Long-range operations are more homocentric than aerocentric, falling between the prescriptive and increasingly stretching performance parameters of extended twin operations (AW&ST July 5, p. 40). Singapore Airlines' two-crew approach is practical for ultra-long haul and optimal for long-haul sectors. The first officer-only augmentation policy and staggered F/O seniority command structure complicates, dilutes and flattens cockpit authority. The captain's authority should not be in doubt.
Pigs, 500 of them, took flight on a China Southern Airlines Boeing 747-400 special cargo mission. The 65-ton load of breeding swine were transported this month from Denmark to Zhengzhou, China. An airline team worked out the intricacies of porker loading onto 15 main deck pallets to meet the aircraft's weight and balance requirements. The animals were safely and humanely transported, according to the carrier, in specially built cages with drinking facilities.
By Stephen M. Duncan Naval Institute Press 392 pp., Hardcover ($28.95) A lot has happened in Washington to address the threat of terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, but neither civilian nor military establishments have been recast enough for the tasks ahead.
AEROSPACE INDUSTRY analysts polled at Farnborough 2004 say if the U.S. military is to meet its goal of reducing manpower, the strike and patrol aviation ratio of manned to unmanned aircraft needs to be severely altered. By 2015-20, attack aircraft need to be about 33% unmanned, they contend. Patrol aircraft should have at least a 50-50 ratio. However, the Navy is dragging its feet and has put off embracing the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance plan by another three years.
THE U.K. HAS OPENED a new engineering and flight test center in Wales for unmanned aerial vehicles, financed partly with European Union funds. The facility, located in Aberporth, will offer 2,500 sq. mi. of unrestricted air space, a scarce commodity for European UAV users and manufacturers. It will be available for both civil and military applications.
Air navigation services provider NavCanada will increase service charges 7.9% beginning on Sept. 1. According to NavCanada, the new rates will allow the company to break even in fiscal 2004-05. Rate changes for annual and quarterly charges will be implemented on Mar. 1, 2005. Despite "significant" cost-control efforts and revenue-generating initiatives, the company said the increases are required to deal with revenue shortfall projected for the next fiscal year.
By Ton van Andel and Martin Leeuwis, Martin Leeuwis Publications P.O. Box 192 5250AD Vlijmen, the Netherlands Web site: aviation-humor.com 16 euros ($19)
Former NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson last week was presented with Aviation Week & Space Technology's John Curtis Sword by Kenneth E. Gazzola, Aviation Week publisher and executive vice president of The McGraw-Hill Companies. The award was presented to Robertson, currently deputy chairman of Cable and Wireless, during the Society of British Aerospace Companies' Farnborough International dinner. The sword is awarded biennially to an individual deemed to have made a significant contribution to Anglo-American aerospace cooperation.
In Europe, simplicity is rarely an option. Collective procurement efforts are hamstrung by rival industrial and national priorities, as witnessed by attempts to craft a cooperative approach to future fast-jet training needs. The idea of a pan-European program to address future training requirements emerged in 1996-97. The Advanced European Jet Pilot Training (Aejpt) project interested 12 nations who agreed, in principle, to the concept of collective training.
MBDA AND ISRAEL Aircraft Industries have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the potential for technology collaboration in the missile defense arena. EADS and Northrop Grum- man last week also signed similar memorandum covering missile defense. EADS is also talking to Lockheed Martin on missile defense. The latter, meanwhile, is also meeting with Finmeccanica.
OUTSIZE CARGO SPECIALISTS Antonov Airlines and Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which operate the world's largest commercial An-124 fleets, plan to team for NATO's interim strategic airlifter pool. Volga-Dnepr Chairman/CEO Alexey Isaikin said the carriers might be interested in cooperating with another team, which is led by EADS and also is proposing An-124s. Separately, a Russian-Ukrainian work group has been formed to discuss ways of restarting the now-idle An-124 assembly line.
Awards from France, the U.K., U.S. and Europe's A400M airlifter program again seem to prove the wisdom of Thales' "multidomestic" defense market strategy.
Prof. Stanley J. Alluisi, Chairman (Aviation Management Dept., Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, Okla.)
