International Launch Services used a Russian Proton rocket to orbit a big direct-broadcast satellite for the Riyadh-based Arab Satellite Communications Organization. It was the first ILS-organized launch since Lockheed Martin sold its interest in the U.S.-Russian joint venture. Liftoff of the Proton Breeze M came at 3:01 p.m. EST Nov. 8 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and the BADR-4 spacecraft reached its geostationary transfer orbit successfully. It is slated to operate from the Arabsat slot at 26 deg. E. Long.
The Marine Corps (USMC) is still in a quandary about how to replace its EA-6B jamming aircraft, but James E. Pitts, president of Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems Sector, says he's working on the answer. Company engineers are cutting the cost of electronic attack equipment by modifying aircraft--manned and unmanned--with equipment packaged in pods.
The Democratic takeover in the House could affect the ongoing dispute over aviation user fees. Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) is poised to take the chair of the House aviation subcommittee but he may face a challenge from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who used to be the subcommittee's senior Democrat. The next chairman will have a major impact on FAA reauthorization, which comes due next year. Transportation Dept.
Cathay Pacific Airways will equip five Airbus A330s and 18 Boeing 777s with Rockwell Collins's Airshow 4200D moving map and in-flight information systems. Deliveries are due to start next summer. The new 4200D has a digital video interface, to take advantage of the latest inflight entertainment systems with all-digital displays.
The Travel Industry Assn. of America (TIA) forecasts leisure travel to increase 1-2% in 2007, after rising about 2% this year. In the U.S., domestic business travel is likely to be constrained in the short-term by weak CEO confidence, slow growth in corporate profits, competition from video conferencing and other technologies and strict corporate control over travel budgets. Domestic business travel is expected to be flat in 2006 when the final figures are counted, with 1-2% growth expected next year. TIA says the Air Transport Assn.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Gregory Martin has become senior Air Force associate, USAF Gen. (ret.) Lance Lord senior associate for space and USN Rear Adm. (ret.) Riley Mixson senior Navy associate, all for the Durango (Colo.) Group.
The Australian Defense Ministry will now start fleshing out the requirements for its Air 7000 phase 1 maritime surveillance unmanned aircraft project, having completed demonstration work performed by two U.S. contenders. General Atomics flew a Mariner UAV for 75.5 hr. during nearly 30 days of tests. Ian Sare, trial project leader at the ministry's Defense Science and Technology Office, says planned objectives were achieved.
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels aerial demonstration team is celebrating its 60th anniversary this season. On most spring, summer and autumn weekends, six Boeing F/A-18 Hornets perform a spectrum of dynamic air show maneuvers before thousands of spectators, typically as a four-aircraft Diamond formation and dual-fighter Solos. Occasionally, they rendezvous for a six-Hornet "set," usually toward the end of a demonstration. In most maneuvers, the Diamond's pilots fly 12-18 in. apart, living by a "Trust and Confidence" credo that permeates the entire Blue Angels squadron (see p.
Singapore Airlines has selected Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines to power a new fleet of 19 Airbus A330-300s. Deliveries are scheduled to begin early in 2009. About 70% of Singapore's fleet is powered by Rolls-Royce, and last year Asia-Pacific airlines accounted for about one-third of the company's orders--up from about 25% the previous year. As business opportunities in the region increase, Rolls-Royce officials are planning to expand operations in Singapore by doubling the existing workforce to nearly 1,600 people.
The Pentagon's inspector general says the Army's Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) program has internal control problems and that officials moved forward with milestone decisions before obtaining warfighter requirements from the Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council. The program will replace selected M-16 rifles, the M-4 carbine and the M-203 grenade launcher with a lightweight weapon that can fire 5.56-mm. kinetic-energy projectiles and 25-mm. airburst munitions to defeat targets hiding behind structures, vehicles or terrain features.
NASA and Lockheed Martin are trying to regain full communications with the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft, which appears to have entered a preprogrammed safe mode after having difficulty moving one of its solar arrays on Nov. 2. Since then, controllers at the Lockheed Martin Mission Support Area near Denver have received only four sporadic signals from MGS, on Nov. 5, indicating the Lockheed Martin-built orbiter has entered safe mode to await further instructions.
