Congress is taking a dim view of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to finance the bulk of aviation security costs through increased passenger fees. The TSA's plan to double the security fee to $5 from $2.50 per one-way trip is included in the Homeland Security Dept.'s $35.6-billion budget request for Fiscal 2007.
Raytheon's new Quick Kill System, which is designed to protect military vehicles, destroyed a rocket-propelled grenade fired from close range during a test at a New Mexico test center. The defense system uses a precision-launched warhead with a focused blast and can instantly engage projectiles fired from any location around or above the vehicle. In the latest test, an RPG was fired at a Stryker combat vehicle. The Quick Kill's active electronically scanned array radar detected and tracked the incoming weapon.
A UPS DC-8 bound from Atlanta to Philadelphia International Airport made an emergency landing at 12:22 a.m. on Feb. 8, after the pilots reported smoke and fire. The aircraft landed safely, the crew exited the plane, and firefighters responded. It took several hours to fight the fire, and the aircraft sustained holes in the top of the fuselage, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. An NTSB team found on the cockpit voice recorder that the crew reported smelling an odor 23 min. before touchdown and discussed a smoke warning light illuminating 3 min.
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Airbus moves into a new phase in its A380 flight-test campaign as the emphasis shifts from proving basic performance to validating the mega-transport's operational suitability. Although Airbus officials are happy with the progress to date on the test campaign and report that in several areas they are ahead of schedule, nobody is breathing easy, yet. Chief Operating Officer/A380 program chief Charles Champion notes that the "volume of work is an issue" to get aircraft certification later this year.
The Airbus A380 cockpit carries over many features from the company's prior fly-by-wire aircraft but has several standout items that mark it as unique. More, and larger, color displays are the main differences from the earlier A330/A340 cockpits, says Thierry Harquin, the A380 senior avionics manager. But there are other notable changes as well. The stabilizer trim wheel has been eliminated and pullout keyboards deploy in front of the pilots--a symbolic shift from the airplane as mechanical device to a software-dominated entity.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a fatal accident in which a mechanic was sucked into a Boeing 737-500 engine during a maintenance run-up and killed last month at El Paso (Tex.) International Airport.
CFM International rode the surge in Airbus and Boeing narrow-body orders to record sales in 2005, with a list-price value of $9.8 billion. The 1,640-order intake tops the 1989 previous record of 1,343 engine sales. Deliveries last year were 800 turbofans.
The Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review says China is a potential military threat, and China is unhappy about it. Beijing says it promotes peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and the U.S. is trying to mislead world opinion. The Pentagon is unrepentant. "It's difficult to know exactly what they're doing," says C. Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for policy. "They continue to increase their [military] budget. It looks like they are preparing for something other than a political solution to the Taiwan problem.
Charles R. Saff (see photo), who is head of structures integration for the Joint Uninhabited Combat Air System program of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force, Navy and Boeing--at the Boeing Phantom Works--has received the 2005 John W. Lincoln Award from the USAF Aircraft Structural Integrity Program. Saff was honored for his work in advancing the technology associated with aircraft structural integrity. The award is named for the late John W. Lincoln of the USAF Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
The first production A700 AdamJet will serve as the primary test aircraft after undergoing its initial flight on Feb. 6 at Centennial Airport in Englewood, Colo. Bill Watters and Ken Sasine piloted the Adam Aircraft twin-engine jet for 34 min. checking stability characteristics and flight controls as well as throttle response from the two Williams FJ-33 turbofan engines. The airplane is the first built on production tooling and conforms to FAA type certification criteria. Two additional jets are scheduled to join the flight test program this year.
With its ambitions in Europe stymied for now and a takeover threat from EADS still hanging over its head, Thales plans to raise the tempo of expansion outside Europe--unless it strikes a deal with a white knight first.
Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman/CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corp., has been named to receive the Washington-based National Academy of Sciences' Public Welfare Medal.
