Jeff Plescia, Applied Physics Laboratory (Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Md.)
The Mars Express images of the Cerberus Plains in southern Elysium depict what is suggested to be a frozen sea (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 18). The only evidence for such an interpretation is the morphologic similarity between the patterns in the image and those observed in sea ice. Beyond that visual analogy, there is no evidence for such an interpretation. A volcanic origin has been proposed since 1990 and is compatible with considerable data.
Eurocontrol faces huge challenges in upgrading its air traffic management system in time to avoid gridlock because it has to turn fragmented airspace into a "single sky" on its way to doubling capacity in 15 years.
The British government is admitting it cannot yet firmly identify when its F-35s will enter service, nor is it able to guarantee the technology access that industry and the armed forces are demanding. The upheaval on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (the Pentagon has approved a revised development schedule) is forcing Britain to rethink planning assumptions about aircraft availability. This may have wider repercussions among potential European purchasers. The British refer to the Lockheed Martin F-35 as the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA).
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways says it tripled its profits for fiscal 2004 on the back of strong Asian markets and higher passenger yields. As elsewhere, higher fuel prices dampened its performance and remain a concern this year, said Chairman David Turnbull. Cathay's net profit was HK$4.42 billion ($566.7 million), a huge increase over last year's HK$1.3 billion. Passenger capacity grew 25% as the airline entered the China market and expanded flights to Australia. Cathay carried 13.7 million passengers, 36% more than in 2003.
The initial operational use of controller-to-pilot data link at Maastricht Upper Area Control Center is setting the stage for continental deployment of the technology in Europe by 2009, as well as an avionics mandate. With the FAA's CPDLC effort canceled, U.S. airlines, avionics companies and ground-based data-link suppliers are gaining experience with the technology in the Maastricht UAC operational program. Pilots (U.S. and European) and controllers using CPDLC are reporting the system is working well.
Sageway Express, one of the four largest door-to-door parcel delivery companies in Japan, says it will form a domestic air cargo carrier by April 2006. The initial targets will be services between Tokyo and Japan's northern and southern islands. Sageway expects to purchase used Boeing 767s or Airbus A300-600s, or lease them new. It will hire its own crew but use Japan Airlines (JAL) for maintenance services and airport cargo handling services.
A Lufthansa CityLine Bombardier CRJ200 made its first low-visibility takeoff using a Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics head-up guidance system (HGS). The aircraft took off Mar. 10 in fog from Milan's Malpensa Airport with visibility below 150 meters runway visual range, the minimum required for takeoff without HGS. Luftfahrt-Bundesamtes, the German civil aviation authority, approved the low-visibility takeoff capability late last year. Capt. Raimund F.
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A well-tested and proven technology is available to protect America's 6,800 commercial airliners from shoulder-fired missiles. Yet, a recent RAND study, "Protecting Commercial Aviation Against the Shoulder-Fired Missile Threat," concludes that "a decision to install such systems aboard commercial airliners should be postponed until the technologies can be developed and shown to be more compatible in a commercial environment."
Phresh Photonics has released a Small Footprint Quadrant Photodiode Amplifier Hybrid, p/n SiQu50-TIA, a positioning module that combines a silicon quadrant photodiode with amplifiers resulting in a sensing and amplification unit with a small footprint. With excellent response in the Vis-NIR, the module can be used with most light sources. The SiQu50-TIA hybrid provides for amplification of each of the quadrant's elements currents and outputs and amplified voltage; all in the same footprint size of the detector. About 0.5 in.
USN Rear Adm. (selectee) Stanley D. Bozin has been named director of the Office of Budget within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management in Washington. He has been commander of Navy Region Europe and commander of Maritime Air Forces in the Mediterranean Sea from Naples, Italy.
New directions on missile defense are being mulled on both sides of the Atlantic, and the gap between the two shows signs of widening. On the Pentagon side, the adjustment is part of a broader reassessment of how to approach anti-missile projects. A mixture of funding constraints and an increased focus on meeting short-term technical objectives, rather than long-term goals, has put cooperation on the back burner.
Norway's coastal administration (Kystverket) has hired the Swedish Space Corp. to upgrade its Fairchild Merlin IIIB coastal surveillance aircraft with a side-looking airborne radar, infrared/ultraviolet scanner, digital camera system and data link. Heltrans A/S will operate surveillance flights over the roughly 83,000 km. of Norwegian coastline under a new three-year contract with Kystverket. The Merlin already carries the MSS 5000 system supplied by the Swedish company's Airborne Systems Dept., and the new work will upgrade that system.
