Cargo has been a vital part of Alaska Airlines since its beginning 75 years ago. Aircraft will carry a projected 150 million lb. this year that includes an estimate of 30 million lb. of seafood caught in Alaskan waters. Tonnage has been growing at a 3-5% annual rate since 2002. Partner Horizon Air will carry as much as 15 million lb. a year.
The FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive that would require Boeing 747-100 and -200B, C and F-series aircraft to undergo inspection for cracks in the fuselage skin at the cutout of the bulk cargo door light. The action follows the report of a 2-in. crack through the fuselage skin and internal bonded doubler at the cutout. Cracks in that location could result in reduced structural integrity and rapid decompression of the fuselage. Comments are requested by July 9.
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Alex Torralbas suggested I check my facts regarding Viking habitation of Greenland (AW&ST May 7/14, p. 10). I suggest he check these web sites: www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland; www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/end_of_vikings_greenland.html; and www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/possible_causes. html
Anders Florenius has been named acting head of corporate communications and public affairs for Saab. He succeeds Helena Stalnert and remains vice president-communications and public affairs for Saab Bofors Dynamics.
Cessna Mustang versus Ford Mustang Cobra on a 200-300-mi. leg would be a close race. Do you have to be able to parallel park the Cessna Mustang to be rated?
A new Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems office will oversee company efforts to study ways to protect U.S. and friendly space assets and improve situational awareness in space. Todd Citron, former chief technology officer for the company's space business unit, will run the new Space Superiority Office established earlier this year. Boeing is following in the footsteps of the Air Force, which recently established an Operationally Responsive Space office at Kirtland AFB, N.M.
The European Environment Agency has awarded a team led by EADS affiliate Infoterra a contract to map 5.8 million sq. km. (2.2 million sq. mi.) of land cover by 2008. The contract was awarded under a GMES geo-information services initiative.
Dave Campbell has been named senior vice president-technical operations and Cathy Jacobs as vice president-people for American Eagle. Campbell was the vice president-base maintenance at American Airlines' Fort Worth and Kansas City bases. He succeeds Stan Henderson, who plans to retire. Jacobs succeeds Denise Lynn, who is now vice president-global human resources at American Airlines. Jacobs was vice president-employee relations.
Boeing's new 787 and 747-8 aircraft are on the verge of entering the burgeoning market for wide-body VIP jets. And finding creative ways to fill the large space is driving completion centers to devise a wave of new design options for potential customers.
MBDA last week performed a high-altitude control-and-dispersion firing of its Meteor rocket/ramjet air-to-air missile, the first shot to be carried out in the U.K. A Saab Gripen was used for the test firing from the Defense Ministry's range in the Hebrides Islands off the northwest coast of Scotland. Further flutter trials of the Meteor are also underway, examining missile characteristics when fitted to wing stations of the Eurofigher Typhoon. Alenia Aeronautica is leading the flutter tests. These are being conducted at test centers in Turin and Decimomannu, in Sardinia.
A looming shortage of cabin-completion capacity is creating a new headache for the business aviation community. With manufacturers and suppliers already stretched by record orders, customers may have to wait longer for their aircraft. Especially in the larger bizjet segment, there's a feeling of a capacity crunch in completions, industry officials say. "It's easier to get airplanes than completion slots," notes Walter Herdt, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Lufthansa Technik. Negotiations are already ongoing for 2012 and 2013 slots.
There is no phantom A320 in China, according to Airbus officials. Rumors have swirled in France about a newly delivered twinjet being entirely disassembled to better understand Airbus's know-how (AW&ST Apr. 16, p. 55). These claims are entirely unfounded, company officials stress. "We have operational records for every single aircraft we delivered," they note.
Stealth technology continues to improve, mainly because radars are getting better, too. Active electronically scanned radars, built with a thousand or more radiating elements in arrays that can be tens-of-feet long and wide--and with more power output and range --can now see small targets, like stealthy cruise missiles from head-on. So there are lots of ideas about how to defeat them. For example, after focusing for decades on protection from X-band radars, designers are now building aircraft that also are protected from low frequencies.
Sam Arbel has become vice president-business development for military programs at Israel Aerospace Industries International, Arlington, Va. He was IAI director of business development.
You may have heard of PLM (product lifecycle management)--now, meet SLM (simulation lifecycle management), software that allows designers to trace the evolution of a design through simulation by combining the finite element analysis (FEA) used to create the design with classic computer-aided design software tools utilized to make the actual product. SLM has become a big trend in the drive to manage and improve FEA fidelity.
The letter from Bill Stewart, "Some Questions in Mid-1960s" (AW&ST Apr. 2, p. 8), brought back memories and a chuckle about crossing the international date line. I was a flight test engineer on board a U.S. Air Force RC-135E staged out of Hickam AFB, Hawaii. My job was to flight-test a state-of-the-art inertial navigation system, and our flight path traversed the international date line on our way to and from Kwajalein Island. The longitude display was a simple Veeder Root counter with a display of either east or west longitude.
Boeing says it has reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract with the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 in St. Louis that provides workers with an average 9.5% wage increase. Features include a 17% increase in pension benefits to $70 per month for each year of service for employees retiring on or after July 1.
Airbus has begun construction on its Tianjin-based A319/A320 final assembly line. The goal is to produce aircraft by August 2008 and deliver to Chinese customers in 2009. Output should reach four aircraft a month in 2011. The Tianjin facility will be a mirror image of the single-aisle Airbus assembly line located in Hamburg. Airbus also is setting up a delivery center.
A loss of primary electrical power in the first, preproduction F-35A Joint Strike Fighter forced the pilot to cut short its 19th test flight. On May 3, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. test pilot Jeff Knowles was flying aircraft AA-1 at 38,000 ft. and Mach 0.78. He executed a planned, full-stick, 360-deg. roll and experienced an anomaly--a power loss--in the electrical system about halfway through the maneuver.
Three months into his term as defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov has changed the air force leadership. Gen.-Col. Alexander Zelin succeeds Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov. Lt. Gen. Igor Khvorov, who headed strategic aviation, was named first deputy air force chief, in charge of the headquarters. Lt. Gen. Igor Sadofief is now deputy air force chief in charge of aviation activities, with Lt. Gen. Vadim Volkovitsky the deputy in charge of air defense.
In an unprecedented commitment to Required Navigation Performance, Southwest Airlines will install RNP avionics and software on all 520 of its aircraft and use the procedures at the 63 airports it serves to cut fuel burn, emissions and noise. RNP is a form of area navigation (RNAV) that contains an aircraft in a tight corridor of airspace, most often with GPS guidance.The aircraft's flight management computer has to be able to monitor progress and alert pilots if containment is no longer possible.
The Airbus crisis is far from over despite the company's assertion that profitability will be restored as early as 2008, when A380 production finally ramps up.
Funding for the new engine for Russia's next-generation fighter, the Sukhoi T-50, is in big financial trouble, and will force the aircraft's first flight in 2009 to be undertaken with Al-31 engines now used on the Su-27. NPO Saturn, which led the engine development for the T-50 (also known as the PAK FA), warns the program still has no financial support from customers, slowing the effort.
As it pushes for a first flight in late summer, Boeing took delivery of all the large fuselage assemblies for the 787 at Payne Field and quickly transferred them next door to the new jet's final assembly line at the company's wide-body headquarters in Everett, Wash. All shipments are carried by converted 747-400 passenger aircraft whose fuselages have been enlarged to three times their normal diameter. Now called Dreamlifters, the aircraft also have a swing tail to allow straight-in loading of the big wing and fuselage sections.