France will embark on full-scale design of technology demonstrators for an unmanned combat aerial vehicle and an electromagnetic intelligence satellite system, following contract awards last week.
Finmeccanica's ambitions to grow its commercial aircraft business could get a big boost in coming months if management's plans, both public and closely held, come to fruition. First on the agenda is securing a stake for Finmeccanica's Alenia Aeronautica unit in the Sukhoi-led Russian Regional Jet (RRJ). By the end of the month, company officials hope to wrap up negotiations that could lead to a 25% stake (plus one share) for it in the Sukhoi civil business, called SCAC.
The Centennial Challenges prize-program effort at NASA to push technology for President Bush's exploration vision is gaining steam with a new series of purses as high as $5 million. But winning won't be easy. One $5-million prize requires the winning team to build, launch and demonstrate the ability to store or produce liquid oxygen and hydrogen in orbit. Another, in two increments of $2.5 million, goes to the team that sends a solar sail to the L1 Sun-Earth Lagrange point, and then sails it out of the ecliptic for at least 90 days.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has ordered agency public affairs officers not to spin public statements by scientists working with agency funds. "It is not the job of public affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff," Griffin says in an e-mail to all NASA employees. He was responding to complaints from the agency's top climate expert that headquarters public affairs officials had tried to stifle his contention that more needs to be done to mitigate global warming.
I concur with your editorial "NASA Aeronautics: On a Glide Path to Oblivion." If NASA is allowed to continue on this path, it will be widely, if belatedly, recognized and written up as having resulted from a growing lack of situational awareness followed by controlled flight into terrain.
Market Focus 10 Gun maker lays out plan to increase defense business News Breaks 18 Inaugural flight for first production A700 AdamJet 19 NTSB probes death of mechanic during run-up 20 Boeing to close 717 assembly line and deliver last of type this spring 21 UPS freighter makes emergency landing while on fire 21 USAF Maj. Gen. (ret) Morrell dies, was key architect of milspace ops Laurels 2006
President Bush told members of the National Guard in Washington last week about a terrorist plot to attack Los Angeles after 9/11 thwarted by the U.S. government and its allies. "We now know that in October 2001, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad--the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks--had set in motion a plan to have terrorist operatives hijack an airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door, and fly the plane into the tallest building on the West Coast." The Library Tower is 1,017 ft. tall and has 1.43 million sq. ft. of office and retail space.
Bombardier is restarting production of the CRJ200/Challenger 850 aircraft in mid-April after putting the line on ice in October. The decision comes a few days after Bombardier said it would reassess its operations in the wake of the decision not to pursue the CSeries development program. Meanwhile, Italy has exercised an option to buy 15 upgrade kits for Bombardier 415 amphibious firefighting aircraft, after buying one last year.
The U.S. Air Force this year plans to conduct flight evaluations on Very Light Jets to see if the emerging class of aircraft has utility in national security missions. Aircraft trials would be conducted by the Air Force Flight Test Center, and most likely take place at Edwards AFB, Calif. The Air Force is even willing to check out fledgling designs, realizing the VLJ segment is an emerging business. VLJs might be evaluated for passenger and cargo transport, navigation training, homeland defense, surveillance, target tow and transition training.
United Airlines' "differentiated customer segmentation strategy" is producing results. Chief Financial Officer Jake Brace recently told a JPMorgan conference the carrier is receiving 31% of its passenger revenues from the "high-value" 8% of its customers, 26% of revenues from the "medium-value" 26%, and 43% of revenue from the 66% leisure segment. How? Perks for the high-value group and reduced costs to serve the others.
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the minister of defense, Shaul Mofaz, late last week officially authorized appointment of Itzhak Nissan as Israel Aircraft Industries' president and CEO. Nissan had been corporate vice president and general manager of the company's Missiles & Space Group. His specialties were electrical engineering and radar. Nissan succeeds long-serving Moshe Keret.
