 Aerospace is teaming with San Antonio Aircraft Support (SAAS) to offer a major modification service dedicated to providing custom interiors and avionics work for business jets, regional airline aircraft and turbine helicopters. Plans call for SAAS to design and fabricate interiors; M7 Aerospace is to perform the installations. In addition, M7 will offer avionics systems upgrades replacing analog systems with glass panel equipment. The team will be headquartered in M7’s 426,000-sq.-ft.
The Pentagon is conducting an expedited recertification process for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite system, after it reported a cost overrun to Congress earlier this year. The overrun was largely due to the addition of a fourth satellite to the purchase after a break in production. Recertification for AEHF should be finished in mid-October, says Gary Payton, deputy Air Force undersecretary for space. Launch of AEHF 1 is now set for no later than November 2009.
NASA is pushing ahead with early procurement actions on the heavy-lift rocket it needs to go to the Moon and a lander for crew and cargo once it gets there, but a decision to keep flying the space shuttle beyond 2010 could stall those plans.
The British Defense Ministry is considering funding an electro-optical reconnaissance satellite capability, with an initial operation as early as 2010. The prospect is part of Planning Round 09, which would see the ministry fund the deployment of a constellation of four electro-optical satellites to provide full-color imagery at a resolution of 1.2 meters (4 ft.). Submetric resolution would be provided with the last two of the four-satellite constellation.
Errant testing of parts used for government launch vehicles is slowing a handful of future space launches. Officials learned this summer that a vendor used by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), which markets and delivers Boeing’s Delta IV launch vehicles and Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V design, conducted vibration testing for parts with improperly calibrated equipment. ULA did not identify the vendor. The Air Force is conducting a “pedigree study” to retest parts that “we thought had been tested to adequate levels but may not be,” Payton says.
Qatar Airways Cargo has added Zaragoza in Spain to its network. The route will be served once weekly using an Airbus A300-600 freighter. The return flight to Doha will stop at Dubai, giving the carrier three connections with that city. Plans call for adding three Boeing 777 freighters to the existing fleet of three A300-600s next year.
Lockheed Martin has awarded Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica a contract worth more than $15 million to prepare tooling for series production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. According to the current plans, Alenia could end up producing more than 1,200 wings from 2009-33.
Research to enable high-power weapons based on fiber lasers will be conducted by Northrop Grumman and OFS Laboratories under U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) contracts. The Revolution in Fiber Lasers Program aims to scale the amplifier technology from today’s 200-watt power level to more than 1 kw. initially and 3 kw. ultimately, with a high-beam quality so they can be coherently combined to enable multi-kilowatt weapons. Fiber lasers are more efficient than other types of solid-state laser, reducing the electrical power required.
Four British companies, including a U.K. affiliate of Lockheed Martin, are among 11 short-listed to negotiate six supply contracts for the main phase of the Galileo navigation satellite system.
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport has opened its new 850,000-sq.-ft. North Terminal featuring 26 gates that will serve as many as 14 million passengers annually. Built on the site of the Davey Terminal, which was demolished in 2005, the new facility replaces the aging Smith and Berry terminals and is designed in a linear configuration that creates a faster, more efficient path for taxiing airplanes, according to airport officials.
Oct. 7-11Defendory International 2008: 15th Specialized Exhibition of Conventional Systems for National Defense. Hellenikon Exhibition Center (former Athens Airport). See www.defendoryinternational.gr Oct. 9-10Technology Training Corp.’s Defense Export Conference. Hilton Arlington (Va.) & Towers. Call +1 (310) 563-1223, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com Oct. 13-16—Fatigue Concepts’ Short Course: “Fatigue, Fracture Mechanics and Damage Tolerance.” Calgary (Alberta) Airport. See www.fatcon.com/calg
The Air Force is disciplining 15 officers—six generals and nine colonels—for their part in the mismanagement of nuclear weapons components. Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says the actions are “administrative in nature, but carry significant consequences.” Although stemming primarily from the mistaken shipment of nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan, Donley says the action is in response to other issues over the past few years as well.
German weapons developers are trying to leverage a successful flight-test campaign with their latest precision-guided munition to drum up export interest at a time when their domestic market outlook is bleak. Diehl and the German defense ministry’s armaments agency, the BWB, this month completed flight trials of the Hope standoff penetrator glide bomb. The weapon precisely hit its target, says an industry official, although exact details on the standoff range and impact accuracy are being closely guarded.
