As the death toll from the Indian Ocean tsunami climbs to what U.S. Pacific Command's joint intelligence center is now estimating at 150,000 persons, an international military effort to relieve mounting airport and highway bottlenecks is intensifying.
NASA will keep operating the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) at least until April, following a U.S. National Academy of Sciences recommendation that the satellite be kept in service as long as possible. The Academy convened a special panel to assess the value of TRMM after NASA announced plans to shut down the spacecraft last summer, only to reverse them under pressure from Capitol Hill (AW&ST Aug. 9, 2004, p. 19).
A FATAL ACCIDENT INVOLVING WING FAILURE of a Beechcraft T-34A on Dec. 7 near Montgomery, Tex., prompted the FAA to ground the entire fleet of airplanes on Dec. 10. An emergency airworthiness directive has been issued. The airplane that experienced wing failure was in compliance with an earlier directive requiring inspection of wing spars. According to the FAA, the accident aircraft's left wing center section failed 4 in.
India has freed private domestic carriers from restrictive air policies and is allowing them to fly international routes, with the exception of the Persian Gulf region, for the next three years. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel says guidelines will be announced soon. Carriers less than five years old with fewer than 20 aircraft, such as Air Deccan, will not be included. However, moving ahead in its efforts to expand into regional routes, Air Deccan, India's only budget carrier, is to purchase 15 ATR 72-500s at an estimated cost of $240 million.
Teledyne Technologies is reentering the unmanned aircraft business with German UAVs adapted for U.S. military applications. Through an alliance with Rheinmetall Defense Electronics GmbH., the primary supplier of UAV systems for the German forces--subsidiary Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc.--is developing the "Prospector" UAV as a multipurpose reconnaissance system with high-precision navigation and targeting capabilities, according to company executives. "Thunder," a second UAV, is designed to identify and engage targets with onboard weapons.
Sikorsky is revamping its helicopter- production facility, with the goal of consolidating work and slashing flow time in preparation for increased volume in coming years. At the same time, the company wants to leverage recently acquired Schweizer as a rapid prototyping facility, look for other acquisitions, launch the CH-53X development and, most prominently, win the VXX presidential helicopter program and the quickly-to-follow U.S. Air Force Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV).
The first modules of a new research supercomputer being assembled at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory bring the U.S. Energy Dept. a giant step closer to a decade-long objective: simulating what happens to materials during a nuclear-weapon detonation. Called "BlueGene/L," the massively parallel computer currently lays claim to being the world's fastest.
The Army has signed an agreement with Taiwan for the sale of more than 400 AGM-114M blast-fragmentation Hellfire missiles under a foreign military sales contract worth about $50 million. An associated buy of antitank rounds will bring the total to 600 missiles.
Top U.S. Army officials are sounding the alarm over the high number of aviation mishaps, and they are voicing concern that Iraq-induced turbulence throughout the helicopter community could lead to further accidents.
Europe's airports may have a capacity shortfall by 2025 when the top 133 facilities may be unable to handle 17% of the demand for instrument flight operations, according to a new Eurocontrol study.
THE FIRST ECLIPSE 500 very light jet built as an FAA type-conforming airplane flew on Dec. 31 at Eclipse Aviation Corp.'s Albuquerque, N.M., facilities. The initial flight lasted 1 hr. 29 min.; after landing, the airplane was inspected and flew another 54 min. Maximum altitude reached was 16,800 ft. and maximum speed was 200 kt. Eclipse officials say the airplane completed all assigned maneuvers. Two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F engines powered the jet. Plans call for a 15-month flight test program that will accumulate more than 3,000 hr.
Continuing a decade-old trend, a December report on China's national defense status by the country's arms control and disarmament association predicts the People's Liberation Army will reduce its size by 200,000 troops by year-end to 2.3 million. The officer corps is expected to take a 15% cut, as will the number of logistics organizations and personnel and nontechnical forces. Information technology, equipment modernization and streamlined organizations will be priorities.
