Michael A. Taverna and Robert Wall (Taverny, France)
French commanders are convinced that progress in integrating communications and information systems will be crucial to allowing NATO's quick-reaction force to become an effective fighting tool. For the time being, "forced entry" into a country in the face of stiff air defenses, and finding and attacking "time-sensitive targets"--such as mobile ballistic missile threats--remain outside the alert unit's immediate ability. But for other missions, such as noncombatant evacuations, the new NATO Response Force (NRF) is seen as largely operational.
Rosoboronexport has inked a deal with China to supply 100 Salyut Al-31FN turbofans for Beijing's newest fighter, the J-10. The turbofans are slightly modified from the Al-31s used in Sukhoi Su-27s, which China operates as well. The deal, estimated to be worth $300 million, follows deliveries of 54 engines of the same type last year.
Evergreen International Aviation's modified Boeing 747 Supertanker (AW&ST June 27, p. 14) could be a superb supplement to the U.S. Forest Service in what is starting out to be a tough forest-fire season in the West. Its 20,000-gal. capability (an entire swimming pool) should be noted.
NASA's New Horizons Pluto probe is on track for a January launch as it undergoes ground tests at Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., before shipment to its Florida launch site. Shown here in a Goddard clean room at the start of three months of spin, acoustic and thermal vacuum testing, the spacecraft is topped by its 2.1-meter high-gain antenna. The visible and infrared imager dubbed Ralph is the plate-like object at the right end of the probe, just below the ultraviolet imaging spectrometer named Alice.
I am disappointed with the recent spate of NASA bashing ("Griffin Headed on Bad Course" and "NASA Repeating Itself" [AW&ST May 30, p. 8]). The problem with NASA is that it has not had the hands-on approach that Administrator Michael Griffin has provided. The "government's role is oversight" myth is exactly what has kept NASA impotent before contractors. "Oversight" has come to mean rolling over to what the prime contractors want. You tell contractors to build what you need, not build what they want.
Boeing said it delivered 155 commercial aircraft during the first half of 2005 (85 in the second quarter), continuing a slight increase over previous years. The 737 and 777 accounted for all but 20 of the deliveries. Through May 31, Boeing's order backlog was 1,225 aircraft, including 872 737s and 168 777s. Its official order count for the 787 has risen to 128 out of 166 orders and commitments. At this point in 2003, Boeing had posted 145 deliveries; last year that count rose to 151.
The Deep Impact impactor spacecraft scored a direct hit on comet Tempel 1 on July 4 (see p. 28). The flyby craft took this picture 67 sec. after the strike, with its high-resolution camera. The ejected material is illuminated by sunlight and is much brighter than the comet nucleus, which is darker than charcoal. The Deep Impact team includes NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and the University of Maryland. Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland.
The orbiter Discovery's 8-min. 30-sec., zero-to-Mach 25 launch to orbit will be propelled by Space Shuttle Main Engines and Solid Rocket Boosters that have undergone substantially increased testing and rigorous quality oversight in the two years since the Columbia accident. Any serious propulsion emergency on the 4.5-million-lb. vehicle, climbing initially on 7.4 million lb. thrust, could be a life-or-death issue for the seven-member STS-114 crew.
Add something new to the "How-Much-Does-THAT-Cost?" file. The Transportation Dept. issues its first monthly report, mandated years ago by Congress, on U.S. airline incidents involving pets on board their flights, "a new source of information that will help consumers make informed decisions about whether and how to travel with their pets." During May, we learn, four pets died, five were injured and one was lost in operations by six airlines. The department says two million animals are carried by air each year. That implies an incident rate of six per 100,000 operations.
Karl Kettler forgot a piece of the puzzle in his comments on what he believes are airlines' self-imposed capacity problems brought by restricting flights to hub airports (AW&ST June 13, p. 8): It is the "not in my backyard" mentality of neighbors of underused or unused airfields. Just look at the closure of MAS El Toro in Orange County, Calif., and the political aftermath.
Lufthansa Systems hopes its new airline information technology project FACE will help carriers cut distribution costs by enabling legacy systems to communicate with emerging IT products.
Defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. is acquiring Koor Systems Ltd.'s 70% holdings in Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd. for $70 million in cash. In addition, Elbit is accelerating the acquisition of a portion of Koor's 18.2% stake in defense communications company Tadiran.
USAF Col. (ret.) Richard Graham has received the Kelly Johnson Trophy from the SR-71/U-2/KC-135Q Blackbird Assn. The trophy is a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the SR-71 Blackbird program and is named for Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson, the former head of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. Johnson was considered responsible for the development of approximately 40 aircraft, including the U-2. He also was involved in the design of the SR-71.
The European Space Agency is preparing to test a second-generation optical data link for unmanned aerial vehicle applications with its Artemis technology satellite beginning next year. Meanwhile, EADS Astrium says its Silex optical delay relay on Artemis has performed its 1,000th communication between the ESA spacecraft and the Spot 4 imaging spacecraft, which it was designed to serve. Silex is due to begin transmitting imagery from the Japanese space agency JAXA's Oicets spacecraft this autumn, as it has been for Spot 4 since October 2003.
Russia's Vympel is touting an active radar-guided version of the R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missile, overcoming some of the limitations of its present infrared seeker.
Like American Airlines and Delta Air Lines in previous liquidity crises, Northwest Airlines believes it will be pushed toward filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if it can't win labor-cost concessions from its principal unions. Unlike American and Delta, Northwest also risks bankruptcy unless Congress passes pension-relief legislation.
NASA is staring at a great deal that it shouldn't refuse. Deep Impact was spectacularly successful last week in hitting and observing the comet Tempel 1, and mission leader Mike A'Hearn is proposing that the surviving flyby spacecraft, by all accounts in excellent health with undamaged instruments, be sent to chase another comet (see p. 28).
Dale F. Goodrich has been named the first director of the recently formed Next Generation Air Transportation System Institute. The institute is being organized by the Air Traffic Control and Air Transport Assns. so industry can work closely with the integrated product teams in the Joint Planning and Development Office to design a new air traffic management system for 2025. Goodrich is a commercial airline pilot and USAF Reserve colonel.
Richard Aarons, safety editor and former editor-in-chief of Business and Commercial Aviation magazine, has won the Airbus Decade of Excellence Award in the annual international competition organized by The World Leadership Forum on behalf of the Royal Aeronautical Society and l'Aéro-Club de France. BCA is a sister magazine to Aviation Week & Space Technology. BCA staffer Kathleen Bangs received the Rolls-Royce Award for the Aerospace Journalist of the Year and the Airbus Award for Best Safety Submission.
German aerospace center DLR and French space agency CNES will set up a joint network with the French National School of Telecommunications (ENST) to enhance the processing and analysis of data from Earth-observation satellites. The network is intended to improve the ability of ground data facilities to handle the huge amounts of imagery from future high-resolution spacecraft with automated processing and analysis techniques.
Lockheed Martin's Colorado Springs facility has won a two-year, $24.7-million USAF contract for continued development of an Internet-based mission execution system that allows war- fighting commanders from any service and special operations to work together in real time on battlefield strikes.
European safety experts and airline pilot unions are calling on regulatory authorities and airlines to devise innovative regulations for ultralong flights with times approach- ing 20 hr. Newly delivered Airbus A340-500s and Boeing 777-200ERs enable airlines to operate nonstop flights of up to 9,000 naut. mi. in unprecedented durations. Pioneering operations by Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Cathay Pacific Airways, which began last year, are providing key operational input.
Air-India on July 7 started four-times-weekly service with leased Airbus A310s to Seoul via Hong Kong. Plans to consolidate existing routes in East Asia include doubling the two weekly flights between New Delhi and Shanghai beginning July 27, and increasing flights to Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. According to Commercial Director V.K. Verma, the U.S. is Air-India's fastest growing market, with services to four cities increasing to 28 from 10 in the past two years. The carrier is now eyeing San Francisco and is said to be seeking expansion in the Southern U.S.
In an effort to facilitate the sale of used commercial transports in North America, Aeroconseil plans to establish a U.S. branch soon. The French group expects to generate additional revenues by supplying used European aircraft to U.S. operators.