In "What's Plan B?" (AW&ST Oct. 16, p. 32), you quote two retired generals. Regarding North Korea's recent nuclear test, the first general (not identified by name in the immediate context) says, "If we had taken out their missile launch sites before the July [missile] tests, that might have made our point about not going ahead with the nuclear tests." And just what point would this general like to make? And what would such actions have accomplished?
Michael P. Morgan (see photo) has been named head of multi-int strategy for Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, Falls Church, Va. He was an official with the CIA's Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
International visitors to the U.S. are forecast this year to exceed the number who came in 2000 for the first time since 9/11, says TIA. There were 51.2 million visitors to the U.S. in 2000. The forecast for this year is 51.4 million, with a 5% gain to 54 million in 2007 and more than 60 million by 2010. However, growth in inbound travel is slowing, with softness in key markets including travel to the U.S. from the U.K. and Europe. International travel from the U.S.
The defense industry and military like to complain they are misunderstood by the general public, and if people just had a closer look, they wouldn't be so critical. But be careful what you wish for, because, indeed it is time for taxpayers to pay closer attention.
The Bombardier Challenger 605 has been certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the FAA. Meanwhile, Bombardier delivered the first Challenger 850 business jet, to a Russian customer on Nov. 8. The airplane is a corporate derivative of the CRJ200 regional jet.
Aerospace and defense companies will be sending a lot more engineering work offshore in coming years, but their primary motivation won't be low-wage labor. Instead, offshoring will be driven by strategic considerations, such as gaining access to emerging markets and using overseas engineers to help compensate for a shortage of high-tech workers in the West.
editorial director Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. editor-in-chief Sharon Weinberger managing editor Glenn W. Goodman, Jr. assistant managing editor Michael Stearns military editor David Axe senior technology editor Pat Toensmeier contributing editors Peter A. Buxbaum Michael Dumiak David Eshel Ann Finkbeiner
A Dutch ship will take part in the upcoming test of the U.S. Sea-based Missile Defense system, using its long-range radar to track a tactical ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii. The HNLMS Tromp, an air defense frigate in the Royal Netherlands Navy, is scheduled to take part in the missile defense test scheduled for December. As in previous trials of the Sea-based Missile Defense system, a U.S. warship will attempt to shoot down a missile over the Pacific using an interceptor fired from an Aegis cruiser.
A wiring debacle is setting back the debut of Airbus's new A380 jetliner by two years. Boeing botched development of a new generation of classified imagery satellites so badly that the U.S. government turned the contract over to Lockheed Martin last year. And the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle being developed for the U.S. Marine Corps by General Dynamics is struggling to meet reliability requirements, putting it in the crosshairs of budget cutters.
The possible sale of a surveillance satellite to the Persian Gulf region could signal a change in long-standing U.S. attempts to limit proliferation of high-resolution imagery.
Contributing Editor Pierre Sparaco, who writes Aviation Week & Space Technology's fortnightly column "A European Perspective," has won a lifetime achievement award from the Aero-Club de France. Sparaco was recognized for his more than 40 years in aviation journalism, including 13 years at AW&ST where he was Paris bureau chief and senior European editor. He also had been editor-in-chief of French Aviation magazine. Sparaco's book, Airbus: The True Story, was released in English in June.
Pacific Aerospace Corp.'s achievement of FAA approval for instrument flight rules (IFR) operations is expected to give the PAC 750 a boost in U.S. sales where it's found seven customers for VFR operations among sport parachuting operators. The New Zealand manufacturer won IFR approval in its home market, Australia, South Africa and Europe. Powered by a single 750-shp. Pratt & Whitney PTC-34, the PAC 750 is a derivative of the Creco 750 agricultural plane. Pacific Aerospace widened the cabin to seat 10 or up to 17 skydivers.
The BA609 tiltrotor program now has two prototypes flying, after the second model completed its inaugural mission Nov. 10 at the Italian air force base Cameri. The rotorcraft is being built by a joint venture of Bell Helicopter Textron and Finmeccanica's Agusta Aerospace. A third model is being readied at AgustaWestland's facility in Cameri, while a fourth is undergoing final assembly at Bell in Fort Worth.
