EADS Astrium GmbH. will build the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) for the planned James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency that is intended as a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseilles, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, EADS Astrium SAS and Boostec will also participate in the NIRSpec team. Under its contract with ESA, the team will develop a 200-kg.
The U.S. Air Force Falcon program--aimed at evolving a low-cost means of quick-reaction space access--has run into Fiscal 2005 funding problems, and could be at risk of cancellation. An expected contract award was put on hold recently when USAF acquisition officials "pulled the paperwork back" to modify requirements and make some changes requested by House-Senate conferees working on an appropriations bill. The Air Force is "waiting for clarifications before deciding whether to go forward," a Space & Missiles Systems Center spokesperson says.
James T. McKenna's spirited defense of the official findings of the 1997 TWA 800 event (AW&ST July 12, p. 6) demands a rebuttal. Although he favors verified facts, he doesn't question the CIA-generated color portrayal of the 747's flight path after the nose section separated, attributing the upward streak of light to a stream of burning fuel from aircraft to ground. He dismisses the observations of more than 200 mature, credible witnesses from various locations.
El Al Israel Airlines is continuing its family flight offer this summer. The popular feature, which debuted last year, gives parents the opportunity to book flights that include special entertainment for children. The flights, available twice weekly in July and August, provide magicians and clowns to entertain children in flight. According to Nira Dror, El Al vice president and general manager for North and Central America, the offer runs only during the two summer months because that is the busiest time for family travel. About 20 family flights are offered.
Naval Test Pilot School officials have set priorities for the replacement of some of its aircraft, but does not anticipate changing its curriculum for its pilot and system students at this time. Unlike the National Test Pilot School in Mojave, Calif., which has restructured its syllabus to accommodate more systems training and less performance work, the curriculum at the school here has always brought together a mix of pilots, naval flight officers (NFOs) and engineers (AW&ST Aug. 2, p. 60).
USN Rear Adm. James A. Winnefeld, Jr., has been named commander of Carrier Group Two, Norfolk, Va. He has been director of warfare programs and readiness for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet at Norfolk.
The return of space shuttles to the International Space Station, still set for next spring, will give ISS operators here a chance to clean out the closets on the orbiting facility and start their own recovery from the Columbia accident.
Under an aggressive expansion plan Virgin Atlantic will add a further 13 Airbus A340-600s to its fleet between 2006-08, with options on 13 more aircraft from 2009. Overall the deal is worth in excess of $5.5 billion, with Airbus competing with Boeing for the Virgin order--the -600 versus the 777-300ER. The airline was the launch customer for the -600, and has seven in its fleet. The aircraft will be used to provide additional capacity on Virgin's existing network, and to support new destinations.
A 10-day mission to the seafloor off Key Largo, Fla., has given NASA engineers a better idea of how technology under development for the space program will perform in orbit, as well as how they should design it to perform optimally. Tara Ruttley, lead hardware engineer for International Space Station (ISS) medical equipment, says she found her time in the Aquarius undersea habitat and the feedback she received from her three astronaut crewmates "invaluable" in understanding how to design hardware for the ISS and beyond.
USAF Col. Dana H. Born has been nominated for promotion to brigadier general with assignment as the dean of the faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He has been head of its Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Dept.
Lockheed Martin's board last week formally elected Robert J. Stevens as president and CEO of the company, replacing retiring Vance Coffman, who will remain as the board of director's non-employee chairman until April 2005.
The U.S. Coast Guard in the coming months expects to see progress on some of the key aviation elements of the massive Deepwater modernization program, but the service is far from locking in what the final aircraft inventory will look like. One of the most significant changes could spring from the recent provisional approval USCG has given to the mission needs statement for a so-called organic air transport. The aircraft would be C-130 transports not part of the original Deepwater program.
A NASA/Gulfstream V testbed flies over Lake Tahoe, Calif., during a synthetic/enhanced vision system research and demonstration flight in mid-July. Computer-generated displays based on digital databases accurately depicted terrain and manmade features around Reno/Tahoe International Airport. Smoke cloud in the background stemmed from a large forest fire near Carson City, Nev. Photo provided by NASA-Langley Research Center/Jeff Caplan.
American Mojave Aerospace Ventures is preparing to go for the Ansari X-Prize Sept. 29 after having shown it can reach the 100-km. (328,084-ft.) target altitude on its publicly attended June 21 flight of the SpaceShipOne rocket glider (AW&ST Aug. 2, p. 20). But that flight only went 407 ft. higher than 100 km., while it was planned to go 30,000 ft. higher. A review of the flight gives insight into what happened.
