The art and science of computer forensics—capturing images from “erased” drives and reconstructing files—sometimes happens at computers or workstations in the field. Acme Portable Machines Inc.’s lunchbox-style portable workstation is capable of capturing evidence from off-site SCSI, IDE and SATA drives—three at a time, according to the company. The unit employs a 2.13-GHz. Intel core 2-duo E6400 processor backed by 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM (expandable to 8). Gigabyte Ethernet, USB 2.0 and Firewire (IEEE 1394B PCI) are incorporated to speed communications, and a 17-in.
JetAlliance Group has ordered an Airbus A319-based ACJ business jet, powered by CFM56 engines. The Austrian company already is a customer for one ACJ and three A318 Elites. JetAlliance also has ordered 10 Cessna Citation business jets, valued at $105 million, with deliveries scheduled in 2009-10. This is a follow-on to the charter operator’s May order for 25 Citations.
The U.S. Army will continue to retrofit UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters with T700-701D engines under a $30-million contract awarded to GE Aviation. The program could involve more than 5,000 engines, and GE estimates its long-term value at more than $1.5 billion.
Russian bombers have been flying in airspace managed by Finland, Norway and Iceland, and air traffic controllers have had scant information on these aircraft or their intentions, according to one civil ATC official in the region, who adds that this is a cause for concern. The Russian aircraft are being tracked by air defense radars and intercepted by the Royal Norwegian Air Force and the British Royal Air Force. The U.S. Air Force used to base F-15s in Iceland in the 1980s, and some U.S. aircraft remained there until the end of 2006.
A dip in U.S. economic growth would have set off alarm bells across the business jet industry just a few years ago. With North American operators accounting for nearly 80% of purchases, the industry’s fortunes rose and fell in lockstep with the U.S. economy.
Munich Airport CEO Michael Kerkloh has been named German Airport Manager of the Year for the second consecutive year by aviation journal Touristik Report and the Munich daily newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. Runners-up in the voting were: Michael Eggenschwiler of Hamburg Airport, Christoph Blume of Dusseldorf Airport, Wilhelm Bender of Fraport and Rainer Schwarz of Berlin Airport. Joachim Hunold, the head of Air Berlin, was named tourism manager of the year.
The European Space Agency is gearing up to start work on an operational space surveillance system that would give Europe a capability currently available only in the U.S. and Russia. The so-called Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system would survey and track not only debris, asteroids, satellites and other orbital objects, but also image and evaluate them to determine threats and risks—particularly those associated with attempts to militarize space. It would provide an accurate forecast of space weather, as well.
Correction: A News Break item on an A380 damaging its wingtip fence in Thailand mischaracterized the events (AW&ST Sept. 10, p. 20). An Airbus pilot was at the helm as the aircraft was being pushed back and the wingtip struck a building. The incident has been linked to an oversight by the ground crew in maneuvering the aircraft.
The Air National Guard is already queuing up for the next-generation, long-range-strike bomber mission. Cyber Command, long-endurance UAV units, F-22 fighter, B-2 bomber and Joint Cargo Aircraft airlift squadrons and, quite likely, the next-generation bombers due on the ramp in 2018 or so, will be heavily manned and, in some cases, commanded by Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Army National Guard personnel.
Aircraft operators can enhance windshield visibility for pilots during wet conditions with application of PPG Aerospace-Transparencies’ rain-repellent coating, according to the company. The surface seal coating quick application kit contains all materials needed to treat a one-glass windshield in a few minutes to provide water shedding for visibility without the need for wipers. This kit offers speed because no primer or heat treatment is involved; however, more frequent application is needed with the quick-coating process.
Smiths and General Electric have abandoned a plan to form a joint-venture airport security company, after eight months of discussions. They ascribe the failure to an inability to “agree a strategic vision for the combined business.”
Delivery of the first flight-test TP400 engine will now be nearly a solid year behind schedule at best, and the effects of this delay are starting to reverberate throughout the European A400M airlifter program. At least a half-dozen of the Airbus Military transports are expected to be handed over late. The Europrop TP400-D6 had originally been due in November 2006 at Marshall Aerospace, with flight testing to begin in early 2007. That U.K. facility is modifying a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules for the role.
