ATA Airlines, citing high fuel costs, will discontinue scheduled services at its Chicago Midway Airport hub effective Apr. 14, followed by a cessation of international flights June 7. Aircraft will be placed in charter service.
Amy Butler (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Washington)
Boeing is facing an uphill battle as it tries to overturn the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award a $35-billion contract to a competing Airbus design for the KC-X refueling tanker.
Orbiter: Endeavour (OV-105) will be making its 21st flight. It most recently returned from orbit on Aug. 21, 2007. Launch Date: Targeted for Mar. 11 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A for a 16-day mission, returning to KSC on Mar. 26.
MBDA has delivered the first series production batch of its advanced Milan ADT firing post to South Africa, along with upgraded Milan 3 multirole antitank missiles and a training simulator. The post, which features improved optics, an integrated thermal imager and a digitized localizer, is currently in troop trials in South Africa. The new firing system and missiles were developed under a Franco-German cooperative program.
London Heathrow Airport needs a third runway to increase capacity and maintain its competitive position as a European hub, says airports operator BAA in a report to the U.K. Transport Dept. A third runway could be built to maintain stringent environmental limits, adds BAA. Heathrow will reach its planning and operational cap of 480,000 flights in 2008, with runways already operating at 99% capacity, according to the report. “In contrast, Frankfurt has three runways (with a fourth due to open in 2011); Paris, four; Madrid, four; and Amsterdam, five.
The problem with fuel taxes (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 10) is they do nothing themselves to cut emissions. Taxes increase the costs of fuel and travel but do not reduce travel unless they are so exorbitant as to be politically unacceptable.
Israel’s defense ministry has selected Controp’s family of stabilized miniature electro-optical sensor payloads for its upcoming buy of several hundred small UAVs, company officials say. Because of the size of the purchase, they contend the payload’s price will drop well below $20,000 per unit. Variants selected for the military are the D-Stamp with CCD camera and 10X continuous optical zoom and the UDF-Stamp with day/night units using uncooled infrared thermal imagers. The UZ-Stamp is a 1.3-kg. (2.9-lb.) design with 15-60-mm. lens and 9.5-37-deg. field of view.
The Pentagon needs to make a decision on how to proceed with buying an EA-6B replacement in time to request funding its Fiscal 2010 budget submission or face more costly maintenance and upgrade bills for the Prowler electronic jammer fleet. One option not likely to gain traction is to build an EA-35, a Joint Strike Fighter-based electronic warfare variant. A Marine Corps official says it would “cost billions of dollars,” requiring a significant redesign including the addition of a backseat for an electronic warfare officer.
Japan’s contribution of a pair of big pressurized modules for the International Space Station in the next three months will also bring the first voices emanating from an Asian mission control center to join those already coming from the U.S., France, Germany and Russia.
Aircraft maker Avic 1 and China Eastern have gained unusual approval to start a regional carrier—Xingfu Airlines—from the Chinese cabinet, which granted an exception to a ban on new airline applications before 2010. The civil aviation administration, determined to maintain China’s safety record in the face of rapid airline growth, announced the ban last year. Xingfu will operate Avic 1 aircraft, initially MA60 turboprops, and later introduce ARJ21 regional jets. Plans are to include 50 of each aircraft type in the fleet.
The FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency are pressing ahead with plans to change the rules under which airlines can fly instrument approaches with enhanced vision systems (EVS). In the U.S., this initiative has the backing of Nick Sabatini, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, and he expects the rule change to happen this year. Currently, some business jets—such as those built by Gulfstream Aerospace that are equipped with EVS—are able to descend to 100 ft.
The last paragraph of your Feb. 25 editorial (p. 66) highlights a very important national security issue—ensuring our ability to create and use advanced military assets in space. This job has never been easy, and it has always been important. Success requires the efforts of some of the best and brightest in both government and industry. I trust you will continue to support the idea that it is important to recover our national competence in this challenging area. Apparently, many must be reminded that mission failures are never economical.
Three Taiwanese airlines have suspended four domestic routes as a result of competition from a high-speed rail line. Mandarin Airlines has canceled services between Taichung and Taitun; UNI Air, between Taipei and Kaohsiung; and bankrupt Far Eastern Air Transport has dropped its flights between Taipei and Tainan as well as Hualien and Kaohsiung. At the beginning of 2007, a fast-rail service running on the heavily populated western side of Taiwan was put into operation, connecting the main cities at each end of the island.
