The space shuttle Discovery, slated to return the program to flight next spring, is moving into a major new test phase more like a standard prelaunch flow, a sign the project is regaining momentum following the Columbia accident. The milestone signaling the start of operational checkout was the powering-up of the orbiter's complex electrical, computer, Freon cooling and other systems about midnight July 26 in Bay 3 of the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF).
USN Adm. (ret.) Wesley L. McDonald has been named to receive the Cliff Henderson Award for Achievement from the Arlington, Va.-based National Aeronautic Assn. He was honored for his 56 years of support to American aviation, including the last 13 years spent as the chairman of the NAA's board of directors. The award is presented to an individual whose vision, leadership or skill has contributed to the promotion and advancement of aviation or space activity.
MiG has completed delivery of a batch of 12 MiG-29s (10 MiG-29S aircraft and two MiG-29UB two-seat trainers) to Sudan. The aircraft are fitted with the N-019 radar and have no air-to-ground capability other than with iron bombs. Yemen, meanwhile, is reported to have ordered 14 MiG-29SMTs. Deliveries are due to start in the third quarter.
The French court in charge of the judicial investigation into the July 2000 Concorde accident is tentatively scheduled to complete a final report in the third quarter of the year. The court is expected to ratify findings and conclusions of an earlier technical inquiry and could indict parties that allegedly contributed to causes for the crash. For example, the court is believed to be considering taking issue with Air France's and Continental Airlines' overhaul procedures.
Air Force officials are increasingly frustrated that as one problem with the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile is resolved, a new one emerges. After the latest, they have halted Jassm flight testing once again. In a July 27 test, telemetry was lost and the stealthy cruise missile missed its target. A failure review board is looking into the incident that occurred during Jassm's terminal phase following launch from a B-2. Testing won't resume until the review is complete.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard says the pilot in command of a United Airlines 747-400 made the right decision in turning back to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport last week after finding a note suggesting a bomb was on board. "I've been fully briefed on what happened and I totally support the decision taken by the pilot, it was the right thing to do," he said to reporters in the nation's capital of Canberra. "The pilot has to make the ultimate call," Howard added.
Prof. Wayne Lewis (Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Tex.)
Your obituary for former Soviet cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev contains an error in claiming that Nikolayev was the third man to fly in space (AW&ST July 12, p. 18). He was the third Soviet cosmonaut to travel into space, orbiting in Vostok 3 in 1962, after the flights of Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov in Vostoks 1 and 2. However, by the time of this flight, there had also been suborbital flights in the Mercury spacecraft by Alan Shepard and Virgil (Gus) Grissom, and orbital flights by John Glenn and Scott Carpenter.
The U.S. aerospace industry is revising its sales estimates upward for the year as commercial business begins to recover and contribute to already strong results from the military side.
Scott B. Conner has been appointed vice president-strategic planning and corporate development for Axsys Technologies Inc., Rocky Hill, Conn. He was vice president-strategic marketing and business development for Quantum Bridge Communications.
I concur with Gary T. Dye that the S-3 Viking is the "Right Stuff" for the U.S. Coast Guard (AW&ST June 28, p. 6). When I was a Coast Guard aviator in the 1980s, USCG Aviation, Dassault-Breguet and the former Garrett Turbine Engine Co. (with the ATF3-6) were having trouble and delays certifying and delivering the Falcon (200) Medium-Range Coast Guard Jet (HU-25A). These business jets were delivered with drag chutes due to the lack of an effective thrust reverser design. And after delivery, numerous aircraft developed hydraulic system leaks and problems.
An East African Safari Boeing 767-300 powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 turbofans on July 28 made an emergency landing at Rome-Fiumicino airport after an engine fire broke out shortly after takeoff. Italian authorities called the event a "serious incident." On July 16, a Blue Panorama 767, also powered by PW4000s, suffered a similar problem and landed at Fiumicino above maximum landing weight, an event that was called an "accident."
The FAA will meet this week with all U.S. carriers serving Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) in an attempt to negotiate schedule reductions and relieve severe congestion delays. The move reflects failure of cutbacks agreed to in January and April by O'Hare's big dogs, United and American. The two giants agreed separately to reduce flight ops by a combined 7.5% through Oct. 31, but smaller carriers seized the opportunity to add flights and things are as bad as ever. Now, the FAA will jawbone all of them.