While I agree with Mark Maslowski that Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne is "hardly groundbreaking or revolutionary" in the technological sense, it is certainly is for the manner in which it was accomplished (AW&ST July 5, p. 6; June 28, p. 28). I also agree that the target altitude of 100 km. needed to win the Ansari X-Prize does not significantly push the technological envelope. However, the same could be said for almost all of the aviation prizes that resulted in record-breaking flights.
The airline industry overstates the tax burden on air travelers, an MIT-Daniel Webster College study finds. Concluding that the tax on an average domestic fare is about 15% rather than up to 26%, as claimed by airlines seeking tax relief from Congress, researchers cite three major ways airlines' assumptions depart from reality.
The first of Japan's Northrop Grumman-built E-2C early-warning command and control aircraft to be upgraded to E-2C Hawkeye 2000 configuration took its maiden flight July 14. The aircraft, one of the country's 13 E-2C Hawkeyes, was modified by a team that included Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Toshiba and Yamada Corp. The U.S. company's Integrated Systems sector performed engineering work and supplied modification kits. The aircraft is set for delivery to Japan's Air Self-Defense Force this fall.
Air France Industries and Lufthansa Technik have formed a joint venture to seek third-party customers for the maintenance of Airbus A380s. The two parent airlines have ordered a total of 25 A380s.
New evidence points to an era of water on the Meridiani Planum region of Mars more recent than already found, based on continuing scouting by NASA's "Opportunity" Mars Exploration Rover inside the Endurance crater.
Honeywell is leveraging its investment in a digital terrain database developed for the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) by spinning off related new products and adding features to existing ones.
Looking into the second-quarter performance mirror, low-cost carriers appear to be fairest of them all--with JetBlue Airways reporting its 14th and America West Airlines its fifth consecutive quarter of profitability. The black ink, as America West CEO Doug Parker points out, is noteworthy in an industry environment "burdened with excess capacity, extraordinarily high fuel prices and extremely aggressive competition."
Eaton Corp. has sued Frisby Aerospace Inc., a subsidiary of the Triumph Group Inc., over the alleged theft of intellectual property, mainly concerning advanced hydraulic pump designs. The suit revolves around five former Eaton employees who are said to have taken drawings, specifications and other trade secrets with them when they quit to work for Clemmons, N.C.-based Frisby. In a statement, Triumph says it has "meritorious defenses to the allegations" and is considering a countersuit.
The Indian Space Research Organization is wrapping up work on the $53.3-million Cartosat-1 satellite, to be launched in the first quarter of 2005. Using some 3,000 ground-reference points being installed by India's Surveyor General, the spacecraft is designed to re-map the country within two years. Two cameras working simultaneously will produce stereoscopic images of terrain details during Cartosat-1's lifespan of 5-6 years. An Indian PSLV launcher is scheduled to place the 1,500-kg. (3,300-lb.) satellite at an altitude of about 617 km.
Biometrics, better efforts at explosives detection and human-factors studies of airport screeners are among the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Generally, the commissioners' final report urges a "layered defenses" approach to aviation security, border controls and the tracking of persons suspected of terrorist intent. On biometrics, the commissioners say such technologies should be integrated with the system that provides benefits to foreigners seeking to stay in the U.S.
I made a presentation on structural optimization for the space shuttle at the Marshall Space Flight Center on July 2, 1970. Not mentioned in my old trip report was that I spoke to management before leaving. I asked a high-level NASA manager not to build the shuttle. I told him: "Wings in space are like wheels on a duck."
Space shuttle pioneer Robert Crippen has parted ways with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe over O'Keefe's decision not to use the shuttle to deliver astronauts to the Hubble Space Telescope for a servicing mission. "I personally disagree with the decision," Crippen told the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 40th Propulsion Conference (AW&ST July 19, p. 58). Crippen believes a focus on the shuttle's return to flight is more important overall. "But I would like to have seen us use our human servicing capability again on Hubble," he said.
Curtiss-Wright Corp. has received a $6.3-million contract from Lockheed Martin to supply radar warning receiver systems for U.S. Army helicopters. The contract has a potential value of $17.6 million, including additional options during the next two years.
