India and Russia reportedly are continuing to discuss the transfer of a handful of Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire C bomber aircraft, according to press reports.
Astronaut Eileen Collins and Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, are among the 2004 Fellows of the Springfield, Va.-based American Astronautical Society. The others are: Paul Cefola of the Massachuetts Institute of Technology; Margaret Finarelli of the International Space University; Frederick Hauck of AXA Space; John Klineberg, formerly of Space Systems/Loral; Arun Misra of McGill University; Roald Sagdeev of the University of Maryland; astrodynamicist Malcolm Shuster; W.
If ever there was a piece of legislation that typified the old saw about the inadvisability of watching sausage or laws being made, it is the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. This magazine was poised to declare it dead--for a second time, no less--when in the closing moments of the 108th Congress last week, the Senate approved the measure on a voice vote, sending it on its way to the President.
French police and airport authorities around the world are seeking a bar of explosives intentionally placed in a piece of luggage by security experts at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The explosives were not retrieved by dogs as planned and were sent to an undetermined destination.
SITA, a leading telecommunications and information technology provider for airlines and airports, has a new management team and organizational structure and is pursuing an aggressive business strategy aiming for double-digit growth.
Measures to sharply curtail and document potentially fatal launch debris similar to that which doomed Columbia and her crew should allow the space shuttle to resume flights as early as May. But it could take up to two years before a fully certified thermal protection system and wing leading edge in-orbit repair capability is ready, shuttle managers say.
While I agree with a number of points made by Lt. Gen. (ret.) Fred McCorkle, there are some that need further discussion. Three engines rather than two provide more redundancy, but raise maintenance bills by 50% and decrease total system mean times between failures. When an engine goes out on any presidential aircraft type, the flight crew will abort the mission and change aircraft.
A team headed by Aurora Flight Sciences was selected by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a Class-II UAV for the Army's Future Combat System. The award funds the GoldenEye team, which includes Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics Robotic Systems, for the first of three development phases.
India has started building its Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, and has added a 20-kg. impactor that will be dropped to the lunar surface so onboard instruments can study the dust kicked up. To support the mission, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) also has started work on a $22-million Deep Space Tracking Network Station on a 100-acre plot near Bangalore. When complete, the 34-meter antenna will support both the lunar orbiter and any subsequent planetary mission. ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair says the ground station should be operational by mid-2007. The 529-kg.
Your editorial on the U.S. airline industry was right on target (AW&ST Nov. 1, p. 66). The airlines have been operating as if passengers are merely a necessary evil that must be tolerated without offering any substantive service. It is not so much that the low-fare market has had an unexpected seismic expansion. But because of the poor service by the majors, passengers have chosen to pay less, because they are given less and treated as lesser creatures.
Barbara Honegger and USAF Lt. Col. (Ret.) Hank Brandli
The "Eagle" had successfully landed, Neil Armstrong had taken his "one small step for man," and the Apollo 11 astronauts were speeding back to Earth and a hero's welcome. But this "giant leap for mankind" would have ended in disaster, not ticker-tape parades--and jeopardized the U.S. space program--had it not been for the courageous actions of two fast-thinking meteorologists: Navy Capt. Willard (Sam) Houston, Jr., and Air Force Capt. Hank Brandli.
Alenia Spazio has received a 170-million-euro contract from EADS Space Transportation for production of hardware for six Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) for on-orbit resupply of the International Space Station. Under the deal with EADS, the European Space Agency's ATV prime contractor, Alenia is responsible for the pressurized Integrated Cargo Carrier at the forward part of the vehicle, with attachments for docking to the station. Alenia will deliver one every year, starting in 2006.
Raytheon has received a $240-million contract for 50 T-6A JPATS trainer aircraft. It represents the 12th production lot for the Air Force and Navy trainer.
Italy's Blue Panorama airline on Nov. 30 launched weekly Milan Malpensa-Venice-Shanghai service. It expects to increase that to three times weekly this spring. The privately owned carrier and China Eastern are discussing a commercial agreement to exploit the new route to Shanghai. And the competition is ready. On Dec. 2, Alitalia, which is seeking a code-share agreement with Air China, launched three-times-weekly service from Milan Malpensa to Shanghai. Blue Panorama is proceeding with fleet-building plans.
