JetBlue Airways, unhappy but still profitable in the third quarter, sees what CEO David Neeleman calls a "silver lining" in ever-increasing fuel prices: Airlines are becoming more sensitive about pricing and more cautious about capacity.
Contrary to James F. Jackson's letter (AW&ST Oct. 4, p. 9), it is correct to identify weightlessness with 0g and near-0g with a name like microgravity. Such conditions include being in parabolic flight, in a spacecraft falling directly toward Earth from near outer space, in the International Space Station or static (unthrusted) in far outer space.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Craig Covault (New York)
NASA's new science mission directorate plans a series of quality-control reviews aimed at trying to avoid repeats of the apparent human error that sent the Genesis solar sample return capsule crashing into the Utah desert. And it suggests it may be time for Genesis contractor Lockheed Martin to follow suit.
RTCA (Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics) last month approved training guidelines for civil pilots in the use of night-vision systems. Though not restricted to fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft, these aids were requested by emergency medical helicopter operators seeking to improve situation awareness during night VFR operations. Night-vision systems refer to the integration of all elements necessary to safely operate an aircraft at night with night-vision goggles (NVG), so include cockpit lights compatible with NVGs, and appropriate pilot training.
We should always be suspicious of coerced confessions. Press reports indicate that government prosecution of her daughter was an issue in Darleen Druyun's plea bargain. Would you admit to specious favoritism if it meant a shorter sentence and would keep your child out of jail?
Ah, space exploration! The term had started to sound quaint in recent years--certainly when applied to things like the space shuttle and International Space Station. But as we watch rovers work like robotic field geologists on Mars (see p. 28), words like discover and explore are not forced.
Ann Baumgartner Carl has been named winner of the 2004 Katherine and Marjorie Stinson Award for Achievement from the Arlington, Va.-based National Aeronautic Assn. for blazing a trail for women in the field of test piloting. She was also the first woman to fly a jet aircraft. In 1942, Carl was selected to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots. She was assigned to the Material Command Flight Test Div. at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, where she became the only female experimental test pilot for military combat aircraft in World War II.
The FAA is scheduled to take delivery of a Bombardier Global 5000 business jet next September, to be based at the William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, N.J. It will be configured as an airborne laboratory for R&D projects.
Plans for a national missile defense program are prompting Japan's Defense Agency to request more spending in its 2005-09 spending program. The JDA is seeking 25.5 trillion yen ($240 billion), $4.6 billion more than was covered in the current (2000-04) plan. But the finance ministry says Japan can't afford the increase and has asked the JDA to cut its request by 1 trillion yen.
Paul Breburda has become Frankfurt-based cargo sales manager for Germany for Hong Kong-headquartered Dragonair. He held a similar post at Korean Air Cargo.
Thai Airways International has begun building one of the region's largest maintenance centers to handle three A380s at Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport. The 2,616,000-sq.-ft. center is expected to open in September 2005.
Meanwhile, ESA's Smart-1 Moon probe completed a burn of its xenon-ion engine intended to nudge it into lunar orbit on Nov. 13. The third of three lunar resonance maneuvers designed to exploit the Moon's gravitational force, the burn will permit Smart-1 to reach its first perilune on Nov. 15. Once it has crossed that threshold, a series of long orbital burns will follow, aimed at moving the probe into operational orbit by mid-January 2005 (AW&ST Oct. 11, p. 38).
Six Sigma is a "pillar of Air Canada's new business philosophy," according to CEO Robert A. Milton. "We embarked on Six Sigma about two and a half years ago, and it has been a valuable aid in controlling costs," says Paul Brotto, executive vice president for planning and cost management. "And it was one of the tools in our arsenal that helped us to see as much as we did, as rapidly as we did."
Lockheed Martin has asked the U.S. Air Force to cancel contracts for Boeing that Lockheed Martin believes are tainted by the scandal surrounding former USAF acquisition official Darleen Druyun. The company had asked that four programs--two classified, the Small-Diameter Bomb and C-130 avionics upgrade--be scrutinized.
Thomas M. Donahue, a pioneering planetary scientist whose subjects ranged from Venus to Saturn, died Oct. 16 from complications following heart surgery. He was 83.
A headline that caught my attention was "How To Avoid Airline Pension Meltdowns" and after reading the Viewpoint article, I found myself deeply disappointed. I fully expected that someone had the answer about what to do with my airline pension (AW&ST Sept. 6, p. 66). How does "moving 401k assets into an employee stock ownership plan increase the prospects" that workers will receive full payout? How did the authors determine that this is "... best available strategy for preserving maximum value for those airline workers ..."
Airbus' A380 mega-transport is on track to become an industrial reality. Three production airframes have now been assembled, in addition to fatigue and static test articles. "We are on time, the rollout ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 18 and we're in the process of determining the date of the maiden flight--which should be sometime in the first quarter of 2005," says Robert Lafontan, who heads the development team.
Raytheon's APQ-181, an active electronically scanned array radar for the B-2 bomber, has completed a production readiness review for the transmit/receive modules that make up the heart of the array. Each B-2 antenna is to use more than 2,000 of the two-channel modules of which 500 have been completed or are under construction. Company officials say there were no failures during the qualification test, which included extreme temperatures, vibration and shock.
Hamilton Sundstrand will design and manufacture the gearbox system for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 that's under development for Boeing's 7E7. The contract is expected to be worth $350 million.
The effort to upgrade the fleet of C-5A and B models is gaining steam with completion earlier this month of the first C-5 to receive a new avionics system. The aircraft has just entered into a reengine program.
Robert Wall (Washington), David A. Fulghum (Nashua, N.H.)
Developers of the small, networked WolfPack ground sensors are taking another step toward rebuilding the military's electronic warfare (EW) capabilities by giving the distributed system an important role in the airborne electronic attack order of battle.
Aerospace contractors reaped the benefits of improving market conditions during the third quarter. General Dynamics Corp. reported net income of $322 million ($1.60 a share), a 23% increase from the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 9% to $4.8 billion. The performance was driven by strong showings from Gulfstream Aerospace and Combat Systems operations. Honeywell International reported net income of $372 million (43 cents a share), an 8% increase. Revenue was up 11% to $6.4 billion.
Charles Elachi (left), director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses planetary exploration and emerging technologies with Managing Editor James R. Asker (center) and Senior Editor Craig Covault. Elachi visited AW&ST's New York offices last Thursday before heading uptown to address about 100 aviation industry professionals at the Wings Club. Elachi led the development of spaceborne imaging radar.
Michael A. Dornheim (Los Angeles), Frances Fiorino (Washington)
American Airlines and Airbus will soon engage in their final Flight 587 showdown. The NTSB meets this week in Washington for the final hearing that will determine the probable cause of the Nov. 12, 2001, accident, in which the vertical tail assembly separated from an American Airlines Airbus A300-600 shortly after takeoff from New York JFK International Airport. The crash killed 260 people on board and five on the ground. It was Airbus' first accident in the U.S.
