The U.S. Air Force plans to select a contractor to design a demonstration payload for the Self-Awareness Space Situational Awareness (Sassa) program late this year. Lockheed Martin, Orbital/Northrop Grumman and Boeing are all proposing options for the $30-million effort. The Sassa payload is intended to demonstrate the ability to build a standardized threat-warning system and communicate information about whether satellites are being “painted” with radio-frequency or laser energy to operators on the ground.
Virgin Atlantic and British Airways last week once again raised fuel surcharges. Long-haul charges for Virgin Upper Class passengers are rising to £107.50 ($212.22), an increase of £28.50. BA long-haul charges will increase by £30 to £109 per flight. Virgin has introduced variable charge increases depending on which class of travel a passenger uses.
Lockheed Martin’s first short takeoff and vertical landing F-35B could fly for the first time this week. Aircraft BF-1 completed hover pit tests of the propulsion system on May 25, and test pilot Graham Tomlinson subsequently flew the first F-35, aircraft AA-1, twice to familiarize himself with the aircraft. Taxi tests were planned for the weekend. The F-35B will initially fly in conventional takeoff and landing mode, with Stovl tests now expected to begin early in 2009.
DHL Express’s pending $1-billion-a-year contract with UPS to provide air lift, replacing ABX Air and AStar Air Cargo, corroborates the failure of parent Deutsche Post World Net’s past strategy in the Americas, and underscores the strengths of UPS and rival FedEx in this vital $30-billion-a-year express market.
Scientists on France’s Corot planet-finding mission are checking data that may be the first evidence of a rocky Earthlike planet around another star. Corot has identified two more exoplanets and an unknown celestial object, mission managers tell the International Astronomical Union. It also detected extremely faint signals of another exo-planet that appears to be 1.7 times the radius of the Earth. If confirmed, it would be the first rocky exoplanet to be found. Discovery of Earthlike planets is the primary focus of the Corot mission, which was launched in December 2006.
June 9-10—Technology Training Corp.’s Cyber Security Conference. Hilton Arlington, Va. Also, June 25-26—Unmanned Aircraft System Payloads Conference. Westin Alexandria, Va. Call +1 (310) 563-1223, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com June 10-12—University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation/Air Line Pilots Assn. Aircraft Accident Investigation Course. Grand Forks. Call +1 (701) 777-4740 or see www.summer.und.edu
Getting to, from and across Africa could pose the most significant near-term logistics problem for U.S. Africa Command (Africom), says its deputy commander. “That’s probably the biggest need we anticipate in the years to come,” says Vice Adm. Robert Moeller. Created by President Bush in February 2007 to unify U.S. counterterrorism, military assistance and humanitarian aid functions in Africa, Africom is currently based at Kelly Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, and likely to remain there “for the foreseeable future,” says Moeller.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas R. Case (see photo) has become president/chief operating officer of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. He succeeds Dale K. Nash, who was promoted to CEO. Case was commander of the Alaskan Command/11th Air Force and Alaskan North American Defense Region at Elmendorf AFB and later dean of the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s College of Business and Public Policy.
Boeing and Alenia Aermacchi are teaming to offer the M-346 advanced and M-311 basic jet trainers. Key international opportunities include Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, where the M-346 is competing with the T-50 proposed by Lockheed Martin and Korean Aerospace Industries. Other potential markets for the M-346 are Qatar, Greece and Portugal, while the M-311 has sales potential in Saudi Arabia and Australia. Boeing will provide logistics and training for both airplanes.
Air navigation service provider Nav Canada is working with Park Air Systems Ltd. and SolaCom Technologies Inc. on a $50-million VHF radio system upgrade that will include 115 pairs of new radios being installed at Calgary Airport, the Toronto Area Control Center and the Toronto Air Traffic Control Tower at Lester B. Pearson International Airport. In all, 2,000 aging Garrett VHF radios will be replaced by modern digital equipment at 320 sites through 2016.
