Mt. Rainier provides a backdrop for an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900 not far from the airline's home base at Seattle. A renewed legacy carrier in its 75th year, Alaska and its partner Horizon Air are expanding their networks. Alaska is adding more transcontinental flights and destinations beyond mainland borders. Known as a technology innovator, Alaska will become an all-Boeing 737 airline next year. Horizon is expanding with CRJ700 and Bombardier Q400 aircraft. Articles begin on p. 60. George Hall/Clay Lacy photo.
Most of the participants in the FAA reauthorization debate say they favor a system in which the users of the services will pay fairly for what they receive. However, the rhetoric and political posturing by these participants suggest otherwise.
After a 17-month proceeding that amassed 15,000 docket filings, including a tentative denial that led to substantial changes in its application, Virgin America won certification as a U.S. airline. The U.S. Transportation Dept. accepted the applicant's concessions to separate the U.S. carrier from control of the U.K.-based Virgin Group, which operates Virgin Atlantic, and it dismissed a last-ditch objection from the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA as a rehash of previous filings in the case.
Bental Industries has developed the B-020, a micro and mini unmanned aerial vehicle propulsion system, weighing in at 450 grams. The system, which includes the driver in its weight, is designed for UAVs up to 8 kg. and delivers 1 kw. The B-020 is sealed to operate in harsh environments and can be integrated within a UAV. The Israeli company also produces the 56-gram B-013 UAV Propulsion Motor and the 1.4-kg. B-047-017 system.
A Swiss-led group is building a solar-powered aircraft that would be the first manned air vehicle capable of sustaining night flight. The project, dubbed SolarImpulse, is intended to optimize key technologies involved in solar flight, including photovoltaic cells, lithium batteries, propulsion and materials. It could also help stimulate work on ultralight long-endurance aircraft, from which Europe has been largely absent.
Delta Air Lines, as part of its ongoing international expansion, on May 21 launched nonstop Atlanta-Vienna service. The Boeing 767-300ERs to be operated on the route have upgraded economy- and business-class services. Delta claims to be the only U.S. carrier to offer nonstop service to the city. Meanwhile, Austrian Airlines and charter JetAlliance have launched a new service, Austrian Business Jet, aimed at premium business-class passengers.
Lockheed Martin is trying to keep its cruise missile efforts alive with in-house and government-funded development efforts, despite setbacks that risk the cancellation of its premier stand-off program, the U.S. Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (Jassm). The company has suffered numerous test problems with Jassm that now put the program in jeopardy. Cost performance has also been poor.
U.S. airlines are already maneuvering to take advantage of a new international aviation agreement that will double the number of flights allowed to China within five years. But while all the airlines that fly--or want to fly--to China will eventually benefit from the deal, most will have to wait until 2009 to increase service in this popular yet highly restricted market.
Alaska's empathetic, smiling Eskimo is on the move. This featured character of Alaska Airlines, a tail logo, is being seen in more places than on the frozen tundra. The airline, in its 75th year, is expanding in the transcontinental market, and management is reviewing deeper penetration across the U.S. mainland border either to Hawaii or to Central America.
Plans by Safran to split its Sagem defense and security business into separate legal entities are likely to revive rumors that the troubled unit is headed for a total or partial spinoff.
The global boom in business aviation is driving increasing traffic to the annual European Business Aviation Conference and Exposition (Ebace) in Geneva. With non-U.S. markets of increasing importance for the sector in general and travel to the U.S. viewed as burdensome for key Middle East buyers, manufacturers view Ebace as an increasingly important place to do business, even in relation to the larger, U.S.-based National Business Aviation Assn. exhibition in October. The numbers reflect that. For the first time, Ebace topped 10,000 attendees.
