A ficionados of labor relations by press release have a special place in their hearts for the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., which salts and peppers its FAA contract talks with example after example of how poorly controllers are paid and how badly they are treated. Now comes a Natca campaign inspired by the law that enabled the FAA to impose its own employment terms last September after declaring an impasse in contract negotiations.
Booming order backlogs presage a banner year for the Paris air show. But several high-profile topics--Airbus's restructuring plan, the dollar-euro exchange rate and Boeing's newest aircraft--reach well beyond the biennial aerospace showcase. Le Bourget usually is the main event in the "odd-year" aerospace calendar, but this year it will take somewhat second billing to milestones such as the rollout and first flight of the Boeing 787--slated for a few weeks after the June 18-24 air show--and Airbus's planned first delivery of its A380 later in the year.
Ameco Beijing has widened its heavy maintenance services to Airbus products with a check on an Air China A340 begun this month. The joint venture of Air China and Lufthansa Technik had previously limited its overhaul capability to Boeing 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s. While the company's growth is mainly supported by expansion of the Air China fleet, it also aims to develop its business serving other carriers, partly by widening the range of services offered.
A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's Spirit Mars Exploration Rover is so rich in silica that it provides strong new evidence that the rover's Gusev Crater landing site was wet and possibly habitable by Martian microbial life in the ancient past. The rover's German-built alpha particle X-ray spectrometer measured a composition of about 90% pure silica for this soil, which likely would have required the long-term presence of water to produce. The rover's Alliance Spacesystems' robotic arm (below) placed the instrument on the spot.
ROCKWELL COLLINS HAS CERTIFIED a liquid crystal display Head-up Guidance System, the HGS-5860, to improve brightness and resolution. It will be offered first on the Dassault Falcon 7X. The HGS is designed to handle new capabilities such as enhanced vision (infrared imagery) and synthetic vision (digital terrain maps). In addition, the company's HGS-6000 has been selected as standard equipment for the Gulfstream G550 and G450 and will be an option on the G500, G350, G200 and G150.
Four companies that provide spacecraft to NASA under a catalogue approach will spend as much as $600,000 each over the next four months to deliver data on how their products can accommodate the planned Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The Rapid Spacecraft Development Office at Goddard Space Flight Center tapped Ball Aerospace, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems; Orbital Sciences and Space Systems/Loral as potential suppliers for the LDCM satellite, which the agency hopes will plug a feared gap in the 35-year Landsat database.
Radiation is a reemerging problem for microelectronics, but BAE Systems has techniques and technologies lifted from its space programs for staying ahead of either natural or man-made threats to aircraft, sensors or missiles flying in the atmosphere.
AirTran Airways will expand its Boeing fleet with another 15 737-700s, raising its total orders for the aircraft to 115. Deliveries are set for 2011-12. The carrier has 45 -700s in operation using 12 seats for business and 125 seats for economy class. The contract has not been formally signed, but will make AirTran one of Boeing's largest 737 NG operators. It also flies 87 717-200s.
ARINC EXPECTS TO FINISH DEVELOPMENT of a new, slimmer K u-band antenna by the end of June so that more types of business jets can subscribe to its SKYLink broadband communications service. The new design fits into the radomes of Dassault and Bombardier airframes, including the Global Express and Challenger. The system provides high-speed Internet and private network connections in flight.
The Bush administration has reaffirmed its contentious opposition to developing new, legally binding arms-control regimes to the Democrat-controlled Congress. But Donald Mahley, acting deputy assistant secretary of State for threat reductions, export controls and negotiations, did allow the possibility of informal discussions over outer space in recent testimony.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. chose AirTran Airways over four other applicants for rights to a single daily round trip at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA), relinquished last winter by Spirit Airlines. AirTran will launch additional service to Atlanta by Aug. 1 with Boeing 737-700s. The department cited competition in its decision, finding AirTran's proposed service to its hub at Atlanta more beneficial than ATA Airlines' to Chicago Midway Airport.
