An incorrect localizer setting may have led to the Nov. 22, 2004, crash of a Gulfstream III (G-1159A) on approach to Houston Hobby International Airport, according to factual reports released last week by the NTSB. The aircraft (N85VT), operated by Business Jet Services, was to have picked up former President George H. W. Bush. Throughout the ILS approach to Runway 4, the aircraft was 500-1,000 ft. below glideslope--well below altitudes corresponding to the glideslope full-scale deflection beam, according to the NTSB.
Mark Pulling has become managing director for the U.K. and Ireland for London Heathrow Airport-based Globe Air Cargo. He was regional director for the U.K. and Ireland for Geologistics and had been general manager for cargo at BMI.
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) Apr. 19-20--MRO Military Conference. Also, Apr. 20-21--MRO USA Conference & Exhibition. Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Dallas. May 10-11--Net-Centric Operations Conference 2005. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington. May 24-25--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition, Washington.
Space shuttle project managers were to meet Mar. 18 at Kennedy Space Center to determine if Discovery can be rolled from the Orbiter Processing Facility into the Vehicle Assembly Building this week for stacking on its tank and solid rocket boosters and rollout to Pad 39B, or if those milestones should be delayed. Much of the decision will be based on whether the overall program still has enough margin to achieve launch between May 15 and June 3, or if a slip to the July launch window is more likely.
On every flight I have taken during the last decade or so, I have been advised to remain belted in my seat unless going to the washroom, since one never knows when inflight turbulence might occur. We hear of attendants being injured during sudden drops in altitude. And yet, the A380 will have music bars, showers, lounges and all sorts of non-constrained features. Who are we to believe, the A380 publicity people or the people tasked with safety in flight?
Robert Springarn has become a senior analyst and Peter Skibitski and Brandon Woodward research associates in the aerospace/defense equity research group of New York-based Credit Suisse First Boston. Springarn was a director/senior analyst for Wachovia Securities. Skibitski and Woodward were members of Springarn's team there.
As the Air Force prepares to argue for more F/A-22 aircraft in the Quadrennial Defense Review, the General Accountability Office has found some holes in plans for the system. Former Air Force Secretary James Roche recast the Raptor as an air-to-ground asset, adding the "A" to its name at an estimated cost of $11.7 billion through 2018, in the form of modernization enhancements designed to make the Raptor a multi-role fighter capable of destroying ground targets.
The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds (left) and U.S. Navy Blue Angels aerial demonstration teams recently began their 2005 show season, which runs through late November. They rarely appear together at the same venue. (USAF Thunderbirds photo by TSgt. Sean M. White; U.S. Navy Blue Angels photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class [AW/NAC] Ryan J. Courtade.)
A busy tuna-fishing season has blocked Japanese space agency JAXA's desire to recover the two solid rocket booster motors from the seventh H-IIA, which was launched Feb. 26. JAXA wanted to examine the SRBs for physical evidence that a redesign of their exhaust nozzles was performing as expected. A failed exhaust nozzle was tagged as the culprit in the November 2003 loss of the sixth H-IIA, prompting a redesign of the carbon-fiber nozzle.
Science and engineering polymath Michael D. Griffin faces easy confirmation as the next NASA administrator, but some pretty rough sledding after that. By most accounts, though, he's up to the job. "Mike is one of the most knowledgeable space professionals I know," says Dennis Fitzgerald, deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). "Besides the white socks and the slide rule, he can also manage."
British Airways is coming out in favor of emissions trading as a means of avoiding direct environmental levies, which are being touted in some European capitals. The British government is already pushing for the inclusion of commercial aviation as part of the European Union's approach to emissions trading.
The third time is anything but a charm for the Air Force, which has notified Congress--again--it needs more money for its next-generation missile early-warning system. Originally expected to cost about $4 billion, the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High is now expected to total well beyond $10 billion. But needing more cash is not the only problem: Officials don't know just how much they need. The final amount is expected to be at least $1.5 billion, although officials say it could exceed $2.5 billion.
New legislation in Australia aims to have passengers keep a "stiff upper lip" during security screening, or face stiff fines for making remarks about security issues. The U.S. adopted the practice of prohibiting such statements since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. Australia's Transport Minister John Anderson says, "New laws make it clear it is illegal, as well as stupid, for passengers to make jokes about having a bomb in their luggage, or to threaten, even in jest, that a terrorist act could occur on a flight." The law governs 144 airports and 107 air service operators.
