German, Italian and Spanish offers are front-runners in NATO’s impending selection of a base for the all-Global-Hawk unmanned aircraft fleet that is proposed under the scaled-down Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program. Poland and Romania may also have a chance, officers within NATO headquarters say.
U.S. astronauts on the International Space Station probably will be asked to fix two troublesome power-generating mechanisms without help from visiting shuttle crews, to simplify the complex spacewalks that will be required. Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani could get the call to replace the failed unit that drove a beta gimbal at the base of one of the station’s starboard solar arrays before the space shuttle Atlantis arrives with Europe’s Columbus laboratory module.
Lee Demitry has become executive vice president of Bethesda, Md.-based Iridium Satellite ’s Iridium NEXT. He was vice president-engineering for GeoEye.
The European Commission has put airlines from Australia, to Asia, Latin America and Europe, on notice that they are the subject of an investigation about alleged anti-competitive practices in the freight business. The EC action parallels a U.S. Justice Dept. review, in which several airlines admitted wrongdoing. Airlines have two months to respond to the Dec. 21 “Statement of Objections” issued by the EC, although extensions can be requested.
James Ott (Tinker AFB, Okla.), Amy Butler (Washington)
The KC-135, its Air Force mission expanding after nearly five decades of service, is entering a new domain where engineers and mechanics seek out, in maintenance parlance, “unknown unknowns.”
AirTran Airways will build a hurricane-hardened Systems Operations Control center valued with equipment at $7 million at Orlando (Fla.) International Airport. Construction could begin in three months on a site adjacent to the current SOC, which sustained damage from Hurricane Charley in 2004. The state has provided $3 million in cash and other incentives related to job creation to keep AirTran in Florida.
A four-year, $11.3-million survey of 30,000 users of the National Airspace System might reasonably be expected to fulfill its goal of clearly identifying safety trends, right? Guess again. In October, NASA withheld the release of the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (Naoms) survey for a data scrub of times, dates and places that would ensure the anonymity guaranteed to participants.
Japan’s Selene lunar probe will spend the next 10 months carrying out its baseline “official exploration” of the Moon from orbit, following completion of its checkout period on Dec. 21, 2007. The orbiter entered a 100-km. circular orbit Oct. 18, and controllers needed another two months to activate and verify its instrument suite. Although all of the instruments are working, minor problems have been found on two of them—the X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) and the Charged Particle Spectrometer (CPS).
Sukhoi hopes to fly its Superjet 100 regional jet this quarter. Despite indications several months ago that the program was falling further behind schedule, the aircraft maker was holding to a planned 2007 first-flight target, until late in December. Program officials then acknowledged that delays with starting flight trials of the PowerJet SaM146 engine made the schedule impossible.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Edmund (Kip) Hawley heads the agency that many say is the most public face of the department: the Transportation Security Administration. Since taking over TSA in July 2005, Hawley sent the long-delayed computerized passenger screening system known as Secure Flight back to the drawing board for technology tweaks and better privacy safeguards. Practically overnight, he oversaw a radical shift in airport screening procedures following the 2006 plot to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid explosives.
At 15 sec. past 10 a.m. on Dec. 31, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) convened a pro forma session of the U.S. Senate. In an otherwise empty chamber, the legislative clerk read into the record a letter appointing Reed the acting president pro tem. Reed then declared the Senate adjourned until Jan. 3, when another pro forma session would be called. The Dec. 31 ritual lasted 25 sec.
Air China Chairman Li Jiaxiang will succeed Yang Yuanyuan as chief of the Chinese civil aviation regulator, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China.
Brussels Airport is considering setting up a low-fare terminal in response to growing demand from that market segment. The airport authority says 1,500 weekly low-fare flights already are part of the consideration to serve that segment more fully. Brussels Airport notes recent additions to its network offering, with Italian low-fare airline MyAir launching service twice a week between Brussels and Bari in southern Italy, using a Bombardier CRJ900. The airline also flies an A320 to Bucharest four times a week.
Congress passed the Fiscal 2008 defense authorization overwhelmingly last month, but President Bush decided not to sign it. Bush complained that bill language would make it easier for U.S. citizens victimized by terrorist-sponsoring regimes, like Iraq under Saddam Hussein, to sue and freeze their assets.
Air travelers’ fears of exposure to disease heightened last month when the Centers for Disease Control began the search for passengers who may have been exposed to tuberculosis Dec. 13 on American Airlines Flight 293 between Chicago-O’Hare and New Delhi. When one person on board was diagnosed six days after the flight with a multiple drug-resistant strain (MDR-TB) of tuberculosis, public health officials sought travelers who sat in the vicinity of the infected passenger for testing, although officials say the risk of contagion was low.
The Pentagon has approved the sale of a suite of weapons to the United Arab Emirates for use with the F-16 Block 60 it is purchasing. It includes up to 224 of the newest AIM 120C-7 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles and a variety of general-purpose and guided air-to-ground weapons including laser-guided variants. Total value of the weapons package is $326 million.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has sustained at least part of a protest against Boeing’s win in September of a $1-billion depot maintenance contract for KC-135 tankers. The protest was made by Alabama Aircraft Industries (Pemco Aviation Group). The GAO, an investigative branch of Congress that sometimes reflects regional politics, said the Air Force did not properly evaluate cost and pricing in the Boeing bid, and it calls for a new evaluation. The Air Force has two months to respond.
The 17 members of the Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) are feeling frustrated as they battle cross-border aviation issues that include airline liberalization and environmental policy. Their counterparts in the U.S. have the advantage of flying under the umbrella of a superpower. The Europeans have their own political organization, the European Union. Both have strong views on such matters.
A Lockheed Martin computer simulation here shows how System Wide Information Management (SWIM) will be able to link old and new ATC systems. It will allow controllers, flow control specialists, airline dispatchers and pilots to share a common operating picture.
Brazil’s Embraer says it recently flew the third Phenom 100 very light jet fitted with a cabin interior by BMW Designworks. The Phenom 100 is scheduled to enter service in midyear, and the flight test program has accumulated more than 350 hr. in 260 sorties. Evaluation of the airplane’s flying qualities have been completed, along with engine water ingestion tests and flights using artificial ice shapes.
Boeing has installed a high-energy chemical laser in a C-130H as part of the advanced tactical laser program. The six-ton laser module was integrated and aligned with a beam control system. In 2008, plans call for the system to fire at ground targets during flight to demonstrate the military utility of lasers. The system uses a rotating turret extending through the bottom of the fuselage. Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman unveiled a high-energy laser (HEL) bomber concept during a recent virtual wargaming exercise by the Defense Dept.
Hayley McGuire (see photo), a business development engineer at Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. , has received the 2007 Promise Award from the Society of Satellite Professionals International. The other recipients are: Arnie Christianson, operations manager at CNN Satellites and Transmissions; and Derek Edinger, structural analysis manager at Space Systems/Loral.
Thales is launching development of a “radically new” integrated sensor and communications system for naval anti-air and surface warfare under a €125-million ($184-million) contract signed Dec. 20. Awarded to Thales Nederland (Thales-NL) by the Netherlands Defense Materiel Organization, the contract is for development and production of four Integrated Mast systems, each containing a complete integrated sensor and communications suite. These will equip four new 3,750-ton ocean-capable patrol ships for the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) from 2010.