Deposition Sciences Inc. offers coatings that operate in the 3-5-micron and the 8-12-micron infrared (IR) spectral regions. These specialized coatings for high performance in the IR spectrum are suited for many sophisticated military, aerospace and industrial tasks that require robust coating solutions, according to the company. DSI has developed a variety of coating types within these two wavelength regions, including antireflection, high reflectors, beam splitters, diachronic coatings and band-pass filters.
The General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is being readied for additional tests at GE’s Peebles, Ohio, facility after the conventional-takeoff-and-landing version’s engine ran at full power with after-burner for the first time at nearby Evendale. The use of the augmenter is a significant development milestone for the 40,000-lb.-thrust-plus F136, which continues to face funding hurdles on its way to projected first flight in the F-35 in 2010.
Airservices Australia has proposed forming an aviation industry Capacity Delay Forum with airlines, airport and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to identify and implement solutions to the delay problems in the nation that cost A$70 million (U.S. $60.9 million) per year. Airservices CEO Greg Russell says delay reduction could cut millions of tons of emissions while saving costs and helping aircraft meet schedules. He adds traffic must be managed in the Asia-Pacific region, where more passengers could be carried within three years than in North America.
Former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Paul G. Kaminski and Sun Yet Wong have become the 2007 Pioneers of National Reconnaissance by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Kaminski, who is chairman/CEO of Technovation Inc. and a member of the NRO Technical Advisory Board, was cited for pioneering the development of a major NRO satellite system and using aircraft to demonstrate the feasibility of operating reconnaissance sensors from space.
Created specifically for use with today’s regional, corporate and military aircraft, the TT-8’s low-profile design, standard all-wheel drive, hitch sight tunnels and standard power steering and braking make it highly suitable for airports of any size, according to the company. The TT-8 is available as the TT-8/2 (pictured), which comes standard with dual rear wheels for added stability. The vehicle is capable of pulling a wide range of aircraft including Gulfstreams, Bombardier Challengers and Embraer ERJ 145s. Aero Specialties Inc., 11175 W.
Four biometric identification devices have made it onto the Transportation Security Administration recommended products list. Information about the four will be posted on TSA’s web site for review by airports considering deploying biometric employee ID cards and sensors. Two of the devices are larger and smaller versions of the same fingerprint-sensor, the third is a combination card-reader and fingerprint-sensor, and the fourth is a personal identity verification station that includes a fingerprint-sensor, card-reader and a numeric keypad.
Donald J. Wetekam has been named president of AAR Aircraft Services-Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. He was deputy chief of staff for installations and logistics for the U.S. Air Force.
Avic I is negotiating with Airbus to build complete A320-family wings, saving the trouble of sending parts to Britain for assembly into wings that will then be returned to China for aircraft built in Tianjin. Avic I’s Xi’an Aircraft Corp. builds A320-family wing boxes.
ITT Corp. has agreed to pay $1.7 billion for all the outstanding shares of EDO Corp., a supplier of defense electronics systems. The acquisition, which is expected to close early next year, would end New York-based EDO’s storied 82-year run as a freestanding aviation and aerospace company. EDO was founded in 1925 as a seaplane components supplier by Earl Dodge Osborn, a one-time publisher and editor of Aviation magazine, which later became Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Nearly a year after winning FAA type certification, Eclipse Aviation CEO Vern Raburn casts blame in a lot of directions when asked why his company has been able to deliver barely 50 small jets—far short of the hundreds he had forecast. His suppliers let him down, he says, calling the performance of a recently discarded avionics system “just really, really, really bad.” Some of his managers fell down on the job, failing to grasp the complexities of mass producing airplanes. “They talked the talk, but they could not walk the walk. They had no concept of what it meant.”
Chelton Flight Systems has received FAA TSO and STC of a new combined digital air data and strap-down solid-state attitude/heading reference system. At one-tenth the size and one-eighth the weight of the devices it replaces, the ADAHRS is designed for both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and provides precise digital output and referencing of position, rate, and vector and acceleration data, according to the company.
I must be missing something. Both Robin Stanier and Armand J. Chaput (AW&ST July 23 p, 8; June 18, p. 14) seem to be saying that breaking up a long single- stage flight into two shorter stages saves fuel, thereby cutting CO2 emissions.
Rocketplane Kistler is embarked on a last-ditch effort to raise funding to save its contract with NASA to demonstrate commercial transportation services to support the International Space Station (ISS), but the agency says a final termination decision is looming for early October.
