The Air Line Pilots Assn. 49th Air Safety Forum held last week in Washington highlighted areas it believes critical to the safety of man, machine and the nation's aviation system as the industry begins its second hundred years. Safety Management System (SMS) and Crew Monitoring (see p. 66) were among the most discussed topics.
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The tests have shown what I and many others suspected all along was the initiating event in the space shuttle Columbia accident. The fix is deceptively simple. Long ago, plasterers used linen in the top coat to stabilize and provide for a quality finish for interior walls. Model builders first used silk cloth held down with airplane glue to strengthen balsa structures. Later the material was silk-weight glass cloth held down with polyester resin.
H-3A/BS OUT, SH-60JS, -KS IN Japan's navy has retired the last of 167 H-3A/B antisubmarine helicopters built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries under license from Sikorsky (HSS-2 Sea King) between 1962-88. The aircraft have been replaced by Sikorsky/Mitsubishi SH-60Js and -Ks.
It was incorrectly reported that the Delta Air Lines Pilots Assn. withdrew from wage concession talks with airline management, and that Dalpa favored opening the entire contract to negotiation (AW&ST July 28, p.18), according to a union official. Instead, the official said, union representatives reiterated Dalpa's "philosophical imperatives." And instead of opening the entire contract, Dalpa is interested only in modifications if it gets its requested contract extension.
Pakistan International Airlines has selected Goodrich wheels and brakes for the three Boeing 777-200ERs it has on firm order, with deliveries scheduled to commence in January 2004. PIA also has five options for 777-200ERs.
BUSTER BUYER The U.S. Army has awarded San Antonio-based Mission Technologies a $5-million contract for three Buster mini-UAVs. The fully automated, 4-hr.-endurance UAV has been in development for several years, although the contract for the Army night vision laboratory marks the first significant sale of the system. The day/night-capable systems are slated for delivery within a year.
Martin Ricciuti has become vice president-sales and marketing of EADS Airframe Services, Lake Charles, La. He was a regional sales manager for Curtiss-Wright Flight Systems.
Lockheed Martin's Future Combat System Multifunction Utility Logistics and Equipment vehicle has been selected by the team of Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. for the system development and demonstration phase of the U.S. Army's FCS program. The value of the SDD phase could exceed $200 million.
Regarding the runway incidents at O'Hare airport (AW&ST July 28, p. 44), all those involved should meet and decide what preventive measures will be taken following an incursion accident. Then before an accident occurs, implement the changes. The "what-if" method with appropriate follow-on action is an effective, but often not used, safety/risk management tool and offers considerable benefits to all air transport and aerospace operations.
NEXT-GEN ISR The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $126-million contract for the first of what is expected to be a fleet of E-10A 767-400ERs. The aircraft will serve as a testbed for the ground and air surveillance fleet that is slated to replace the E-8C Joint-STARS ground moving-target tracking sensor and later the E-3 AWACS air-surveillance platform. Plans call for the Air Force to build five ground target tracking E-10As.
SARS SURVIVOR Thai Airways International bucked the SARS red-ink trend by posting a 7-billion-baht ($167-million) profit for the first nine months of its fiscal year, ending June 30. But SARS still tainted the well; profits were off 22% from last year. Senior Vice President Tasani Sudasna said government efforts to promote Thai tourism as a SARS-safe destination have helped; the carrier is now operating at 75% of pre-SARS levels. The coming quarter is traditionally tourism-rich.
The best of youth starts life with "a sense of enormous expectation, the sense that one's life is important, that great achievements are within one's capacity, and that great things lie ahead." Ayn Rand described this rare individual--the type needed for the aerospace industry's workforce--in the introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of The Fountainhead in 1968.
Firing a Pegasus winged booster into space from the Orbital Sciences Lockheed L-1011 launch aircraft requires precision timing by the transport's pilots and detailed coordination between the cockpit crew, onboard launch panel operators and ground control center.
BUNKER BUSTER NASA is braced for the release this week of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's final report, a massive dissection of the entrenched agency "culture" that board members believe contributed to the Feb. 1 shuttle reentry disaster. Despite early complaints by Capitol Hill Democrats that the board wasn't sufficiently independent, agency officials up to and including Administrator Sean O'Keefe don't expect to get an early look at the report and its accompanying CD-ROM before it is released on the board's web site at 10 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
CLEANER POWER Rolls-Royce's Allison Advanced Development Co. has won a Pentagon contract to investigate technology concepts for combustors, hot section components, fuels, materials and control methodologies for high-performance, low-emission engines. The propulsion systems would be used on existing or future aerospace systems. The effort also is supposed to address the technical challenges while keeping an eye on affordability, says the Air Force Research Laboratory. The contract is valued at $13.3 million.
Linda R. Drake has been appointed general manager of the Launch Mission Assurance Office within Space Launch Operations at The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. She held the same position at the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Div. Drake has been succeeded by Kenneth G. Holden, who was general manager of the Launch Verification Div. Wayne H. Goodman has been named general manager of the Launch Vehicle Engineering and Analysis Div. He was principal director of the EELV Launch Verification Directorate of the Launch Verification Div.
The U.S. Navy has selected Raytheon for continued engineering and manufacturing development of the Standard Missile-3, leading to sea-based missile defense deployment. The three-year award is worth up to $881.4 million.
The launch of a critical $1-billion National Reconnaissance Office signal intelligence spacecraft, which already has been postponed 18 months, has been delayed into September by more problems with the satellite and a valve in its Titan IVB/Centaur booster. The mission was to have launched here Aug. 20 (AW&ST Aug. 18, p. 25). But the malfunction of a fuel measurement valve in the second stage of the Lockheed Martin Titan core vehicle and more problems with the satellite have delayed liftoff until about Sept. 6.
Some 38 countries and 650 companies, three-quarters of them from Russia, were represented at the Moscow air show (MAKS), held at the Gromov Flight Research Institute near Moscow, Aug. 19-24. Heightened security and the visit of President Vladimir Putin on the first day meant a trying time for attendees as getting on-, and, curiously, off-site proved difficult. Access remained a considerable headache for participants. The show was also notable for the first appearance of a Boeing B-52 over the airfield--part of a sizable U.S. Air Force presence.
Pratt & Whitney's baseline engine for Boeing's proposed 7E7 transport will rely on validated technologies and demonstrated advanced manufacturing techniques to meet the propulsion performance and cost of ownership targets set by the airframer.
Space Systems/Loral and Mitsu- bishi Electric Corp. have completed on-orbit testing of the Optus C1 communications satellite and handed it over to Australia's SingTel Optus and the Australian Defense Dept. Launched June 11 on an Ariane 5 (AW&ST June 16, p. 58), the spacecraft provides K uband commercial service and military communications in UHF, X- and K aband frequencies from its location at 156 deg. E. Long.
PROFIT & LOSS STATEMENT Korean Air said a 7.1% appreciation in the Korean won helped cushion the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) health crisis, but not enough to prevent the carrier from posting a 284.6-billion-won ($242-million) loss for the first half of fiscal 2003. It had a profit of 486 billion won for the same period last year. As usual, Korean Air's cargo revenue was strong (up 7.2%), but that wasn't enough to offset a decline in passenger revenue of more than 10%.
The U.S. Air Force wants to field a 100-lb. unmanned aircraft--launched from a stealth fighter flying at supersonic speed--that can cruise the battlefield for a half-day or more armed with a weapon powerful enough to disable a moving armored vehicle. The project is called Air Dominator, and Boeing's Phantom Works has won the airframe technology demonstration phase of the project to build a low-speed, high-endurance candidate aircraft. The project is under the direction of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin AFB, Fla.
