David L. Aschenbach has been named vice president-sales and customer service of the Aircraft Service International Group, Orlando, Fla. He succeeds Leif Andersson, who plans to retire later this year. Aschenbach was vice president-airport services for ATA Airlines.
Sadly, it seems little has changed since the editorial "NASA's Future: It's a Vision Thing" (AW&ST Dec. 17, 2001, p. 116). At that time, the benefits of NASA extravagance were international cooperation and the opportunity for children to name robots. Thankfully, the more recent editorial "Shuttle Choices Long Overdue" (AW&ST Oct. 17, p. 66) dropped the asserted benefits to children from the rationale. Only international cooperation remains as the raison d'etre.
Jarvi also assesses Global Hawk high-altitude UAV engine "anomalies" in July that caused flameouts and unscheduled landings, one in Afghanistan, the other in California. In each case the AE 3007H engine shut down at around 65,000 ft. and the UAV glided to a safe engine-out landing. "Very unique things happen when the air gets very thin, and they cause any anomaly to be magnified," Jarvi says.
Engineers, technicians and managers on NASA's space shuttle program soon will be working on the shuttle-replacement effort too, as the agency struggles to cover expected but unrealized shuttle-retirement savings. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin estimates it will cost $3-5 billion more to finish flying the shuttle than originally estimated. The money isn't there, and Griffin wants more time to figure out how to make ends meet on his sweeping effort to redirect the U.S. space program beyond low Earth orbit.
Airbus is sending the A380 MSN 001 on its first intercontinental trip this week, showcasing it at various hubs in the Asia-Pacific, while the third aircraft, MSN 002, made its first flight late last week.
Former astronaut John B. Herrington has become vice president/director of flight systems/chief test pilot for the XP Spaceplane for Rocketplane Limited Inc. of Oklahoma City.
Safran's Labinal will supply electrical harnesses for the interior of Dassault's Falcon 7X business jet. The first installation is planned for next spring at Dassault Falcon's facility in Little Rock, Ark., and represents Labinal's first installation work in the U.S.
The FAA has decided to deploy Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) systems nationwide and eventually decommission hundreds of radars, breaking from more than 50 years of dependence on World War II-era technology.
News Breaks 26 Sikorsky buying Keystone helicopter completion and service companies 27 TSA to launch nationwide Registered Traveler program 28 AW&ST writer heads Indian aviation media group World News & Analysis 32 U.S. adds urgency to developing solution for electromagnetic confusion in Iraq 33 EA-6B to provide info warfare tactical, airborne, combat weapon 35 Top USAF scientist sheds light on weapons effects of AESA radars
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Phillip M. Balisle has been named senior vice president-maritime strategic plans and programs for DRS Technologies Inc. in its Washington-area office. He was commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command.
The board of management of Brazil's financially struggling airline, Varig, has opted for a rescue plan presented by TAP Air Portugal. It calls for Varig to sell stakes in the VEM engineering and maintenance and VariLog logistics and cargo operations to TAP, to generate $62 million that can be used to satisfy immediate cash demands and continue operations. Moreover, Brazil's National Economic and Social Development Bank, in addition to external investors, will inject capital to the airline.
Canada's busiest airport, Toronto Pearson International, on Nov. 1 opened 10 additional gates at the new Terminal One. They will help "significantly reduce" the numbers of passengers who now require busing to gates at the infield terminal, according to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, the Pearson operator. The airport handled almost 29 million passengers in 2004, and forecasters predict that number will grow to 50 million by 2020. In 1998, Toronto Pearson launched a massive 10-year redevelopment program.
Boeing expects to offer a best-and-final offer in mid-November on a three-year contract to 12,096 engineers and 5,672 technical workers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) at Boeing's commercial aircraft factories in Washington State, Utah, Oregon and California. The two sides entered negotiations last week. On Nov. 8, Speea will enter separate negotiations for 785 engineers at Boeing's Wichita, Kan., facility. The current contract expires Dec. 1 for all but the Wichita workers, whose agreement expires Dec. 5.
