Korean Air has ordered two Boeing 747-400ER freighters in a deal estimated at $400 million, according to the airplane manufacturer. Deliveries are expected to start in the second half of 2005. Korean Air Cargo operates a fleet of 10 747-400s and four 747-400ERs. Another 747-400ER is scheduled for delivery in August (AW&ST May 24, p. 58).
Cornelius O'Leary has been elected president of the New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks, Conn. He is a lawyer and former state senator. O'Leary succeeds Larry Churchill. Scott Ashton was elected vice president. He is marketing director for GE Corporate Aircraft Finance.
Ronald Rand has been named director of communications for the Large Commercial Engines division of Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, Conn. He succeeds Gary Minor, who has become director of state government affairs for the parent United Technologies Corp. Rand was director of public affairs for the U.S. Air Force.
On-again, off-again plans for a second Beijing airport are on again. When the government decided in 2002 to expand the existing airport, it abandoned plans for a second facility. Now, Beijing Capital International Airport Group (BCIAG) has unveiled a blueprint for a 111.2-billion-yuan ($13.9-billion) 60-sq.-mi. aviation city. BCIAG, which is expecting a surge in traffic after 2010, is seeking to develop a dual hub system. A 15-sq.-mi. airport operating zone, which would include a ground transport network, will cost 26.4 billion yuan.
Delta Air Lines is six months along on developing its "strategic realignment" and still grinding away, but however sophisticated the plans get, the next few years still will turn on pilot concessions.
After a long journey that has made it lame, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has finally come across strong signs of water and is now getting its share of the limelight. While Spirit searched over parched terrain, its twin Opportunity has had an easy time grabbing headlines, having landed just tens of feet away from historically wet rocks.
Cassini should witness next year a rare celestial event--two Saturnian moons that will swap their almost identical orbits. The alternative is that they may collide.
The U.K. has short-listed four teams for its Future Rapid Effects System which will allow land systems to operate in a coordinated network-centric environment: W.S. Atkins, EDS Defense, PA Consulting and QinetiQ.
In the not-too-distant future, an innocuous U.S. military satellite might aim its antenna at a spacecraft recently launched by another nation or private company, silently sweeping the orbital newcomer with a covert radio-frequency (RF) beam. Seconds later, technicians at a ground station would receive a highly detailed image of the new space platform, plus complete identification of materials that make up its structure and payload.
The U.S. House of Representatives aviation subcommittee held hearings this month on the financial condition of the U.S. airline industry. Among the witnesses was AirTran Airways Chairman/CEO Joe Leonard. This is adapted from his testimony.
As a loyal customer of US Airways and its predecessors for four decades, it pains me to see the company suffering a slow death. The entry of Southwest Airlines into Philadelphia could be the final blow unless US Airways makes big changes. And trying to beat Southwest at its own game is not the right answer, as US Airways should have learned at Baltimore-Washington.
The Iraq war "cannot be won militarily," says the U.S. Army's top soldier, and it presents a multilayered problem for top planners: How to use as few soldiers as possible with maximum military effect to fight an elusive enemy that can be reinforced at will from neighboring countries across porous, hard-to-police borders. Moreover, success will be hard to define. "It's not as pretty as we would like it to be," says the Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker. "It's not as predictable.
The Navy has started flight-testing an upgrade to AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters designed to turn around the engine exhaust, curtailing heat damage to the rotorcraft's tailboom while reducing its infrared signature. Bell's XworX design facility devised the change. Flight-testing of turned exhaust on the AH-1W is to begin in October; fielding in March 2005.
I appreciated your article "'Free-Flight' Experiments" (AW&ST June 7, p. 48). In addition to increasing capacity, such a free-flight environment could enable UAV operations ranging from homeland security to commercial applications. Particularly interesting was the "traffic conflict" graphic displaying conflict areas and available resolution maneuvers. This information is also critical to the safe integration of UAVs into the airspace.
Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates, prime contractor for German-based commercial remote sensing supplier RapidEye, has inked a contract worth $35 million with Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. for the five microsatellites that will make up RapidEye's constellation. Each of the 150-kg. (330-lb.) spacecraft will carry optics supplied by Jena Optronik that can deliver 6.5-meter (21-ft.) resolution (AW&ST June 7, p. 17). Surrey will build the spacecraft and integrate the optics at its Guildford, England, facility, for initial service in 2007.
I read with interest Barry Geier's letter regarding firefighting with C-141s (AW&ST June 7, p. 6). My understanding is that the retired C-141s that have been retired are extremely old and suffering from structural fatigue in their wings. They would probably be a much more dangerous aircraft to fly than any others flying that mission.
The U.S. Navy is scratching its head about how it should replace the C-2 Greyhound logistics support aircraft for aircraft carriers, and the HV-22 tiltrotor is emerging as a possible player. A replacement will likely be needed in the field around 2018, says Navy Capt. David Philman, who works in the service's air warfare directorate. An analysis is underway to look at the mix of systems the service will have in inventory, including MH-60 support helicopters, to determine what future actions may be required.
With conditions now considered more favorable, the U.K. and France plan to enter detailed talks on whether, and to what extent, they can cooperate on designing, building and operating a new generation of aircraft carriers.
A French Mirage 2000 fighter crash during a training flight last week could generate calls for renewed training vigilance in France. Preliminary indications said the mishap--one of a series of incidents in recent months in which trainees have been involved--occurred during an inflight refueling maneuver. The two pilots parachuted to safety.
Accenture is hitting political turbulence in the form of a House Appropriations Committee 35-17 vote that would block the company from working on the US Visit program, potentially worth $10 billion, despite its selection as prime contractor by the Homeland Security Dept. At issue is whether a Bermuda-based company should be allowed to win over two U.S. companies, Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., and Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, Calif.
Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the U.S., left his mark on just about everything in the society of his generation, so it is by no means extraordinary that his influence on aerospace and aviation was profound as well.
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he Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity should reach an unexplored type of rock inside Endurance Crater this week, probing remnants of a geologic age that preceded the already-explored top layer of water-formed bedrock, and perhaps giving clues how one era changed into the other. And late last week, scientists found yet another deeper layer that lies farther along the drive path.