Continuing a recent series of large, long-lead contracts associated with the Lot 5 buy of F/A-22 stealth fighters, United Technologies Corp. was awarded a $734-million contract to convert Pratt & Whitney F119 engine advanced buy activities to procurement. Work is to be completed by February 2007.
U.S. military engine builders face a seemingly insoluble problem. Defense buying power and force structure are going down; therefore, the number of aerospace products bought by the military undoubtedly will sink. Yet the Pentagon continues to demand more performance and reliance from every product while rejecting increases in price.
On Dec. 24, the U.S./Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted its 50th "Tracking Santa" program, drawing 29,439,721 visitors to a special holiday web site that doubled as a Norad educational tool. Another 54,881 people called a toll-free number to check on the jolly old elf's nocturnal journey. About 100 phone calls per hour and thousands of e-mail messages were answered by volunteer off-duty Norad personnel and their families.
China has granted Bombardier full type approval for the Learjet 45 super-light business aircraft. Global Wings of Tokyo will be the first operator to benefit from the approval. It soon plans to base two Learjet 45XRs in Beijing for executive charter operations, according to Bombardier.
The Army is undertaking yet another review of its unmanned aircraft plan, a ritual that is becoming perhaps more common than aviation reviews the service habitually undertakes every few years. Soldiers like the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) they are using in Iraq, but service leaders still are not happy with the overall strategy for acquiring them. One of the victims of the Army's UAV muddle has been the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft program, run with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).
Dianna Mauer has been named director of operations for homeland security and Susan Hotsenpiller director of legislative affairs in the Washington Operations office of the AAI Corp. Mauer was a business consultant on Alabama economic and governmental issues, while Hotsenpiller was senior legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.).
Jacques Barrot, the European Commission's new transport commissioner, plans to visit the U.S. Transportation Dept. in February. His primary goal: to advance negotiations on the establishment of a transatlantic common area, thereby abolishing bilateral accords between the U.S. and European Union member states. "A good agreement would significantly boost traffic," Barrot says. In addition, he plans to initiate talks soon with Russia and Morocco to liberalize outdated air traffic agreements.
EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSN. OFFICIALS say the FAA has set Jan. 17-22 for the first class of pilots to be designated pilot examiners for the sport pilot category. In addition, the agency has published the Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards that establish knowledge and skills required for issuance of a sport pilot license, and has released instructions to Flight Standards District Offices that cover how to issue student pilot certificates to candidates seeking a sport pilot license.
Based on preliminary data from last month's crash of an F/A-22 at Nellis AFB, Nev., Pentagon leaders believe unofficially that the cause was not pilot error but rather, as some expected, a glitch in the digital flight control system. Everything appeared normal on the takeoff roll. But once aerodynamic forces lifted the aircraft off the runway, the pilot had "no control over pitch, yaw or roll," says an official with insight into the program. "It appears that it will be easy to correct and may even be procedural. But the pilot received no warning of a failure.
Chris Buckerfield (see photo) has been appointed senior business consultant in the logistics team of London-based law firm Mundays. He was an executive vice president for Emery Worldwide in Asia and AEI in Europe.
Simon Barnes has been promoted to vice president-product management from director of sales for the Indala Corp., San Jose, Calif. Paul Kluttz has been named vice president-sales for North America. He was director of strategic accounts for Pelco Video Systems Inc.
Out with the old year, in with the new--and for Delta Air Lines, it's out with old fares, in with the new. The carrier has introduced value pricing in the contiguous U.S. (see p. 8). The structure is based on the "SimpliFares" model introduced August 2004 at its Cincinnati hub, where high fares were driving away passengers. To attract them back to the fold, the airline offered a 60% reduction on certain fares. When outlining the elements of Delta's makeover, CEO Gerald Grinstein said the airline planned to extend the model (AW&ST Sept. 13, 2004, p. 51).
