Scientists are optimistic that ESA will approve a further two-year extension for the Integral gamma-ray observatory. Launched Oct. 17, 2002, for a nominal period of 26 months, the observatory's gamma-/X-ray and optical payload is already in an extended phase and is still making important discoveries. For example, working in combination with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, Integral found the first direct evidence of X-ray emissions from the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
It's not easy being on top of the world. Sometimes there's nowhere to go but down. Just ask Aviall Inc., one of Wall Street's hottest aviation plays this year. Aviall, which sells aircraft replacement parts made by original equipment manufacturers, announced a 13% increase in third-quarter sales from a year earlier, to $334 million, and a 37% hike in earnings. The market's response: a sell-off that sent the company's stock price tumbling about 15%.
Top-ranking Royal Air Force officers were confronted with an unpalatable truth--billions of pounds short for combat aircraft maintenance--they faced cutting the Tornado GR4 fleet by 40%.
Frederick L. Ricker (see photos) has been appointed vice president and deputy for programs, David L. Ryan vice president/program director for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, James M. Myers vice president-sensors and payloads and Stuart T. Linsky vice president-satellite communications, all for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Space Technology sector, Redondo Beach, Calif. Ryan has been succeeded by Myers, who in turn has been succeeded as vice president-satellite communications by Linsky.
Production of Japan's largest indigenously developed defensive system, the F-2 close air support fighter, validates Japan's ability to produce source code for the aircraft's fly-by-wire control system. It also has given Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) hands-on experience in working through difficult composite design and production problems that will serve it well as it undertakes the commercial assignment of producing composite wingboxes for the Boeing 787.
Overstretched communications lines to ground units supporting NATO missions in Afghanistan and other external theaters of operation will soon receive a welcome boost from a new French military communications satellite.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center has approved Zero Gravity Corp. for use of the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway for shakedown flights Nov. 5-6. The private company will demonstrate its ability to operate the 15,000-ft. runway, its airspace, air traffic control and hangar facilities as a base for commercial simulated microgravity aircraft flights. The company will employ its Boeing 727 primarily to fly teachers who can use the experience of repeated parabolic loops to simulate about 30 sec. of zero-g, lunar or Mars gravity to assist in classroom presentations.
8 Correspondence 10 Who's Where 12 Market Focus 13 Industry Outlook 15 Airline Outlook 17 In Orbit 18-20 News Breaks 21 Washington Outlook 67 Classified 68 Contact Us 69 Aerospace Calendar
The Washington-based Air Transport Assn. and FAA have named members of the winning team for the FAA-ATA Nondestructive Testing "Better Way" Award. The award was established to recognize a team of government and airline industry individuals who developed and applied a technology, technique, process or policy to advance inspection or testing of aircraft structure, aircraft components or aircraft systems.
U.S. astronauts will still be able to conduct long-duration missions on the International Space Station under an amendment to the five-year-old Iran Non-Proliferation Act (INA) adopted by the House last week. The Senate passed a similar measure Sept. 21. Under a compromise worked out by the House, Senate and White House, the Senate is expected to pass the House version and send it to President Bush for his signature. Without the amendment, NASA would have been blocked from using the ISS after its original agreement with Russia expires in April 2006.
Southwest Airlines, which will launch service in Denver on Jan. 3 (see p. 44), will add 49 flights in 42 city-pairs, some current and some new, on Nov. 12 and Feb. 5. The carrier continues to take delivery of Boeing 737-700 aircraft and faces several months of less-than-optimum aircraft utilization because it had to suspend operations at New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Eight of the new flights will involve New Orleans, which Southwest says is its top-priority city for expanded service.
Seattle-based Horizon Air has converted seven options for Q400 turboprops into firm orders and added five more in a deal valued at $294 million at list prices. Deliveries are set for the fourth quarter of 2006. In addition, Caribbean Aircraft Leasing will acquire three Q300 turboprops. Deliveries are set for the second quarter of 2006.
The U.S. Air Force is said to be backing off its earlier plan to persuade senior Pentagon leaders to buy 381 Lockheed Martin F/A-22s, enough to round out 10 squadrons and provide airframes for attrition reserve. Seeing a budget crunch on the horizon, the Air Force is now considering a push for about 300 Raptors, higher still than the 180 already in the budget. Meanwhile, top Pentagon leaders are considering the fate of the Joint Strike Fighter, also manufactured by Lockheed Martin, in the Quadrennial Defense Review. Under then-Chief of Staff Gen.
