General Dynamics has finished satellite integration and environmental testing on its GeoEye-1 commercial remote-sensing spacecraft. It will include a sensor for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s NextView program, through which the government buys commercial high-resolution remote-sensing services. The $21-million satellite will be launched Aug. 22.
While it will be great if Sikorsky’s X2 concept proves successful, Arnie Reiner’s letter dinging the V-22 Osprey goes off track (AW&ST Mar. 24, p. 10; Mar. 3, p. 38). The V-22 went through almost four years of being a dead program, thanks to then-Defense Sceretary Dick Cheney. After restoration, it then saw eight years of inadequate R&D funding, as did so many other programs, so the major costs wouldn’t show up until after the 2000 election. Since then, its funding has to take into account the impact of the war on the budget.
NASA and the European Space Agency are rapidly developing a $3-billion outer planets flagship effort that could barnstorm the giant icebergs and subsurface oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, or deliver a low-altitude imaging airship and a miniature submarine to probe the methane lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan. Teams from the U.S. and Europe are to meet this week in Vienna to refine Titan/Saturn concepts; a similar definition meeting will be held in Rome Apr. 21-24 to weigh Jupiter/Europa concepts.
NATO has moved several key modernization programs past difficult hurdles, but decisions looming in the coming months will signal whether commitments made at the alliance’s summit will be lasting.
Arinc Inc. has completed an innovative installation of common-use self-service standard (CUSS) check-in kiosks for airline passengers at St. John’s International Airport in Newfoundland. Ten kiosks will be shared initially by Air Canada, Continental and WestJet Airlines. The installation marks the 12th successive deployment of the company’s common-use kiosk technology at a Canadian airport in the last five years. The systems now serve passengers in Canada from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
Airlines are taking a cautious approach toward new flying opportunities under the European Union-U.S. open skies agreement, as the economic outlook is becoming more difficult and concerns over regulatory moves persist.
Sonatest’s CT and CT-G DL (data-logging) ultrasonic thickness gauges take fast, precise wall and coating thickness measurements, according to the company. The models automatically measure and eliminate any coating from wall thickness measurements, allowing users to locate the minutest corrosion and pitting without removing the coating. Measurements are temperature-compensated and users can create and store 64 setups for common testing applications. The time-based B-Scan view enables a cross-section image. The high-speed scan function provides 50 readings per sec.
The FAA may partner with several aerospace companies and airlines to create a NextGen integrated testbed in Florida for a full-scale demonstration, but the airlines are interested in extending the effort to include the New York metropolitan area and Texas.
Boeing’s Air Traffic Management Group Believes funding is no longer in question for either of two key ATC modernization projects—NextGen in the U.S. and the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (Sesar) program in Europe. But the U.S. still has work to do on the organizational structure of NextGen if a systematic approach is going to be taken to usher the new system into existence. Sesar already has a much more well-defined organization to drive research and implementation. “The U.S.
South Korean-based rocket maker Challenge & Space (C&S) plans to make its Chase 10 methane/liquid oxygen-fueled rocket more marketable by developing an “Americanized” version with U.S.-supplied valves and other parts. The move is designed to counter State Dept. roadblocks currently slowing plans for using the motor to power the AirBoss Aerospace Proteus space tourism suborbital vehicle, as well as other potential projects.
Emirates is claiming to be the first airline in the world to enable passengers to use their own mobile phones during ongoing revenue service flights (rather than during a trial), and the airline aims to equip its entire fleet of 105 widebodies and all its A380s on order with the technology.
Alan Cullop has been named executive vice president/chief information officer of NetJets at its Woodbridge, N.J., headquarters. He was senior vice president. Matt Harris has added employee services to his role as Columbus, Ohio-based executive vice president-owner services.
Hopes of accelerating the introduction of next-generation air transportation system technologies are growing, with the FAA evaluating proposals for the start of a regional U.S. demonstration as early as 2009.
Ira P. Berman, who is senior vice president-administration and general counsel of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., is among the new corporate officers of General Dynamics , Falls Church, Va. The others are: Daniel G. Clare, senior vice president-finance and planning for Gulfstream Aerospace; Marion T. (Tom) Davis, senior vice president-strategic planning for General Dynamics; and S. Daniel Johnson, president of General Dynamics Information Technology.
A Wall Street analyst is turning to plane spotters to help him get a better handle on how Boeing’s troubled 787 jet production program is faring. UBS Investment Research analyst David E. Strauss has begun monitoring flights of Boeing’s Dreamlifters, the modified 747 freighters that haul major 787 structures into Everett, Wash., for final assembly. The aircraft transport the 787’s wings from Japan, center fuselages from Italy, aft fuselages from Charleston, S.C., and forward fuselages from Wichita, Kan.
Dominique Fourguette has been promoted to chief technology officer of the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Aerospace Corp. from senior scientist/business manager of its Los Angeles office.
MBDA has completed a series of test firings of the Milan ADT-ER anti-tank weapon system. The first firing validated the missile’s arming distance, with the warhead not detonating when a target was hit at 40 meters (131 ft.), the second test assured missile accuracy at the minimum range of 150 meters, with the last assessing moving target-engagement capability at the maximum range of 3,000 meters.
By mid-year, Kuwait Airways is looking for a quick boost in capacity, hoping to lease one wide-body and one narrowbody airplane under an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance deal. The aircraft would be operated on flights from Kuwait City International (KIA), with crew provided by the lessor and augmented by airline staff, mainly to assure onboard Arabic language capability. The airline says it’s open to either Boeing or Airbus types for both aircraft, and wants a mix of business-class and economy seating. The lease is planned to run through year-end.
Work in earnest on the first Chinese-assembled Airbus will start soon, with shipments of A320 sections to China for assembly just weeks away. It will then become clear whether the extensive preparations Airbus has undertaken to smoothly transition to assembly in Tianjin have been sufficient.
Diedra Fontaine has been appointed director of diversity and sales development for Continental Airlines . She was South Central U.S. director of sales.
Eurocontrol plans to develop a road map by the end of 2009 that outlines how unmanned aircraft will be integrated into the European air traffic management (ATM) system. The aim is to set the stage for military and civil unmanned aircraft to fly in civil airspace in Europe, something that rarely occurs now.
Douglas E. Abbey has been named senior vice president and Alan Sbarra vice president of the Seabury Group of New York. Abbey was managing partner of the Velocity Group and president of AvStat Associates Inc. Sbarra was a founder and principal of Roach and Sbarra Consulting.
The Martian moon Phobos, imaged in color for the first time by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), reveals distinctive red material like that on the Martian surface. This could mean that Mars material, blasted into space by meteorites, has collected on Phobos. It would be much easier for a sample return spacecraft to obtain specimens there, rather than descending through, and back out of, the Martian atmosphere. A Russian spacecraft is set for launch to Phobos in 2009 on a collection expedition.
Overall U.S. airline industry performance in 2007 hit rock-bottom—earning the worst-ever overall rating among airline consumers, according to the 2008 Airline Quality Rating Report released last week. The 18th annual ratings report was prepared by the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Aviation Institute and Wichita State University’s W. Frank Barton School of Business. Based on U.S. Transportation Dept.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has launched a new regional jet that will overcome the challenges of soaring oil prices and jet CO2 and NOx emissions. Too bad, they did not design an airframe with comfort of the passenger in mind.
