An Air Force experimental rendezvous satellite is undergoing checkout after being launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Apr. 11 by an Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket. Late last week, all systems were working as anticipated, an Air Force official said.
World News Roundup 22 International Space Station crew in the midst of handover operations 23 Fuel hedging brings another prof- itable quarter for Southwest Airlines 24 Israel accepts its first three AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters World News & Analysis 28 Griffin lifts off at NASA with calls for speeding shuttle replacement 30 Civil-military space cooperation may get big boost under Griffin 30 Europe reduces next Mars mission, still hopes for sample-return role
The European Aviation Safety Agency and Joint Aviation Authorities have certified the midsize-cabin Cessna Citation Sovereign business jet. It now can be certified and registered in 25 countries that adhere to EASA regulations and 10 other European nations that abide by JAA rules. FAA certification was granted in June 2004.
With competition for scarce funds heating up, space scientists are proposing to downscale Europe's Aurora space exploration effort, at least in the initial years. The move raises questions about European participation in a proposed U.S.-led exploration initiative. Aurora was kicked off in 2001 with the task of establishing a road map to follow up the European Space Agency's Mars Express and Smart-1 lunar exploration missions. It has since been given a broader mandate covering all future exploration activities, under the manned spaceflight directorate.
Ronald Tiersky is right when he says the struggle about Boeing and Airbus, or between Europe and the U.S., is about culture (AW&ST Mar. 28, p. 66). What we have to do is find a common language, because that is what culture differences are about: misunderstanding (although I agree that in this case it is about politics as well).
Lufthansa Technik believes it will be hard to achieve last year's profit margins in the current fiscal year because the worldwide MRO market continues to suffer from overcapacity and price pressure.
With all eyes watching Airbus and the A380 inching toward its first flight, which is slated to occur before month's end, Dassault Aviation is quietly sneaking toward the first flight of its new aircraft, the 7X Falcon Jet. The long-range business jet is expected to complete its first flight by early May.
A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-300 undergoes a scheduled maintenance check at the carrier's Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Technical Operations Center. Although the global maintenance, repair and overhaul industry continues to recover from the ramifications of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, finding new ways to cut costs without sacrificing service remains a daily challenge (see p. 52). In the wake of rising fuel expenditures, price pressures from the airlines are relentless as MRO providers struggle to balance customer demands against economic realities.
Alloy Surfaces of Chester Township, Pa., has opened a second plant for the production of special materials decoys used by U.S. military aircraft to decoy man-portable air defense systems. Company officials say demand for the decoys have tripled over the last three years as U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft equipped with the system have been flying in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A Thales-led team will supply a full self-protection suite for Belgium's fleet of 11 C-130H transports. Thales will provide a CATS-100 radar-warning receiver; Terma of Denmark, the advanced countermeasures dispenser and Early Warning management system; and Belgium's Barco, the situational-awareness display. Portuguese contractor Ogma will perform the four-year retrofit project, which will integrate the aircraft's existing infrared missile-warning capability.
Pilatus logged 2004 profits of $5.9 million, up from $4.2 million in 2003, on the strength of a 6.4% increase in sales. It sold 83 aircraft. The U.S. was the largest market, with 48.7%. The strength of the Swiss franc against the dollar hurt profit margins, as did increases in material costs. In 2004, the company also received certification of its new PC-21 trainer, despite the setback suffered in January when one of two prototypes crashed. Series production of the trainer is to begin this year, although no customers have been named.
Ralph Tourino, vice president-integrated systems and solutions for the Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Space Support and Global Strike Div., has been named one of the 50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business for the third consecutive year by the editors of Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology. Tourino was recognized for "leadership and outstanding work in the field of technology." Before joining Lockheed Martin, Tourino, a retired U.S. Air Force major general, was program director for the B-2 stealth bomber.
Magtrol now offers eight standard dynamometer tables. Each table has been designed to accommodate one of the company's Hysteresis/Engine or Eddy-Current/Powder Brake dynamometers and can be customized to meet the needs of most testing applications, according to the company. The corrosion-resistant tables are portable and are ideal for moving dynamometers to alternate testing stations because the stands are designed of lightweight aluminum with casters for smooth mobility.
Air Force officials are employing a different strategy on their $32-billion rocket program to divvy up the workload by allocating, instead of competing, a host of launches between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Details of the new bailout portion of the program remain unclear.
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If the space shuttle arrives at the International Space Station (ISS) with significant thermal protection system damage, NASA may not have enough confidence in unproven repair methods to risk the lives of the crew to bring the vehicle back for a landing. The damaged shuttle probably would be abandoned and discarded.
The North American maintenance, repair and overhaul business is forecast to reap revenues of $21.5 billion by 2013. MRO providers, however, face an uphill battle as they struggle to cope with unrelenting price pressures from customers and competitors without compromising quality of service.
Astronomers using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory have pieced together pictures of the violence that results when galactic clusters plow into each other. In X-ray images of three large clusters, an international team of researchers has used a combination of positional and energy data to map the distribution and temperature of intergalactic gas, which can range above 100 million C. Such high temperatures result when clusters collide at closing velocities faster than 2,000 km./sec., converting the kinetic energy into thermal energy.
Airbus leaders like to suggest they don't share Boeing's view that an aggressive pursuit of composites is the way to go, but researchers for the European aircraft maker are seeing a rapid growth in their application on Airbus aircraft.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has ordered $33 million worth of eXaminer 3DX explosives detection systems from L-3 Communications Security & Detection Systems. About 500 of these machines are deployed worldwide. The eXaminer is one of only three machines certified by the TSA to screen checked luggage at U.S. airports.
Deputy Defense Undersecretary for Industrial Policy Suzanne Patrick says a recent study shows that U.S. contractors have "gotten behind the power curve" in the vertical-lift market. She says the U.S. government needs to encourage industry to start building vertical-lift aircraft "from scratch," and not just focus on upgrading existing helicopters. In particular, a Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland team's upset win of the future U.S. presidential helicopter contract is at the very least a "nudge" to domestic manufacturers, she says.
Pinpoint Laser Systems has introduced a precision Microgage bore alignment kit for industrial applications. The product is well-suited for aligning extrusion presses, rams, precision screws, lathes and turning center, propeller shafts and stern tubes, bar feeders and other demanding applications. The system consists of a cylindrical laser, available in either a 2.250 or 1 in. diameter that is held right in the bore, tool holder, chuck or shaft mount. The laser reference beam is projected to a digital receiver that is held in a mount with a similar precision bore diameter.
William Ballhaus, president/CEO of The Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles, is one of four people to be named honorary AIAA fellows. The others are: Eilene Galloway of the International Institute of Space Law in Washington; Clayton Jones, president/CEO of Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Wolfgang Schmidt, who is retired from DaimlerChrysler AG, Friedrichshafe, Germany.
Regarding Airbus receiving $2 billion in government aid to launch the A350 and more than $4 billion to launch the A380, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' marketing chief hit the nail on the head when she called the European Union "EU Inc." (AW&ST Mar. 14, p. 21).
FL Group (formerly Flugleidir Icelandair) has exercised the five options valued at $325 million from a January order for 10 Boeing 737-800s. Aircraft from the original orders begin arriving next year; aircraft from the exercised options in 2007.
