Britain is taking its first--but possibly definitive--step in establishing a UCAV procurement strategy in agreeing to collaborate with Washington on the latter's Joint-Unmanned Combat Air Systems program. The deal has potentially sweeping consequences, since London has also been the target of European efforts to draw it into any consolidated continental program.
I enjoyed Michael A. Dornheim's commentary "IT Blunders, Codes Gone Awry" (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 63). He points out the problems our industry faces with software code. How do we ensure it will do what is intended without significant unintended consequences? The incidents with the YF-22 and other aircraft with regard to pilot-induced oscillations certainly led to prominent lessons from which we can learn.
The first EADS Astrium Inmarsat 4 spacecraft is being maneuvered toward its geosynchronous orbit slot over the Indian Ocean following liftoff Mar. 11 from Cape Canaveral on a Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas V. Three Aerojet solid rocket motors augmented the Atlas V's Energomash/Pratt & Whitney RD-180 engine and Centaur upper stage with a single Pratt & Whitney RL10 engine. The flight initiates Inmarsat's $1.5-billion effort to dominate the mobile communications market with a new high-speed broadband capability.
USAF 1st Lt. Jeremy Tobias, information systems security manager for MacDill AFB, Fla.-based U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Communications Support Element, has been named junior officer of the quarter for the third quarter of 2004. Tobias was cited for contributing to the global war on terrorism by providing a joint worldwide communications system to allow effective real-time coordination of military operations and intelligence sharing to coalition forces.
The U.S. Air Force is continuing its effort to become the Pentagon's executive agent for all unmanned aircraft by announcing the establishment of a UAV Center for Excellence.
Jonathan Taub indeed is not the only one who thought of putting fans in the wings of jet aircraft (AW&ST Feb. 21, p. 6). My dad, Stanley Spooner, was project manager for the Ryan XV-5A for the Army Avlabs at Ft. Eustis, Va., in the late 1950s and early '60's. It had wing lift fans and a nose-mounted pitch fan powered by the jet engine exhaust, which in hindsight probably substantially reduced the IR signature. The engine intake was above and behind the pilot's canopy. Clamshell doors over the wing fans closed for high-speed flight and opened for VTOL operations.
Consolidation of the European airline sector continues to gain momentum, as Lufthansa confirmed its plans to buy rival Swiss International Air Lines and form a three-hub airline system in the center of Continental Europe. The transaction could be approved at board meetings this week.
The European Commission (EC) has initiated so-called infringement proceedings against European Union member states that have bilateral agreements with the U.S. governing air travel. A European court ruled in 2002 that those accords, when containing "nationality clauses," violated EU rules.
TAP Portugal expects to expand its Airbus fleet gradually in the next few years. But inadequate airport capacity, high oil prices and a projected slowdown in growth present the airline's executives with a new set of hurdles.
The British Civil Aviation Authority will abide by a government ruling and drop its proposed restrictions on British Airways over the addition of 21 frequencies on its Indian route structure. The CAA recommended that seven frequencies go to BA, 10 to Virgin Atlantic and four to British Midland Airways. As BA already has 19, the CAA had suggested "additional restrictions," to avoid any possibility BA reallocate some of them for competitive purposes against either British Midland Airways or Virgin.
Kent Brittan has been named chairman of United Technologies International Operations. He was vice president-operations of the Hartford, Conn.- based company and has been succeeded by Jothi Purushotaman. He was senior vice president-finance for the Pratt & Whitney Div. Succeeding Purushotaman, in turn, is Rajeev Bhalla, who was vice president/controller of the Lockheed Martin Corp.
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Kent Kresa, who is chairman emeritus of the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp., has been named the new chairman of the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology of Pasadena. He has been a board member since 1994 and succeeds Ben Rosen.
