A new feed-through connector for the Atlantis external tank (ET) engine cutoff sensor (ECO) system is to be installed on the Atlantis vehicle by early this week as shuttle managers look to launch the STS-122/1E International Space Station assembly mission during the first half of February. Whether they can hold to a Feb. 2-7 launch date target depends on results of NASA/Lockheed Martin testing at the Marshall Space Flight Center of the original suspect connector removed from the Atlantis stack (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 28).
One of the hallmarks of civil and military aviation and aerospace is the determination of the men and women who epitomize the values and ideals of these fields. Year after year, these qualities result in important, far-reaching progress that will benefit people around the world.
Mauricio Botelho, chairman of Embraer, handed over the president and CEO jobs in 2007 after building the company into a major player in the commercial aviation world. He passes on a multibillion-dollar order backlog, and a strong product strategy in both the regional aircraft and business aviation markets. Under Botelho’s leadership, Embraer has also won the respect of many other aircraft makers.
Boeing has begun production of the engineering design models (EDM) of the Joint Tactical Radios System (JTRS) ground-mobile version. JTRS is an ambitious program to develop and produce software programmable radios for use on ground, air and maritime platforms. It will replace legacy radio systems, though the program’s size, scope and technological demands have contributed to cost overruns and delays. These first EDMs will undergo field and system regression testing this year, with formal certification and field testing late in the year.
The future of a detachable experiment pallet on Japan’s Kibo module for the International Space Station could be jeopardized by the scheduled 2010 retirement of the space shuttle. The pallet may never fulfill its originally intended function of transporting experiments to and from the space station. In fact, it may only take one ride up to the station and then stay there.
British Airways is inching forward on its strategy to start offering transatlantic service between New York and continental Europe, with a modest one-aircraft route to commence in June serving Paris or Brussels.
Attempts continue to recover the pan-African fixed satellite Rascom-QAF1, which is suffering from a severe helium leak following launch atop an Ariane 5 in late December. The leak left the spacecraft stranded in geostationary transfer orbit as Thales Alenia Space pondered what to do (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 26). Thales said last week it hopes remaining helium will allow the perigee to be raised sufficiently so the satellite can be parked in a radiation-safe orbit while engineers assess the probability of reaching geostationary orbit.
Gulfstream G550, G500, G450 and G350 business jets have received FAA approval to fly Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approach procedures to airports. Gulfstream has been working with the FAA, NetJets and Honeywell’s aerospace business to obtain approval so aircraft with the Gulfstream PlaneView cockpit can fly these types of approaches.
Canadian aviation authorities are investigating what factors led to the Jan. 10 emergency landing of an Air Canada Airbus A319. Flight 190 was en route to Toronto from Victoria, British Columbia, with 83 passengers and five crew on board when it diverted to Calgary, Alberta. Ten people on board suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Jorn Bates has been appointed chief operating officer of Mesa Airlines . He was vice president-East Coast operations for the Mesa Air Group and president of its Freedom Airlines. Joe Serratelli has been named COO of Freedom Airlines. He was vice president-operations and productivity for Delta Air Lines’ Song. Mickey Moman has become vice president-safety and regulatory compliance for the Mesa Air Group. He was vice president-flight operations for Mesa Airlines. Moman has been succeeded by Eric Gust, who was airworthiness auditor.
Eurocontrol has issued a safety notice to aircraft operators and air navigation service providers after an incident involving an error in the use of Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC). It allows controllers to send ATC clearances to pilots via data link rather than relying exclusively on voice radio communications. But recently a pilot logged onto the CPDLC system in flight using the incorrect aircraft identification, and that turned out to be the identification of an aircraft already using the flight data processing system that had not logged on yet.
Boeing, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin last week resubmitted bids for the U.S. Air Force’s controversial program to buy 141 Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR‑X) helicopters. The revised bids were allowed after repeated protests over loss of the competition by a Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland team with a US101 variant and a Sikorsky-led team proposing an S-92 derivative. They were defeated for the $849-million development contract in the fall of 2005 by Boeing with its Chinook-based design.
Steve Hanvey, founder and president of SATSair, saw opportunity in creating a regional network of light, charter aircraft operating as affordable, point-to-point air taxis. He put his idea to flight in 2004, and the South Carolina-based company has grown steadily ever since. The unique operation has become the model many very light jet operators aim to emulate.
Singapore’s Changi Airport has opened a S$1.75-billion ($1.22-billion) terminal that takes passenger capacity to 70 million a year. The terminal itself can handle 22 million passengers a year.
One hundred eighty-two of the U.S. Air Force’s F-15A-Ds remain grounded because of unreliable primary structures that service officials recently discovered were poorly manufactured in the 1970s. The upper right-side longeron supporting the cockpit of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C failed Nov. 2, causing the fighter to break in half behind the cockpit during a typical combat maneuver in training. The pilot ejected from the cockpit when it was inverted, and he survived with injuries.
Northrop Grumman’s next phase of the U.S. Navy’s vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-8B FireScout development program is underway. The first flight test used a trial and training control segment—a shelterized iteration of the consoles and other equipment being integrated on Littoral Combat Ships for operational use of the UAV. The flight, which also featured the production control segment that integrates Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems Div.’s software, took place Dec. 15 at the Patuxent River (Md.) Naval Air Station.
Water that spilled from a first-class galley shut down all electrical power except the emergency battery backup on a Qantas Boeing 747-400 on Jan. 7, luckily when the aircraft was just 15 min. from landing at Bangkok after a flight from London. The water came from a blocked drain, according to one media report, and flowed through a cracked drip tray that should have stopped it. A generator control unit then short-circuited, the Australian airline says. The aircraft has been fixed and is back in service.
Thales has secured contracts to upgrade both the Gripen and Tornado fighters. The arrangement with Saab is to allow Gripens to comply with NATO’s Mode 5 Interrogation Friend-or-Foe (IFF) standard. Sweden will fit 68 Gripens with the Thales IFF Combined Interrogator Transponders (CIT), while 75 further aircraft of the type are to see their CIT equipment enhanced. In addition, Thales has been tapped to outfit German Tornados with TRA 6030 Saturn secure radios. The company already supplies radio sets for the German air force, navy and army.
Douglas M. Steenland, who is Northwest Airlines president/CEO, has been elected chairman of the Washington-based Air Transport Assn. of America for a two-year term as ATA chairman. He succeeds American Airlines Chairman Gerard Arpey.
Space shuttle managers have outlined a tentative return-to-flight schedule for the fleet, pending verification that the Atlantis STS-122 external tank on Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is indeed ready for launch on a mission to carry the European Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station. Engine cutoff (ECO) sensor system testing continues, however (see p. 13). If test data are favorable, the Atlantis launch will be officially scheduled for as early as Feb.
The U.K.’s Institute of Corrosion is offering a free seminar addressing the discipline of risk-based software inspection of assets. The event is slated for Jan. 28 at the Paddington Hotel in Warrington, Cheshire. See www.icorr.org for more information.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Stanley R. Szemborski (see photo) has become vice president-corporate strategy for the Northrop Grumman Corp. , based in the company’s Washington office. His last naval position was principal deputy director of program analysis and evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Researchers will flight test a novel “belly-flap” on a blended-wing body (BWB) within the next few weeks to verify control improvements that could be critical to the success of the all-wing concept.
