Automated satellite servicing perfectly illustrates the dichotomy in the approaches of Europe and the U.S. to space research. U.S. efforts, focused on the Orbital Express project, are led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), with Boeing and Ball Aerospace as the main contractors. Geared to Defense Dept. requirements but with possible commercial spinoffs, Orbital Express aims to test autonomous component exchange, refueling and automatic rendezvous/docking techniques using chase and target satellites (AW&ST June 5, 2006, p. 47).
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IS SENDING NINE OFFICIALS, including Li Zongji, deputy director general of the Air Traffic Management Bureau, to this year's Civil and Military Air Traffic Management Summit. The Air Traffic Control Assn. meeting is being held in Asia for the first time. AeroThai, Thailand's air navigation service provider, is hosting this year's meeting in Bangkok Feb. 26-Mar. 1. FAA and U.S. Defense Dept.
India could be on the brink of opting for a European solution for an army contract for 197 light helicopters, although the U.S. competitor insists it is still in the race. Some say Eurocopter's AS 550 Fennec will replace the aging fleet of Chetaks (Alouette II) and Cheetahs (Alouette III), leaving Bell Helicopter's 407 in the dust. India's Army Aviation Corps proposes to buy 60 helos outright with the remaining 137 to be built under license by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. in a $500-600-million deal. The new rotary wings will be used to ferry loads of up to 165 lb.
FAA, DEFENSE DEPT., AEROSPACE INDUSTRY and airline officials will meet at an RTCA-hosted symposium on Mar. 19 in Washington to review FAA plans for a next-generation air traffic system. Officials from the European Air Traffic Alliance will also participate. Panels will discuss the FAA's Operational Evolution Partnership and the bridge to what is now being called the NextGen system for U.S. air transportation. NextGen was recently known as the Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS).
Japan Airlines' latest strategic plan has failed to impress industry analysts, who say the company will continue to struggle until it acts more decisively to cut costs. The airline plans to haul staff numbers down by 8% during the coming three years, to 48,800 from the present 53,100, and it will maintain the reduced salaries that were introduced last year.
Keri Kohler has become executive assistant and scheduler for the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. She was executive assistant to U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler.
Gail Delaney (see photos) has been promoted to vice president/controller from assistant controller of ITT Night Vision, Roanoke, Va. Mike Alvis has been appointed vice president-programs. He was director of Value-Based Leadership Development at ITT Defense, McLean, Va.
When the House proposed legislation last month requiring that a system be put in place within the next three years to screen for explosives all cargo loaded onto U.S. airliners, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said it would be too costly and impede the flow of commerce. The measure passed anyway and a similar one is under consideration in the Senate. TSA has estimated it would cost $3.5 billion over the next five years, requiring 8,000 additional screeners and a $1.6-billion investment in explosives detection machines.
China faces sharp criticism this week over its Jan. 11 test of an anti-satellite weapon, as a U.N. panel in Vienna buckles down to setting international guidelines for controlling manmade space debris. China's representatives already have faced pointed complaints from the U.S., France, Germany and Japan at the opening session of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. A technical subcommittee that has spent two years devising debris-mitigation standards--with Chinese participation--is set to begin work this week on a final draft. The U.S.
A 30% lowering of its landing fees over the past three years has been bringing some positive news to San Francisco International Airport. Southwest Airlines says it's ready to return to SFO after leaving in 2001. The move marks the carrier's third consecutive expansion into a United Airlines hub, having launched services at Denver last spring and Washington Dulles in the fall.
Airbus has significantly raised its forecast for Chinese commercial aircraft demand over the coming 20 years, boosting an outlook for narrowbodies that it raised only last year by 66%. The manufacturer sees China buying 2,050 narrowbodies by 2025, up from the 1,900 it forecast last year for the same period. Airbus also has increased its outlook for aircraft in the A380 class to 180 units. Last year it slashed that forecast to 113 from previous projections of around 200. Airbus also says China will buy 800 other twin-aisle aircraft.