The mystic art of electronic warfare and the battle against improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq are interfering with each other as both struggle to operate within a cocktail of electromagnetic confusion.
Sitting in a conference room surrounded by his top managers, Goodrich Corp. CEO Marshall Larsen watched a nightmare unfold as he discussed his company's third-quarter earnings in a conference call with analysts late last month. The aircraft landing gear and brake supplier's profits were up 22% from a year earlier, and orders are surging at the company's key customers, Boeing Co. and Airbus. But a TV screen on the wall showed Goodrich's stock price heading south--dramatically.
JetBlue Airways has chosen CAE to build one full-flight simulator for the Embraer 190 jet transport and two flight training devices, one for the 190 and the other for Airbus A320 aircraft. The simulators will be installed at JetBlue's training center in Orlando, Fla. In addition, Shanghai Eastern Flight Training Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, has ordered one full-flight simulator for an A320 and an integrated procedures trainer for the Boeing 737 NG series. Both simulators will be installed in Pudong, Shanghai, in the autumn of 2006.
Following Northwest Airlines' lead two weeks earlier, Delta Air Lines is turning to U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceedings to force what it hasn't been able to negotiate--new cost concessions from its Air Line Pilots Assn. unit.
In the Pentagon, stars on a uniform are supposed to stand for action, and the Air Force is adding a star to its general officer billet for public affairs to "better inform the American public about its engagement in the global war on terrorism and to support the nation." Chief of Staff T. Michael (Buzz) Moseley is placing a major general in charge of what is billed as an "integrated" communications capability. Some officers grumble that the Air Force has gotten short shrift on Iraq war coverage compared with the Army and Marine Corps.
The traveling public is increasingly wondering whether "facilitation" will ever make a comeback as the ultimate goal of the airline industry. Back in the day, this buzzword was bandied about by industry leaders as a facile way of indicating that the passenger was everyone's Number One Priority.
BlastGard International Inc.'s BlastWrap was recognized for an award based on its BlastWrap material, which mitigates the explosive power of a bomb by reducing the blast effect, extinguishing the fireball and capturing fragmentation. The company is working with the U.K. Ministry of Defense in product-testing BlastWrap as a way to package live ordnance to protect against sympathetic detonation. And the company is working with the U.S. Marine Corps to test the material's ability to protect the undercarriage of vehicles against land mines.
The new active electronically scanned array radar being installed in F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and soon the EA-18G Growler, is the first to have a longer range than the AIM-120 Amraam. The Raytheon radar's capability was demonstrated late last month at NAS Point Mugu, Calif., during a shoot arranged by the Navy's AESA development program. Plans are to fire an Amraam while maneuvering and at progressively longer distances from the target. While range numbers have not been released, goals are to push engagement ranges toward 100 naut. mi. from 40 naut. mi. or less.
Under a new missile defense agreement with the U.S., Japan will deploy an X-band radar system that will bring it the advanced targeting discrimination technology needed to detect slow-moving, stealthy cruise missiles, besides the ballistic missile threats it already is planning to meet. The pact, signed Oct. 29 at a meeting of top U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign affairs officials in Washington, is part of a defense package that will see a drawdown of U.S. forces in Japan even as joint planning by the two militaries grows closer.
Building wider runways for simultaneous landing operations may be one way to ease flight delays, proposes R. John Hansman, MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics. Runways could be 500 ft. wide and aircraft equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) could fly in formation to landing, he told a conference at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., late last month. Wider runways may be the only way to improve airport acceptance rates, he says.
H. David Walker has become senior vice president-sales and marketing for Spirit AeroSystems Inc., Wichita, Kan. He was a corporate vice president at Vought Aircraft, overseeing international programs.
Green Hills Software Inc., a technology leader in operating systems and software development tools for safe and secure systems, was chosen for a Product Breakthrough Award based on its work with Honeywell. The aerospace manufacturer chose the company's Integrity-178B real-time operating system for its work on the 787 fly-by-wire system it is building for Boeing. Honeywell had used its own operating system for prior flight control projects, but chose Integrity-178B because it was written around more up-to-date industry standards and the latest processors.
