The end of 2007 saw Russia carry out a second test-launch of its RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile, which carries multiple independently targetable nuclear warheads, was fired from Plesetsk, to hit a target on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
ViaSat, Eutelsat and Loral/Telesat are teaming to launch a pair of ultrahigh-speed Ka-band satellites for North America and Europe that will provide more bandwidth than all existing two-way satellite services combined, the companies say.
Regarding the Air France A340 landing accident at Toronto in 2005, not all weather radars are as accurate as we may wish (AW&ST Dec. 24/31, 2007, p. 33). Automation is not the problem, but understanding of the acceptable and unacceptable is. The unacceptable must be rejected out of hand. The crew must decide and agree on what is acceptable, before events become critical. A good and brief interactive agreement on understanding and solving foreseen problems is essential.
The British government is denying any discussions between London and Washington over the possible siting of ballistic missile defense interceptors in the U.K.
Airbus faces a critical year as it moves to implement large swaths of its Power8 cost-efficiency program after spending more than a year preparing the far-reaching industrial transition.
MIT engineers have designed materials that can repel oils, a discovery with implications for aviation and space travel as well as hazardous waste cleanup. MIT says the materials might help protect parts of airplanes or rockets from being soaked in fuel, such as rubber gaskets and O-rings that might otherwise be damaged.
The 10-year shareholders agreement between Emirates and Sri Lankan Airlines that expires Mar. 31 will not be renewed, according to Emirates Managing Director Timothy Clark. On Apr. 1, the Sri Lankan government will assume management of Sri Lankan Airlines. Until it finds an investor, Emirates will retain its 43.6% equity in the company.
Telephonics Corp. received a $14.5 million contract to supply Mobile Surveillance Systems to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The system includes ground surveillance radar, EO/IR sensors, GPS location data and a common operating picture that allows agents to track and visually identify targets of interest prior to engaging.
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.
