An airborne radar that can track individuals as they leave their vehicles to plant roadside bombs is being flight-tested by Northrop Grumman. Built in 18 months under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation Radar (Vader) program, the system includes an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar housed in a Hellfire missile-sized underwing pod, an electronics unit in the aircraft and the tactical control data link (TCDL).
For any large-scale emergency in Asia or the Pacific, Guam’s complex of military facilities would be the sally port for specialized fast-response forces such as Red Horse (civil engineering), Commando Warrior and Silver Flag schools (combat security and deployment training) and Combat Communications units.
Debi Cunningham has been named director of marketing of West Star Aviation Inc. , East Alton, Ill. She was modification sales manager for Garrett Aviation.
Eutelsat says power output on its W5 communications satellite has been stabilized following loss of a solar panel, but the spacecraft will have to operate with just 20 of its 24 Ku-band transponders. The fixed-satellite service operator says the four transponders had to be switched off following the glitch, which occurred June 16-17. Attempts to recover their use in collaboration with the satellite manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space, were not successful. Launched in 2002 to a position at 70.5 deg. E.
Obituary: Richard G. O’Lone, the longtime San Francisco bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology, who was known to readers for his graceful writing style and to his fellow journalists for his gentlemanly grace, died in Greenbrae, Calif., from complications following a bout with pneumonia. He was 76.
Boeing Capital Corp. is leasing three MD-11 Boeing Converted Freighters to Aeroflot Cargo. They will operate out of Aeroflot’s Frankfurt facility. Aeroflot Cargo already operates four DC-10 freighters and is committed to taking three more MD-11BCFs.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) still hopes to roll out its long-delayed Secure Flight computerized passenger screening system before the Bush administration leaves next January. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley says Secure Flight, which will match air passengers with data on their gender, date of birth and travel itinerary, will be “up and operating in some capacity” in January 2009.
Taiwanese and Chinese airlines could expand their nonstop charter passenger services and introduce nonstop freight flights as early as October. Under the latest proposals, routes also would be straightened by avoiding the need to fly through Hong Kong airspace, and extra flights would introduce new city pairs.
Capt. Bob Waltz, Southwest Airlines (Dripping Springs, Tex.)
I take exception to Col. (ret.) Michael Gallagher’s letter “More Economical Approaches May Be Near” (AW&ST July 7, p. 10), regarding Southwest Airlines’ so-called “shyness” about a “low-key” position of 1 mi. and 300 ft. on landing. First, commercial transport aircraft do not fly to any “key” position when landing (you’ll find no reference to “high key” or “low key” in any multi-engine transport flight manual).
Thousands of shoulder-fired missiles are still on the black market after a six-year effort by the U.S. to have surplus weapons destroyed and foreign stockpiles secured. Since the problem isn’t fully contained, the U.S. threat-reduction effort is continuing. Interest in reducing the availability of man-portable air defense systems (Manpads) reached new urgency following the attack on a Boeing 757-300 from Israel’s Arkia Airlines with 271 people on board in Mombasa, Kenya, on Nov. 28, 2002. Luckily, the two shoulder-launched weapons missed their target.
The U.S. Army is planning to demonstrate a 6,000-7,000-shp. turboshaft engine to power a growth version of, or replacement for, the Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The Future Affordable Turbine Engine (FATE) is the latest of the technology demonstrators planned under the multi-agency, multi-phase Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engines (Vaate) program.
Lockheed Martin and Aerojet report success in a demonstration of the High-Power Hall Current Thruster electric propulsion system to be used for orbital transfer and station keeping for the Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT). Hall thruster technology offers thousands of hours of operational life instead of the minutes that conventional chemical thrusters provide. TSAT’s technology is a higher power evolution of a system for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite fleet.
Guam is the only part of the U.S. that’s single-digit flying hours from all the potential hot spots in Eastern Asia and the Western Pacific. It is, in fact, home to the westernmost military facilities on U.S. territory. Andersen AFB, because of its size and range of specialized services, can sustain long-range, unmanned aircraft along with airlifter, tanker, fighter and bomber fleets.