Don Stoops has become vice president-global operations for Colibrys Ltd. , Neuchatel, Switzerland, and executive vice president/general manager of Colibrys Inc.
Siberia Airlines, under a contract with Thales, plans to install two Airbus A320 full-flight simulators at its training center near Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport. One of the Level D simulators will be ready for operation in December, and the other by the fourth quarter of 2009. Siberia Airlines is the second Russian carrier to pass the International Air Transport Assn.’s Operational Safety Audit.
The U.S. Air Force plans to wrap up flight testing of its first active electronically-scanned array radar designed for ground surveillance for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle in the fall. Testing of the UAV is slated to finish next year.
The Maryland Aviation Administration, which oversees Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), has signed an agreement with tenant airlines to recover $25 million in uncollected fees. The airport authority discovered it had understated terminal rates per square foot and excluded operating expenses, capital projects and amortization charges, leading to a $57.2-million deficit. Southwest will pay $12.2 million; the authority is negotiating payment from other carriers.
The U.S. helicopter industry is doing well—military deliveries are growing, and there are commercial backlogs, too. But the industry is increasingly worried about its future, and particularly the lack of Pentagon R&D funding and absence of new programs. Now, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to perform a “capabilities-based assessment” (CBA) that will outline a joint approach to development of vertical-lift aircraft for all military services. This is something the Congressional Rotorcraft Caucus, led by Reps.
Hispasat will buy and operate the first of a new family of spacecraft intended to give the European satellite industry a foothold in the growing market for advanced small telecom satellites.
Airbus may be embracing an aggressive outsourcing strategy to reduce its exposure to a weak U.S. dollar, but now governments supporting the aircraft maker are signaling their concern that things may be going too far. The unusual public split between the company and the so-called Airbus ministers—the representatives of Germany, France, the U.K. and Spain—comes as discussions are starting to accelerate about the size and form of government aid that will be provided for the development of the A350XWB twin widebody.
A new study by Northrop Grumman Corp. concludes that “airborne electronic jammer aircraft are more effective and efficient when networked and enhanced by decision aids” than standalone jammers such as electronic attack aircraft. The study, conducted for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, focused on determining the effectiveness of networked jammers supported by specialized computer programs that recognize enemy radars, communications and other electronic activity.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh says an anti-trust immunity application with Oneworld partner American Airlines could be forthcoming “in light of the current regulatory environment.” Although Walsh has yet to guarantee the airlines will proceed with an immunity request, he notes that one of the major issues in two previously rejected anti-trust immunity applications—greater access to Heathrow for U.S. carriers—has been resolved with the opening of its home airport under the transatlantic open skies accord. The Justice Dept.
USAF Brig. Gen. C.D. Alston is one of 12 of his rank who have been nominated for promotion to major general. He is director of nuclear operations, plans and requirements/deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at the Pentagon. The others are: Brooks L. Bash, commander of the Coalition Air Force Transition Team of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq; Michael J. Basla, vice director for command, control, communications and computer (C4) systems for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon; Paul F. Capasso, director of C4 for U.S.
Japan will add its voice to the growing chorus of controllers who oversee the International Space Station in orbit during the upcoming mission of the space shuttle Discovery. Delivery of the main element of Japan’s Kibo laboratory module—the largest pressurized module planned for the station—will bring the new Japanese control center at Tsukuba City into the communications loop in earnest, as controllers there work with ISS crewmembers to outfit the lab and begin running experiments.
Randy Fank has been appointed manager of FBO operations for the J.A. Air Center , West Chicago, Ill. He was a director of the DuPage Flight Center, also in West Chicago.
The Royal Australian Air Force is in talks with the Pentagon about installing Northrop Grumman’s Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures electronic warfare system on its C-130Js. The foreign military sales package would cover 12 aircraft. The RAAF already operates the system on its C-17s.