Enough of the old pilots and young pilots screaming at each other. The FAA should sponsor a high-quality analysis to determine how much risk is expected to increase as a result of changing the pilot-age rule. Adequate data and analysis methods are available. The downside would be to put the decision about the age rule on a rational and transparent basis!
Frustrated with the spiraling cost of an $11-billion program to improve the C-5 transport, the U.S. Air Force's chief of staff says it's unlikely the service will upgrade its 60 C-5A models, leaving modifications only to 49 Bs and two Cs. This could ultimately prompt the Air Force to reverse its decision not to fund additional C-17 purchases and could possibly force officials to more closely consider cargo capacity for the KC-X tanker competition between Boeing's 767 and a Northrop Grumman/EADS North America A330 option.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley rebuts reports that he was unhappy with his service's choice last year of a Boeing Chinook-based design for the future Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter (CSAR-X) (AW&ST Feb. 5, p. 21). At the end of a press conference at the annual Air Force Assn. meeting in Orlando, Fla., this month, he tried to set the record straight. "That's a big helicopter," he remarked about Boeing's design. The winner wasn't his top choice, but "we'll make this work."
The U.S. has formally told Australia that current policy rules out selling them the Lockheed Martin F-22, helping the government there to fend off an increasingly noisy push to buy the Raptor instead of the same company's F-35 Lightning II to replace F/A-18A/Bs and F-111s. Rejecting the F-22, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson says it is primarily an air-to-air machine with inadequate strike capability unless it carries external weapons that greatly raise its radar reflections.
Progress on the British government's Defense Industrial Strategy is generally good, according to a report by the Parliament's Defense Committee. But there are significant problem areas. A lack of headway on consolidating the maritime manufacturing sector threatens to delay the next-generation aircraft carrier. A lack of clarity on the nature of technology access assurances over participation in the Joint Strike Fighter also concerns the committee.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
Five years after their spectacular implosion, low-Earth-orbit satellite-communications constellations are on the mend. The so-called big and little LEOs have emerged from a round of bankruptcies and takeovers triggered by the telecom collapse, terrestrial competition and overly-optimistic business plans into what one executive calls "a high-end niche market" that needs continuous voice and data connectivity.
The North American Trisonic Wind Tunnel, which North American Aviation opened in 1956 in the aerospace industrial sector of El Segundo south of Los Angeles International Airport, is nearing the end of its run. North American's successor, Rockwell, donated the tunnel and the 3.5 acres it sits on to the University of California at Los Angeles in 1998, which has been renting it out ever since. The current lease, to Triumph Aerospace Systems, expires in September. UCLA will sell the acreage.
The U.S. Defense Dept. says a Feb. 7 Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crash in Iraq resulted from enemy action in Al Anbar province. Five Marines and two sailors were killed. Seven U.S. helicopters have been shot down in Iraq since Jan. 2.
Megan Rosia has been named assistant FAA administrator for government and industry affairs, Melanie Alvord assistant administrator for communications and D. Kirk Shaffer associate administrator for airports. Rosia was managing director for government affairs/associate general counsel for Northwest Airlines. Alvord was assistant staff director for communications and administration for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Shaffer was general counsel to the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority.
The French defense ministry is starting to explore exoatmospheric missile defense options. The military is planning to award a small-scale architecture study to examine the needs for an independent intercept capability that could destroy missiles with a 3,000-km. range. The goal is to identify medium- and long-term needs, potential costs and possible fielding time lines.
A second accident, this time involving an F-16 at Luke AFB, Ariz., on Oct. 26 was attributed to mechanical failure. The accident board determined that a third-stage fan disk malfunction created a fracture in the airframe and penetrated the fuel tank, starting a fire that caused the engine to explode.
Telecom satellite operator Eutelsat posted solid growth once again in the first half of the 2006-07 fiscal year, driven by unflagging demand in satellite video demand.
