A pending order from Cathay Pacific Airways for 16 777-300ERs, the largest the Hong Kong-based carrier has placed for a new aircraft, will set a one-year sales record for Boeing's twin-engine long-haul aircraft, if completed this month.
Airline passengers will be able to leave 4-in.-long scissors in their carry-on bags, but knives of any size will still be a no-no, under a new U.S. aviation security strategy. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)--concerned about suicide bombers and security personnel cutbacks--wants to shift its focus. Instead of searching for small, sharp objects such as scissors and nail files that could be used as weapons, the emphasis now will be to ensure that explosives that could bring down an airplane don't get on board.
If Europe insists on including aviation in its emissions trading regime, it should make sure to limit the rules to its own carriers, U.S. officials are telling their European Union counterparts. How to cope with the environmental impact of airline operations is the latest area of disagreement. It surfaced after the European Commission (EC) issued draft rules on expanding its emissions charging system to cover carriers.
The long-awaited makeover of its iconic 747 will allow Boeing to take advantage of even more of the quiet engine technology than the 787. The General Electric GEnx-2B67 engines that will power the 747-8 have come far enough through the test and evaluation cycle of Boeing's Quiet Technology Demonstrator 2 (QTD2) program that they will enter service with more of the design benefits from that program than the 787 (AW&ST Sept. 5, p. 44). These will include chevrons on both the exhaust and fan nacelles, compared with fan-only chevrons for the 787.
Changes to Los Angeles International Airport are one step closer with a settlement in principle that LAX officials made last week with nearby communities. They had sued over the airport master plan put forth by then-Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, which included demolishing about half of the terminals and building a remote check-in area connected to the airport by a tram. The agreement calls for the Los Angeles World Airports authority to develop construction plans over the next three years with more community-based involvement.
NASA may be abandoning its best resource for studying the effects on astronauts and their equipment of a voyage to Mars, even as it embarks on the early steps of the journey. In a new draft report, the National Research Council's space station panel faults the U.S.
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport plans to launch a Registered Traveler program allowing enrolled passengers to get through security faster. Verified Identity Pass Inc. has been contracted to design and manage the pass service.
Scientists expressed surprise at atmospheric data provided by the Huygens probe that visited Titan in January. Data released last week showed haze present from higher altitudes on down to the surface, contradicting pre-mission models. The probe's payload also found strong turbulence in the upper atmosphere, along with a second ionospheric layer and possible lightning signatures. In addition, atmospheric data provided the first confirmation of super-rotation phenomena and revealed an unexplained layer of high wind shear of 60-100 km. (see p. 33).
A prototype of the Crew Launch Vehicle that NASA hopes will take humans on the first step back to the Moon could fly with a dummy upper stage for a Mach 6 escape-system test in 2008, giving the U.S. agency's exploration effort some much-needed visibility. As the agency begins to tighten its focus on moving beyond the space shuttle/International Space Station (ISS) era, early planning sees smaller-scale crew escape system flight tests as soon as 2007, says Scott J. Horowitz, associate administrator for exploration systems.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill directing the Interior Dept. to study the suitability and feasibility of establishing memorials to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia at four locations in Texas. Sponsored by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both Texas Republicans, the bill identifies four parcels of land where large pieces of debris from the fatal flight were recovered. Columbia disintegrated during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board.
European air forces are confronting the implications of efforts to rationalize and expand airspace utilization. Under the banner of the Single European Sky (SES), Brussels is pushing ahead with the planned overhaul of European air traffic infrastructure and operations. The aim of providing increased capacity and "flexible" airspace is having an impact on military aviation. The parallel effort to establish the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) also affects military aviation across the board.
Orbital Sciences Corp. will build Space Technology 8 (ST8), the next testbed in NASA's New Millennium line of spacecraft. Based on Orbital's Microstar bus, the 385-lb. satellite will carry four technology experiments designed to generate data on a large flexible solar array, a 40-meter (131-ft.) deployable boom, electronics able to function in a high-radiation environment and a thermal radiator demonstration. Overall, the experiments could help future designers develop missions propelled by large solar sails.
Determining Thales's future continues to run into political hurdles. The German government late last month opposed Thales's acquisition of Atlas Elektronic--a Germany-based BAE Systems naval systems subsidiary that the British defense company is trying to unload. Thales has emerged as the highest bidder, but Germany wants a sale to local ThyssenKrupp, which is allied with EADS.
