The first Diamond Airborne Sensing DA42 Multi-Purpose Platform has been delivered to a customer, Riegl Laser Measurement Systems, for aerial surveying using laser-scanning technology, and to conduct further research into laser measurement systems.
NASA has again tested the main parachute for the Ares I and Ares V first-stage rockets, dropping them from an Air Force C-17 Nov. 15 over the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Derived from the chutes on the space shuttle’s solid-rocket boosters, they will let Ares boosters be recovered and reused. Measuring 150 ft. across and weighing 2,000 lb., the main Ares chute is the largest of its kind ever tested.
Michael A. Taverna (Dubai ), Douglas Barrie (Kourou, French Guiana)
EADS Astrium Services is aiming to capitalize on its success with Britain’s Skynet 5 military communications system to secure more business outside the U.K., especially in the Middle East and U.S. The Ariane 5 launch on Nov. 15, following two rocket-related delays, orbited Skynet 5B and Star One C1, a Brazilian commercial telecom satellite. Like Skynet 5A, launched in March, and Skynet 5C, to be sent up next May, the new milsatcom spacecraft is intended to provide near-global secure voice and data transmission.
Lockheed Martin is scooping up a $134.2-million contract add-on to continue the design and development of a “Partner Version” of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The idea is to come up with a version of the JSF that can be sold to foreign air forces while remaining common to the variants flown by the U.S.
USAF Brig. Gen. John D. Posner has become director of Air Force Smart Operations 21, at U.S. Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon. He has been deputy director of operations at the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon. Posner will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Scott E. Wuesthoff, who has been vice commander of the Tanker Airlift Control Center of Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill.
FlightSafety International, a provider of simulation and training to business and general aviation pilots for more than half a century, has an eye on expanding its involvement with the U.S. military. The military is not a new market segment for the company, but current trends are creating circumstances that could fuel substantial growth.
Starting in 2008, CAE will provide training for all AirAsia pilots at the airline’s six-bay simulator training academy at Kuala Lumpur. Under a contract valued at C$50 million ($50.9 million), CAE will manage AirAsia’s Type Rating Training Organization at its academy and conduct initial type rating and cross-crew qualification courses for the Airbus A320 and A330 and Boeing 737.
An Engine Alliance GP7200 of the kind slated to power the Emirates A380 lies torn apart in a cell at GE Aviation’s shop facility in Wales. It will be reassembled in coming months, closing a small chapter in a voluminous tale of test and discovery aimed at producing the most reliable engine ever.
An acute shortage of qualified aircraft mechanics in Delaware has led to collaboration between the Sussex County Council, aircraft modification provider PATS Aircraft and Delaware Technical & Community College (DTCC) to renovate a large hangar at the airport as a training school for airframe mechanics. The school, set to open in 2008, will offer a mechanic’s associate degree through DTCC, feature two classrooms, four laboratories and a technical library. The initiative is the first of its kind in the state.
Don Wetekam, president of AAR Aircraft Services-Oklahoma has been inducted into the Shingo Prize Academy , which consists of individuals who have distinguished themselves in manufacturing and operations. Wetekam was deputy chief of staff for installations and logistics with the U.S. Air Force, and currently leads operations at AAR’s maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Will Rogers World Airport, and AAR’s MRO facilities in Hot Springs, Ark., and Roswell, N.M.
Japan Airlines, in an effort to reduce waiting times by half, is renovating passenger check-in counters at Terminal 2 at Tokyo’s Narita airport. By Dec. 18, new “user-friendly” counters will be in place for first- and business-class passengers, as well as “priority guests,” such as passengers with disabilities, people traveling with babies and expectant mothers. The counters will be lower and accompanied by chairs, handrails and cane-holders.
U.K.-based airports operator BAA saw its operating profit drop 18% in the first nine months of 2007 to £544 million ($1.1 billion). BAA blamed the drop on a £34-million loss due to currency rates on its sale of Budapest Airport, as well as costs associated with Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5 and depreciation on Terminals 1 and 2. The operator also spent £27 million to fund U.K. government security mandates and another £12 million to clean terminals and shorten security lines that plagued all its airports, but especially Heathrow and Gatwick.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will begin integrating a state-of-the-art seismic imager soon into its planned Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the first spacecraft in the agency’s “Living With a Star” research effort. Built by Stanford University and the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory, this Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) will measure the Doppler shifts of sound waves generated by hot, ionized gas.
Improved situational awareness and protection capabilities are the top two priorities for the U.S. Air Force’s growing space control efforts in the Fiscal 2009 budget cycle, says Joseph Rouge, director of the National Security Space Office. In the area of protection, the Pentagon, intelligence community and commercial users have developed a “neighborhood watch,” whereby users exchange data on anomalies or operations on orbit. This helps to diagnose jamming or other tampering and to narrow sources of satellite interference.
Boeing has revolutionized air transport and built aircraft that made history; the 707, 747 and 787 will, too. The Seattle aircraft manufacturer’s setbacks, small compared to Airbus’s, are rooted in the new way of making airplanes. Subcontracting the manufacturing and even the design and engineering has taken its toll on the Dreamliner. Even if it seems cheaper to offload work to suppliers at the other end of the world, I hope Boeing will rethink its strategy and bring back work in house.
Joseph Rouge, director of the National Security Space Office, says he’s “willing to put [his] career on the line to make sure” that a new Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) initiative led by the Air Force is not derailed. The new ORS office was established earlier this year at Kirtland AFB, N.M., and its first budget is part of the Pentagon funding approved this month.
Ed Barnes has become interim chief financial officer of JetBlue Airways . He has been senior vice president-finance/principal accounting officer. Barnes succeeds John Harvey, who has resigned.
Communications surveillance by the Syrians has led the Israeli army to clamp down on personal cell phone communications during military ops and even in day-to-day procedures in the government. Having used the technology themselves, Israeli officials worry that their cell phones can be clandestinely activated as listening devices. Moreover, as cell phone users move between relay towers, their movements can be tracked. Press freedom may suffer as well.
The National Aeronautic Assn. will present USN Capt. (ret.) Eugene Cernan, the second American to walk in space and the last man to walk on the Moon, with the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy Dec. 14.
China says beginning in 2010 it will replace foreign-made communications and broadcasting satellites with its own spacecraft, which should be capable of serving twice as long as now.
The World Radiocommunications Conference has concluded four weeks of discussion at the WRC-07 conference in Geneva with an unequivocal decision not to open up the 3.4-4.2-GHz. C-band to Wimax and other so-called International Mobile Telecom users. The decision will ensure satellite operators of uninterrupted use of the C-band spectrum and the promise of bandwidth in which to roll out new broadband services, particularly in Asia and Latin America.
Darryl M. Fraser (see photo) has been named vice president-business development and strategic initiatives for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Mission Systems Sector, Reston, Va. He was vice president-Washington operations for Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems and Space Technology Sectors.
General Electric reaffirms that, despite recent signs of rapprochement with Airbus over developing an engine for the A350XWB, it still refuses to consider a larger GEnx for the A350-1000 version and says the go-ahead for the rest of the family could hinge on the performance of the initial GEnx-1B on the Boeing 787.
Two undisclosed customers have spent $41 million for the Ehud air combat maneuvering instrumentation systems from Israel Aerospace Industries’ MLM Div. The latest version is the first to tightly integrate fighters, which train against enemy air defense systems, and anti-aircraft batteries that practice interception of hostile aircraft. The sale includes advanced ground-to-air and air-to-ground weapons simulations as well as the ability to simultaneously train against live and virtual targets.