Global private equity company The Carlyle Group expects to invest more than $1 billion in China in the next decade. Its newest venture involves Firth Rickson Ltd., a Carlyle property in Sheffield, England, that produces highly engineered forged cast and other specialty metal products. It will soon begin construction of a 50,000-sq.-ft. factory near Shanghai to forge and process seamless alloy rings for aerospace applications such as jet engines. The facility, the first of two projects undertaken by Firth Rickson China Ltd., is expected to be operational in 12-18 months.
Boeing has adopted the blue-and-white color scheme of its 7E7 marketing campaign as the company's standard colors for its 717, 737, 747, 767 and 777, as well. They replace the branding approach of a white upper fuselage, blue lower fuselage, and red, white and blue striping that's been used since 1981.
A recently built scale model shows how small a viable remotely controlled aircraft can be. Matthew T. Keennon, program manager for micro air vehicles at AeroVironment, made a 4.4-in.-wingspan 1/72-scale model of a Royal Aircraft Factory SE5 biplane weighing only 2.5 gm. (0.088 oz.)--about the size of a hummingbird and the weight of a penny. It has proportional rudder, elevator and throttle control.
India's largest liquor company, United Breweries, is investing $22.24 million in its new airline venture, Kingfisher, which is named after its beer. The second Indian startup after the one-year-old Air Deccan, UB has signed a memorandum of understanding for the acquisition of four A320s from Airbus, and taken options on eight more. In addition, it plans to lease four A320s from GE Capital Aviation Services. Based in Bangalore, the carrier will operate initially to 14 destinations starting in the first quarter of 2005, when deliveries of the leased aircraft will begin.
Russia will increase its commitment to expand and utilize the International Space Station, the new director of the Russian space agency told top space managers from other ISS partner nations in his first meeting with them. Russian Army Col. Gen. (ret.) Anatoly Perminov said Russia now plans to move ahead with the development of a new multipurpose laboratory module and separate research module. They are to be launched to the ISS on Proton boosters in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
Range, life-cycle costs, operating efficiencies and airline requirements are the conventional stuff of the marketing battle between Airbus and Boeing. Now you can add a mastery of technology to their point, counterpoint. Boeing is assigning an especially high profile to its use of advanced technologies on its midsize 7E7 and their enhancement of the aircraft's passenger appeal. At the top of its technology list is the dominant position given to carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP)--composites--in the fuselage and wings.
The Air Force faces an unexpected maintenance bill of $400,000 for each of 30 KC-135E tankers because of newly discovered corrosion on a strut. The fix would keep the aircraft operational five more years, says USAF Gen. John W. Handy, the head of U.S. Transportation Command. A more permanent fix after the five years would cost $2 million per aircraft, although Handy considers this estimate iffy. Handy and others in the Air Force want Congress to remove language that restricts retirement of all 130 KC-135Es, the oldest of the tanker fleet.
France-based Groupe Latecoere, an aerostructures producer, will establish a subsidiary at Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, near Embraer's production facilities, to further strengthen its links with the aircraft manufacturer.
Edward J. Fred, who is president/CEO of CPI Aerostructures Inc., Edgewood, N.Y., has been named entrepreneurial advocate by the Long Island (N.Y.) Assn. in connection with its Small Business Awards program. The award honors contributions to the "growth and expansion of small business on Long Island."
Thomas E. Vice (see photo) has been appointed vice president-business development for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems Sector, El Segundo, Calif. He was sector vice president-operations.
Participants in a key NATO airborne surveillance program appear to be navigating critical workshare and technology issues well, but industrial rivalry is simmering below the surface. The six countries involved in the Transatlantic Collaborative Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) Radar (TCAR) completed a feasibility assessment of the technology and have approved industry's proposal on workshare. However, this is only the first of many hurdles that have to be cleared before development of the ground-surveillance project can shift to high gear.
BAE Systems and the British government's Defense Logistics Organization claim they have slashed repair turnaround time on the Harrier aircraft by up to 75%, coupled with substantial cost savings. The improvement follows creation of the Joint Repair Organization of the air force, navy and BAE.
