Anatoly Perminov, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, says the nation intends to complete its ongoing Glonass upgrade and build-out by the end of 2009, with a full constellation of 24 spacecraft in orbit. The upgrade includes a new ground segment aimed at facilitating the use of Glonass by civil users. By 2010, Roscosmos predicts the system will have at least 80,000 customers.
Jim Gregory and Jim Kandt have formed TriAd Aviation Marketing, Wichita, Kan. Gregory was a senior communications executive for the Raytheon Aircraft Co., while Kandt was art director at Sullivan Higdon and Sink.
Thales is continuing to prove its TopFlight satellite communications system for commercial aircraft with a test toward the end of September that utilized a satellite link and a remote ground station to access the Internet. A lab-housed system used a roof-mounted antenna to communicate with an Inmarsat, with the signal forwarded to an Inmarsat ground station where Internet access--the Google search engine--was provided. Thales is supplying the satellite communications systems as part of the OnAir inflight voice and data service being offered by SITA and Airbus.
Boosted by a stronger than anticipated financial performance for the year, Ryanair is further expanding its fleet of 737-800s by exercising options for 32 of the single-aisle aircraft. Ryanair late last month raised its full-year profit guidance to €335 million ($425 million), or 11% from the previous year; it earlier estimated growth at 5-10% over 2005 results. In parallel, it announced the additional orders, which will bring its fleet to 281 737s. Deliveries of the type are slated for September 2008-June 2009.
Northwest Airlines, as part of its major restructuring effort, on Oct. 5 placed firm orders for 36 Bombardier CRJ900 and 36 Embraer 175 aircraft, both types to be powered by General Electric CF34 engines. Bombardier said the carrier also has taken options on 96 CRJ900s. The order's price value is $1.35 billion, $5.18 billion if all options are exercised. According to Embraer, Northwest holds options on another 36 Embraer 175s, which list for $35 million each. Northwest also has rolling purchase rights on 100 additional aircraft.
Seemingly minor exploration procedures and processes NASA's Constellation Program is selecting today will gain significance in the decades ahead, rippling across the Solar System to Mars and beyond.
Boeing's consolidation of single-aisle aircraft production at Renton has resulted in two large transfers of property for nonindustrial use. Ground was broken in mid-August on the Lakeshore Landing Phase I shopping mall development of Boeing Realty Corp. Construction should begin shortly. A Phase II project has been designated but is awaiting approval by local authorities.
Howard Lewis, who is head of the NASA Langley Research Center's Flight Research Services Directorate, has received the Federal Aviation Professional Award from the U.S. General Services Administration. The winner is selected from all federal aviation agencies. GSA sponsors the Federal Aviation Awards to honor the safest and most effective and efficient programs.
"Learning to live and work in space" is a long-established, never-questioned reason for building the International Space Station, and one lesson learned so far is not to try it again in the same way. In a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Spain, William Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for space operations, notes that the ISS weighs about the same as the spacecraft that would be needed for a mission to Mars, but the 20-plus Earth-to-orbit flights required to build the station would be impractical for assembling a planetary expedition.
France has OK'd four new projects for its Aerospace Valley research cluster initiative: a high-speed data network to link airlines to aircraft on the ground, led by Rockwell Collins; an open-source distance training tool, involving EADS Astrium and French space agency CNES; an opto-pyrotechnic technology program to enhance launcher stage and spacecraft separation; and a high-performance titanium machining process to boost productivity on large components by 30%.
The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to astrophysicists John C. Mather of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and George F. Smoot of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California-Berkeley, for their work on the space agency's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite.
The Pentagon's offer in the Turkish fighter competition is valued at up to $2.9 billion, covering 30 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50 fighters. The package includes the Northrop Grumman APG-68(V)9 radar, as well as a choice of the ITT ALQ-211 and BAE Systems ALQ-178 electronic warfare suite. Also included would be 42 General Electric F110-129 engines and 36 helmet-mounted cueing systems.
