Northrop Grumman Corp. staff artists provided company concepts of what the Pentagon's future unmanned aircraft fleet could include. While being interviewed for the group of UAV stories that begins on p. 56, one longtime operator suggested that perhaps a single decade from now, half the aircraft in a Red Flag exercise will be remotely piloted. The computer-generated illustration on the cover of an unmanned tanker refueling an unmanned combat aircraft as well as the illustration on p. 57 of an advanced intelligence-gathering and bombing aircraft were created by Peter A.
In the weeks since Hurricane Katrina savaged the Gulf Coast, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has taken off almost every night to help keep watch for looters along the area's still dark streets and waterways. The helos are flown by pilots of what used to be known as the U.S. Customs Service. They're usually accompanied by Border Patrol agents carrying M-4 automatic weapons for backup firepower. Smaller AS350 Border Patrol helicopters often fly along with the Black Hawks.
Flying often has been described as "hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror." And for JetBlue Flight 292, boredom was no factor in the 3 hr. from takeoff to an emergency landing with its nose gear cocked at a 90-deg. angle (see photo).
Contractors bidding to replace the space shuttle fleet must stuff their big ideas into a ballistic capsule with only three times the volume of the Apollo command module. Like that 1960s-vintage capsule, the planned Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will sustain a crew as it travels to and from the Moon. But it must also convey the first Mars explorers on the last leg of their trip back to Earth someday, and it will start its career shuttling crew and pressurized cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
The European Commission wants to strengthen post-9/11-instituted rules governing aviation security, after inspections showed "a number of shortcomings." Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot argues that the new rules "will enable us to be more effective and react faster to a threat which is constantly changing." Specifically, the EC wants to broaden the reach of existing rules to freight and inflight security, and to amend current rules to be more flexible so it can adapt more quickly as technologies evolve.
David Clayton has been appointed finance director of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Assns. He has been a controller in the automotive industry in South Africa.
Chief Financial Officer James Bell's message to Wall Street is positive: Boeing has a $170-billion backlog in military/civil contracts, has taken 605 aircraft orders this year (compared with 272 last year), and saw second-quarter revenues rise 15% and earnings jump 30%.
Turkey has launched the so-called Turna project to buy 12 light-medium surveillance and reconnaissance rotorcraft. Ankara wants the helicopters to seat 6-8 and have two-person flight crews. The rotorcraft should already have certification for day/night operations under visual and instrument flight rules.
Thirteen U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in Corpus Christi, Tex., and Houston were being readied to relocate to a staging position for response to Rita once the storm passed. Relief aircrews and aircraft from around the U.S. began arriving in staging areas in Texas late last week. An additional four HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters were pre-staged in San Antonio. Meanwhile, the Defense Dept. assigned six heavy-lift helicopters to Ft. Sam Houston, and six heavy-lift helicopters at Fort Worth, for search-and-rescue support.
Marta Bohn-Meyer, chief engineer for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, was killed on Sept. 18, when her Giles G-300 aerobatic aircraft crashed during a practice routine near Oklahoma City. She was 48. The only woman to serve as an active crewmember on the Mach 3-plus SR-71 Blackbird--flying high-altitude, high-speed research missions for NASA--she also was a world-class competition aerobatic pilot.
There's a big problem with NASA's exploration plan. It's the same approach as Apollo: mostly disposable spacecraft, on big NASA-proprietary boosters, flown a few times a year by a standing army of workers--but on a significantly slower schedule.
Graham Love (see photo) has been appointed CEO of U.K.-based QinetiQ. He had been chief financial officer and will be succeeded by Doug Webb, who was group financial controller. Love succeeds Sir John Chisholm, who is now executive chairman, in turn succeeding Dame Pauline Neville-Jones. Sir David Lees, who is a former chairman/CEO of GKN, will be deputy chairman/senior independent non-executive director. Phil Odeen has become CEO of QinetiQ North America. He was CEO of BDM and TRW as well as chairman of Apogen Technologies, which has been acquired by QinetiQ.
Rolls-Royce is getting ready to start assembly of the first Trent 900 for A380-lead customer Singapore Airlines, even as engineers look for ways to boost engine performance further. Next month will also see a new build standard of the Trent 900 take flight, which has been slightly changed from the much earlier configuration installed on the sole A380 test-flight aircraft. The four Trent 900s so far have topped 10,000 cycles as part of the more than 80 flights.
Robert Jamison has been named deputy administrator of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. He held the same position at the Federal Transit Administration.
USN Capt. (ret.) G.R. Allender (Severna Park, Md.)
Regarding RAF Wing Cdr. Jim Lawrence's comments in "Reexamine P-8A's Mission" (AW&ST Aug. 8, p. 8), the P-3C has external and internal sonobuoy launching capabilities.
Frank J. Cepollina, deputy associate director for Hubble Space Telescope development at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., has won the International Society of Logistics' 2005 Jack H. Williams Space Logistics Award. It recognizes Cepollina's work in developing Hubble servicing concepts before its launch in 1990 and then leading coordination of those missions in orbit by the space shuttle.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Oct. 18-20--MRO Europe. Estrel Hotel & Convention Center, Berlin. Nov. 8-10--MRO Asia, Suntec City, Singapore. Nov. 14-16--A&D Programs & Productivity Conference, Phoenix. PARTNERSHIPS Oct. 10-12--HeliAsia. Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok. Oct. 25-27--ARA '05. Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.
USN Capt. Christopher Flood (see photo) has become vice commander of the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn. He succeeds USAF Col. Vince Albert, who will be director of the center's support division. Flood was director of operations and has been succeeded by USAF Col. Jeff Smith (see photo).
Idris Jala (see photo) has been named managing director/CEO of Malaysia Airlines, effective Dec. 1. He has been vice president of Shell Malaysia Gas and Power and managing director of Shell Middle Distillates Synthesis. Jala succeeds Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan, who has retired.
The troubled Franco-U.S. relationship, long dogged by the acrimonious dispute over the Iraq war, finally appears headed back to normalcy. At the U.S. Embassy here last week, new U.S. Ambassador Craig Stapleton and top military officials declared that France and the U.S. are now ready to turn the page.
NASA and Lockheed Martin will continue shuttle external tank work at the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, instead of shifting some work to the Kennedy Space Center. The plan follows a determination that Michoud buildings, lightly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, offer a faster return to critical tank activities. Hundreds of Michoud employees remain homeless, and NASA is working with other federal and state agencies to obtain new housing for them. Operations will begin with a minimum workforce as affected families sort out their individual needs.
Conflicts where a few soldiers will dominate state-size battlefields are being planned into the development of the U.S. Air Force's high-demand arsenal of unmanned aircraft. Also part of the new formula will be stealth, directed-energy weapons and new reserve combat units.
In a few years, there will be a new type of remotely piloted aircraft operator, dedicated to a career of specialized combat flight operations, and in a decade, the numbers of unmanned vehicles participating in Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force's premier air combat exercise, may equal those with aircrews on board.
Air traffic in Canada rose 3.9% in July compared with the same month in 2004, according to air navigation service provider Nav Canada. Fiscal year-to-date traffic is up 5.1%.
The machinist strike that has shut down Boeing's commercial aircraft production lines is providing a much-needed breather to some aerospace suppliers. Banc of America Securities analyst Robert Stallard says demand from Boeing and aftermarket customers was so robust that Precision Castparts Corp., a leading metals supplier, was struggling to obtain the material needed to fill orders. The strike "has allowed some relief," he writes. While some Boeing suppliers have resorted to layoffs, Stallard sees little long-term damage unless the walkout, which began Sept.