On its second touchdown, Japan's Hayabusa appears to have succeeded in collecting samples from the surface of the asteroid Itokawa, but the weakened spacecraft will have problems returning them to Earth. A faulty valve in the spacecraft's reaction control system (RCS) positioning gas jets may have caused a leak that the JAXA mission control team was still trying to isolate late last week after Hayabusa pulled away from Itokawa.
Contrary to the claims of Henry Vanderbilt (AW&ST Nov. 7, p. 8), Jim Hillhouse is not mistaken. He understands the foolishness of the International Space Station-type piecemeal assembly. Evidently Vanderbilt doesn't understand the problem of boil-off inherent in Legoblock assembly, with the delays between Delta IV launches showing that rocket to be as much a pad-sitter as Titan or the shuttle.
Vladimir Nesterov, a department head in the Russian Space Agency, has been appointed general director of Khrunichev State Space Scientific and Production Center. He succeeds Alexander Medvedev, who headed Khrunichev for four years and was a target of criticism from the European Space Agency regarding poor communications during the failed launch of ESA's CryoSat atop a Khrunichev-EADS Rockot booster in October.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, sees selection of the AgustaWestland US101 helicopter for the Marine One presidential mission as an example of how the U.S. needs to work with strategic partners like Great Britain and Italy, rather than trying to handle its defense needs alone. AgustaWestland already builds the single-turbine A119 for the civil market at its Philadelphia facility, and now plans to build as many as 24 AB139 medium twin-engine helicopters a year there, too.
As a Delta pilot, I believe the article about our "quandary" (AW&ST Oct. 24, p. 40) is misleading. Delta pilots have given the company $5 billion in concessions--not simply $1 billion as is often mentioned. It's $1 billion per year for five years. This equal- ed a cut of 33% (not including benefits).
Two years after being driven into bankruptcy by its failed Globalstar mobile communications network, Loral Space & Communications has completed a reorganization and re-emerged as a publicly traded company. Loral, which includes satellite builder Space Systems/Loral and satellite services provider Loral Skynet, exited Chapter 11 on Nov. 22 with $180 million in cash and $126 million of debt but $1.4 billion in order backlog.
Supersonic Aerospace International (SAI) chief J. Michael Paulson says the group has completed Phase 1 development of a proposed Quiet Supersonic Transport. The program is now entering Phase 2, which will include drag reduction work, engine downselect and formation of a consortium to move development forward. He says SAI has signed a letter of intent with a "major manufacturer," but declined to identify the company. According to Paulson, SAI has made only minor changes to the airframe, including a new cabin window design.
Aviators who've been to "the edge of the envelope" definitely know the name "Chuck Yeager." On Oct. 14, 1947, the legendary test pilot became the first person to fly supersonic, breaking the so-called "sound barrier" in a rocket-powered Bell X-1.
The Army Aviation Museum's unannounced destruction of the XCH-62 Heavy Lift Helicopter prototype, the largest rotorcraft ever built in the U.S., has upset a number of historians and engineers. Some consider the timing poor because of the current interest in large helicopters from the Army-led Joint Heavy Lift program. Designers often seek to gain ideas by looking at prior aircraft, but this is now no longer possible.
A mobility study from U.S. Transportation Command is driving Air Force leadership crazy. It basically says the service has everything it needs for the moment and--to everyone's frustration--recommends yet another new mobility study by March. Critics in the Pentagon say the study fails to project airlift needs in five years and 10 years, and now is the time for the early decisions needed to address those future shortages.
Boeing CEO James McNerney told Wall Street analysts his chief concern is making sure the company's supply chain keeps pace with a planned increase in aircraft production by 36% in 2006. McNerney is acutely aware of a supply chain meltdown that struck Boeing in 1997 and forced an embarrassing shutdown of the 747 series assembly line. He is especially concerned about the ability of lower-tier suppliers to meet demanding schedules, which is one reason Boeing refuses to further increase rates next year to make up for a strike by machinists this past September.
When Homeland Security Dept. officials combined the aviation assets of two units--Customs and Border Protection with the Border Patrol--last month, they said they were creating the world's largest law enforcement air force. Now, two members of Congress are asking whether that was such a good idea. Reps. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) want the House Appropriations Committee's Homeland Security subcommittee to investigate whether the merger, instead of streamlining operations, is actually "putting our national security at risk."
