In response to Paul Ellis' letter, an airline pilot's skills, talents and responsibilities always have been to deliver travelers to their destinations safely (AW&ST June2, p. 6). Irate, intoxicated or ill passengers are ultimately dealt with by the captain even before the plane leaves the gate.
Your editorial on then-American Airlines Chairman and CEO Donald J. Carty (AW&ST Apr. 28, p. 58) hit the nail on the head, but left out two words that describe upper management of major airlines: arrogant and insensitive.
SHAKEDOWN LAB FOR F-35 Beginning next year, Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems in Fort Worth plans to demonstrate the reliability and integration of hardware and software for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter--using a unique JSF Vehicle Systems Integration Facility (VSIF)--before first flight of a pre-production airplane in August 2005. Mark A. Hoban, technical lead for the VSIF, said there eventually will be three groups of JSF integrated product teams, and each IPT will be able to test independently as well as corporately.
A photo accompanying your story on shuttle foam impact tests shows a 0.4-in. gap being measured by a very unusual and surprising device (AW&ST June 9, p. 32). It appears to be the "Concise Science Tables and Circular Slide Rule" like the one I bought in 1969. I keep mine as a curiousity, to show my students what life was like in technical fields back in the "Dark Ages," when calculators were mechanical and computer programs were punched on cards or paper tape. Is this what we're using for accident analysis in the 21st century?
BETWEEN THE LINES--IN LARGE PRINT You didn't have to read tea leaves to discern that Shinseki and Rumsfeld were at odds. Rumsfeld wasn't able to make Shinseki's retirement ceremony, as he was flying to a NATO meeting. Before the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld pooh-poohed Shinseki's estimate of several hundred thousand troops to occupy Iraq, saying it would be fewer than 100,000. There are certainly more there now, and Shinseki made sure to note that the U.S. has 370,000 soldiers forward-deployed in 120 countries.
Snecma Group's Hurel-Hispano has chosen Magellan Aerospace to manufacture exhaust nozzles for the Rolls-Royce and Engine Alliance powerplants to be installed in Airbus A380 aircraft. Work for the $116.2-million order will be performed at Magellan's Canadian facilities.
When American Airlines Capt. Don Bliss says low-cost carriers have failed to raise themselves "to the service quality and compensation levels of an industry and profession that took more than 80 years to develop," I would ask this: What "service qualities" are you referring to exactly? A bad meal being served that most either cared not to eat or complained about anyway? Perhaps a frequent-flier program? A comfortable seat? Inflight entertainment?
The current effort on Capitol Hill to raise the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots to 66 from 60 is no different from previous thinly veiled attempts. The motivations are as clear as ever.
These nickel-chrome alloy foil resistors are constructed to meet tight temperature coefficients and resistance tolerances while providing long-term stability in high-reliability applications. The company offers a TCR of ±2.5 ppm/C over the range -55 to +125C and resistance tolerances to 0.005%. Resistors have less than a 0.2% resistance change over 10,000 hr. at rated temperatures and power. The resistor's two-wire lead construction abates mechanical stresses and provides increased protection against vibration in military and aerospace applications.
Joshua Lane, a systems engineer for Analytical Graphics Inc., Malvern, Pa., has won the 2003 Young Engineer Achievement Award from the Greater Philadelphia Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Lane was cited for his support of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in which he used AGI's aerospace analysis and visualization software to create detailed analytical studies, technical reports and visualizations of STS-107.
Building on ties with Canadian armed forces, L-3 Communications Corp. plans to purchase Bombardier Inc.'s Military Aviation Services unit for $90 million. Separately, L-3 acquired Aeromet Inc. for $30 million on May 30. The Tulsa, Okla.-based company's areas of expertise include electro-optical and infrared technology in support of intelligence, surveillance and recon missions and specialized meteorological applications. Its 2002 sales totaled $30 million.
This rugged 2U high PCI rack-mount enclosure will house up to six hot-swappable 3.5-in. drives and two 5.25-in. drives. The vertically mounted backplane supports a PICMG-based single-board computer and up to four full-length PCI boards. A 320-watt ATX-style power supply provides outputs of 5V, 3.3V, 12V and -12V. Two fans flow cooling air through the card cage and out the rear of the enclosure. Some features of the rugged construction include reinforced corners, power supply hold-downs, flush-mounted LEDs, and secured cables.
