Major aerospace companies are now projecting that the defense budget will stay flat for two years and then start a sharp 2-3% annual decline for the foreseeable future.
NASA employees have greater satisfaction about their jobs than those at any other federal agency or military service, according to new data from an Office of Personnel Management survey. Workers at the National Science Foundation came in a close second, according to a study of the survey by The Center for American Progress, an education-research think tank. Both NASA and the NSF put research, exploration and advanced technology high on the list of their agency objectives. NASA received a combined score of 72.8, the highest total in the government. The NSF score was 70.6.
M7 AEROSPACE IS OFFERING A NEW PROGRAM to refurbish Fairchild Merlin IIIB- or IIIC-series business aircraft. Owners can bring their airplanes to the San Antonio-based MRO company where the airframes are inspected and new interiors and avionics are installed. In addition, the turboprop engines and propellers are overhauled to zero-time standards. M7 officials say the company plans to buy Merlins and offer them for resale at a cost of $900,000-1.5 million.
Under a one-year, $1.35-million contract with the FAA, AeroSat Airborne Internet LLC is to demonstrate and evaluate basic concepts and components of the Airborne Internet System intended for use in the Next-Generation Air Transportation System. Airborne Internet would provide pilots with automatic updates of data such as weather and turbulence conditions. Aerosat is to conduct demonstrations on FAA test aircraft at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey. Air/ground data will be exchanged at 45 Mbps.
NASA Glenn Research Center is beginning to analyze engine exhaust and plume development from emissions data gathered for 10 days early this month at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The Aircraft Particle Emission Experiment 3 (APEX 3) is focusing on improving understanding of such phenomena. Continental Airlines, Continental Express and FedEx supplied Embraer ERJ 135/145 regional jets, Boeing 737 and 757s, and Airbus A300-600 aircraft, respectively. Researchers are interested in exhaust dispersion during normal operations.
NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (Stereo) spacecraft have arrived at the Goddard Space Flight Center for advanced testing after being assembled at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (see photo). They will undergo spin and thermal vacuum tests. The two vehicles are to be shipped to Cape Canaveral in March for a Boeing Delta II launch later in the spring.
The Aug. 14 crash of the Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 near Athens, like the October 1999 Learjet 35 crash near Mina, S.D., points out the danger of slow depressurization (AW&ST Aug. 22/29, p. 49). In a rapid decompression, the problem is obvious. But crashes occur when depressurization isn't recognized, and the signs of hypoxia will not be noticed if one has never experienced them. There is no substitude for at least one encounter with hypoxia in the altitude chamber.
Finland is planning to spend 20% of its defense-procurement budget on network-centric warfare and intelligence-gathering projects by 2012, according to the country's defense chief, Adm. Juhani Kaskeala. The country has ambitious plans to create a network linking military and civilian agencies, allowing government leaders to manage effectively any military or terrorist threat or to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters.
Robin Adshead, a freelance photographer for Aviation Week & Space Technology in the 1980s and '90s, died Nov. 10 of an aneurism. He was 71. Adshead served in the British Army as a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot and as a member of the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles. For AW&ST, Adshead provided numerous cover photos, was a staple of Paris and Farnborough air show coverage during both decades and provided the imagery for many pilot reports.
Unlucky timing plagued Japan's Hayabusa asteroid mission, causing the probable loss of its robotic Minerva mini-lander, but flight controllers were preparing late last week for the main event--a quick touchdown to collect samples for return to Earth.
Stuart Matthews, who is president/ CEO of the Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Safety Foundation, has received the 2005 Cumberbatch Trophy by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in London. The trophy recognizes contributions to aviation safety.
Plans by the U.S. Army to radically upgrade its Boeing AH-64D attack helicopter fleet are expected to attract international customers. The Block III upgrade and rebuild effort is designed to transform the Apache, with the first fielded upgrades ready by 2010. Enhancements include new General Electric T700-701D engines, composite main rotor blades, a Boeing/NorthStar Aerospace transmission, a new mission computer based on open architecture and the ability to conduct "Level IV" control and monitoring of UAVs.
