Northrop Grumman has begun a seven-month, $2.5-million project to upgrade the B-2 to carry a new 30,000-lb. penetrator weapon that is designed to threaten an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried targets. This comes as new satellite images show a new tunnel complex being built at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, developed by Boeing, contains 5,300 lb. of explosives in a 20.5-ft. steel casing. The B-2, when modified, would carry two MOPs, one in each weapons bay.
The faces of two Southwest Airlines veterans will be absent from the airline’s management team after next May’s annual shareholders meeting. Executive Chairman Herb Kelleher, 76, a lawyer and founder of the 36-year-old low-cost carrier, spent five years in litigation that ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court before his vision of an LCC got off the ground. With a fleet of more than 500 aircraft, the Southwest business model irrevocably changed the airline industry, and it is now the U.S.’s largest domestic carrier.
Universal Technology Corp. has won a $24.9-million contract for collaborative research and development with the Air Force Research Laboratory through 2013. The idea is to evaluate new ideas, systems, devices and concepts for USAF that involve micro-electromechanical systems, nanotechnology, biotechnology, polymers, ceramics, composites and metallurgy.
Air Force Special Operations Command (Afsoc) is planning to buy a fleet of bombers to house its future gunship, breaking with a decades-old tradition of using C-130 transports to carry heavy fires into the sky.
Space Adventures has bought two more seats on upcoming Russian Soyuz flights to the International Space Station. The Vienna, Va.-based travel agency will sell the seats to space tourists, and expects to announce the candidates to fill them soon. The so-called “taxi seats” that are available when two ISS crewmembers are rotated in the three-seat vehicles reportedly have sold for $20-25 million. Space Adventures has purchased one seat on Soyuz TMA-13 in the fall of 2008, and one in the spring of 2009 on Soyuz TMA-14.
The ranks of special operations forces are increasing to handle the war on terrorism, and they are going to need a ride and some cover. Planners at Air Force Special Operations Command (Afsoc) headquarters here are trying to nail down just what the future requirements will be for special operations transports, gunships and vertical-lift aircraft.
EAA AirVenture is a unique place, where analog meets glass, ultralights ramp next to very light jets, and designers, builders and aviators share knowledge and nurture the seeds of aviation’s future. “Technology and innovation are at the core of what we do,” says Experimental Aircraft Assn. President and Chairman Tom Poberezny, who’s been the guiding hand at every show but one since 1976.
Does Capt. (ret.) John Crocker not realize that its pay, work rules, benefits and retirement costs had something to do with US Airways’ two bankruptcies, and the fact that it was static or shrinking for at least 15 years? US Airways could not continue to be the highest cost airline in a world of low-cost, low-fare airlines forever. America West was probably the only airline that would have considered buying all of US Airways, including its people. Where would the employees have been then?
The U.S. Air Force is laying the groundwork to declare its CV-22 operationally ready through a cooperative arrangement with the Marine Corps, which will make its first deployment to Iraq with the tiltrotor this summer. At least one pilot and maintainer from Air Force Special Operations Command (Afsoc) plan to accompany the Marines on the upcoming deployment. With multiple deadly accidents in its past, the Bell/Boeing program is clearly under close scrutiny.
Dassault Aviation is expanding its Little Rock, Ark., completion center. Plans call for 16,000 sq. ft. to be added, bringing total space to 827,000 sq. ft. Upgrades will include a four-bay EPA-approved paint area, more space for warehouse and storage, and new engineering facilities. The $20-million project is scheduled to be completed early in 2008.
Cruise missile defenses and the proliferation of advanced strike aircraft that carry them are becoming a hot topic. Lockheed Martin is demonstrating that its Patriot can handle those threats as well as traditional ballistic missiles by using a PAC-3 missile to destroy a “low-flying, air-breathing target.” What the Patriot still needs is a view of approaching aircraft and cruise missiles that are over the ground-based, radar horizon. The plan is to link Patriot sensors with airborne sensors.
I am very sad about Robin Olds’s passing (AW&ST July 2, p. 20). His exploits and accomplishments marked him as another American hero and legend. I knew him not from any active-duty engagements but during his retirement years. At many Air Force base functions, be they air shows or training events, Robin would often be among us. As the day would stretch into the evening, he invariably would be engaged in conversation with the troops, sometimes reverently quiet and sometimes boisterous and loud. But he was always with the squadron.