Luiz Carlos Siqueira Aguiar has been appointed executive vice president-finance/chief financial officer and Emilio Kazunoli Matsuo executive vice president-technology of Brazil-based Embraer . Aguiar has been executive vice president-defense and government marlets, and succeeds Antonio Luiz Pizarro Manso, who is retiring. Aguiar will be followed by Orlando Jose Ferreira Neto, who has been managing director for Embraer Asia Pacific. Matsuo was senior vice president-technology and succeeds Satoshi Yokota, who also is retiring.
New York Air National Guard has begun operating a ski-equipped LC-130H Hercules with new Hamilton Sundstrand NP2000 propellers, the first of 12 to be retrofitted. Flight tests of the eight-blade composite propellers were conducted earlier this year on a Wyoming ANG C-130, demonstrating increased performance and reduced noise, vibration and fuel consumption. The LC-130 is scheduled to fly in November to Antarctica, where the new propellers are expected to eliminate the need to use JATO rockets for takeoff from ice- and snow-covered runways.
The FAA has issued an airworthiness directive calling for inspections of the aft left and right engine mount support fittings on Boeing MD-90-30 jets after the agency received reports that a number of airplanes had loose, cracked or missing fasteners. The jets had accumulated between 18,767 and 25,400 flight hours and 15,841-27,000 flight cycles. The FAA says the faulty condition could lead to separation of the fittings from the pylon, possibly resulting in separation of the engine from the airframe. Inspections must be accomplished within 703 flight cycles after Sept.
Officials at United Arab Emirates airline Etihad say the carrier is on track to carry about 6 million passengers in 2008 and already has flown 4 million people this year. In addition, the airline projects it will fly 25 million passengers to 100 destinations by 2020—double the current number. It also aims to expand its workforce to 27,000 during the next 12 years from the current 6,600 employees. The carrier, which placed an order for 100 Boeing and Airbus jets in July, is “an economic and tourism powerhouse,” says James Hogan, chief executive officer.
Airbus is about to start flight trials on two potential upgrades for its A320 family, both promising to deliver significant fuel-efficiency improvements.
At 50, NASA is embarking on a bold new effort to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars, dropping the space shuttle for an “Apollo-on-steroids” approach that applies the latest technology to a modular architecture reminiscent of the agency’s first lunar expeditions. But in an election year, with a war on and the economy in turmoil, all bets are off for now. Regardless of who is elected to the White House and Congress, Administrator Michael Griffin believes NASA has gone too far down the path outlined in President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration to turn back.
On Sept. 23, the FAA accepted a plan from Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines to transition to a single operating certificate as well as a plan for interim operations. According to Delta, the carriers want to make the transition during the next 15-18 months. Pilot groups met Sept. 21 to discuss combining Master Executive Councils (MEC) of both airlines—a move that would create the largest MEC in the Air Line Pilots Assn. The merged company would be called Delta, headquartered in Atlanta. A stockholders meeting to approve the merger was scheduled for Sept. 25.
Masayuki Kubo is in an enviable position for a Japanese aircraft engineer—and an unenviable one. He has been lucky enough to be chosen as Kawasaki’s chief designer in the program that has broken a three-decade drought in the development of large Japanese aircraft. But he has been perhaps too lucky, because the program made him responsible for developing not one but two large aircraft. Neither he nor his team had done even one before. Moreover, they had to develop both the XP-1 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and the C-X airlifter at the same time.
Andy Nativi (AFB Ysterplaat, South Africa), Douglas Barrie (London)
As Denel prepares for air-launched test shots of its A-Darter dogfight missile within the next few months, it is also considering the design as the basis of an active, radar-guided, medium-range air-to-air missile. Under the Raster program, the company’s Dynamics business is working on a sensor for both air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles based on an active radar seeker. The Raster program builds on technology developed and acquired through the R-Darter project, which was in effect a joint effort with Rafael of Israel, where the missile is known as Derby.
British Columbia-based Viking Air has rolled out its DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 technology demonstrator, with first flight planned for the end of October. The upgraded 19-seat utility twin-turboprop has a new Honeywell Apex glass cockpit with four liquid-crystal displays plus airframe and other improvements. The demonstrator will be used to complete certification, with customer deliveries planned to begin next summer.
The new Terminal 3 at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, scheduled to open in March 2010, will be the first facility in India to feature aerobridges in anticipation of Airbus A380 service. The terminal will have 78 of the aerobridges with six sets at two levels. In addition, the A380s will operate from Runway 11-29, which was completed six months ahead of schedule, is more than 240 ft. wide and among the longest in Asia at 14,500 ft. Airport officials say it is equipped at both ends with an instrument landing system approved for Category-3B flight operations.
