The U.S. State Dept. has warned Americans against traveling to Nigeria. The country's lack of law and order, deteriorating security conditions in the Niger River delta, and religious tensions are among the many travel risks. The State Dept., citing domestic passenger airliner crashes in October and November, points out that Nigerian carriers operate aging fleets and their operational procedures "may be inadequate to ensure passenger safety."
Former Defense Secretary William Perry, a Democrat who served under President Clinton, in a report to Congress says the U.S. military has been placed under great strain by combat in Afghanistan and Iraq and if sustained, it could have corrosive, long-term effects on the services. The current Defense secretary, Republican Donald Rumsfeld says, "It's clear that those comments do not reflect the current situation. They are either out of date or just misdirected.
With the cost of a single Virginia-class attack submarine approaching $2.5 billion, efforts to find lower-cost technologies are becoming a fiscal imperative for the cash-strapped Pentagon. And that's precisely what lies at the heart of a futuristic project that could yield a radically new submarine design.
Lee Gaillard made several important points about aeronautics research (AW&ST Dec. 12, 2005, p. 6). There are other aspects to research in the U.S. that should be aired. Since about 1970, aerodynamics research has concentrated on developing the ability to use computational models to simulate the airflow around an aircraft. There have been few new ideas in aerodynamics introduced since then. University research in aerodynamics concentrates on simulation, with the result that few trained aerodynamic scientists have graduated in the last 35 years.
The Quadrennial Defense Review, finally being briefed publicly on Feb. 6, will return to what some analysts believe is the fiction of the U.S. being able to fight two major conflicts at once. For a while the Pentagon was suggesting a one-war capability was more realistic, given force drawdowns. But this time, the two-war combat capability will carry lots of caveats about duration and allied support. Many Pentagon insiders question whether the U.S. will have enough transport aircraft, particularly considering plans to cap C-17 production at 180 aircraft.
Boeing has launched a major restructuring of its Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) operation, which has annual revenues of more than $30 billion. IDS is forming an Advanced Defense and Security Systems unit, which will oversee technology development programs that had been part of the company's Phantom Works enterprise. George Muellner, who oversaw a number of black U.S. Air Force programs for decades, will be unit president.
Senior Editor Craig Covault (left) interviews pilot Steve Fossett at the Kennedy Space Center about fuel issues on his upcoming "ultimate flight" around the world. In the background is the 114-ft.-wingspan Scaled Composites/Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft. Fossett plans to stage the flight from the 15,000 X 300-ft. Kennedy space shuttle runway to break his own, and other, world records. Fossett flew the GlobalFlyer to Kennedy from Salina, Kan. (see p. 38).
The dream of hypersonic flight is lovely: an aircraft whose engine has almost no moving parts, flying maybe 10 times faster than the speed of sound. The principle is elegant and simple: Air moving at hypersonic speeds funnels into a chamber, mixes with fuel, burns and essentially explodes out the back. Short of gliders or paper airplanes, hypersonic vehicles are as close to pure physics as airplanes get.
Australians are "highly confident" about the safety and security of air travel--such are the findings of a 2005 survey commissioned by the country's air regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Roy Morgan Research conducted the study in October and November 2005 among 1,506 interviewees 18+ years old. Of those traveling between capital cities, 74% are "completely" or "very" confident about the level of safety, with 6% expressing concern about safe arrival at their destination.
Caution, travelers to Florence--delays and reroutings are ahead as Firenze Amerigo Vespucci Airport prepares to shut down for extraordinary runway maintenance. Airport operator Aeroporto di Firenze SpA. expects work to be underway by early February and no later than Mar. 1, and to be completed by the end of May to coincide with the start of tourist high season. Air France, Alitalia, Carpatair, Flybaboo, Lufthansa and Meridiana plan to transfer their flight operations, as well as check-in and embarkation services, to Pisa, about 50 mi. away.
The Bombardier Challenger 605 made its first flight Jan. 22 in Montreal. Certification by Transport Canada is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.
If there ever were a gap between a problem and a solution, it is in the Pentagon's bureaucratic response to the lethal threat of improvised explosive devices, better known as IEDs. Defense Technology International ran an article last year reporting on U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England's plan to combat these homemade bombs, which are responsible for a disproportionate share of U.S. casualties in Iraq. Some Pentagon officials have compared the effort to the World War II Manhattan Project, the effort to build the atomic bomb (DTI November/December 2005, p. 35).
