I have been following the AA587 crash controversy with amazement but am largely satisfied with the investigation outcome. Fifty years ago, on Tiger Moth, we used and abused the rudder because it was built to be flown that way. From the DC-3 onward, however, we were taught never to use full rudder except on an engine-fail at V r and never to reverse it without a stop at neutral, letting the yaw settle. On early Boeing 707s, we were shown that riding it and not fighting it was the answer.
The difficulty of replicating the electronic environment flight crews are likely to face on a future battlefield is leading to more testing in sophisticated ground facilities. However, simulators, systems integration labs, hardware-in-the-loop benches and anechoic chambers must accurately emulate threat systems test aircraft subsequently encounter during flights on open-air ranges.
World News Roundup 20 Spain selects Taurus, boosts missile's chances in Australia 21 Second terminal gives ANA and JAL separate facilities at Haneda 22 Air France-KLM group's revenues 9.1% in first half of fiscal year World News & Analysis 26 USAF weighing four designs for inter- im strike capability to augment B-2 30 USAF shows how bombers find, destroy maritime targets 31 Aerial Common Sensor presents Army with promise and hurdles
U.S. Air Force heavy bomber crews are demonstrating they can use precision weapons and triangulated radar pictures to identify and strike moving ships at standoff ranges. Operation Resultant Fury, being held on the Pacific Missile Range off Hawaii, is designed to show the service's reinvigoration of the heavy bomber force's ability to be a major weapon for finding and striking maritime targets in the Pacific region.
Independence Air, beset with monetary woes, last week went ahead with its planned launch of Airbus A319 service, offering daily nonstop service from its hub at Washington Dulles International Airport to Tampa and Orlando, Fla. On Feb. 1, it plans to add similar service to West Palm Beach, Fla. In June, Independence changed its identify from regional airline Atlantic Coast Airlines to that of a low-fare carrier, operating a fleet of Canadair Regional Jets. The carrier's initial plan was to add A319s to the fleet as service expanded across the U.S.
Northwest has exercised 10 of its 175 CRJ200 regional jet options, increasing its CRJ fleet to 139 aircraft, of which 109 have been delivered, says manufac-turer Bombardier. The CRJ200s will be operated by Pinnacle Airlines.
Bigelow Aerospace has passed additional milestones en route to the flight test of unmanned, subscale versions of its planned Nautilus inflatable manned space station modules. The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation has given the Las Vegas-based company approval for its plan to launch one-third scale Genesis inflatable modules on the SpaceX Falcon V U.S. commercial vehicle or the Russian Dnepr, a commercial version of the SS-18 ballistic missile. The first of two planned flights would be in late 2005.
Departments 11-12 Correspondence 13 Who's Where 14 Market Focus 17 Industry Outlook 19 Airline Outlook 20-22 World News Roundup 23 In Orbit 25 Washington Outlook 63 Classified 64 Contact Us 65 Aerospace Calendar
Neelam Mathews (New Delhi), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
In a post-sanction world, Lockheed Martin expects to open talks in mid-December about upgrades to ex-U.S. Navy P-3B anti-submarine warfare aircraft that will bring them up to a "C" status, matching what the U.S. is proposing to sell Pakistan.
The Australian defense department is trying to further tighten its financial controls after the government audit agency issued a rebuke of internal controls. The Australian National Audit Office has repeatedly raised concerns about defense accounting. "A great deal of work remains in areas of systems, management and practice" to meet accounting requirements, the defense department concedes. Finance department and private sector entities will also sit on the Financial Statements Project Board to help streamline defense department accounting.
Veteran Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and NASA astronaut John Phillips will be the next crew of the International Space Station, beginning their stay in April 2005. Both men have been there before. Krikalev was a member of the first ISS crew in 2000, and Phillips visited in 2001 during a 12-day mission to install the robotic Canadarm2. With a total of 625 days on missions dating back to 1988 on the Mir orbital station, Krikalev could set the record for time in space, during his planned six-month stay as commander of ISS Expedition 11.