Stephen Newell has been appointed Washington-based director of military sales and Jean Menard director of commercial sales for the Satcom Div. of EMS Technologies Inc. of Ottawa. Newell was manager of avionics systems at Airia Inc., Annapolis, Md. Menard has held senior sales management positions for BAE Systems and Innotech Aviation.
A tight-knit group of Boeing employees is touting the conversion of stored MD-11 airliners into tankers as a low-cost option to the company's KC-767 proposal to the U.S. Air Force. In the Pentagon's analysis of alternatives to replace Air Force KC-135 tankers, the MD-11 is emerging as only one of several potential competitors to the service's plan to acquire 100 KC-767s.
AAI Corp. has started delivering the first modified Shadow-200s to the Army, designated the RQ-7B. The size of the air vehicle was increased to accommodate the expected upgrade with a tactical common data link and to improve flying performance. The larger vehicle carries more fuel and has better aerodynamic balance, boosting endurance by about an hour to a total of more than six hours, AAI says. The Army also has upgraded the system's avionics to improve target location accuracy, fixing a shortfall operational testers have complained about for some time.
Thales will offer an internally funded project as a contender for the radar on the U.K.'s Watchkeeper surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle program. Dubbed I-Master, Thales' synthetic aperture radar (SAR) draws on British and French research. The I-Master is in competition with General Atomics' AN/APY-8 Lynx and the Elta EL/M-2055. Development models of the I-Master have already flown, according to the company, though not yet on a UAV. As Watchkeeper prime contractor, Thales will select the program's SAR radar (which includes ground moving target indicator capability).
Michael A. Taverna (Farnborough), Douglas Barrie (London)
Tupolev is attempting to wrest control of the Tu-334 regional jetliner from MiG in a likely last-ditch attempt to breathe life into the moribund program. To save its short-haul twinjet, Tupolev is trying to persuade the Russian government to transfer prime contractor responsibility--placed with MiG in an earlier effort to stimulate progress--back into Tupolev's hands.
Etihad Airways is aiming to repeat the success story of neighbor Emirates Airlines and become a major player in international long-haul air travel, despite the absence of a sizable home market. Last month at the Farnborough air show, the new carrier surprised the industry with a $7-billion order for four Airbus A380-800s, four A340-500s, four A340-600s and 12 A330-200s to form the backbone of its fleet (AW&ST July 26, p. 26). Etihad will be among early operators of the A380, behind Singapore Airlines and rival Emirates.
Raytheon says it has demonstrated the ability of its SilentEyes UAV to be launched from a Predator unmanned aircraft during recent tests at Edwards AFB. SilentEyes was dispensed from an ALE-50 towed-decoy launcher. The launch was initiated by Predator controllers. After release, SilentEyes followed programmed waypoints and relayed imagery via the Predator to the ground. Controllers redirected SilentEyes, using the Predator as a relay. The Air Force and Predator prime General Atomics supported the demonstration.
L-3 Communications and Rockwell Collins are competing to upgrade U.S. military cryptographic equipment used on a variety of nuclear mission-related platforms, including the E-4B and E-6B command-and-control aircraft, as well as B-52H bombers. Both will work under $13.5-million contracts on the KG-3X program, which modernizes crypto gear for the Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network and the Fixed Submarine Broadcast System. In June 2005, the Air Force plans to pick one contractor for development and production of KG-3X.
Allan Kramer (see photo) has been named general manager of Raytheon Aircraft Services' (RAS) Van Nuys, Calif., facility. He was regional general manager for Mercury Air Centers. Dennis Murphy has been appointed manager of supply chain/logistics, based at the RAS Customer Support Office, Wichita, Kan. Robert MacKenzie (see photo) has become RAS regional sales manager in San Antonio and Bill Ladigo (see photo) avionics sales manager at the RAS Sales Support Center in Wichita.
Gregory W. Kennedy has been promoted to vice president-Airport Customer Service West for Delta Air Lines from vice president-Atlanta airport for subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines. He succeeds Paulette Corbin, who has been promoted to senior vice president-inflight service. Succeeding Kennedy is Carmine Testa, who has been Delta's field director for Airport Customer Service (Florida).
Airlines in the Persian Gulf area plan to boost their fleets and networks in the coming years, as governments in the region try to drive economic and tourism development. Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways are spending billions for new aircraft, while the oldest airline in the region, Gulf Air, appears to be on the road to profitability through massive growth next year. Two new airlines have appeared in the Gulf region since late 2003, Etihad (see p. 36) and low-fare carrier Air Arabia.