John J. Chino (see photo) has been named deputy of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Baltimore-based Electronic Systems Sector and vice president/general manager of enterprise excellence. He was sector vice president/general manager of engineering and manufacturing.
Saudi Arabia's announcement in December that it was negotiating a $10-billion arms deal with the U.K. to supply training, logistical support and an undisclosed number of Euro-fighter Typhoon combat aircraft is the first major indication that rising oil revenues are beginning to generate sales of defense equipment in the Persian Gulf region. After a decade of stagnation in the Middle East arms market because of depressed oil prices, the Saudi deal has been welcomed by several international defense and aerospace companies. Although the U.K.
Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has received the 2005 Space Flight Award from the Springfield, Va.-based American Astronautical Society. Other AAS honors for 2005 are: Flight Achievement Award to Michael Melvill, vice president/general manager, Scaled Composites; Carl Sagan Memorial Award (presented jointly with The Planetary Society) to Michael Malin, president of Malin Space Science Systems; Military Astronautics Award to Peter Teets, retired president/chief operating officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp.
The FAA released the findings of its third safety evaluation of Mitsubishi MU-2B-series general aviation aircraft last week. Like the previous two, the third determined the airplane meets its original certification basis. However, the FAA concluded that a Special Federal Aviation Regulation, quick to implement and easy to revise, would address many of the completed actions and proposed recommendations in the report. They include the need for specific pilot training and testing of pilot skills, as well as specific maintenance training.
sharon weinberger, who wrote this issue's "Technology Watch," is editor-in-chief of Defense Technology International. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Imaginary Weapons (Nation Books, June 2006). ann finkbeiner writes "Science Watch." She is a science writer in Baltimore and author of The Jasons (Viking Adult, April 2006), a book about a group of university scientists advising the Pentagon.
Regarding the letter "Big Losers Will Be UAL Workers" (AW&ST Jan. 2, p. 8), recent information indicates UAL will be providing an incentive program for directors and management of UAL for as much as $525 million soon after leaving bankruptcy protection in February. This will be a slap in the face of the pilots, flight attendants and mechanics who gave up millions of dollars so UAL could return to full operation. This clearly indicates who UAL considers important for the airline.
Gilberto M. Duarte, Jr., who has been chief financial officer of World Air Holdings Inc., Peachtree City, Ga., has become president of its risk management subsidiary, World Risk Solutions Ltd. Ginger Clark, vice president/controller for World Air Holdings, will be its interim CFO.
A revised code-share agreement is strengthening the relationship between Southwest Airlines and ATA Airlines. The Southwest web site and reservations centers will sell tickets for connecting and non-connecting ATA flights. A customer logging onto Southwest's web site will thus find flights such as ATA's Chicago Midway-New York LaGuardia listed as Southwest flights.
U.S. forces in Iraq may soon be armed with a nonlethal pain ray designed to burn skin to the point of extreme discomfort. Supporters of the Raytheon-built Active Denial System were working hard late last year to get the deputy defense secretary to sign off on a memo that would provide $25 million to help send the system to Iraq as part of a larger nonlethal weapons system dubbed Sheriff, according to internal Pentagon e-mails.
The Jupiter-flyby science team for the New Horizons mission to Pluto will meet by early February to begin more formal Jupiter science-data acquisition planning, now that the spacecraft has been launched (AW&ST Jan. 23, p. 22). The team has roughed out a science plan, especially for acquiring Jovian cloud-motion imagery, but needed the exact day and time of launch to plan observations of the planet's moons. Propelled from Earth at 10 mi. per sec. Jan.
Kazuki Shiibashi (Tokyo), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
Japanese space agency JAXA is completing check-out of one of the largest spacecraft that its H-IIA launcher has carried into orbit, the 8,800-lb. Advanced Land Observing Satellite, which will be used for everything from mapping to improving the rice harvest.
The article "Blind Spot" (Nov./Dec., p. 36), misstated the power of the Helios Laser Warning Device. Its power should be expressed in milliwatts, not megawatts.