A News Breaks item in the issue of July 7 (p. 26) was incomplete. In addition to ATK, L-3 Coleman Aerospace, Orbital Sciences Corp. and Space Vector also won the right to compete for as much as $250 million in launch services under the U.S. Air Force Sounding Rocket Program-3. The vehicle pictured with the item is Orbital’s Medium-Range Target (MRT) pathfinder vehicle, with an ATK Castor IV-B motor. The photo should have been credited to Orbital.
The article “New-Age Anti-Collision” (AW&ST July 14, p. 163) provides a good description of the “sense and avoid” challenges facing both the unmanned aircraft community and federal regulators charged with aviation safety and airspace management.
Launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the first robotic precursor mission under President Bush’s plan for moving human space exploration beyond Earth orbit, will be delayed until after he leaves office. Also on hold until February or early March 2009 is the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Lcross), a piggyback payload added by Ames Research Center. Launching in place of the NASA missions on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., will be a classified Defense Dept. spacecraft, sources say.
The seventh application of Blended Winglets—and the first for a wide-body airframe—is in flight testing by Aviation Partners Boeing on an American Airlines 767-300ER. Boeing has 10 airline customers and commitments for 130 shipsets. Certification is expected in November, with service entry in December. The winglets, which are 11 ft. tall, are manufactured by GKN Aerospace and were installed at American’s Kansas City, Mo., maintenance base using a modification kit from LMI Aerospace, Contour Aerospace and Honeywell Consumable Solutions.
Volvo Aero suffered a 7% drop in sales in the second quarter due to the weak dollar and weaker aftermarket business, although sales for commercial engine components were up. The engine company eked out a 0.2% operating margin, down from 5% the year before, in part because of heavy research and development outlays. Volvo Aero saw order bookings in component work grow by 12%. On a constant-dollar basis, the backlog actually grew 29%.
BOC Aviation will extend its use of Rockwell Collins avionics on 47 more Airbus A320s. The Singapore-based leasing company (owned by the Bank of China) raised $1 billion more last year to invest in new aircraft to lease to airlines, adding to the $6 billion worth of aircraft it already manages, said Managing Director and CEO Robert J. Martin at the Farnborough air show. BOC has 51 A320s on order; it began specifying Rockwell Collins navigation, communications and surveillance systems in 2002.
A report by the International Mars Architecture for the Return of Samples working group (iMARS) concludes that a mission to bring back soil and rock samples is scientifically justified and technically feasible, although several enabling technologies would have to be developed and delicate science-engineering trade-offs resolved before a program could be launched. The group, which includes members from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia, says the mission would require separate launches for a lander/rover/ascent vehicle and orbiter/return module.
Aerojet has conducted another test of the solid-fuel motor that will jettison the launch abort system (LAS) being developed for NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, generating more data for a full-up test of the abort system at the end of the year. NASA termed the test, which occurred July 17 at Aerojet facilities in Sacramento, Calif., a success. The first test of the motor was done in April, and one more is planned.
The U.S. Navy is reprogramming nearly $13 million in Fiscal 2008 to address threats posed by new capabilities in anti-ship missiles employed in the Pacific region. About $7 million will provide an active/passive sensor simulator that will help the Navy to develop countermeasures for new missiles that use both passive and active guidance seekers. Another $5.8 million is requested for this fiscal year to help develop the “high-power, broadband, millimeter-wave power amplifiers needed for countermeasures systems to defeat this emerging threat.”
The Assn. of Asia-Pacific Airlines reports its members carried just 1.4% more passengers in June (12 million) than in the same month a year ago. International revenue passenger kilometers grew by just 2.5% and rose 3.6% for the first half of 2008 compared to 2007. The average international load factor fell 1% to 77.3% as capacity growth picked up to 3.9%.
Mark Johnson has become CEO of Lufthansa Technik subsidiary AERO Alzey . He succeeds Peter Kamenz, who has left the company. Johnson was commercial manager of Lufthansa hub in Frankfurt.
