Air China tested night flight service into Lhasa, Tibet’s 13,136-ft.-high Gonggar Airport on June 27 with an Airbus A319 guided by a required navigation performance (RNP) procedure using GPS for position fixing. The RNP procedure was developed for Air China by Naverus of Kent, Wash., which is also developing RNP procedures for Southwest Airlines. New runway lighting at Gonggar airport will facilitate around-the-clock operations.
Prof. T. Nejat Veziroglu’s letter evoked a strong feeling of deja vu. In the mid-1950s, Pratt & Whitney’s FRDC division built and tested an engine designed to use hydrogen fuel. The engine had—relative to then-current Jet A-fueled powerplants—a shorter combustion section and a significantly smaller diameter turbine component. Many problems associated with hydrogen fuel, such as its ability to leak past state-of-the-art fuel system seals and a tendency to ignite in the presence of small static electricity discharges, made the program exciting.
An EADS Astrium-led team has been awarded a €278-million ($436-million) follow-on contract to operate the European portion of the International Space Station from 2008-10. The award, under a framework arrangement concluded in 2004, includes operation of European orbital facilities—notably the Columbus laboratory—along with training, mission preparation/control, logistics, maintenance, ground communications and payload engineering/supply.
Ralf Kladtke has become president/CEO of Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH. , Oberkochen, Germany. He succeeds Armin Breinig, who has left the company. Kladtke was vice president-security and defense in Germany for EADS.
Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is redesigning five electronic modules used in thousands of VHF/UHF radios operated by the U.S. Air Force for air traffic control. About 7,500 AN/GRT-21/-22 transmitters and AN/GRT-23/-24 receivers, many of which entered service in 1968, cannot be repaired due to lack of parts. GTRI is replacing the radio’s old dual-band power, intermediate frequency and mixer amplifiers, power supply and synthesizer units with commercial off-the-shelf components of the same size and function, and that are compatible with existing connectors.
NASA may test the Orion crew exploration vehicle’s navigation sensors and software on a space shuttle flight in 2009 or 2010, as the shuttle program works toward fleet retirement in September 2010. The Constellation Program’s Orion project office is defining a formal “Relative Navigation Sensor’s Development Test” to document the performance of Orion radar, software and laser ranging as the shuttle is engaged in proximity operations around the International Space Station.
Paul-Jerome Evette has become CEO of the EADS Test and Services unit of EADS Defense and Security in France. He succeeds Jean Bultel, who is retiring. Evette was CEO of APSYS, another EADS Defense and Security entity.
The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a $23-million follow-on contract to Flir Systems Inc. for a version of the company’s Talon stabilized multisensor electro-optical system. The sensors will be installed on HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters for use in the service’s expanded homeland security mission, along with drug interdiction and search and rescue. The company will install the equipment at its North Billerica, Mass., facility.
Even the Government Accountability Office is subject to outside evaluation processes, as the GAO recently rediscovered. But any government program office, smarting from recent GAO scrutiny and hoping for sweet revenge, will be disappointed to learn that two recent independent peer reviews resulted in high marks for the GAO’s methodology and validated the agency’s evaluation procedures. An international team of government auditors from Australia, the Netherlands and the U.K.—led by the office of the Auditor General of Canada—examined the GAO’s performance audits.
Catherine H. Blades (see photo) has been named vice president-communications and public affairs at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems , El Segundo, Calif. She was director of marketing and international communications for the Lockheed Martin Corp.’s aeronautics business.
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is bracing for the impact of planned cutbacks by American Airlines. American and American Eagle will reduce daily flights to 116 from 146 by year-end. In 2007, Lambert recorded a 1.5% increase in St. Louis boarding passengers to 7.7 million, the third straight year of passenger growth. Lambert had lost traffic in the wake of American’s 2001 acquisition of Trans World Airlines, which operated a primary hub at St. Louis, and the 9/11 cutbacks.
Innovation Solutions & Support of Exton, Pa., aims to build on its flat-panel cockpit retrofit program for Pilatus PC-12 aircraft by offering a system that can be installed on just the pilot’s side of the panel at about half the cost. IS&S has already retrofitted 30 PC-12s with full flat-panel systems, including either one 15-in. liquid crystal display for the left side of the panel and one for the right side, or two side-by-side 10.4-in. LCDs on each side of the cockpit.
Robert Binns (see photo) has been appointed CEO and Charles McDonald (see photo) as president of Global Aero Logistics Inc. , Peachtree City, Ga. Binns was executive vice president/chief commercial and planning officer, while McDonald had been executive vice president/chief airline officer. Jeff Sanborn has been promoted to chief marketing officer from vice president-market planning.
Richard Penshorn has become president/general manager, John Hartzler chief operating officer and Lloyd Landburg chief inspector for the King Aerospace Commercial Corp. , Ardmore, Okla.
The European Parliament this week is expected to approve a compromise that includes aviation in emissions trading, although airlines, some regulators and the green lobby are unhappy with the deal crafted late last month. The parliament is expected to pass the legislative proposal, with the European Council—the arm of European Union member states—likely to take the matter up in December. A European regulator says political pressure will ensure passage, even though some concerns persist.
United Airlines Capt. Rory Kay has been appointed executive air safety chairman of the Herndon, Va.-based Air Line Pilots Assn. Atlas Air Cargo Capt. Scott Schleiffer continues as vice chairman.
Despite the burst of the dot.com bubble, some entrepreneurs found a way to take off again. Literally, in the case of Ecliptic Enterprises Corp. Based in Pasadena, Calif., Ecliptic makes the RocketCam that provides real-time videos of rockets and space shuttle liftoffs and, increasingly, of satellite operations.
There’s a huge temptation to characterize the ill-fated $35-billion tanker procurement decision as a uniquely American soap opera. And now the high-profile drama has been given new life by the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recommendation to reopen the competition opposing the KC-30 and KC-767. The Air Force’s “significant errors,” according to the GAO, involve the procurement process but apparently don’t question the merits of the Northrop Grumman/EADS offering.
Austrian aerospace supplier Future Advanced Composite Components is facing massive economic challenges as it feels the effects of some oft-delayed Airbus and Boeing programs. FACC recently posted a net loss of €10 million ($15.8 million) on sales of €251 million for its fiscal year 2007-08, which ended in February. The loss came in spite of €70 million in additional revenues and compares to a profit of €15 million a year earlier. “The result is in no way pleasing,” CEO Walter Stephan told Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Congress has bought itself three more months to figure out a way to reauthorize the FAA. Both the House and Senate approved a fifth extension of the agency’s regulatory and fee-charging authority late last month. FAA authorization ran out last Oct. 1, and the latest extension was due to expire June 30. Sen.
