Herman Chai has been named vice president-sales for China, Japan and South Korea, and Peter Hoi vice president-sales for Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the Philippines, for Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Ga. Chai was director of completion design for Gulfstream, while Hoi was director of engineering and certification for Alliant Techsystems in Fort Worth.
More Asian airports are complying with standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that prohibit passengers carrying liquids, gels or aerosols more than 100 ml. (3.3 oz.) in hand luggage on board aircraft. The recommendations, which are in response to threat of liquid explosives, are to come into force in March. Countries not complying risk having passengers stopped at destination airports. Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan began implementing the rules on Mar. 1.
Senior Space Technology Editor Frank Morring, Jr. (left), interviews New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, in the mission operations center at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Feb. 28. They spoke moments after controllers confirmed the spacecraft survived its closest encounter with Jupiter en route to Pluto (see p. 31). The encounter gave the nuclear-powered probe a 9,000-mph. gravity assist for the eight-year cruise to Pluto, and Stern's science team picked up some lessons as it started planning for the 2015 encounter.
Embraer and M1 Travel, a subsidiary of Dubai-based M1 Group, contracted to buy five Embraer 190 aircraft with options for five of the 190s or the larger 195s. The aircraft, which will have steep approach capability, will be leased to Geneva-based Flybaboo, in which the M1 Group is a major shareholder. Flybaboo began operating in May 2004 and flies Dash 8-Q315s to European destinations, including Florence, Italy; Ibiza, Spain; Nice, France; and Prague.
So the FAA wants to institute "User Fees" to access our airspace infrastructure (AW&ST Feb. 19, p. 24)? That is a grand idea! But why stop there? Why not turn unemployment checks, welfare checks and agricultural subsidies into loans? Why not institute a user fee system for access to every other government service? For example, why not have a prompt to input your credit card number whenever you call 911 or any of the government offices listed in the phone book? The possible ways to fund the government are endless.
NASA has shifted its letter contract with United Space Alliance for space shuttle and International Space Station operations support to a fully defined agreement worth $6.34 billion. The final contract covers the period from Oct. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2010--the planned retirement date for the shuttle fleet--and includes five one-year options after that.
When aerospace procurement decisions are based on political factors, rather than objective engineering criteria, smart and capable engineers move to an industry where the successes of their efforts and organizations is correlated. In this context, Reagan's "Star Wars" program helped win the Cold War by forcing the Soviet Union to spend money on an impossible task, but damaged the U.S. aerospace industry by removing the correlation between engineering realism and political success.
With an order for three Boeing 787-8s, Azerbaijan Airlines becomes the first airline in the former Soviet republics to buy the twin-engine jet. It also signed up for two 737-900ERs.
The Bush administration for the first time says it has intelligence proving detailed and ongoing collaboration between Iran and North Korea in the development of new ballistic missiles. The Pentagon has also just released previously secret intelligence data on new Iranian and North Korean ballistic missiles under development. North Korean and Chinese missiles already threaten the Middle East, Asia and Europe and could eventually target the U.S.
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The Antonov An-148-100 regional twinjet has received its airworthiness certificate from the Interstate Aviation Committee, which governs such issues in former Soviet countries. The flight test program began in 2004, with two prototypes performing more than 600 flights for the certification. The An-148-100 can carry up to 80 passengers in an all-economy-class layout, with a maximum range of 3,600 km. (2,250 mi.). Airlines from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia have ordered more than 40 aircraft. The first two are to be delivered by year-end.
Faced with a Government Accountability Office decision sustaining protests by the losing bidders in the $10-15- billion CSAR-X combat search and rescue helicopter competition, the U.S. Air Force is looking for ways to comply with the spirit while avoiding the letter of the GAO recommendations. The bid-protest decision disrupts Air Force leadership attempts to put past procurement scandals behind it. How the service responds will be closely watched, in Congress and industry, and may trigger unwanted scrutiny in future acquisitions.
In "Vanishing Act" (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 44), Rockwell Collins CEO Clayton Jones comments: "So while we're losing experience, we're gaining some innovation and entrepreneurial spirit." Translation: "We will find creative, new ways to make old mistakes."
The Defense Ministry is contracting with BAE to provide flight-line support for its Hawk TMk1 jet trainer aircraft. The £74-million ($144-million) Hawk integrated operational support project will see BAE maintain the Hawk to 2011. The ministry is also seeking a support contract for the Hawk 128 advanced jet trainer now on order.
Norway intends to extend the service life of its P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft by 20-25 years. Oslo has signed a deal with Lockheed Martin for life-extension kits.
Flat sales failed to dent preliminary results of British-headquartered engineering group GKN, with pre-tax profit up 8%. Sales for 2006 stood at £3.634 billion, £14 million less than in 2005. Aerospace sales, however, were up 11%, while profits climbed by 30%.
David Hughes' article "Glass for the Masses" (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 58) missed its mark when he stated "but until recently avionics companies haven't focused as much on soup-to-nuts refits of older cockpits" and did not mention Chelton Flight Systems.
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Even as Airbus has gone from misstep to misstep in its long-range product portfolio, it has been introducing significant efficiency enhancements in its single-aisle production process to keep pace with strong demand (see pp. 37 and 44). In its Hamburg facility, Airbus has introduced a moving line to speed the building of fuselage assemblies, which has allowed the manufacturer to boost output of A320-family aircraft steadily. Another production hike may be in store as Airbus decides whether it can build 40 single-aisle aircraft per month at its Toulouse and Hamburg sites.
Mistral Air, the French postal service's carrier, will start offering charter passenger flights in April. The service aims to increase fleet utilization, by flying aircraft during the day and on weekends in passenger roles and continuing to use them at night for postal missions. Mistral Air is leasing three Boeing 737s, which can be reconfigured in less than 1 hr. from a cargo role (with a 16-18-ton payload) to a full passenger configuration with 142-148 seats. The three aircraft are to be delivered by June.
Helicopter service life extension study work is being funded by the Defense Ministry as it struggles to come up with a coherent Future Rotorcraft Capability program. EADS will study upgrade options for the Royal Air Force's Puma, to extend the helicopter's service life at least until 2022. Up to 35 Pumas could be upgraded with improved engines, avionics, communications and defensive aids.
NASA will need to spend about $1 billion more a year than it has allocated in the past to keep the International Space Station supplied with crews and cargo once the space shuttle fleet is grounded for good in 2010.
Skimming toward its closest approach on Feb. 25, the Philae lander on the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe imaged Mars's Syrtis region and took a self-portrait at the same time (see photo). Four minutes later, the spacecraft passed within 1,000 km. (621 mi.) of the surface in a gravity-boost swingby that will bring it back for another Earth flyby in November. The winding route is designed to take Rosetta and its lander to the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 (AW&ST Mar. 14, 2005, p. 17).
There are plenty of pitfalls ahead for Airbus as it tries to solidify its business and move from crisis management mode onto smooth operations. As if overcoming A380 production problems, designing the A350XWB twin widebody, implementing the Power8 cost-cutting scheme, and boosting production on the single-aisle family weren't enough, the strength of the air transport market continues to present more challenges.
The first launch of a medium-lift Soyuz booster from the Kourou Space Center is increasingly likely to miss its 2008 launch target. But the sting from the latest delay could be eased by unrelated schedule problems with the European Galileo satellite navigation system, which is to provide some of the first payloads for the Europeanized Russian rocket.
