Pilot-bashing Paul N. Nash makes a valid point and Capt. Steve Roach is wrong about the Concorde accident (AW&ST Nov. 12, p. 10). The aircraft was just beginning to rotate when the tower advised the crew of a fire. There were more than 9,000 ft. of a 12,000-ft. runway remaining—more than enough distance to abort! But let’s us look at some similar incidents that caused or could have caused tragedies:
Spain is acquiring €44 million ($64 million) worth of fourth-generation Spike-ER multipurpose air-to-surface precision missiles from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel. The missiles are to be the primary armament for the Spanish army’s 24 Eurocopter Tiger-HAD combat support helicopters. The deal follows the procurement of Spike missiles to equip Spanish land forces last year, and involves General Dynamics-owned GD Santa Barbara as the local contractor. The Spike-ER missiles will be delivered through 2012.
BAE Systems has completed the first test of an Autonomous Approach and Landing Capability at Edwards AFB, Calif., on a C-130H aircraft. The technology fuses millimeter-wave radar and infrared imaging to allow pilots to see the runway and obstacles in reduced visibility. The work was conducted under an $11.4-million contract to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. “This technology essentially lets aircrews maintain their vision through all weather and obscurants,” says Clark Freise, vice president of defense avionics for BAE Systems in Johnson City, N.Y.
The large, long-range, long-endurance Eitan UAV is the latest unmanned aerial system from Israel Aerospace Industries. And, it’s already being modified. The latest pictures (see p. 52) show the addition of a large under-fuselage payload bay that could carry a ground surveillance radar (for precision attack of small objects) or missiles for striking air or ground targets as a response to changing defense needs. Israel Aerospace Industries photo.
Ed Feick (see photos) has become vice president-customer support and Bill Schmiege group vice president-integrity for Parker Aerospace , Irvine, Calif. Feick has been director of worldwide commercial business development and interim division general manager. Schmiege was the division’s director of product integrity.
New European Space Agency maps of the Moon’s north pole are expected to help in planning future robotic and manned lunar missions. The lunar poles are of particular interest because they include areas of quasi-eternal sunlight and permanent dark that might host water ice—two critical requirements for long-term exploration. The 800 X 600-km. (497 X 372-mi.) mosaic, put together from data returned by an advanced micro-camera on ESA’s Smart-1 lunar orbiter, shows several large impact craters near the north pole. One of them, Peary, had been partially observed by the U.S.
Japan’s ATD-X Shinshin stealth technology demonstrator will fly in 2011 and will look much like a Lockheed Martin F-22 scaled to the size of a Saab Gripen, but with a more conventional planform than the U.S. fighter’s. The aircraft’s electronics and IHI Corp. XF5-1 engines are to be completed by 2009, ready for final assembly of the aircraft in 2010.
China’s Anyang Angel Aero Science and Technology Co. Ltd. and Liberty Aerospace Inc. have signed an agreement whereby the Anyang Angel Aero will build up to 600 Liberty XL-2 airplanes at a new factory in Henan, China. The facility will be capable of producing 100 airplanes annually, with a majority to be used for flight training at the Science and Technology University’s school at Anyang. The Liberty XL-2 is certified by the FAA to FAR Part 23 standards for day/night VFR and IFR flying. It received Chinese approval in May.
Nabeel Mohammed Saeed has become executive vice president-corporate and legal affairs and Ahmed Mohammed Al Banna vice president- human resources of Bahrain-based Gulf Air . Saeed has been an executive in government and financial institutions, while Al Banna was human resources manager for Bahrain Airport Services. Hashim Mahmood has been named vice president-network.
Eurocopter has received three firm contracts for EC145 helicopters with options for two more from French armaments agency DGA. The rotorcraft will be used by the French civil security organization and replace six Alouette IIIs. Deliveries are to start in 2009.
Honda Aircraft Co. broke ground in Burlington, N.C., to house its new headquarters and jet engine assembly facility for the HondaJet, scheduled to enter service in 2010. The factory will employ about 70 people and eventually will produce up to 200 HF120 engines annually. In addition, Honda Aircraft Co. is building a manufacturing facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport near Greensboro, N.C., that will build and deliver the HondaJet.
