Completion of nearly $10 million in upgrades to USAF's Tennessee-based Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) SL-3 Sea Level Test Facility is expected to streamline trials of large-thrust-capacity engines such as Pratt & Whitney's F135 for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The $5-million phase one of the enhanced turbine engine installation upgrades more than doubled thrust-stand capacity--to 70,000 lb. from 30,000. The new thrust stand facilitates the snap-in/snap-out approach, giving SL-3 installation procedures commonality with AEDC's other test cells.
CIRRUS DESIGN CORP.'S SR20 became the first airplane to be certified by the new European Aviation Safety Agency for aircraft imported into the European Union. The certificate was presented to company owners Alan and Dale Klapmeier during a private meeting in Brussels on June 1. Dale Klapmeier said the approval "will help us expedite development of market-specific products that address the wants and needs of the European customer." The SR20 is powered by a 200-hp.
The U.S. District Court for Minnesota has dismissed seven class-action suits filed against Northwest Airlines on privacy grounds. Judge Paul A. Magnuson ruled the plaintiffs, customers of the airline, made claims that fail "as a matter of law." The complaints focus on a Northwest agreement to share millions of passenger name records with NASA in a test of whether software algorithms could spot a terrorist or someone with terrorist connections.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.) arrived here for the funeral of President Ronald Reagan with an unintended fanfare June 9 when the transponder on the King Air 200 he was traveling in failed. As the King Air entered restricted airspace, as it was authorized to do so under a Transportation Security Administration waiver of Washington-area security rules, aviation security coordinators had the North American Aerospace Defense Command divert two F-15 fighters from an air patrol over the city to investigate, and U.S.
Smog now spreads from continent to continent. Man is trying to restore the health of the Earth's life-sustaining ozone shield by curtailing some industrial activities, only to find that he's hurting his own cause by what he's doing elsewhere. Greenhouse gases--a lot are man-made but some are from nature--are warming the lower atmosphere and changing the climate.
June 22-24--Air Traffic Control Assn. and U.S. Defense Dept. Civil Military Air Traffic Management Conference. Marriott Warsaw, Poland. Call +1 (703) 299-2430 or see www. atca.org June 28-30--10th Aviation & Allied Business' Leadership Conference: "Air Transport in Africa." Inter-Continental Hotel, Nairobi. Call +23 (41) 497-9780, fax +23 (41) 493-7699 or see www.aviationbusinessjournal.aero
Europe's main helicopter makers are pushing to be allowed to compete for the U.S. Army's two newest helicopter projects, even as political forces in Washington are rallying to bolster the domestic rotorcraft industry.
JetBlue Airways, which now operates an all-Airbus A320 fleet, has exercised options on 30 new A320s, bringing its total on firm order to 123 with 50 options. The aircraft are to be delivered at a rate of about 17 per year, until 2012, according to the New York-JFK-based low-fare carrier. A new aircraft type enters JetBlue's fleet mid-2005, when deliveries of the airline's Embraer 190 aircraft are scheduled to begin. JetBlue has 100 on firm order and options for 100.
Robert Wall (Washington), Barry Rosenberg (New York)
lliant Techsystems has stitched together an unusual string of wins in its defense business. Now the company's leadership is trying to ensure it can keep the momentum going, expand its space business and garner even more Pentagon contracts. Further acquisitions, long-term technology spending and expanding into new business areas are some of the tactics Alliant Techsystems (ATK) CEO Dan Murphy is betting on to sustain his success rate. "We cannot allow ourselves to slow down," he insists.
Lufthansa's scheduled executive shuttle between Germany, Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport and Chicago, barely two years old, is already fostering imitations--one of them from Swiss, which wants to establish an all-business-class transatlantic route from Zurich. The route could be flown by Geneva-based Privatair, which operates the Lufthansa shuttle. But Swiss may first have to measure a challenge from a local startup, Premium Air, which is planning regular executive flights of its own from Geneva.
In a vote on June 7, Titan Corp. shareholders approved the proposed merger with Lockheed Martin. A total of 55,244,545 votes--98.4% of the shares present at the meeting and 65.8% of the shares outstanding and entitled to vote--were cast in favor. If the merger is completed, Titan stockholders will receive $20 in cash for each common share.