Testing is essential to successful space flight because the environment is so unforgiving, but NASA's space shuttle program has "gambled" on simulations and analysis in making critical decisions over the years.
Israel's military space goals are deceptively simple. Planners want a constellation of small, low-Earth orbit satellites carrying a range of sensors, including a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with a resolution of well under a meter for day/night, bad-weather observations. They consider such observations critical for keeping track of potential foes, such as Iran and Libya, which have long-range ballistic missile programs.
This small airfield, once an RAF base, is located a few miles east of Gaza, where fighting occurs regularly between Palestinian irregulars and Israeli troops.
Despite the lull in the business aviation market, Dassault Aviation has begun cutting metal on its new 7X trijet, with a view to bringing it to market by the end of 2006.
12 Correspondence 30 Who's Where 40-41 Market Focus 43 Industry Outlook 45 Airline Outlook 46-47 World News Roundup 49 In Orbit 51 Washington Outlook 87 World Business Watch 116 Inside Business Aviation 217 Classified 221 Contact Us 223 Aerospace Calendar
JUMPY OVER JIMO Scientists on the National Research Council's Space Studies Board are worried NASA's Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) may thwart planetary science priorities by making them contingent upon development of new space nuclear power technology. In a generally favorable review of NASA's proposed space science strategy document, the board of scientists suggested using JIMO as a reference mission to shape NASA's nuclear power development, instead of as a full-blown development in its own right.
THE BUSINESS JET MARKET IS UNDERGOING A "PROFOUND DOWNTURN" that is forecast to continue until 2006, according to Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for The Teal Group. After 2006 the ailing industry will begin to recover, and in the next 10 years Aboulafia expects manufacturers will produce 6,075 new business jets worth about $89 billion (in 2003 dollars). A majority of these will be large-cabin, long-range airplanes built by Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault Aviation.
This unit is designed for storing molded plastic sheets, sheet steel, laminate plastic, fixtures, dies and molds. To operate, roll out the shelf, lower the vacuum lift, pick up and move item directly to the work area. Custom roll-out shelf units are available with capacities from 200-40,000 lb. per shelf. Proper Storage Systems, 2200 Highway 90 East, Seguin, Tex. 78155. 253 on www.AviationNow.com/oic
Alenia Aeronautica is working on a low-observable unmanned combat air vehicle design as a follow-on to the technology testbed it recently unveiled. In parallel, the company also has begun concept work on utilizing the two-seat Eurofighter Typhoon as a controller aircraft for a group of UCAVs. The company displayed a nonflyable integration technology vehicle (ITV) in Turin on May 30. This is due to be followed by a flight test model in mid-2004.
The PolyMax 5000AC three-coat system offers an oil and moisture tolerant epoxy primer with good adhesion ton concrete, a high-build pigmented intermediate coat to aid in impact resistance, and a chemical-resistant urethane finish for abrasion resistance, light reflectivity and resistance to ultraviolet degradation from direct sunlight. Impervious to Skydrol, JP-8 and brake fluid, the coating can withstand heavy wheeled traffic, abrasion, impact and spillage of aviation fluids. CASS Polymers, 12005 North Virginia Ave., Oklahoma City, Okla. 73120.
Northrop Grumman settled a federal false claims suit for $111.2 million last week but denied any liability, saying it wanted to focus on the future. The case has been underway since 1994 when it was started by Richard D. Bagley, a laid-off TRW director of financial control, under "qui tam" whistle-blower provisions of the False Claims Act. The federal government joined the case in 1998. Northrop Grumman inherited the suit when it acquired TRW last year.
DATA SHARING After some initial glitches, Japanese weather forecasters have started using data from the U.S. GOES-9 geostationary weather satellite. The U.S. weather bird will help Japan track typhoons and other systems in the Western Pacific at least until its weather agency can replace its malfunctioning Geostationary Meteorological Satellite-5. Under a May 2002 deal with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Japanese Meteorological Agency paid to upgrade NOAA's ground station in Fairbanks, Alaska, while the U.S.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 46 China rolls out FC-1 fighter; first flight later in year 46 Eagle I UAV set for first au- tomatic takeoff and landing 47 Boeing wins tax breaks in state's bid to keep 7E7 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 54 Big Six U.S. airlines going all out to seek cash 56 JetBlue plans expansion with Embraer 190 order 58 Ariane 5 orbits Australian milsat, Japan's BSat-2 61 Rovers--NASA's best hope to resurrect space program
