Communications managers at NASA are preparing for the day when humans return to the Moon, taking early steps to provide the first explorers a redundant satellite-communications link with each other and their controllers on Earth. Initial lunar-communications planning by NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) envisions a pair of small satellites in highly elliptical polar orbits, with separate antennas for lunar and lunar-Earth radio links.
Sikorsky Aircraft Co. has opened its Heavy Lift Development Center, which will house program and engineering personnel responsible for developing the USMC CH-53K. First flight is tentatively scheduled for November 2011. About 500 people are expected to work in the Stratford, Conn., building to de- sign, develop, test and manufacture major systems and subsystems.
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Midwest Airlines has rejected AirTran Airways' acquisition overtures, for the second time. In late January, Midwest declined AirTran's initial offer. When the federal waiting period for AirTran's proposed buyout expired Feb. 15 without challenge from the Justice Dept., AirTran CEO Joe Leonard was quick to invite Midwest to the negotiating table. Midwest CEO Timothy Hoeksema turned this down, calling AirTran's offer "inadequate."
Russia has ambitions to spend $188.5 billion in renewing its weapons inventory from 2007-15, according to the defense ministry. A substantial element of the equipment program is to refresh the country's nuclear capability--with all three elements of the triad receiving financial support. A further 50 Topol-M (SS-27) mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles are to be fielded by 2015, along with additional silo-based systems. The submarine capability is to be bolstered by the addition of eight 955/955A-class subs.
DFW Airport handled 281,486 metric tons of international cargo in 2006--a 12.9% increase over 2005. In addition, the airport added seven weekly flights to Asia, two international freight carriers, a new international cargo destination and it opened a nearly 400,000-sq.-ft. cargo facility capable of accommodating two Airbus A380s or three Boeing 747s. A total of 756,598 metric tons of cargo (domestic and international) were handled last year, and DFW has received international recognition as "the best cargo airport," according to CEO Jeff Fegan.
Boeing won a $113.7-million USAF contract increase to the C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership that will add on the 2007 Global Reach Improvement Program retrofits. The package includes secure communications, weather radar replacement, stabilizer struts redesign, formation flight systems, high-frequency data links and defensive systems.
After lagging most of its defense industry peers last year, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s stock is showing new signs of life. Shares are up 11% so far in 2007, closing at $74.96 on Feb. 15. That's not far off the stock's 13% return for all of 2006, which was far behind Lockheed Martin Corp. (up 45%), Raytheon Co. (30%) and General Dynamics Corp. (30%).
Ad Astra Rocket Co. expects to begin operating a 200-kw. "flight-like" engine prototype in ground test by the end of the year. Ad Astra is a Houston-based company that grew out of research into Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr) technology conducted at Johnson Space Center by seven-time shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz. The company has opened a facility in Costa Rica, where Chang-Diaz was born, for life-cycle testing that started at lower power levels in December 2006. Next up is a test series with a 100-kw. unit already in early checkout.
The upcoming CH-47F Chinook upgrade program has--according to the Netherlands Defense Ministry--spawned interest in the Honeywell Avionics Control and Management System glass cockpit (ACMS Block 6) from Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. Honeywell developed the glass cockpit with support from the Royal Netherlands Air Force. According to Boeing, the contract for six CH-47F (NL) helicopters for the Netherlands, the first to use the ACMS Block 6 suite, was signed on Feb. 15, marking the first international sale of the F-model Chinook.
In 1989, when I was 15, I saw two airplanes I could not identify. Several months later, William B. Scott wrote of three secret aircraft that had been reported around the country. I wrote to Aviation Week & Space Technology and within a few weeks, I received a call from Mr. Scott. Instantly the voices of disbelief from those I had told became voices of admiration.
George Vardoulakis (see photos) has become vice president-tactical systems for F/A-18 programs and William J. Schaefer the Washington-based vice president-business development for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems Sector, El Segundo, Calif. Vardoulakis was director of the company's F/A-18E/F program. Schaefer is a former deputy assistant Navy secretary for planning, programming and resources.