David P. Storch, who has been president/CEO of the AAR Corp., Wood Dale, Ill., now also will be chairman. He succeeds company founder Ira A. Eichner, who has retired.
Although the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) completed an air cargo strategic plan in 2003 and an updated threat assessment in April, the agency still isn't doing enough to secure cargo carried on passenger airplanes, a congressional study finds. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says TSA relies on a risk-based approach that physically screens or inspects only a small percentage of the nearly 6 billion lb. of cargo shipped annually on airlines.
The latest company to enter the market for armored personnel carriers is Blackwater USA, the private military contractor best known for its well-paid security personnel working in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater, a newcomer to the vehicle market, says it developed the design of its vehicle, the Grizzly, from "experience on the ground in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq." That's a good pedigree, but Blackwater will be going up against more-experienced armor specialists, like Israel's Plasan Sasa (see p.
CAE PLANS TO RELOCATE SIKORSKY S-76 and Gulfstream IV full-flight simulators to its new business aviation training center in Morristown, N.J., from the current site in Dallas. Installation of the two units is scheduled for next summer. The Morristown facility is under construction and will house a full flight simulator for the new Falcon 7X business jet. In related news, CAE officials say they are "very interested" in development of a training program for owners and operators of very light jets (VLJs).
Thank you for a well-researched, balanced and objective review of the current situation with regard to Metal Storm and its million-rounds-a-minute gun (Surefire Bet, Sept./Oct., p. 25). I shall recommend this article and your magazine to those who enquire news of me in this field. It is always hard to get clear, well-written summaries of developments in this area, as so many authors seem to push their own barrow. Good luck with your magazine.
With optimists projecting the new very light jet (VLJ) market will generate demand for thousands of aircraft engines over the coming decade, Pratt & Whitney Canada is turning to a production technique that Henry Ford used to revolutionize the automobile industry nearly a century ago: the assembly line.
Raytheon has received a $1.3-billion contract to develop and demonstrate the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Netted Sensor System (Jlens) for the U.S. Army. The system consists of an aerostat carrying a long-range surveillance radar as well as a fire control radar. Testing is slated for 2009.
Dassault Aviation is introducing a new-model Falcon to replace the basic 2000 twinjet and contemplating a range increase for the basic 7X, even before the ultra-long-range tri-jet enters service. Besides greater range, the replacement for the 2000, called the the 2000DX, is slated to deliver lower fuel consumption and better shortfield performance, but it will pass up some of the 2000EX's more costly performance upgrades.
The premier issue of DTI was outstanding. This is a publication I would subscribe to immediately. It is not an overstatement to say that I have been waiting 20 years for a publication focused solely on future defense technologies, about the length of time I have been a subscriber to Aviation Week & Space Technology. (I would still keep my AW&ST subscription.)
As an 18.5-year employee and captain for American Airlines, I read with amusement and amazement the comments of Chip Lawson in his letter assaulting American's customer service (AW&ST Oct. 31, p. 8).
The recent sell-off in U.S. aerospace stocks provides a good example of how valuations are set by investor expectations of a company's future performance, not its current earnings. Though most aerospace companies posted third-quarter results that met or exceeded Wall Street's expectations, it wasn't enough to sooth market jitters about looming cuts to U.S. military spending and rising overhead costs in the commercial aircraft sector.
When Charles W. Robinson met with U.S. Navy Vice Adm. (ret.) Arthur K. Cebrowski in 2003, the then 84-year-old naval architect and former government official offered something Cebrowski had been looking for ever since he took over as the Pentagon's top transformation official: a concept for a swift littoral boat that could be built quickly and economically. Less than two years after the design was approved and construction began, that vision is about to become reality.
Ralph Lintelman (see photos) has been promoted to manager from director of standards of the LaGuardia Learning Center of New York-based FlightSafety International. He succeeds Anthony Graham, who has been named manager of the Houston Learning Center. Graham succeeds Al Ramsey, who is now manager of the Seattle/Tacoma Learning Center. Daniel MacLellan has become assistant manager of the Greater Philadelphia/Wilmington (Del.) Learning Center. He was a regional marketing director for FlightSafetyBoeing.