USAF Gen. Lance Smith, the deputy chief of U.S. Central Command, will take over U.S. Joint Forces Command based in Norfolk, Va. He also will be supreme allied commander of transformation. Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Leaf has been appointed deputy commander of U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii. He has been vice commander of Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo. Maj. Gen. Loyd S. Utterback has been named deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces, Hickam AFB, Hawaii. He has been commander of the Second Air Force, Air Education and Training Command, Keesler AFB, Miss.
The industry consortium slated to build NATO's airborne ground surveillance equipment has completed a 22-million-euro ($26.5-million) study to coordinate development of the total system with that of the radar. The results last week went to NATO as part of a meeting of national armaments directors. The Alliance Ground Surveillance project is supposed to yield a mixed fleet of Airbus A321s and Global Hawk UAVs fitted with a modular synthetic aperture radar. Most of the program activity has been focused on coordinating industrial efforts.
The U.S. Marine Corps has taken delivery of the first two AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters developed under the H-1 Upgrade Program. Both have completed the engineering manufacturing development phase and are slated to begin operational evaluation (Opeval) in the first quarter of 2006. Another two aircraft will join Opeval in December, according to Bell Helicopter Textron. Plans call for Bell to remanufacture 180 AH-1W Super Cobras to the AH-1Z configuration. Bell will build 100 new UH-1Ys instead of remanufacturing the UH-1N as originally planned.
"Actual combat wasn't as tough as Red Flag" is a comment from veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that is music to Col. Dirk Jordan's ears. It validates a decades-old concept that the U.S. Air Force's highly realistic, large-force Red Flag exercises are giving inexperienced pilots the equivalent of their first 10 combat missions, greatly improving their chances of survival in real-world situations.
MRO provider Ameco Beijing has received the first United Airlines Boeing 777 under a five-year heavy maintenance contract. Within three years, more than 50 airplanes are scheduled for work at the facility, and 80 will be completed in the contract period. Ameco Beijing is a joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa German Airlines established in 1989.
A Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-led demo last month validated an Internet-like high-speed, ad hoc, airborne network that enabled tactical aircraft to quickly engage time-critical targets. The Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNC) system transmitted data at speeds up to 2 megabits/sec. over 100-naut.-mi. distances, using TTNC phase-three terminals on F-15E, F/A-18, E-2C and other aircraft. Imagery was transmitted at high speeds between airborne platforms and a surrogate Combined Air Ops Center at China Lake, Calif., and other sites.
NASA's new stripped-down human exploration plan stops at the Moon, and doesn't carry a "funding wedge" to move on to Mars. Nor does the plan's $104-billion price tag include money for more than a couple of lunar "sorties" a year. Douglas Stanley, a Georgia Tech engineering researcher who headed the Exploration Systems Architecture Study that produced the NASA plan, says his team used a wedge of 2-3% per year--essentially an adjustment for inflation--to calculate long-term exploration affordability.
Russian flag carrier Aeroflot has placed orders for seven Airbus A321-200s powered by CFM56-5 engines. The jets will have 20 seats in business class and 150 in economy. Initial deliveries are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006. The A321s will replace 60 obsolete aircraft in the fleet. Aeroflot is the largest Russian carrier operating Airbus airplanes; it has eight A319s, seven A320s, three A321s, plus nine Boeing 767s and four DC-10 freighters.
Members of the Dutch parliament were calling for an independent investigation last week after fire in the prison complex at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport killed 11 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation and injured 15 others, including some firefighters and police. Officials declined to comment on reports that a prisoner may have set the fire and that the cells were unsafe, according to the Associated Press. The cells are used to detain passengers who fly into Schiphol but are denied entry into the Netherlands.
Michael J. Morrison's letter regarding the shift of emphasis by United Airlines from the excellence and professionalism of its own mechanics to the savings of outsourcing heavy maintenance of its Boeing 777s to China (AW&ST Oct. 10, p. 6), prompts me to write from the passenger viewpoint.
Senior U.S. defense officials are proposing to halt further buys of the C-17 and C-130J airlifters by the end of the decade, a move that would effectively cede future military transport production to Europe.