The Russian government recently approved EADS' proposal, submitted last July, to acquire a stake in the Irkut Corp. (AW&ST July 26, p. 21). EADS is scheduled to acquire up to 10% of the military fighter manufacturer. In an earlier agreement, EADS and Irkut joined to market an upgraded version of the Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce BR715 turbofans. The Russian group also produces Airbus A320 subassemblies.
The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. reports airline passengers waited, on average, less than 4 min. to pass through airport security during the busiest Thanksgiving holiday period since Sept. 11, 2001. Despite concerns about the possibility of long lines, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it kept things moving. While the average wait time was 3.6 min. the average peak wait was 11.9 min. Waits were less than 6 min. for 88% of passengers, 7-12 min. for 9%, 12-24 min. for 3% and 25 min. or more for just 0.05%. About 13.4 million people flew from Nov. 23-28.
High fuel costs are likely to force the Pentagon back to Congress once more to request additional money, repeating a pattern that began even before the latest surge in fuel prices. Since 2001, the Pentagon has received more than $2.6 billion from Congress to cover increasing fuel costs. While it has also had to shift money between accounts to cover the higher expenses, the Pentagon continues to maintain the Military Petroleum War Reserves Stocks, a fuel supply to enable the execution of combatant commanders' contingency war plans.
Wolfgang F.W. Gohde has been appointed CEO of Frankfurt-based Lufthansa Systems. He succeeds Peter Franke, who is scheduled to retire on Apr. 1. Gohde has been senior vice president-aircraft and overhaul for VIP Jet Services at Lufthansa Technik.
I laughed out loud when I read the letter by Bob Nokes (AW&ST Nov. 22, p. 9) regarding the "non-American" EH 101 and those non-American Toyotas and Hondas. I lived in Detroit and heard it from all sorts of xenophobes with a gripe that my car is a Honda. Someone in a Chrysler PT Cruiser was really harassing me about it. The PT Cruiser is built in Mexico out of parts from China, and DaimlerChrysler is headquartered in Germany. My car was built in Ohio. Those who made it call it an American car and so do I.
Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, President Bush's expected choice to replace Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary, will have one of the toughest jobs in Washington or any other capital. As an anonymous Irish Republican Army terrorist noted after an unsuccessful 1984 bomb attempt on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "We only have to be lucky once; you will have to be lucky always." Kerik will have to finish consolidating the 22 agencies merged in 2002, bringing together some 180,000 federal employees in the biggest U.S.
Latricia Gleed has been named director of inflight standards and regulatory compliance for SkyWest Airlines. She has been president/secretary of the SkyWest InFlight Assn.
Seeking to tap a growing freight market between China and Israel, Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines has hired a freight-handling agent, Turbo China, at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Turbo China will ship freight from Israel to China Southern's European cargo hubs in Amsterdam or Liege, Belgium. From there, China Southern will haul it to Shanghai for distribution inside China. Turbo China reports shipping 30-40 tons of freight a month into China and General Manager Eran Zilberman calls the opportunities between the two "incredible."
Aurora Flight Sciences, BAE Systems and Honeywell International have each received contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the first phase of the Organic Air Vehicle-II (OAV-II) program. They will develop prototype ducted fan UAVs for small Army units. Aurora received a $2.4-million contract; BAE Systems, $2.5 million; Honeywell, $4 million. The three-phase program would result in an OAV-II-type system ready for development and demonstration. The envisioned 112-lb. systems, which are to have 2-hr. endurance and a 10-km.
India has a long way to go in the field of microelectronics, says Indian Space Research Organization Chairman Madhavan Nair, calling for a national strategy on microelectronics for space, defense and atomic-energy applications. "We need to exploit expertise in software and trained manpower," Nair tells the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society at a conference in Bangalore. Challenges India faces in developing microelectronics include the capital-intensive nature of the technology and its rapid obsolescence.
The FAA still faces critical decisions on how to complete the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (Stars) program, and the agency agrees it needs to act soon to replace aging ATC displays at Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and Minneapolis.