Japan's Koichi Wakata and France's Leopold Eyharts have been assigned slots on future long-duration expeditions to the International Space Station. This move continues the trend to broader international participation on the orbiting facility as NASA delivers pressurized modules supplied by the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut assigned to a station expedition, is scheduled to be on board when the last of three elements for Japan's Kibo laboratory arrives in the winter of 2008 on STS-127.
Is anyone awake at the FAA? If not, perhaps they are fatigued after flying with me on a "reduced-crew-rest" trip to Hong Kong. As a 777 captain for a major U.S. airline, our layover times are being reduced to dangerous levels. Imagine flying non-stop (16-plus hr.) from the New York area to Hong Kong and departing for home with as little as 10 hr. block-to-block rest, which yields 6 hr. of hotel sleep, if lucky.
Indonesia is considering a further order for BAE Systems Hawk trainers and light attack aircraft, although wary of the price, which it says is three times as high as some competitors'.
Airbus appeared tantalizingly close last week to signing off on a contract to provide A330-200 tanker-transport aircraft to Saudi Arabia. On Feb. 12, the French ministry of defense announced that it had struck a deal to sell an unspecified number of tankers to Riyadh, only to say hours later that it had spoken too soon. Paris still hopes to wrap up the transaction within a multibillion-euro arms agreement.
Tony Varney (see photo) has become finance director and Roger Lantz vice president-sales and marketing for Central Europe for Saab subsidiary Gripen International. Varney was financial director of the Radar Systems Div. of AMS, while Lantz was vice president-human resources at Saab AB.
EPPS AVIATION AT DEKALB-PEACHTREE AIRPORT in Atlanta has been appointed as a modification center to install the Alliant cockpit in King Air 200s. Avidyne developed the integrated, flat-panel cockpit for retrofitting King Airs with S-TEC and the system includes an IntelliFlight 2100 Digital Flight Control System (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 58).
The time needed by a U.S. warplane to electronically pinpoint an enemy radar is being compressed to less than a second from today's 30-sec. standard. Near-instantaneous computation of the source of electronic emission to within tens of meters or less--even in very crowded radio-frequency environments--is considered a crucial need for development of the Pentagon's portfolio of electronic, network and information attack tactics.
The article "Vanishing Act" appears to have missed the fundamental cause for decline in the ranks of aerospace and defense engineers during the past two decades. Further, the Viewpoint by Deloitte Consulting's Tim Short and Jim Schwendinger goes in the direction that, at best, is triage (AW&ST Feb. 5, pp. 44 and 54).
Latin American Air Transport Assn. (ALTA) member airlines carried 92.4 million passengers last year, a 3.9% increase in traffic compared with 2005. Varig service cuts caused a slight decline in traffic (0.6%) and capacity (0.2%) during the year, which in part reduced overall load factor by three percentage points to 70.8%, compared to 2005.
Details about President Bush's Fiscal 2008 budget continue to trickle out. The large version of the active electronically scanned array MP-RTIP radar--a key element of the now canceled E-10 multi-sensor command and control aircraft--is still alive and being considered by the U.S. Air Force as an upgrade to the E-8 Joint Stars long-range surveillance aircraft. In its smaller version, the radar remains in the budget as an upgrade to the Global Hawk Block 40 long-endurance, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
The U.S. government's outsourcing of information technology work will increase nearly 6% annually, reaching $18 billion by 2011, according to a new forecast by Input, an IT market research firm in Reston, Va. It notes that as federal agencies move to shift more core IT activities to the private sector, they're moving away from mega-contracts, breaking up work into pieces that can be outsourced without a lot of red tape.
David Bond, David Collogan and John M. Doyle (Washington)
Now, at least, everyone knows what they're arguing about. Nearly a year later than promised and after more than two years of jockeying for position among aviation groups, the FAA unveiled a user-fee-based funding plan for air traffic control that will pit two of the most powerful congressional lobbying organizations--airlines and general/business aviation--against each other.