The Navy completed its preliminary design review of Lockheed Martin's plans for the Mobile User Objective System, which will provide narrowband communications to warfighters on the go. The PDR validated Lockheed Martin's design and demonstrated the system will be backward compatible with its predecessor, the Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On satellites.
The U.S. Air Force, in its final report on the incident, has reaffirmed that the roughly 8 sec. of early shutdowns experienced by all three RS-68 engines on the first Boeing Delta IV Heavy flight in December was caused by a gaseous condition in one part of the oxygen feed lines, which tricked propellant flow sensors into falsely signaling oxidizer had been depleted. This triggered a software shutdown of the engines. The Air Force said a unique combination of vehicle accelerations, propellant level and flow rates in the oxygen feed lines created the situation.
Mike Anderson of Boeing Naval Systems has been named vice president/deputy program director of the Bell Boeing V-22 Joint Program Office, Amarillo, Tex. He has been the Boeing F/A-18E/F program manager responsible for technical, cost and schedule performance.
The FAA and federal Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), charged with transforming the air transportation system by 2025, are breaking new ground by establishing an institute to facilitate industry involvement with the JPDO's efforts. FAA Administrator Marion C.
South African Airways executives are examining their fleet and network plans. The review is driven by the fact that South Africa will host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, after a big lobbying effort from political leaders. The question now is whether SAA has enough aircraft and routes to adequately support the event. As part of growth plans already underway, SAA in July is to launch four-flights-a-week service from Washington Dulles to Johannesburg International Airport with Boeing 747-400 aircraft. This would increase the airline's flight frequency from the U.S.
The worldwide satellite-manufacturing industry continues to struggle, finding near-term demand for new spacecraft flat despite advances in the technology they deliver. On the commercial side, the digital explosion in the consumer market hasn't been matched by parallel growth in the need for new satellites to deliver the new services. The military has an ambitious satellite development program, but its details are still bogged down in the usual wrangling at the Pentagon and in Congress.
The fate of Chinook Mk3 helicopters for U.K. Special Forces and the larger issue of the ministry's Future Rotorcraft Capability will be sealed in the next few months. Neither presents the government with an easy option. Describing the Boeing Chinook Mk3 program as "one of the worst examples of acquisition" it has seen, the parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) calls on the ministry to finally decide what it will do with the helicopter--six years after it was originally intended to enter service.
Boeing is quietly assuring top U.S. Air Force planners that it will keep the 767 production line warm for the next two years. That would extend the service's option to buy the tankers if the Pentagon can find some way to win congressional approval for restarting the program.
Japan plans to establish its own global positioning satellite system, with launches expected in 2008-09 and initial funding to be set in the fiscal 2006 budget. The GPS system will be established with the New Satellite Business Corp., an industry consortium formed in 2002 by 59 companies, including Hitachi Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric. Japan would operate its GPS system in cooperation with the U.S. system. The government has spent 23 billion yen ($220 million) since 2002 on studies of GPS technology.
Ed Stickel commented in the letters section (AW&ST Mar. 7, p. 6): "The A380 is simply a bigger Boeing 747 with an extended upper deck." I must disagree. The A380 has been designed to satisfy a clear market need and if Airbus' predictions hold true, will quickly eclipse the Boeing 747. A 20% reduction in cost per seat mile is a major decrease. Add that to the long range and reduced takeoff and landing distance in comparison with the 747, and the A380 will quickly become a force to be reckoned with.
An expanded Franco-Russian space cooperation agreement could lay the groundwork for a future joint launch vehicle program in Europe and boost space exploration. One facet of the accord signed last week by the French space agency CNES and Russian space agency Ruskosmos extends cooperation in manned flight, with a focus on life-support systems. It will aim to bolster future development and operations of the International Space Station and prepare cooperative space exploration efforts with the U.S.
Kenneth Quinn has become general counsel/secretary of the Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Safety Foundation. He will continue as co-chairman of law firm Pillsbury Winthrop's Aviation, Aerospace and Transportation Practice Group.