The Defense Spectrum Relocation Management Activity has been established to oversee relocation of Defense Dept. systems to new frequency bands, an effort to be paid for by the department’s advanced wireless service auction. The DSRMA will coordinate the transition out of the affected band of 1710-1755 MHz. It will also try to coordinate and mediate problems while both department and the wireless industry are sharing the same frequencies.
India has completed the design for a new cruise missile, which will have a 1,000-km. (625-mi.) range and operate at Mach 0.70. Called the Nirbhay, the missile is to have its first technology demonstration flight at the end of 2009, says Avinash Chander, director of the Defense Research Development Organization’s Advanced Systems Laboratory in Hyderabad. While the missile is being developed in-house, ASL is seeking a partner for the motor.
Lufthansa plans to shift its Moscow flight operations to Domodedovo International airport from Sheremetyevo as early as next summer. The carrier, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the airport on July 11, will be operating under the same roof with other Star Alliance members including Swiss, Austrian Airlines, BMI, Singapore, Spanair and Thai Airways. Domodedovo continues to build domestic and international services with an eye to becoming a major hub.
MT Aerospace, part of Germany’s OHB Technology, wants to lead an investment group to buy two Airbus facilities EADS is looking to unload as part of the Power8 restructuring program. It would go after Varel and Nordenham, management says. It would provide the German government with a national solution to the sale, with other likely bidders coming from overseas, including Spirit AeroSystems and an Israel-based investment company.
Columbus, Ohio-based low-cost operator Skybus began A319 service July 16 to San Diego and Chicopee, Mass., and on July 18 to St. Augustine, Fla. The new destinations bring the total served from Port Columbus International Airport to 11. Skybus is taking reservations for flights Dec. 16-Mar. 6. Fares for the first 10 seats sold on any flight are $10. Reservations are made only on the web site, www.Skybus.com
The U.S. Air Force is accelerating by a year the Pentagon’s goal of flying 21 Predator UAV patrols a day by 2009. That means a rapid increase of three additional MQ-1 combat air patrol orbits using full-motion video and rapid strike capability. The first two are to be active this year. Currently, the service maintains 12 Predator orbits.
Lockheed Martin has won a 10-year, $1.1-billion U.S. Air Force contract for Aircrew Training and Rehearsal Support II, which is to provide training for Special Operations Command crews of the C-130 Talon, Spectre and Shadow; MH-53 Pave Low; MH-60 Pave Hawk, and CV-22 Osprey.
Eurojet handed over the first EJ200 turbojet engine intended for the Tranche 2 Eurofighter. The powerplant was accepted on July 13 by the Italian air force, which will install and fly it on IPA 2, the second instrumented production aircraft. The Tranche 2 engine features a combined digital control and monitoring unit that promises significant cost, weight and functionality benefits. In all, 519 engines are to be delivered for the Tranche 2 program over the next five years. Eurojet comprises Rolls-Royce, MTU, Avio and ITP of Spain.
Boeing’s George Muellner is quoted in the article “Speed Kills” as saying: “The technology is not there right now to support a high-speed penetration platform” (AW&ST May 28, p. 50).
For the first time in perhaps years, British Royal Air Force fighters were launched last week to intercept two Russian Tu-95s bearing down on British airspace, a move that analysts on both sides of the Atlantic and both ends of the Baltic suggest was retribution for the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from the U.K. That, in turn, resulted from the controversy between Britain and Russia over the poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a vocal critic of the Moscow government.
Canada will supply the fine guidance sensor for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope under an agreement signed July 16. The instrument will help the big infrared telescope stay focused on some of the most distant objects in the Solar System from its position at the second Sun-Earth Lagrangian point by locating and staying fixed on a guide star. As part of the agreement, the Canadian Space Agency will help operate the telescope after its planned 2013 launch and arrange for Canadian astronomers to use it.
The tone of the recent letter “The Great Pilot Giveaway” by Capt. (ret.) John A. Crocker (AW&ST July 2, p. 6) illustrates an aviation cultural issue that has been traditionally ignored by top airline management, but angrily acknowledged by individual pilot groups. Basic principles in crew resource management (CRM) recognize communication as a fundamental process in aircrew coordination. The barriers built from the seniority issues that arise from merging pilot groups create basic human factors that can degrade aircrew performance.
