The number of approach and landing accidents worldwide involving airline jet transports is trending downward. According to the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), of aircraft having a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of more than 60,000 lb., 11 hull losses have been recorded from January-Nov. 1, 2003--a significant decrease from 32 hull loss accidents recorded in 1993. During the same period this year, there were 10 hull losses of commercial jets having an MTOW of less than 60,000 lb., while turboprop-powered transports having more than 14 seats and MTOW of more than 8,300 lb.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency scored a success for sea-based missile defense when a Standard Missile-3 launched from an Aegis cruiser intercepted a target launched from the Pacific Missile Range at Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The two missiles struck each other several hundred kilometers from Kauai at an altitude of 137 km. (85 mi.). The last test was not successful because a new dual-pulse divert and attitude control system failed. For this test, a dumbed-down single pulse system that worked in earlier tests was used.
International Space Station engineers are assessing the potential long-term implications of fleeting abnormal behavior noted on one of the station's three remaining control moment gyros (CMGs) important to maneuvering the 330,000-lb. station complex.
NASA is making progress on techniques for inspecting the space shuttle in orbit and on methods for repairing the wing leading edge and the spacecraft's thermal protection tiles, engineers tell the oversight task group monitoring NASA's response to the Columbia accident. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board recommended--and NASA concurred--that such inspection and repair means be in place before the shuttle returns to flight. The oversight group monitoring NASA's compliance is headed by former astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Richard O. Covey.
Naresh Goyal, chairman of India's Jet Airways, received the Outstanding Asian-Indian Award from the U.S.-based Indian-American Center for Political Awareness in New York.
It is a relief to hear that "Pentagon space czar" Peter B. Teets has declared that fully reusable two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) vehicles are currently beyond reach (AW&ST Nov. 24, p. 19).
Ground systems that eventually will allow theater commanders to receive missile-warning information directly from Space-Based Infrared System-High spacecraft--and replace U.S. Army Space Command's Joint Tactical Air-to-Ground Stations (Jtags)--have advanced to a field-testing phase. Lockheed Martin, contractor for the M3P (Multi-Mission Mobile Processors) system, recently completed hardware and software integration on the first two M3P units, clearing the way for field tests.
Five years after the Tata-Singapore Airlines proposal to start a domestic carrier in competition with state-owned Indian Airlines was shot down, India is considering a spate of pro-competitive industry reforms, according to the government.
A veteran team of record-setting aviation explorers will attempt to fly a solar-powered aircraft around the world, possibly as early as 2009. The Switzerland-based "Solar Impulse" team is headed by Bertrand Piccard, and includes Brian Jones and Andre Borschberg, a pilot and engineer. Piccard and Jones were the first to circumnavigate the Earth by balloon in 1999, flying the Breitling Orbiter 3. Much of the new Sun-powered aircraft's design will be done by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Japan's Nozomi surveyor was due to reach its closest point above the Martian surface--about 894 km. (554 mi.)--at 3:19 a.m. Dec. 14 Tokyo time and then to keep right on going into a useless solar orbit. During the $170-million spacecraft's transit from Earth a solar flare shorted its electrical system, which in turn knocked out a crucial fuel-line heating system. Ground controllers at JAXA, the Japanese space agency, tried one last time on Dec. 9 to overcome the short in order to get the heaters working and the fuel flowing.
Although its launch has been delayed until 2007-08 by the Columbia accident, about 20 Japanese technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center are continuing active testing and final assembly of the Kibo Japanese Experiments Module (JEM) for the International Space Station. The technicians, mostly from Mitsubishi and JAXA, are installing cables and blankets and performing various system function tests and compatibility checks with other ISS and shuttle interface hardware. Japan has spent $3 billion since 1985 developing the 35,000-lb. 14 X 36-ft.
SCIENTISTS FROM 3M TOLD THE IEDM forum that organic thin-film transistors are also being considered for radio-frequency ID tags. RFID tags are already in use, but applications for logistics control and inventory management would be virtually unlimited if they could be produced for a penny each, which the company thinks is possible using pentacene organic semiconductors. The other big advantage of these RFIDs is that they could be glued onto any surface shape and "read" from some distance, compared with the ubiquitous bar codes, which have to be scanned at short range.