NASA counts some $426 million in earmarks--unrequested spending ordered by Congress--in its $16.2-billion appropriation for Fiscal 2005 (see p. 37). Much of that money must be spent on pork-barrel projects in the $500,000 to $1 million range, but one $25-million item keeps alive a program that was killed just as it was starting to pay off.
EasyJet's preliminary result for the year ended Sept. 30 saw profits before taxes rise to 62.2 million pounds ($117 million), up 21%. Revenue rose 17% to 1.09 billion, while revenue per passenger fell by 2%. EasyJet, along with Ryanair, last week announced additional flights and routes to Italy in the wake of the collapse of no-frills carrier Volare (see p. 44).
Bell Helicopter Textron will conduct advanced flight tests of its new tail fan system next year and is developing a propulsive anti-torque system that in the future could replace tail rotors and fans altogether.
NASA's Swift gamma ray burst observatory is being commanded through its checkout in orbit by a control team at Pennsylvania State University, following the spacecraft's launch Nov. 20 from Cape Canaveral on board a Boeing Delta II booster. The 3,324-lb. spacecraft is designed to "swiftly" shift its attitude to focus optical/ultraviolet and X-ray telescopes on fleeting gamma ray bursts, indicative of black-hole formation or collisions between binary stars (AW&ST Nov. 8, p. 33).
U.S. senators incensed by the scandal surrounding Pentagon plans to replace KC-135Es with Boeing KC-767 tankers are showing no sign of relenting and warn they will pursue the matter next year while at the same time pushing the Defense Dept. to initiate additional investigations.
NATO's top military official, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, wants the alliance to copy something the Pentagon has essentially implemented--a process to buy rapidly the key military equipment it needs. NATO's procurement methodology is notorious for moving at a snail's pace. "It cannot be acceptable, on today's global playing field, to have to wait a year and half to field a piece of technology that our commanders need in the field because it devolves into industrial-based transatlantic competition involving 26 nations," Jones says.
When I started reading the Nov. 15 Viewpoint (p. 90), I thought I was reading a plea for selecting the best helicopter to carry my President. That is until I encountered the amazing claim: "If a dual-engine aircraft loses an engine during liftoff, it must land immediately and, in most cases, hard."
Robust but uncontrolled traffic growth and low yields in the last few weeks exacerbated Volare's financial weaknesses, leading to the company's demise. Leasing companies and insurers on Nov. 19 abandoned the Italian low-cost carrier, grounding aircraft as well as stranding thousands of passengers.
Readers Peter Young and Werner Cyrmon attempted to clarify the situation described as microgravity in their letters (AW&ST Nov. 1, p. 9). Unfortunately, they only added to the confusion. The terms weightlessness, 0g and microgravity are all wrong. The net force on any object in low-Earth orbit is about 85% of what it is on the Earth's surface, regardless of whether the object is traveling a circular, parabolic or straight-line path. There is no offsetting outward force that cancels out the gravitational force.
John P. Balaguer (see photo) has been appointed Indianapolis-based general manager for engineering and production support for the Raytheon Technical Services Co.
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) Feb. 16-17--World Aerospace Symposium/Toulouse. Pierre Baudis Toulouse Congress Center, Toulouse, France. Apr. 19-20--MRO Military Conference. Also, Apr. 20-21--MRO USA Conference & Exhibition. Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Dallas. May 24-25--Homeland Security Summit & Exposition. Washington.
Feeling neglected by the executive jet community, Sacramento (Calif.) International Airport has issued a request for proposals for a full-service fixed-base operator. The airport, which is about 75 mi. from busy business aircraft centers in Oakland and Concord, Calif., has a fuel service operator but no full-time FBO.
An American Airlines MD-82 (N234) sustained minor damage Nov. 21 after hitting approach and runway threshold lights on short approach to Denver International Airport's Runway 35L. The aircraft, en route from Dallas-Fort Worth International, was operating under Instrument Meteorological Conditions, with a 0.5 mi. of visibility and freezing fog, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
A move to merge French defense electronics giant Thales with EADS is running out of steam, barely days after surfacing. In sharp contrast with information leaked earlier this month, the merger "isn't on the agenda [anymore]."