HONEYWELL IS EVALUATING WHETHER IT WILL ADD 3D airport maps to its synthetic vision system so pilots can see the entire airport surface, including taxiways, regardless of the weather. The company is developing its synthetic vision system for business jets and helicopters, with certification expected late this year for Gulfstream's PlaneView-equipped aircraft.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Guy C. Swan, 3rd, has been named director of operations for United States Northern Command, Peterson AFB, Colo. He has been commanding general of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington/commander of Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey C. Horne has been appointed deputy director of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space within the U.S. Strategic Command/deputy director of Mission Support Operations at the National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Va.
Willard D. Downs, 3rd (see photos) has been promoted to principal engineer in the Computer Engineering Subdivision from director of the Computer Systems Engineering Dept. of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Jean L. Michael has been promoted to associate principal director from systems director in the National Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite Systems program, at the corporation's Silver Spring, Md., office.
IN "CORE EUROPEAN AIRSPACE," where Mode S (selective interrogation) surveillance is being instituted this year, Eurocontrol reports that 95% of flights are signaling that they're capable of Mode S elementary surveillance and 90% are communicating they're capable of enhanced surveillance. Maastricht Upper Area Control Center is already using Mode S elementary surveillance data from three radars in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands to downlink each aircraft's identification. Enhanced surveillance allows additional aircraft performance parameters to be downlinked.
Northwest Airlines expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on May 31. One potential complication is a rejection of a proposed contract by members of the Assn. of Flight Attendants. The ballot count will be released prior to the expected date of emergence. Meanwhile, Northwest is working to close legal conditions of its court-approved reorganization plan, including funding of a $750-million new equity rights offering.
Boris Bunkin, one of the founders of the Soviet Union's surface-to-air missile systems industry, has died at the age of 85. Bunkin graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and began work at what was to eventually become the Almaz design bureau (it was previously known as KB-1 and Raspletin). He initially worked on the S-25 (NATO SA-1 Guild), and went on to become project leader for the program. He led overall systems development on the S-75 (SA-2 Guideline), S-125 (SA-3 Goa) and S-200 (SA-5 Gammon) as well as the S-300P (SA-10 Grumble).
Frank Among has become Honolulu-based vice president e-commerce and William Hoke vice president-finance for the Mesa Air Group. Among was vice president-sales of EZrez Software in Honolulu. Hoke was vice president-finance for North America for Insight Enterprises Inc., Tempe, Ariz. Christopher Wyland has been named vice president-business development for the group's Hawaii-based carrier Go! He was vice president-sales and marketing for California-based The Best Of Inc.
Spacecraft engineers at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) plan to conduct a technical review before setting a schedule for the remaining demonstrations in the Orbital Express mission, which recovered from a critical computer failure after giving controllers a few bad days. The two Orbital Express spacecraft redocked with each other May 19 after spending nearly eight days separated following a malfunction of the AC-2 computer on board Boeing's Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (Astro) servicing spacecraft.
British Airways is to spend £25 million ($49.6 million) on 550 airport vehicles as part of its move to Heathrow Terminal Five, which is due to open in March of next year. Overhauling its vehicle fleet will also reduce emissions at the airport. The number of ground equipment vehicles will be cut from 1,300 today to below 800 in 2010.
William S. Reed, an associate editor for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine from 1958-62, died May 22 in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., following a massive stroke. He was 82. Reed received his U.S. Army Air Corps pilot wings in 1944, and flew both P-40 and P-51 fighters, logging 110 hr. of combat time in the P-51 (Pacific Theater) during World War II. He later attended the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, flew F-84Es in Europe and graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School with Class 53D.
Douglas Barrie and Andy Nativi (Washington and St. Louis)
The emphasis is back on high-speed weapons to deal with time-critical targets as a result of the U.S. Air Force's choice of a subsonic platform for its next-generation bomber. The Pentagon is funding research--much of it classified--into options for future long-range cruise missiles, including subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic designs.
NASA HAS PULLED ITS SHARE OF FUNDING, for now, from the Joint University Program (JUP) for Air Transport Research, a 30-year effort also backed by the FAA to provide seed money to help Ph.D. engineering students start research projects. The program funds graduate students' efforts in aeronautical-related engineering programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton and Ohio universities, and involves quarterly meetings.