Boeing has signed a letter of offer and acceptance with the Swedish air force to modernize its fleet of eight C-130E/H transports, making Sweden the first foreign customer for the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP). Signature of a foreign arms sales contract under the agreement is expected this summer. Retrofit is to begin in 2007 and be completed in 2009. Total cost, including equipment and services, could be up to $120 million. The first USAF C-130 in the AMP entered the shop in January and is to fly early next year.
OnAir--the onboard broadband venture of Airbus, Sita and Tenzing--predicts the use of inflight cell phones could lead to a 20-fold increase in the number of calls made during flights, provided that technology can be adapted and regulations modified to permit their use. Cell phones are to be offered as part of OnAir's onboard broadband package starting next year (AW&ST Feb. 28, p. 61).
Singapore Airlines is the first carrier in the Southeast Asian region to offer Connexion by Boeing, a broadband service that provides real-time Internet connectivity in flight. The airline is initially introducing the service on its Singapore-London daily flights. It is available for $10 to passengers who have wireless-enabled laptops. Starting in June, four live news channels will be accessible.
Current Position: President and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Age: 59 Pros: Boeing veteran. Instilled cost discipline, initiated development of 787 jet. Business well-positioned to capitalize on market rebound. Cons: Five years from company's mandatory retirement age. Considered by some to be too narrowly focused. Boeing lost market lead to Airbus on his watch. Brief stint running defense business did not impress.
As the Pentagon wrangles with an Air Force proposal to assume control of all Pentagon UAVs (see p. 27), the Government Accountability Office says the Defense Dept.'s existing management is not "well-positioned to make sound decisions or establish funding priorities." Although the Joint UAV Planning Task Force has developed a road map, it is dogged by a lack of authority to implement its plans. Furthermore, federal auditors are taking the Defense Dept. to task for establishing requirements that outstrip technology.
The U.S. and France have agreed that the Istres Le Tube military airfield near Marseilles will be a formal transatlantic abort landing (TAL) site for space shuttle launches when the fleet returns to flight later this year. Istres has been a contingency landing site since 2000, but not a formal TAL site factored into shuttle countdowns. To prepare for possible shuttle landings, the facility will be equipped with a new microwave landing system and specialized lighting.
The U.S. Trade Representative's Office says Oman, Albania and Croatia are expected to join the Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft this year. The agreement requires members to eliminate tariffs on civil aircraft, engines and subassemblies.
The U.S. Air Force's electronic systems center is working on a new Airborne Network, a stable communications backbone in the sky, to link sensors, decision makers and combat aviators and thereby improve command and control, and situational awareness. The goal is to move away from dedicated circuits that communicate only specific information to a limited number of radios in narrowly formatted messages. The network will use Internet Protocol. The IP system breaks information into packets for transmission and sends it to a specific IP address.
U.S. network airlines, eager to boost revenues and escape cutthroat competition with low-cost carriers on the domestic front, are pinning their hopes on new international flights this summer, but a new analysis shows the approach may not help the bottom line for long.
Blade failure was the cause of a 2002 fatal crash of a Sikorsky S-76+, according to a British Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) formal report. The AAIB, part of the Transport Dept., identified the fact that the blade had previously been hit by lightning as a causal factor. An anomaly in the manufacture of the original blade resulted in the creation of a reduced area of insulation, and this allowed the lightning strike to cause micro-structural damage, resulting in a fatigue crack.
Qantas Boeing 737NG flights to Queenstown, New Zealand, are navigating with the assistance of the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) system developed by Naverus of Seattle. It is the first use of RNP outside the U.S. and Canada. The system depends on GPS to locate the aircraft and the Smiths Aerospace flight management computer for guidance during all phases of flight. New Zealand and Australian aviation authorities approved the Naverus-developed procedures following a review.
FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive that would require replacement of suspect parts on certain Thales avionics equipment installed on Airbus A300-600-series aircraft. The move is prompted by reports of loss of the digital distance radio magnetic indicator and subsequent loss of both VOR and DME indicators, and one centralized maintenance computer. The AD is aimed at preventing loss of navigation indications on the primary flight display, thus requiring continuation of flight on emergency instruments.