Casey Barr has become executive flight solutions representative for Business Jet Access of Dallas Love Field. He was owner services manager/information technology coordinator for JetDirect Aviation at Love Field.
General Electric plans to recertify the GEnx-1B for the delayed Boeing 787 next year, just as the company is poised to accept FAA certification of the baseline engine.
NATO missile defense developers claim rapid progress is being made as the Alliance prepares for its upcoming Summit in Bucharest where missile defense will be a central topic. A key Integrated Test Bed (ITB) under construction for NATO’s Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) program will conduct a milestone test with a French battle lab facility this month, featuring a simulated theater missile defense (TMD) scenario.
Embraer is in talks with the Argentine government about crafting an aviation cooperation plan. The deal could involve an agreement under which the Argentine market would open up to Embraer offerings, while Area Material Cordoba would in turn take on maintenance services and parts supply for the aircraft. The topic was discussed during a meeting last week between Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. No deal has been signed yet.
The Google X Prize has drawn its first 10 registered contestants for prizes totaling $30 million that will go to whoever lands a rover on the Moon by Dec. 31, 2012. The contest has drawn 567 expressions of interest from 53 nations, says X Prize Chairman and CEO Peter H. Diamandis. An offshoot of the Ansari X Prize for the first nongovernmental space flight, the Google competition offers a grand prize of $20 million for meeting the criteria of roaming at least 500 meters (1,640 ft.) on the lunar surface.
Damage to some ducting in the Stennis Space Center’s A1 test stand will delay the first full-duration hot-fire test of the powerpack for NASA’s new J-2X rocket engine until at least Mar. 9 while repairs are completed. The 36-sec. hot-fire test Feb. 15 was the first to run cryogenic propellant through the Saturn V-vintage powerpack. The old hardware will be used to begin gathering data for a beefed-up powerpack capable of handling the increased flows that will be needed to meet the new engine’s higher performance—294,000 lb. thrust and a specific impulse of 448 sec.
Regarding your Feb. 11 editorial (p. 58), I agree the Bush administration has displayed a petty level of leadership in its Fiscal 2009 budget submission. However, I cannot accept that this “saddles Congress with the decision. . . .” Admittedly, recent tradition holds that the executive branch has the “job” to submit a budget; this practical yet questionable practice seems to have started in the early 20th century. But the last time I looked, the Constitution gives Congress the purse, not the executive branch.
Airbus has set up an industrial consortium to manage end-of-life aircraft, building on its European Union funding-inspired aircraft recycling program, called Pamela (Process for Advanced Management of End-of-Life Aircraft). The joint venture, known as Tarmac Aerosave, comprises waste management company Sita; Airbus’s maintenance and parts unit, TASC Aviation; Snecma Services; Equip Aero; and Aeroconseil. Tarmac Aerosave will be able to store up to 22 aircraft and offer storage, maintenance and dismantling services. The venture is to start operations this year.
Dom Stasi, who is chief technology officer of TVN Entertainment, has been elected chairman of the New York-based Society of Satellite Professionals International . Other new officers are: president Richard P. Wolf, vice president-telecom and distribution within the ABC Broadcast Operations and Engineering Div.; treasurer, Steven Teller, president of IOT Systems; and vice president-chapters, Dick Tauber, vice president-transmission systems and new technology for the CNN News Group.
The Pentagon’s $7-billion Transformational Satellite program—designed to introduce Internet protocols into space-based communications and send massive data files quickly to ground commanders—is going to be delayed until about 2018, but its classified counterpart appears to be on schedule. The Enhanced Polar System, also known as the “Polar EHF” program, is moving forward, industry executives say. The extremely high frequency payloads would probably be hosted on a classified satellite in polar orbit with a different primary mission.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says there’s no reason Australia shouldn’t be trusted with operating the Lockheed Martin F-22, which Canberra wants to consider as an alternative to the F-35. U.S. law prohibits exports of the F-22, including to Japan, Gates notes, adding: “So I think it’s up to us to try and see if we can get this statute changed.”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and his likely successor, are endorsing all-encompassing plans for the country’s aerospace sector intended to re-establish its presence in the commercial market, and to bolster its military inventory. Putin, and his probable replacement—First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev—were briefed at the end of February by senior management from United Aircraft Corp. (UAC). That entity brings together the core of Russia’s aerospace manufacturers.