Qatar Airways plans to expand its long-range network using new Boeing 777-200LR/300ERs, and has ambitions to run high-frequency services in the Persian Gulf with a fleet of single-aisle aircraft. The airline’s first pair of Boeing 777-300ERs will enter service on its prestigious Doha-Washington route in mid-January, replacing Airbus A340-600HGW (high gross weight) variants for which Qatar was the launch customer.
Singaporean budget carriers Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia have each won the right to operate a single daily service between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur beginning in February as part of an agreement between the city-state and Malaysia to liberalize the market.
Flight testing has finally started on the SaM146 turbofan, which is set to power the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Superjet 100. Integration hurdles between the Western-standard engine developed by the PowerJet joint venture of Snecma and NPO Saturn, with the Russian flight test aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-76LL, caused trials to begin several months late. Flight testing started Dec. 6 at the Russian flight test center at Zhukovsky and program officials still target a March 2008 engine certification.
Miriam Rivera (see photo) has become director of human resources for Circor Aerospace Products , Corona, Calif. She was vice president-human resources for Summa Industries.
Israeli cargo conversion house Bedek is looking to boost heavy maintenance activity next year to make use of industrial capacity that’s been underutilized because of a crunch in the cargo conversion business.
David A. Fulghum (Tel Aviv and Jerusalem), Robert Wall (Tel Aviv and Jerusalem)
Israel plans to keep its aerial domination of the Middle East intact, and that includes buying Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, accelerating its first deliveries, and deciding whose advanced equipment will be packed into the stealthy strike aircraft. A senior Israeli air force (IAF) official says those major areas of concern appear to be on the right track because of an “understanding” with the U.S. officials. Washington’s representatives are more ambiguous, saying that there has been no official change to Israel’s F-35 program.
The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee wants more human intelligence assets in the Middle East and Persian Gulf regions. At a bipartisan press briefing last week on the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.) called for more intelligence agents on the ground, and less reliance on high-technology intelligence-gathering.
Embraer has sold almost 700 Phenom-family very light and light jets, the aircraft maker says. Embraer recently secured a 100-aircraft order for Phenom 300s from Flight Options.
The excellent artist’s rendition of the Boeing Business Jet head-up display (AW&ST Nov. 19, cover) illustrates one very important, but often overlooked point: Less is frequently more. Head-up and helmet-mounted displays rely on their effectiveness by combining the content of visual or synthetic real-world images—instantly recognizable by the pilot—that cannot be derived from the real world. Too much data swamps the pilot’s ability to take in the real world and reduces the operational effectiveness of the combined display.
The weak dollar is making the U.S. an attractive lower-cost maintenance destination for European carriers. So says AAR Corp. CEO David Storch, noting that the maintenance, repair and overhaul segment of his Illinois-based company is suddenly experiencing demand from airlines across the Atlantic. “We just started seeing this in the last few weeks,” Storch said following an address at the Aviation Week-Credit Suisse Finance Conference in New York late last month. “With the dollar-euro and dollar-pound rates where they’re at, some of these folks are trying to see if the U.S.
Honeywell Aerospace’s “make-or-buy” strategy for its big A350XWB contract is mindful that the division has seen revenue growth of 10% across all its markets this year and expects more of the same in 2008. While the plan is evolving, Honeywell has determined that its work packages will be competed globally. The evaluation of when to buy will be based, in part, on what intellectual property it wants to keep in-house.
USAF Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady has been nominated for promotion to general with assignment as commander of U.S. Air Forces-Europe/commander of Air Component Command, Ramstein AB, Germany/director of the Joint Air Power Competency Center. He has been deputy chief of staff for personnel at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. Brady will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. Richard Y. Newton, 3rd, who has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general. Newton has been assistant deputy chief of staff for air, space and information operations, plans and requirements at the Pentagon.
Superlatives and exaggerations are tossed around pretty freely in places like Washington, where noteworthy events routinely go unnoted and the sensational is the coin of the realm. But the “blockbuster” label applied by stunned media to the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of Iran’s nuclear intentions and capabilities, issued Dec. 3, is justified. But let’s be clear: The report’s main conclusion—that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago, in the fall of 2003—raises a number of more subtle questions that deserve close attention.