The coming months could prove turbulent for the British Royal Air Force as it faces likely irresistible pressure to reduce combat aircraft numbers. The government's latest Defense white paper, "Delivering Security in a Changing World," which was unveiled Dec. 11, paints a broad-brush picture of emerging policy but trails indications that the devil will be in the details. This will be hammered out during 2004, in a series of procurement and force structure studies.
Tim Fritz has been named head of the Spaceflight Committee of the Aerospace States Assn. He is director of the Colorado Office of Aerospace and Aeronautics. He also serves on the ASA's Aeronautics Committee.
USN Vice Adm. Walter B. Massenburg (see photo) has has been promoted from rear admiral and assumed command of the Naval Air Systems Command. He has been assistant commander for aviation depots and was assistant commander for logistics.
Although new production facilities to accommodate the Airbus A380's final assembly line have not been commissioned as yet, the first aircraft has begun to take shape. The nose and center fuselage sections are being assembled in St. Nazaire, France (shown above and right). Final assembly is scheduled to begin in early 2004 and to be completed in the fourth quarter in preparation for the maiden flight planned for early 2005 (AW&ST Dec. 8, p. 27).
The Pentagon is the largest customer for commercial satellite bandwidth, but it doesn't even know how much it spends for commercial satellite services. Nor do its users get good value for their satellite-services dollars, since procedures run by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to ensure competitive fairness also add cost and delays.
For the second time--and under dramatically different circumstances--the Aerospace Industries Assn. will press presidential candidates of both parties and all stripes to sign up for what its members see as their most important issues in next year's election.
Regional flights and high-profile events, such as an International Monetary Fund meeting in Dubai, have helped Gulf Air keep its head above water despite battling traffic declines to Southeast Asia during last spring's SARS health scare. "It's all about winning and focus," President/CEO James Hogan proclaimed. The money-losing airline is now on a fast growth track and expects to break even next year. It carried 5.4 million passengers in 2002, serving a network of 45 cities in 33 countries.
Considering the well-deserved concern about shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in the hands of terrorists, I would think the missiles could be built to preclude being fired by unintended users. Couldn't the missiles be made to become inoperable in a certain time period and then if they are still in friendly hands, couldn't the missiles be fitted with a new chip or code to make them operable again? The stingers that we gave to the Afghans and that have fallen into unfriendly hands, would be useless.
Northrop Grumman has won a U.S. Air Force contract to develop a communications software package that will take the output from any existing radio, convert it into a common language and put the data into the global warfighting network. The package is called Information For Mobile Warrior (IFMW) and is a new name for the information for global reach system. The capability is a stepping-stone to the Joint Tactical Radio System software program that is to appear a few years from now.
The Wright brothers were able to succeed in flying because of their overall design methodology--one that has persisted and remained successful for the following century.
Air Canada has been ordered by an Ontario judge overseeing the airline's restructuring to consider in a "fair and responsible" manner an investment proposal from Cerberus Capital Management LP. In a court-supervised bidding process, Air Canada earlier chose Trinity Time Investments, headed by Hong Kong investor T.K. Li over Cerberus. Judge James Farley also declined to grant requests from some creditors that terms of the latest Cerberus proposal be made public. Air Canada's board of directors was expected to finalize its selection by the end of last week.
From the beachball-sized Sputnik 1 to the multifunctional but fragile space shuttle and the growing International Space Station, spacecraft have advanced dramatically in the 46 years since the Soviet Union's 183-lb. trailblazer triggered the space race. The space environment is harsh and unforgiving, and the progress that has gone into operating there is arguably the crowning engineering achievement of the post-World War II age.
GENERAL ATOMICS WILL DEVELOP A LIGHTER, more reliable and easier to maintain version of its Lynx APY-8 radar for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command. Lynx uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with a ground moving target indicator (GMTI) capability to provide all-weather reconnaissance, surveillance and target tracking for military and civil customers. The Lynx II version will provide photographic-like images with 4-in. resolution up to 30 km. (19 mi.) away in fair weather and about 25 km. through rain and clouds, according to General Atomics.
