Egypt has accepted the last of the 35 remanufactured AH-64D attack helicopters it ordered from Boeing. The remanufactured Apaches will be maintained by Boeing through a support contract.
US Airways has taken delivery of its first 99-seat Embraer 190. The carrier has 25 firm orders for Embraer 190s and 32 options. The aircraft type will begin flying in February from the airline's Philadelphia hub to Hartford, Conn.; Boston; Dallas/Fort Worth; Providence, R.I.; and Manchester, N.H.
Eumetsat is studying two alternatives for a planned third-generation geostationary orbit weather system, designated MTG, that is intended to replace the existing second-generation network around 2015. Three instruments--an imager, infrared sounder and lightning imager--are planned for the new system. However, the European Space Agency says development of the IR sounder is on the critical path and could take until 2017. A fallback solution of buying one from the U.S. has been rejected by Eumetsat as too expensive.
I must disagree somewhat with the reader Mark Greenaway's letter "Expand To Meet Demand at PHL" (AW&ST Dec. 11, 2006, p. 8), especially after the chaos there Dec. 13-16. US Airways is a disaster at Philadelphia International Airport; no amount of added capacity will get that airline or city's employees to load luggage and try to deliver their paying passengers on time. I am also appalled that what happened that week occurred before, which received lots of coverage and promises never to let it happen again. This time, there was not a bit of news coverage.
A 3-hr. contact with a Block IIR GPS satellite provided a successful demonstration of the Architecture Evolution Plan that Boeing is implementing for a new GPS ground station at Schriever AFB, Colo. Boeing is migrating the current ground control system to a distributed Unix-based system that is to be operational in April. The Schriever control center commands 32 GPS satellites now in orbit and replacements.
After years of discussions at the Pentagon about a common system, the Marine Corps has decided to shift from its Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles to the Shadow, a newer system also used by the Army, for future short-range reconnaissance. The Pioneer, jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and AAI, has been a Navy and Marine Corps mainstay. But a Pentagon official says the Marines can buy three times as many Shadow UAVs, also made by AAI, with funding now allotted to Pioneer, which will be phased out as the Shadows are purchased and put into service.
Germany's air traffic controllers are threatening a potentially devastating strike for as early as this week if they cannot agree on negotiations with air traffic control provider Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS).
The new Category-2 instrument landing system at Ramstein AB, Germany, was used the day after Christmas to land, in low visibility, a C-17 carrying 14 American patients from Iraq. The system had been declared operational only four days before. The base requires Cat.-2 (100-ft. ceiling and 370 meters visibility) or Cat.-3 (ground-level ceiling and 200 meters visibility) operations on an average of 35 days a year. The capability is part of the Rhein Main Transition Program, which shifts military traffic from Frankfurt International Airport.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and General Electric are aiding Indonesian investigators to determine why an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 cruising at 35,000 ft. with 102 people on board vanished from radar screens. At the same time, Indonesian search-and-rescue team members late last week were using military aircraft to search for wreckage.
The French government has issued a call for tenders to upgrade 18 aging Alphajet advanced trainers. The upgrade will include a new cockpit, head-up display, weapon management system, inertial guidance system and GPS receiver. The kits will be installed by air force shops in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne. Bids are due Apr. 27.
Thomas B. Pickens, 3rd, has become president/CEO of Houston-based Spacehab. He succeeds Michael E. Kearney, who has retired. Barry A. Williamson has been named chairman of the board, succeeding Shelley A. Harrison, who did not seek reelection. Williamson is a lawyer in Austin, Tex., and was chairman of the Audit Committee.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has signed a contract with US Helicopter Corp. and McNeil Security Inc., to establish private sector passenger and baggage screening for airport shuttle services at New York's 34th Street Heliport. US Helicopter will pay for the screening personnel, to be provided by McNeil Security. TSA will provide screening equipment and oversee security operations. The New York heliport joins six airports using private airport screeners rather than TSA employees under the Screening Partnership Program.
Boeing has joined a $54-million research program called Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation, which was established by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and Australia's Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO). Boeing will work with DSTO and the University of Queensland on three critical flight tests and contribute to the design of a free-flying WaveRider-type hypersonic vehicle. Plans call for 10 test flights over five years at the Woomera test range in South Australia.
Unless the private space launch industry beats governments to the punch and self-polices itself in its early days with regard to environmental impact, participant Richard Branson and his Virgin Atlantic Airways won't be accomplishing much with having their aircraft towed to runways.
Pakistan will be the beneficiary of a $5.9-million contract add-on to Raytheon for the conversion of 310 AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to AIM-9M-8/9 missiles for export, and procurement of 10 captive air training missiles and 20 guidance control sections under the U.S. foreign military sales program.
Joe Rivera has been appointed director of Bombardier Aircraft Services' Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Service Center. He was director of aircraft services for Gulfstream Aerospace.
For the second year, Boeing has set a company order record, selling a net 1,044 jets in 2006 on the back of especially strong appeal for its 737 Next Generation single-aisle family.
The Virgin Atlantic proposal to tow aircraft to the runway is superficially attractive, but how will the tugs get back to the ramp from the runway? There will usually be a queue of aircraft behind the departing Virgin 747, many if not all with wingspans greater than the width of the taxiway, and the location of their engines will prevent the tugs from ducking under the outboard wings. A quick look at the taxi charts shows that not all airports have alternative routes between ramp and holding point, so how the tugs are to return is not obvious.
David A. Fulghum and Michael J. Fabey (Washington)
As the F-22 begins its operational life, interest has turned to assessing just how well suited the stealthy Raptor is to its role as the premier air-to-air fighter, while taking a peek at some of the surprises for pilots and maintenance crews as they explore what the aircraft can do. As part of the research for this series of articles on the F-22, Michael Fabey flew in the back seat of an F-15D while the Eagle and Raptor pilots demonstrated their aircraft's capabilities in the air-to-air ranges at Tyndall AFB, Fla.
Astronomers working with the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope believe they have found evidence of the first visible structure in the Universe, clumps of patchy infrared light that can be observed when the light of closer stars and galaxies is masked. "We have shut down the lights of the universe to see the outlines of its first fireworks," says Alexander Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the lead author of two reports on the findings to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
AirTran Airways advises it will report a fourth-quarter 2006 loss. Officials say revenue trends were poorer than anticipated, down 6.5-7.5% in revenue per available seat miles, compared with the prediction of flat revenue to a slight decline. The airline is offering deeply discounted fares in a sale launched this month.
The first of two 737-700ERs for launch customer All Nippon Airways has rolled out from Boeing's Renton, Wash., factory. ANA is expected to configure the aircraft with all business-class seats.
The pair of holiday snowstorms that pounded Denver International Airport (DIA) and stranded thousands of passengers also provided a real-life laboratory on how to function--or not function--during a weather crisis. Just as the second storm was about to hit Dec. 28, airline and airport personnel spent 4 hr. going over lessons learned from the first, a blizzard-like blast that caused snowdrifts of up to 12 ft.