MARKET FOCUS Northwest Airlines readies for bankruptcy exit 16 NEWS BREAKS Astrium's Automated Vehicle testing on target 23 MBDA performs high-altitude Meteor rocket ramjet missile firing tests 24 Chino (Calif.) Air Museum holds 50th anniversary air show 24 Skybus Airlines one of the latest to institute fees for almost everything 26 Global boom in business aviation brought record crowds to Ebace 30 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS
The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority has decided to expand the use of Secondary Surveillance Radar Mode S (Selective), but to roll the system out more gradually than originally planned. This will allow a variety of aircraft users to collaborate on the implementation without having to extend the reach of controlled airspace on a large scale. The CAA is responding to 3,000 replies to a regulatory impact assessment. The new measure provides a four-year transition during which upgrades to existing transponders can be completed starting on Mar. 31, 2008.
E. Roberts (Bob) Wood (see photo), professor emeritus at the Naval Postgraduate School, and Michael D. Blake (see photo), executive vice president-programs at Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., have been named honorary fellows of the Alexandria, Va.-based American Helicopter Society International. Winners of the AHS Technical Fellow Award were: Maj. Gen. Anthony P. Fraser, head of the Australian Helicopter Systems Office for Australia Army Aviation; J. Gordon Leishman, Minta Martin Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland; T.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is using software tools that model the engagement envelope of man-portable surface-to-air missiles to try to reduce the threat from such systems. The Royal Air Force Regiment, which is providing force protection for the airfields at Basra, Iraq, and Kandahar, Afghanistan, has bought the Surface-to-Air Missile Position Ranking and Analysis System.
MITRE CORP. IS DEVELOPING A UNIVERSAL ACCESS TRANSCEIVER (UAT) Beacon radio for use on small unmanned aircraft systems. The transmitter is contained in a package about the size of two decks of playing cards. It will allow UAS operators to make their air vehicles more visible by transmitting position and velocity data using a waveform compatible with the ADS-B network the FAA will deploy nationwide. Currently, the agency plans to use UAT as the data link for general aviation aircraft.
Southeast Asian budget carriers are stepping up efforts at getting extra revenue by selling add-on products and services. Malaysia's AirAsia, which does not allocate seats, has begun to let passengers join priority boarding groups by paying a fee, while Singapore's Tiger Airways is selling travel insurance underwritten by the local unit of American International Group's American Home Insurance.
The U.K. is struggling to iron out problems with a key future air-launched weapon that the Royal Air Force is pushing to deploy to Afghanistan. Early air-launch trials of the weapon--the Raytheon Paveway IV dual-mode precision guided bomb--failed to meet the RAF's accuracy requirements. Some rounds missed the intended targets by 250 ft., sources suggest.
As President Bush and his war critics argue about whether Al Qaeda plans to export terror attacks from Iraq, the head of research and development for the Homeland Security Dept. says improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are his top priority. "Ladies and gentlemen, I believe they're coming to a theater near you," Undersecretary Jay Cohen told a homeland security science and technology conference here. Tactics used to defeat IEDs in Iraq--jamming the cell-phone signals used to detonate them--won't work in U.S. cities, he says.
Why would an airline equip its fleet with missile countermeasures when the same aircraft are equipped with ADS-B (Mode S position report and trend vector)? Having ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) makes it easier for terrorists to target a specific aircraft with homemade missiles than one with infrared/radar sensors. Traditional missiles require sophisticated optics/antennas that are not easily found or cheap. ADS-B missiles only require an L-band antenna and L-band/GPS receiver.
With a climb speed of 180 KIAS, a cuise of Mach 0.63 and a descent of 216 kt., future Cessna Mustang owners should not be surprised if their newfound pride in "jet performance" will be met by insults and yells to "get out of the way" by airline pilots and controllers. And what are the speed brakes for?
You appear to have opened a forum on global warming in the Correspondence sections (AW&ST Mar. 19/26, p. 93; May 7/14, p. 10). I am a physicist now serving as a system engineering program manager. Climate change has always interested me (global cooling was the crisis du jour when I was an undergraduate in the 1970s). I also once lived in Greenland. The following facts are difficult to dispute: The debate has become very political, quite emotional and often lacks civility. A consensus on global warming will not be reached in these pages.
Bill Whitlow has been promoted to president from vice president of the Marlton, N.J.-based Aviation and Maritime Services Div. of L-3 Communications. Whitlow succeeds Tom Brennan, who has retired.
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