The U.S. Navy's new MH-60R Seahawk is bringing orders-of-magnitude improvements to surface and undersea warfare, both in open ocean and close-to-shore littoral environments. The next-generation submarine hunter's sophisticated mission avionics also make the helicopter a critical node in the maritime service's network-centric warfare architecture.
The final Challenger 604 business jet rolled off the production line in Montreal on Oct. 3. It will be completed by Midcoast Aviation and enter service in the second quarter of 2007. Some 365 Challenger 604s were built. The twin-engine jet will be replaced by the Challenger 605, which is completing Transport Canada certification at Bombardier's flight test center in Wichita, Kan. First customer delivery is planned for the third quarter of 2007.
Alvin B. (Buzzy) Krongard has been appointed to the board of directors of Iridium Satellite, Bethesda, Md. He is former chairman/CEO of Alex. Brown Inc. and was vice chairman of Bankers Trust.
Astronomers at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory in Tucson have observed protoplanetary disks orbiting stars like the Sun ripped apart by intense ultraviolet light and solar wind from powerful O-type stars in the vicinity.
Tailored arrivals have finally made it to the U.S. And if all goes as planned, flight trials at San Francisco International Airport will lead to fuel-saving operations late next year, which could then spread to other U.S. airports.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved the merger of Lockheed Martin's and Boeing's government launch businesses despite admission at various levels of government that the United Launch Alliance (ULA) will stifle competition in the military space business. The FTC crafted a consent order to attempt to preserve as much competition as possible despite the merger of Boeing's Delta IV and Lockheed Martin's Atlas V operations.
Garrett Hoffman criticizes the educational system for industries' need to outsource engineering work to India (AW&ST Sept. 18, p. 6). Yet in the same issue (p. 36) Dassault CEO Charles Edelstenne, complaining about subcontractors, points to a "rash of mergers that have led to 'a significant loss of know-how'" for some of Dassault's delays, noting that they had to loan 60 engineers to Honeywell to complete work on its EASy cockpit for the 7X.
Robinson Helicopter Co. has delivered its 3,000th R44, to Segrave Aviation of North Carolina. The R44 received FAA certification late in 1992, and deliveries began early in 1993. The company says it has become the best-selling rotorcraft in the world.
Swedish efforts to launch development of a dual-use satellite for national defense and security applications may run afoul of guidelines issued by the new conservative government to trim government spending. However, Swedish Space Corp. officials say the military interest that led to funding for feasibility studies earlier this year is still strong, and that money appears to be available for early definition of the small satellite mission.
Launch of MetOp, Europe's first polar orbiting weather satellite, has been rescheduled for Oct. 17, a 10-day delay due to a handling incident on Sept. 30. Eumetsat says a crane loading the satellite/Fregat upper-stage composite onto a flatbed car dropped it "a few centimeters." A subsequent inspection ensured the spacecraft and other hardware were undamaged. Ground-segment glitches have delayed MetOp's launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome several times.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Charles G. Boyd has been named to the board of directors of DRS Technologies Inc., Parsippany, N.J. He is president/CEO of Business Executives for National Security and was deputy commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in Europe.
The Dutch government says it will sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. in November on its continued participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The move is aimed at pre-empting a retreat from the project that a front-running party in the late November election has threatened. A decision on buying the F-35 is not expected until 2009.
Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corp., is among this year's winners of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Prize in Education, which is awarded by The McGraw-Hill Companies, parent of Aviation Week & Space Technology. The prize recognizes "individuals who have dedicated themselves to improving education in the U.S. and whose accomplishments are making a difference today," according to the company.
John W. Dietrich has been promoted to executive vice president/chief operating officer from senior vice president for Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., Purchase, N.Y.
The two entrepreneurial companies that NASA chose to share almost a half billion dollars in government seed money already have made a comparable investment in private funds to start a commercial space transportation industry.
When President Ronald Reagan delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy in May 1986, he told the graduating class: "Inspiration springs from great traditions. Guard the traditions of your service, built in the foothills of the Rockies and in the air over Ploesti, 'MiG Alley,' Red River Valley and a thousand other places." He was referring, of course, to valor, courage and sacrifice among other great traditions that have been the bedrock of the Air Force since it was formed nearly 60 years ago.
The Canadian Space Agency plans to reinforce its small satellite effort. Virendra Jha, vice president for science, technology and programs, says the agency wants to launch one microsatellite and one nanosatellite cluster every two years, or one small mission a year. Among the missions planned are Radarsat-3, a formation of three C-band spacecraft to follow Radarsat-2, which is set for launch in March or April 2007. The list includes an Earth observation package called Finuc and a hyperspectral mission.
The U.S. Defense Dept. has OK'd Boeing's sale of $300 million worth of electronics and munitions for Finland's F/A-18 Mid-Life Upgrade program. The sale will include radar upgrades plus new Joint Direct Attack Munitions, Joint Standoff Weapons, Stand-Off Land Attack Missile/ Expanded Response systems and Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles.
AirTran Airways can manage comfortably at crude oil prices of $60 a barrel, an unheard-of claim only a few years ago. Chairman Joseph Leonard said this before the astronomical price jumps this year. He reiterated his statement last week as fuel prices continued to abate, with crude oil futures sliding to the $60 range. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines reduced its fuel surcharge by €5 on intercontinental flights and €1 for intra-European flights. Other airlines mulled reductions.
Jeremiah Gertler has been appointed assistant vice president-defense policy for the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. He was a senior fellow and lead analyst on missile defense and base closure issues for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Sikorsky has received Pentagon approval for the sale of six S-70B helicopters and 13 T-700-401C engines to Brazil. The aircraft would be used for search-and-rescue operations and maritime support. The deal is worth up to $300 million.
A perceived capability gap in the U.S. air-launched weapons inventory to attack deeply-buried hardened targets could provide an entry point to the Pentagon for a European cruise missile. Tentative discussions are underway which could lead to either a foreign comparative test (FCT) demonstration, or an advanced concept technology demonstrator, as early as Fiscal 2009, covering the Taurus KEPD-350 cruise missile. The probable intended launch platform is a military airlifter--either the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, or the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules.
All Nippon Airlines Group's recently delivered fourth Boeing 767-300F was to start operations Oct. 2 from Nagoya to Chicago via Anchorage. Of the six weekly flights, two will return to Osaka's Kansai airport. The new routes mark ANA Group's foray into the North America-Japan-Asia logistics market.
Cathay's major shareholder, Swire Pacific, is getting some competition for maintenance services at its Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. China Aircraft Services Ltd. is to open in 2008. It is a joint venture headed by China National Aviation Co., with Hutcison Whampoa (China), United Airlines and China airlines as partners.
The U.S. and China will discuss sharing data from respective lunar orbiter flights in 2007-08 and explore carrying each other's instruments on later unmanned Moon missions, following the first U.S./Chinese space-cooperation talks. Possible placement of U.S. instruments on a Chinese lunar orbiter would be similar to what the U.S. is doing with two instruments on India's Chandrayaan 1 lunar mission, set to launch by 2008. That flight will carry a U.S. mineralogical mapper and miniature synthetic aperture radar.
