Boeing has delivered its first Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition kits to USAF. The precision laser guidance sets are to fill an urgent USAF and Navy requirement for engagement of fast-moving (up to 70 mph.) land targets. The initial $28-million contract adds 600 laser seekers for 500-lb. bombs.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will test a modified RL10 engine aimed at improving combustion stability at low thrust settings as part of a NASA contract supporting future lunar lander technology.
Boeing’s recent troubles are more cultural than technical. In 2000, I joined a project group subcontracted to Boeing to develop ground control software for the GPS Block IIF satellite series. As a systems engineer, I was assigned to develop requirements for a segment of the ground system. I found gaps and problems in Boeing’s A-level requirements and schedules that impacted my work.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
A worldwide drive is underway to recruit astronauts for the post-shuttle world of long-duration missions to the International Space Station and, perhaps, the first flights to the Moon. The European Space Agency will start an astronaut-recruiting drive next month, and NASA already has one underway. The remaining ISS partners also are said to be planning or considering searches for new spacefarers.
The Society of British Aerospace Companies is cautioning that there remain “significant” challenges to developing an environmentally less damaging fuel to aviation kerosene. Its latest briefing paper “Alternative Aviation Fuels” examines both the drivers for and hurdles facing development.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to buy and deploy an additional 580 advanced technology X-ray machines for airport security checkpoints. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley tells the House Homeland Security transportation and infrastructure subcommittee that the agency has already installed 250 of the multi-view X-ray machines, which give TSA screeners a clearer look at what’s in carry-on bags.
The first Sky Warrior unmanned surveillance and attack aircraft, the latest product from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, has made its first flight from the company’s flight facility at the El Mirage, Calif., airfield. The Sky Warrior block one is being built for the U.S. Army’s extended range/multipurpose unmanned air system program. The UAS is designed to provide surveillance, targeting and precision strike at the division level and below. Its weapons payload is to be twice that of the Predator A.
U.S. airlines are doing a respectable job of raising fares to compensate for higher fuel prices, but the efforts are still not good enough, says Edmund S. Greenslet, president of ESG Aviation Services. The rapid rise of fuel prices since October easily outran the short-term ability of the carriers to hike fares. The average yield per revenue passenger mile for all carriers except Southwest increased to more than 13.47 cents in November, from October’s 12.94 cents, and remained above 13 cents through February.
Russia’s second-largest international carrier, Transaero, is revamping its long-haul fleet this year, but it will curtail a much-delayed acquisition of the Tupolev Tu-214 and meet pressure to buy domestic aircraft through the Sukhoi Superjet regional aircraft instead. Transaero has on order 10 Tu-214 aircraft, a variant of the Tu-204. Delivery should have been completed in December 2007, but the airline has so far received just one aircraft.
David Dohnalek (see photos) has been appointed corporate treasurer of Chicago-based Boeing . He succeeds Paul Kinscherff, who has been named Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based president of Boeing Middle East. Dohnalek was vice president-financial planning and analysis.
Prof. Orval A. Mamer of McGill University writes that the composites in aircraft will face disposal problems similar to those of the Trabant, the East German auto that was also made of composites (AW&ST Mar. 24, p. 8). I believe Mamer is wrong. The issue with composites, especially the advanced epoxy and carbon fiber versions used in aerospace, is not whether they are recyclable, but if they can be reclaimed economically and with enough properties to create viable applications. Research indicates they can.
Diamond Aircraft has begun flight testing the third prototype D-Jet single-engine personal jet, which will be retrofitted later this year with the more powerful engine planned for production aircraft. Featuring several design refinements, aircraft No. 003 will be used initially for performance and handling-qualities flight testing, and then for further development of the avionics, autopilot, fuel and anti-ice systems.
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines may fly again, despite its suspension of flights and appointment of a liquidator on Apr. 9. The liquidator, accountancy firm KPMG, says it has been talking to a “comfortable number of really serious players,” local media report. KPMG has retained Oasis’s employees for the time being.
Raytheon continues to gather international customers for its ALR-67(v)3 digital radar warning receiver, which allows user aircraft to detect and identify more sophisticated threats across a wider swath of the electromagnetic spectrum. The most recent contract is a $85.5-million U.S. Navy agreement to upgrade Canada’s CF-18s and Switzerland’s F/A-18s. Other users include Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18s.
Much has been said and written in trying to divine how defense networks should be designed, linked and operated. But if the last few decades have proven anything, it is that real progress in an operational context is made from the bottom up. This is particularly striking when networking involves airborne systems that can extend the tactical reach of a forward-deployed expeditionary force well over the horizon. The following articles report on the pioneering work that continues with the U.S.
Apr. 28-29—Technology Training Corp.’s Military Energy and Fuels Conference. Holiday Inn Rosslyn, Arlington, Va. Also, May 1-2—Armed UAS Conference. Wynn Las Vegas. And, May 6-7—Conference on Defeating Improvised Explosive Devices. Holiday Inn, Alexandria, Va. Call +1 (310) 563-1223, fax +1 (310) 563-1220 or see www.ttcus.com
AMC 14 operator SES Americom and manufacturer Lockheed Martin won’t try to reposition the satellite in geostationary orbit under its own power, and have declared it a total loss. The spacecraft was left in an improper orbit after its International Launch Services Proton/Breeze M rocket malfunctioned on Mar. 15. Although an initial assessment of available options was encouraging, the companies said, more detailed examination determined a reasonable chance of success could not be assured.
NATO’s midterm E-3A AWACS upgrade is poised for full operational clearance, and both its trailblazing progress and emerging network-centric capabilities are being keenly watched by others in the early warning community.
The NTSB has determined pilot failure to execute a missed approach as the probable cause of the Feb. 18, 2007, runway overrun involving a Delta Connection Embraer 170 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Although “visual cues for the runway were not distinct and identifiable,” according to the NTSB, the pilots of Flight 6448, operated by Shuttle America Inc., proceeded with the landing on Runway 28 in snow conditions with 75 people on board.
Regulatory and political concerns continue to discourage transatlantic consolidation, as evidenced in Air France-KLM’s decision against investing in a combined Delta and Northwest.
In an effort to combat congestion in New York airspace, the U.S. Transportation Dept. unveiled plans on Apr. 16 to auction slots at LaGuardia Airport, and the airline industry is up in arms. The department is proposing two options, one that would plow the proceeds of auctions back into New York airspace improvements, and a second that would allow carriers to keep any money raised. The International Air Transport Assn. has called the proposal "an eBay approach."
Airlines reporting to AIR Inc. hired 3,167 pilots in the first quarter—424 more than during the same period in 2007. The Atlanta-based consultancy reports that the number of furloughed pilots dropped to 2,144 in March from 2,491 in February. While estimates vary, industry growth and pilot retirements could create a need for as many as 17,000 new pilots annually. In the next decade, China and India are expected to create the greatest demand: China is to require about 2,000 pilots per year and India, up to 900 per year, according to AIR.