USN Lt. Teague Laguen (right) briefs Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief William B. Scott on the Navy's new MH-60R Seahawk, prior to a demonstration flight in one of HSM-41 squadron's first four "Romeos" (see p. 58). The unit's instructor cadre will start training MH-60R pilots and sensor operators late this year. Scott, a former USAF flight test engineer and 22-year veteran of AW&ST, has logged about 2,000 hr. on 76 different types of aircraft.
By year-end, Airbus plans to unveil the most controversial aspects of its effort to become more competitive by streamlining its extended industrial structure. But German political leaders are already warning the company not to jeopardize that country's stake. Airbus CEO Christian Streiff says part of the aircraft maker's overhaul will involve tackling the "taboos" that have existed. One of them is the industrial alignment, with manufacturing split throughout the four main Airbus countries, France, Germany, the U.K. and Spain.
The second of the two Voyager spacecraft should cross the termination shock wave, where the solar wind drops below the deep-space analogy for supersonic speed, sometime in the coming year. At that point, it will have passed out of the "bubble" of particles flowing from the Sun and into a turbulent region where the solar wind mixes with the "wind" from other stars. Voyager 1 passed termination shock on Dec. 16, 2004, and its magnetometer detected the change (AW&ST June 20, 2005, p. 65).
Michael A. Taverna and Frank Morring, Jr. (Valencia, Spain)
Space leaders appear increasingly confident that they will meet a self-appointed deadline to have an integrated global Earth observation network up and running by the middle of the next decade.
Congress approved compromise legislation to phase out Wright-Amendment restrictions on operations at Dallas Love Field over eight years. The bill followed closely the main points of an agreement between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and agreed to by rivals Southwest and American airlines, as well as Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The deal includes a cap of 20 gates at Love Field, which essentially bars competitive challenges to Southwest or American.
European Space Agency recruiters will soon begin placing help-wanted ads for new astronauts to staff its Columbus laboratory, now set for launch to the International Space Station in October 2007. ''Today, we have only seven astronauts ready to fly,'' Daniel Sacotte, ESA human spaceflight director, tells the International Astronautical Congress in Valencia, Spain. "We are planning, after the launch of Columbus, to start a new recruitment campaign.'' Columbus operations will strain Europe's tiny astronaut corps.
Frank Morring, Jr. and Michael A. Taverna (Valencia, Spain)
A broad-brush framework for future international exploration of the Moon should be ready by the end of the year, now that NASA has satisfied its partners that it doesn't intend to leave their space station hardware on the ground.
Gregory F. Milzcik has been named president/chief executive of the Barnes Group, Bristol, Conn., effective Oct. 19. He will succeed Edmund M. Carpenter, who is retiring. Milzcik has been chief operating officer and a director.
Herve Muller has been appointed president of NCR Corp. subsidiary Kinetics, Lake Mary, Fla. He was vice president-sales and marketing for North America for Atlanta-based SITA Inc.
NASA and the FAA aren't worried about operating under a continuing resolution, at least for now. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says the agency expected the CR and is prepared to continue living at Fiscal 2006 levels. FAA CFO Ramesh Punwani sees no serious problems unless the CR continues into January. Congress left town for the November elections without passing either agency's Fiscal 2007 appropriation--or any of the others except Defense and Homeland Security. A lame-duck session is tentatively set for Nov.
Stork management faces at least several more months of turmoil before questions fundamental to the future of the main Dutch aerospace manufacturer are resolved. Company executives are dealing on the one hand with an initiative by key shareholders to revamp the enterprise and focus exclusively on aerospace, and on the other with political forces which are threatening the Netherlands' participation in the U.S.-led Joint Strike Fighter program. The outcome of both will be instrumental in shaping Stork's growth plans.
The South African air force is struggling with the operational use of its Rooivalk attack helicopter. The country bought 16 of the indigenously developed rotorcraft, and a dozen should now be flying. But problems abound, including low operational availability and parts obsolescence on some of the first-fielded rotorcraft. There are training challenges, too, and the air force is eyeing a fleet-standardization program to smooth operations.
USMC Lt. Gen. (ret.) Michael A. Hough has been appointed to the board of directors of EADS North America Defense, Arlington, Va. He was deputy USMC commandant for aviation and director of its Joint Strike Fighter program.
