Diamond Aircraft completed the first flight of its DA50 Super Star. The 3,670-lb. maximum-takeoff weight general aviation aircraft is powered by a 350-hp., full-authority digital flight-control-fitted Teledyne Continental TSIOF-550J. The aircraft was piloted by Diamond Aircraft CEO/owner Christian Dries on the Apr. 4 mission in Austria. The upgrade to the DA40 was conceived less than a year ago. Production is set to start in January.
Christopher J. Gikas (see photo) has become senior account manager for Pacific Cast Technologies, Albany, Ore. He was customer support manager for the Hamilton Sundstrand Co.
It was with great sadness that I read the news of the looming closure of the North American TWT in El Segundo, Calif. This facility represents a true historical landmark in addition to providing a service that is increasingly difficult to find on this side of the Atlantic.
Jonathan Aleck has been appointed head of the Legal Services Group within Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority. He was manager of CASA's Enforcement and Investigations Branch and was Australia's representative on the International Civil Aviation Organization Council from 1998-2003.
I could not believe the loss of $38 million due to water damage at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and Missile Defense Agency commander Lt. Gen. Henry Obering stating that neither the contractor nor the U.S. Air Force was to blame (AW&ST Apr. 2, p. 27). I guess it was someone from Mars or maybe Al Qaeda. Why were electronics installed inside a facility that was incomplete and not prepared for rain? I can understand being vulnerable to enemy actions, but rain should not be a big surprise even when it exceeds the norm. Someone should be held responsible and Obering looks like it.
Robert Wall (Manama, Bahrain, and Hamburg, Germany)
Concern is mounting that a surge in the size of the global transport aircraft fleet could lead to a maintenance capacity shortage that will drive up prices and undermine airlines' cost-efficiency drives. Record order intake at Airbus and Boeing, as well as the strong demand for used aircraft, are ingredients for a potential crisis situation, suggests acting Gulf Air President and CEO Ahmed Al-Hammadi. A shortage of maintenance bays and other capabilities means maintenance costs will likely be forced up, creating a "heavy burden" on carriers, he adds.
When they hear stories about stodgy government-owned businesses, exectives at India's Bharat Electronics Ltd. respond with a story of their own: They are in their sixth year of compound growth that's averaged 15%.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John E. Seward has become deputy commander for operations of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, Peterson AFB, Colo. He has been commanding general of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, Ft. Shafter, Hawaii.
Austria's purchase of Eurofighter Typhoons is further in trouble, with charges of corruption now inflaming political opposition to the deal, which has been under fire in Vienna for months. The head of the Austrian air force, Maj. Gen. Erich Wolf, has been suspended over concern that his wife's business received a payoff from an official linked to EADS. Moreover, first delivery of the aircraft has been delayed until November, reportedly because of software licensing issues.
A lot has been written recently about the flight of F-22s across the Pacific and the need to stop in Hawaii because of an alleged software problem with the international date line. It would appear the software developers had never heard of UTC. Traveling across time zones is why universal time is used and if I remember my years in the West German naval air wing in the early 1980s, UTC was very much in use at that time to facilitate flights across time zones, among other reasons. And that's why UTC is still used in virtually all aspects of international civil aviation.
India and Russia finally have agreed to terms on the purchase of an additional 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKI Flanker fighter aircraft. Part of the deal covers the return of 18 Su-30Ks delivered between 1997 and 1999. India had initially planned to upgrade the Su-30Ks to the MKI standard, but this approach was considered too costly.
The nascent national missile defense system was operational "for about 90 days" last summer, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright reveals. The missile defense system was declared operational awhile back, but the Strategic Command chief says the system is constantly flip-flopping between testing and alert status. The three-month operational status was in response to the July 4, 2006, salvo of ballistic missile tests in North Korea, and Cartwright jokingly thanks Pyongyang for giving StratCom such extensive access to the system the Missile Defense Agency is developing.
USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Craig Cooning, vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, says the company is working on a concept that would use the Iridium satellite constellation for mobile communications to rebroadcast and boost signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS). The concept is in its early stages. It would allow for more frequent updates to the GPS system through Iridium, and could help protect the GPS signal from some types of jamming, Cooning says.
Skills in Chinese aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul are rising rapidly, leading to companies completing jobs with fewer worker hours. The shift means that operators in China can avoid at least some of the loss of competitiveness they should be suffering from rocketing wages, though they still must face a relentlessly appreciating currency.
Ever since airframe corrosion emerged as a major safety issue in the 1990s, the industry has been searching for better ways to ensure that what lies beneath an aircraft's skin is healthy and remains so. Stanford University is leading studies of how manufacturers might embed sensors to constantly monitor an airframe's structural health that are more cost effective than the current approach of periodic inspections using non-destructive testing.
The launch of Germany's pioneering TerraSAR-X--the first commercial one-meter resolution radar imaging satellite--has been put off once again, because of manifesting problems with the Dnepr-1 booster. The mission, initially set for October 2006 and most recently for late March/ early April, will now slip until late May/early June, says German aerospace center DLR.
The FAA is now reviewing the House Transportation Committee report that urges the agency develop a process to identify pilots who falsify medical data for fear of being denied an Airman Medical Certificate.
Your recent article on the Age 60 issue, "Aging in Flying Colors" (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 39) misses a couple points: This issue has confused types of flying; not all flying is the same. Routinely we read nonsense by some politician who says: "I can fly my Cessna around the pattern until I'm in my 90s." Airline pilots operate in a variety of flight situations. If one were tasked to fly mid-morning from LAX to SEA and then return in the afternoon, I'd guess we could all do that until Age 90. But that is not what we all do.
Dudley Sheffler has been named to the board of directors of the TransDigm Group of Cleveland. He is retired president/CEO of the Reltec Corp., a former division of Rockwell International.
The French government will back a Socate initiative to develop composite fuselage technologies using vacuum infusion processes in the Aerospace Valley research cluster program. The government will fund 66% of the €9.3-million ($12.5-million) cost.
China will assemble its proposed "jumbo" aircraft--probably a small widebody that could emerge next decade--in Shanghai and Xian, both traditional aerospace centers. The domestic market will be targeted first, then international buyers.
The size of Boeing's Satellite Development Center was understated (AW&ST Apr. 9, p. 55). It is 1 million sq. ft. Launch of DirecTV10 is set for June, not the fourth quarter. Two Wideband Global Satcom spacecraft are to be launched this year.
Ronald C. Henson has been appointed vice president-labor relations for Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc. He was managing director of the Washington office of the law firm of Ford and Harrison.
Work is progressing on two troublesome sensors that contributed to cost and schedule problems for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess), according to senior government and industry officials. The Raytheon-made Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (Viirs) played a large role in the Npoess schedule delay. But the company may have redeemed itself, at least somewhat, by recently passing all but one of 3,032 points in a design review.
According to a recent brief statement from the Chinese state council, the Airbus-Boeing duopoly could come to an end in the next few years. Beijing claims that it will have a "large aircraft" flying soon, possibly in the next three years.