A delegation from the Italian Space Agency, led by its chairman, Sergio Vetrella, met in Tokyo last week with his counterpart at the Japan Aeronautic Exploration Agency (JAXA), to discuss space cooperation between the agencies. Areas for potential cooperation, which are expected to be outlined in a series of follow-on meetings over the coming months, include Earth-observation, space science and aeronautics.
United Airlines' unsecured creditors are accusing a group of 30 airplane providers of acting like a cartel and exercising leverage to gain favorable prices and better terms than if United had conducted individual aircraft negotiations. The creditors committee asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois for permission to file an antitrust claim on behalf of United against the Chapman Group.
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor has completed more than 25,000 orbits of the red planet, using the spare Mars Observer camera it carries to collect more than 180,000 images of the surface with resolution as fine as 50 cm. (20 in.). Launched on Nov. 7, 1997, the spacecraft also relayed science data and telemetry from the twin Mars Exploration Rovers from their landing sites on opposite sides of the planet. And it spotted the marks made by the rovers as they bounced along the surface after touching down early this year.
In response to "No Fuselage Flexibility" (AW&ST May 10, p. 6), Boeing holds U.S. Patent 6,568,632, on variably sized blended-wing-body aircraft. For a BWB aircraft, stretching takes place laterally (spanwise) as opposed to longitudinally. Capacity can be increased by adding standardized bays at the center body and vice versa. Wing area and span automatically increase or decrease with capacity, a quality not offered by the longitudinal stretching of a conventional airplane.
Jim Summerford has been appointed U.K.-based vice president-Europe and the Middle East for Continental Airlines, effective June 1. He has been Houston-based vice president-international.
THE FAA HAS SENT THE PROPOSED Sport Pilot/Light Sport Pilot Aircraft rulemaking package back to the Office of Management and Budget for a final review and approval. The OMB, however, has not set a deadline for implementing the rule. A senior official of the Experimental Aircraft Assn. recently visited the OMB and urged the office to waste no time in acting on the regulation. If the OMB approves the package, it will be returned to the FAA for publication in the Federal Register.
Even though the U.S. Marine Corps is in the early stages of a major overhaul of its aviation force, service officials are starting to look ahead, trying to identify which modernization items to tackle next. Foremost on the agenda: armed derivatives of BA609 tiltrotors and heavy-lift rotorcraft, although a new unmanned aircraft could emerge even before that.
I too am glad to see the U.S. Army is coming to its senses regarding the OH-6A (AW&ST May 10, p. 7; Apr. 5, p. 35). My last assignment in the Army in 1969-70 was at the Army Aviation Test Board at Ft. Rucker, Ala. We were flying three 6-hr. shifts a day on the newly procured OH-58, to provide maintainence experience data on an aircraft that seemed to have been hastily bought with inadequate testing.
NTSB findings stemming from the 2002 crash of FedEx Flight 1478 are stirring the pot of critical reaction in the airline pilot community. The group has no argument with the board's only recommendations, both of which focus on a pilot's color vision deficiencies. However, the 64,000-member-strong Air Line Pilots Assn. says the NTSB recognized the significant role of fatigue and its hazards in the accident--and should have either issued new recommendations on rest rules or reiterated previous fatigue-related proposals.
Sikorsky has received European Aviation Safety Agency/Joint Aviation Authorities (EASA/JAA) certification for its S-92 helicopter. The helo also is certified by the FAA to FAR Part 29 Transport Rotorcraft, Amendment 47, the latest U.S. safety standard.
A secret Russian military spacecraft was launched into orbit June 10 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome onboard a Ukrainian-built Zenit II heavy booster. The mission has similar characteristics as past flights involving electronic intelligence eavesdropping satellites.
The Japanese space agency JAXA has shut down its Solar-A spacecraft. Also known as Yohkoh (Sunbeam), the probe was expected to operate for three years after its launch in 1991. But it exceeded that mark by a decade, continuing to return good data on solar phenomena until December 2001, when attitude control became an issue.
The Indian Space Research Organization has won a $10-million contract from the European Union to launch a satellite in orbit from India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at the end of next year. While ISRO had earlier launched small payloads of foreign players as a "piggyback," this is the first time it will use a PSLV for launching a sole payload on board the PSLV. The agency is currently negotiating with Singapore to send a satellite into space.
