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.
After years of combat use, the MQ-1 Predator UAV has been declared to have reached initial operating capability in the U.S. Air Force. The missile-firing variant of the RQ-1 UAV finally met 11 requirements ranging from training to aircraft availability.
A Franco-Russian flight test program is planned for the SaM146 turbofan that will power the Russian Regional Jet--the first time such an approach has been adopted for a Russian aircraft program.
Don't count out that robotic Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. NASA scratched it from the Fiscal 2006 budget request, recommending that Congress fund only development of a propulsion module to deorbit the telescope when it stops working. But some key staffers on Capitol Hill still believe the Hubble can be saved, and they don't want to use a precious space shuttle mission to do it, as recommended by a National Research Council panel.
SITA INC (INFORMATION NETWORKING COMPUTING) HAS AGREED to sell its 27 VHF data-link ground stations installed at all major airports in Germany to DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH., the air navigation services provider in that country. The 1.4-million-euro ($1.8-million) transaction provides ongoing benefits to both parties, according to DFS and Sita officials speaking at the Janes ATC conference in Maastricht last month.
The Japanese space agency JAXA is ready to resume a full launch schedule after its Mitsubishi H-IIA successfully orbited a long-awaited weather satellite. The seventh launch of the H-IIA medium-lift booster came 15 months after hot exhaust gases burned through the nozzle of a solid rocket booster motor and prompted the destruction of the sixth H-IIA. The Feb. 26 launch put the $314-million Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) MTSat-1R into a geostationary transfer orbit. It is to reach its final orbital slot at 140 deg. E. Long. on Mar. 8.
FAA has formed a working group to address root causes of general aviation accidents. Following a spate of high-profile business aviation crashes that raised public concerns about safety, the FAA in late February called a meeting with GA groups to share best practices for safe operations (AW&ST Feb. 21, p. 19). National Business Aviation Assn. President Ed Bolen in a letter on Feb. 25 reminded members that NBAA has led the way in developing best practices.
Prospects for returning NASA's space shuttle fleet to flight brightened last week when the 17th Russian Progress cargo vehicle to reach the International Space Station docked with the orbiting outpost. Launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Feb. 28 on a Soyuz rocket, the Progress delivered more than two tons of supplies to the ISS, including 86 containers carrying a six-month supply of food. Also in the unpiloted craft were spare parts for the station's life support system, 1,071 lb. of water and 242 lb. of oxygen and air.
Two subsidiaries of Shanghai's China Eastern Airlines have taken delivery of two aircraft from International Lease Finance Corp. One 737-800 with blended winglets was received by China Eastern Airlines Wuhan and a 737-700 went to China Eastern Yunnan Airlines. China Eastern is due to take 13 737s from ILFC this year. Last December, China Eastern ordered six 737-700s for delivery in 2006 from Boeing.
The Feb. 7 Industry Outlook column listed Douglas Equipment as the first to provide a towbarless tractor large enough to handle Airbus A380s. TLD developed the first A380-compatible tractor, which has been in use at Airbus since 2004.
Traci Fremin has been appointed general manager of the Atlantic Aviation facility at New Orleans Lakefront Airport. She remains director of customer development there and at Louis Armstrong International Airport.
The Civil Air Patrol rolled out its Airborne Real-Time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced Reconnaissance system last week at Ft. Belvoir, Va. The imaging system will be installed in CAP aircraft for aerial reconnaissance, and is expected to increase the effectiveness in several types of missions.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Stephen D. Vining (Dayton, Ohio)
In your article "Watts Next?" (AW&ST Dec. 13, 2004, p. 30), it must have taken a great deal of editorial skill to purge the many inherent references to the Air Force Research Laboratory. AFRL's Power Div. has for decades been driving development of the enabling technologies cited by your article.
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.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Paul J. Kern has been appointed to the board of directors of the New York-based EDO Corp. He was commanding general of the Army Materiel Command.
SES Global executives expect to hit double-digit organic revenue growth for this year and next, and believe short-term interests driving some competitors could boost the long-term outlook for the satellite communications provider.
Eumetsat has made available its Meteosat 5 spacecraft, stationed at 63 deg. E. Long. over the Indian Ocean, for tsunami alert applications, following the reconfiguration of ground infrastructure to allow data-collection platforms to receive signals in the international frequency band reserved for emergency use. The University of Hawaii will use the spacecraft to retransmit signals from two new buoys placed in the Indian Ocean as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's tsunami alert system.
The budget carrier market in India is set to add another airline, Air One, in May with one leased 50-seater Embraer ERJ 145. The carrier intends to add four more by the end of 2005. It has plans to operate initially on regional routes where adequate services are unavailable. An announcement on launch plans is expected soon. Presently, Air Deccan is the only budget carrier, with SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines expected to start by April.
General Electric has been awarded a $57.8-million U.S. Air Force contract, that could eventually be worth $91.5 million, to provide newly redesigned high-pressure compressor and turbine assemblies to support the service life extension plan and upgrades for aging F-16 F100-GE-100/129 engines.
Northrop Grumman planners believe they have discovered a new, unfilled military niche for unmanned reconnaissance aircraft with day-long endurance that carry a payload of up to 20 lb. Researchers envision mounting these 6.5-ft.-wingspan UAVs--called Killer Bees--in "hives" or pods of three, five or 10 vehicles for automatic dispensing. They could then be dropped from the weapons pylons of large UAVs or the weapons bays of bomber aircraft, or they can be shot out the back of transport aircraft at speeds of 200 kt. or more and altitudes up to 40,000 ft.
