France’s CNES space agency has made a high-energy astrophysics mission with China a priority for its near-term science program. The SVOM probe, intended to study gamma-ray bursts, is scheduled to be approved this autumn, along with the Simbol-X-Ray mission to be carried out with Italy and a spectrometer for the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe.
The Indian air force is interested in purchasing a further 40 BAE Systems Hawk jet trainers to complement the 66 it already has on order. BAE officials confirm that initial talks are underway about the acquisition of additional aircraft. BAE has almost completed its build element of the Indian order. The aircraft above is the 22nd of the 24 to be built by BAE’s Brough site in England. Ironically, although Brough has long been the manufacturing site for the Hawk, this aircraft represents the first Hawk to make its maiden flight from the plant.
Alan Stern, NASA’s top science official, says long-range plans call for spending almost $3 billion in U.S. funds to return a sample from Mars by around 2020. Talks also are underway with the European Space Agency and various national space agencies about a partnership, which could include installing sample caches on upcoming missions like ESA’s ExoMars (AW&ST Oct. 1, 2007, p. 18). There’s a lot of work to be done, but if a sample-return mission is launched, the valleys in this image could be a likely target.
Thousands of new air traffic controllers will be trained in Adacel’s Tower Simulation System, which the FAA plans to deploy in the next 18 months at 19 key facilities, including New York-JFK, Atlanta and Denver. The new simulator provides interactive, real-life training scenarios and operates independently of ongoing air traffic operations.
Cessna last week formally unveiled its proposed Citation 850 Columbus—a large-cabin, 4,000 naut.-mi.-range business jet the company will develop at a projected cost of $780 million. Customer deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2014.
A preliminary report from the California Div. of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) on Feb. 7 into the explosion that killed three Scaled Composites workers during development tests of the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) rocket engine on July 26, 2007, points to oxidizer tank failure as a potential cause. Cal/OSHA’s bureau of investigation also submitted evidence for review to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office which is deciding whether to press criminal or civil charges against Scaled.
Thales Alenia Space says engineers have managed to place the Rascom-QAF1 satellite in final orbit, following a helium leak that occurred after its late December launch, but at the cost of a sharply reduced lifetime. Engineers say four weeks of apogee motor firings moved the pioneering African telecom spacecraft into its intended orbit at 2.85 deg. E. Long. However, barring further steps, satellite life will barely be more than two years, instead of the 15 years initially planned.
French armaments agency DGA has awarded EADS Socata a contract to upgrade 28 TBM 700 turboprop-powered transport aircraft. The $2.5-million, five-year upgrade will center on installation of Mode S transponders with antenna diversity, hardening of VOR receivers, and replacement of chemically generated oxygen with a gaseous oxygen system and drop-down masks.
The U.S. Navy seems to be getting serious about replacing its EP-3E signals intelligence aircraft. It has awarded two concept refinement contracts for its EPX program, each worth $1.25 million, to Boeing and the team of Northrop Grumman/L-3 Communications. Boeing is expected to pitch a version of its 737-based P-8A Poseidon Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft. Northrop Grumman/L-3 hasn’t decided on an airframe yet, but their electronic attack and intelligence-gathering experience comes from the EP-3, E-8 Joint Stars, E-6B Prowler and EF-18G Growler.
BAE Systems will develop advanced air-vehicle capabilities for U.S. Strategic Command’s air-strike mission planning system. The $42.5-million contract will run through mid-2012. The new functions involve rapid, automated mission planning for bombers, cruise missiles, reconnaissance aircraft and tankers. It also would be used to develop plans for operational and test missions involving strategic strikes.
Researchers at the University of Dayton in Ohio are preparing an Air Force report showing the corrosion-protection potential that results from prodding oysters to produce pearl-like coatings on metals. Senior research scientist Doug Hansen says his team has manipulated oyster blood cells, prompting them to deposit nacre, a natural calcium carbonate ceramic, onto aluminum, titanium and stainless-steel alloys. The deposits are “fracture resistant” and, as coatings, “they can last a lifetime,” he says. The work is funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Dion Flannery, who has been vice president-financial analysis for US Airways, has been named president of US Airways Express . He succeeds Robert Martens, who is retiring.
John M. Mitnick (see photo) has become vice president/general counsel of the Raytheon Technical Services Co. , Reston, Va. He was associate counsel to the U.S. President for homeland security matters and had been associate general counsel for science and technology at the Homeland Security Dept.
Two AgustaWestland Lynx helicopters are operating until the end of this month from the deck of the icebreaker HMS Endurance to fly five scientific teams to locations on the Antarctic Peninsula. The British Antarctic Survey scientists are working on projects that include drilling ice core samples from the summit of a volcano. Each day, they are ferried out to a new location and then returned to the ship for overnight shelter. The 91-meter-long (298-ft.) HMS Endurance displaces 2,500 metric tons.
The U.S. Air Force’s Fiscal 2009 budget request does not include funding for a new bomber, which the service wants in the field by 2018. A USAF budget official, Maj. Gen. Larry Spencer, says the first funding for the next-generation bomber will come in the Fiscal 2010 request. Instead, USAF is requesting $1.05 billion to continue operating and upgrading its B-1s, B-2s and B-52s.
Thales is bringing to market enhanced/synthetic vision systems and new-generation helmet-mounted sight displays to extend its reach in all-weather systems.
Concerns about Silverjet’s business model have come to the fore again, after the all-business-class service provider saw load factors in January fall to 54%, around 10 percentage points below the break-even point. Load factors since operations began between London Luton and Newark and Dubai have been 58%. Management vows Silverjet will achieve its first month of pre-tax profit in March, when two further Boeing 767s acquired from Thomsonfly will enter service.
Delta Air Lines and SkyWest Inc. are disputing responsibility for paying expenses resulting from irregular operations, such as cancellations and diversions, over a two-year period. SkyWest filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Ga., against Delta to protect its contractual rights under its traffic feed partnership agreement with Delta. SkyWest says Delta withheld $25 million from a weekly scheduled wire payment to SkyWest Airlines and its SkyWest Inc. partner carrier, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which operates Delta Connection flights.
As to the latest intelligence surprise, Al Qaeda’s attacks against the government of Pakistan, Vickers says that he has great hopes for a Pakistan training package to which could be added, if requested, operational support from the U.S. to include low-visibility intelligence-gathering and surveillance. “Training for the Frontier Corps is part of a broader program to develop the tribal areas,” Vickers says.
Wildlife biologists are increasingly using GPS satellite collars to track wild animals and the Royal Institute of Navigation in London’s Animal Navigation Group monitors many of these efforts.
I am the wife of the pilot and on the chase crew for one of the balloons shown on the Table of Contents of your annual aviation photo and art issue (AW&ST Dec. 24/31, 2007, p. 7). Many times, we receive pictures of a flight and, yes, we smile, but this flight has a special story. The gentleman in the balloon is terminally ill, but he and his wife had an escape that day, which was captured by the photographer. Many of us who met the gentlemen and his wife in the balloon haven’t forgotten the many events that made this happen.