Bruel & Kjaer, a 60-year-old company that specializes in sound and vibration measurement, is joining the Silent Aircraft Initiative (SAI) led by the Cambridge-MIT Institute, in concert with representatives from the civil aerospace and aviation industry. Denmark-based Bruel & Kjaer will work with project researchers in the open jet wind tunnel at the Whittle Laboratory at Cambridge University.
The three extravehicular activities (EVAs) planned at the International Space Station by the STS-114 shuttle "return-to-flight" crew will all be staged out of the orbiter Discovery airlock. Originally the EVAs were scheduled to use the ISS "Quest" airlock module, but managers changed the plan because analysis indicates contamination in the station airlock's environmental system contributed to problems with U.S. spacesuits on board the ISS. New airlock system components were sent to the ISS on the Russian Progress cargo vehicle that docked with the ISS Mar. 2.
Pan Am Capt. (ret.) David H. Quinn, Jr. (Tiburon, Calif.)
I read Capt. (ret.) Hugh Schoelzel's letter extolling TWA's proud history (AW&ST Feb. 21, p. 7). While his conclusions are valid, a few points come to mind: motor airplanes, the first four-engine airplanes, a weather department. I'm no expert on TWA, but Pan Am owned a three-engine Keystone Pathfinder on Sept. 20, 1928, powered by three 220-hp. Wrights. Pan Am's first Ford trimotor was delivered in 1926; its first Fokker F-10A on Dec. 31, 1928. Pan Am's first four-engine aircraft was the Sikorsky S-40, with four Pratt & Whitney Wasps. It was delivered on Oct.
By year-end, Star Alliance members hope to finish the process of setting standard requirements for the two newest aircraft being offered to them by Airbus and Boeing--the A350 and 787, respectively. The steps now being taken match those that members took when they set a common specification for regional jets, says Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht. The alliance won't recommend one aircraft type over another; it merely wants to ensure that whether members buy 787s or A350s, the configurations are similar--because that would result in long-term savings.
Internet sales of Germany-based TUI travel group last year soared 73% to 1.25 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in a confirmation that the European market is rapidly transforming. "This [growth] doesn't mean that travel agents are losing revenues," says TUI Chief Executive Michael Frenzel. A newly completed market analysis shows that, in the absence of web sites, a vast majority of Internet customers would have ordered tickets and reserved rooms directly from airlines and hotels.
George W. Perkins (see photo) has become vice president-business operations, Taylor W. Lawrence (see photo) vice president/general manager of the C 4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) Systems Div. and John V. DeMaso (see photo) vice president/general manager of the Naval and Marine Systems Div., all for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems Sector in Baltimore. Also named were: Robert W. DuBeau vice president/general manager of the Systems Development and Technology Div., James L.
I beg to disagree with Adm. Timothy J. Keating's statement in "A Sharper Spear" (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 28) that he is "sending a loud-and-clear message" to terrorists that they are "on a fool's errand." Keating is proud that the President of the most powerful nation on Earth hides behind a ring of flesh, steel and fire, and that we are conditioning young American fliers to shoot down airliners filled with their compatriots.
The Breitling watch Richard Branson lent to Steve Fossett for his round the world Global Flyer solo flight fetched $38,887.43 at an e-Bay auction. The money will be donated to Orbis, the flying eye hospital.
The 90-day review of how the Homeland Security Dept. is organized and operates is focusing on a risk-based assessment of threats, vulnerabilities and consequences, according to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Chertoff also told a George Washington University audience last week that winning the war on terror is the great calling of this generation and will be, like the Cold War, a marathon event.
SpaceShipOne, the first commercial vehicle to reach space with a pilot on board, is destined to hang from the rafters at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington. Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who financed its development by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC and shared in the $10-million Ansari X Prize it won, has donated SpaceShipOne to the museum. The team behind the air-launched craft (see photo) also won the 2005 NASM Trophy for Current Achievement, awarded Mar. 9. SpaceShipOne will hang between Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St.
As Thales prepares for a new phase in European aerospace/defense consolidation, executives are first being forced to implement another round of restructuring in an attempt to offset higher currency costs.
International Space Station program engineers are preparing for the day-- Dec. 31, 2010, at the latest--when the space shuttle fleet is retired. William Gerstenmaier, NASA's ISS program manager, says his team is already planning a shift to "disposable sparing" to keep the station functioning without a shuttle-supported ground-depot system. Once existing and prepositioned spare components break down, they would be abandoned in favor of new, smaller spares designed for commercial and other alternative ISS-supply vehicles.
