PAJAMA GAME On a rare night out from his undisclosed location, Vice President Dick Cheney cracks a few jokes at the Radio-Television Correspondents Assn.'s annual dinner. Alluding to President Bush's S-3 fly-in to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, Cheney said the prez "probably would have canceled his overseas trip and come tonight if you had told him he could wear his flight suit. He loves that thing. He even has pajamas that look like a flight suit."
New Tactics The combination of satellites, precision weapons and up-to-the-minute intelligence helped U.S. bomber crews in Operation Iraqi Freedom perform such previously improbable feats as destroying only the fourth through seventh floors of a building, and maneuvering aggressively right through the bomb release point to negate ground fire.
NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) on the Terra satellite captured this image of dust storms and Iraqi oil well fires on Mar. 31, during the war with Iraq (see p. 44). Thermal detections in and around Baghdad are marked by red icons. Nearby dark smoke plumes suggest the hot spots were oil fires. NASA Goddard image by Jacques Descloitres, Modis Rapid Response Team.
The U.S. Air Transportation Stabilization Board turned down Gemini Air Cargo's application for a federal guarantee for $29.7 million, or 90%, of a $33-million loan. Voting unanimously, the board concluded that there was no reasonable assurance that Gemini would be able to repay the loan. It said credit ratings assigned by its financial consultants "implied a probability of default."
In Airframes, We Believe What a time to be in transition. Centered as they are in the world's fastest growing airline market, Latin American maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities can offer lower costs than their Asian counterparts. As North American carriers gain union concessions that will permit them to increase MRO outsourcing, Latin Americans are in a perfect position to capture narrow-body overhaul contracts--if they overcome doubts about the quality of their work and improve their turntimes.
Canada will begin discussions with the U.S. about possible participation in the Pentagon's ballistic missile defense projects, Defense Minister John McCallum told Parliament. The move would likely shift operational control of missile defense from the U.S. Northern Command to the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command. However, McCallum reiterated the Canadian government's opposition to weaponizing space. The Pentagon is considering space-based elements as part of its missile shield architecture.
POWERING UAVS The U.S. Navy has awarded Pratt & Whitney a $12.7-million, 39-month contract for turbine engine technologies for military UAV applications. The work will focus on a technology demonstrator engine built around the PW800 engine core used to power large business jets. High-temperature lightweight materials that could double the core's performance are among the technologies Pratt & Whitney says it will examine.
MORE AMERICAN In another twist on the Americanization of the EH101 helicopter, Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca are offering to make their engine candidate, the RTM322, more American. Should the engine win the competition to power the US101, and the helicopter, in turn, be selected as the U.S. Air Force's combat search-and-rescue rotorcraft, both Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca would have qualified U.S. production licensees.
InVision Technologies Inc. has made a strategic investment in SafeView Inc. to commercialize an advanced portal system that uses millimeter-wave holographic technology to screen passengers for weapons, explosives and other contraband material--including plastic and other nonmetallic weapons. InVision, which manufactures explosive detection systems, will be the exclusive distributor of SafeView's portal systems in commercial aviation and airport markets in North America and Europe. Current passenger security technology is capable of identifying only metallic weapons.
The European Space Agency's science program committee has approved the launch of the Rosetta comet rendezvous mission to Cheryumov-Gerasimenko in February 2004, using an Ariane 5 booster. Two other options, which would have sent Rosetta to the same comet but a year later, or to the original destination--Wirtanen--in January 2004, were abandoned (AW&ST Mar. 31, p. 17). The initial mission had to be scrubbed following the failed inaugural launch of the Ariane 5 EC-A in December.
Emirates Bucks the Odds Emirates, encouraged by record profits in fiscal year 2002-03, is expected to place a large order for several aircraft types, including more Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s, at this year's Paris air show and plans to continue expansion in spite of the negative effects of the Iraq war and severe acute respiratory syndrome virus.
Regarding JetBlue's market performance and aircraft orders (AW&ST Apr. 28, pp.10 and 18), does JetBlue owe large sums of money on existing aircraft with a substantial balloon payment due 2005? If it does, how will this debt affect financial results in subsequent years? I only ask because your articles painted such a nice picture. Is JetBlue for real or will it be a flash in the pan once the bills come due?
Paul T. Unger has formed Paul Unger NBS Search Inc., McLean, Va. He was a partner and managing director of the telecommunications and technology practice at Christian & Timbers.
A passenger armed with two 6-in.-long wooden stakes was subdued by a flight attendant and another passenger when he attempted to go to the cockpit on a Qantas Boeing 717 domestic flight from Melbourne to Launceston on May 29. In the process, the armed passenger stabbed two flight attendants--a 38-year-old male and 25-year-old female and a third passenger. The incident on board Flight 1737 occurred 10 min. after takeoff. There were 47 passengers and six crewmembers, including four flight attendants, on board.
NASA Ames Research Center pilot George E. Tucker evaluates perspective flight guidance displays being developed by a Boeing/Ames research team for "runway independent aircraft" (see p. 47). He is flying Ames' UH-60 Rascal helicopter supported by the Army Aeroflightdynamics Director at Ames. Photo by Ernesto Moralez, 3rd, of Ames.
Lufthansa will start equipping all 80 of its long-haul aircraft with Connexion by Boeing's Internet onboard service in early 2004. The airline and manufacturer have signed an agreement covering hardware installation and satellite capacity. Lufthansa is the first airline to commit to the service and plans to offer Internet access with every seat. Lufthansa has test-flown a Boeing 747-400 between Frankfurt and Washington for three months, and collected data on system performance and customer acceptance.
Rapid Adaptation Rockwell Collins has developed its advanced Pro Line 21 avionics architecture with enough flexibility to equip an all-new business jet with an integrated cockpit or to retrofit an aging aircraft with the latest subsystems.
STRETCHING THE MINUTEMEN The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) is facing a potential loss of 80% of its air defense resources in September. Air National Guard (ANG) personnel comprise most of Norad's quick-response forces, and many of them were called up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. By regulation, they are limited to a two-year activation. Units flying combat air patrols (CAPs) over the U.S.
The article "Fretting About Frax" (AW&ST May 26, p. 70) should have stated that the U.K. and French transport ministries would not recognize fractionally owned aircraft as private, despite the introduction of new FAA rules for such aircraft under Part 91.
BLACK-FLAGGED Germany and France will not participate in next year's U.S. Air Force Red Flag exercise. Contrary to the way it may look, USAF insists it isn't being vindictive and merely punishing Paris and Berlin for their opposition to the war in Iraq. Slots available to international participants were curtailed due to increased U.S. requirements, Pentagon officials maintain. Germany will participate in a Red Flag exercise later this year, having secured the slot last year before the international fracas occurred.
CAPTAINS' REQUEST In a SARS-prevention effort, the 1,200 members of Japan Airlines' captains' union requested late last month that the airline, along with government health and transport ministries, suspend flights to and from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. To compensate for loss of revenues on these routes and to increase aircraft utilization rate, JAL and All Nippon Airways (ANA) are promoting travel to non-SARS-afflicted resort destinations, such as Hawaii.
RETURN TO FLIGHT The focus of activity in the aftermath of the Columbia accident is shifting to Washington, where NASA headquarters faces growing scrutiny on a number of fronts. The accident investigation board is settling into D.C. quarters in hopes of producing a report before Congress heads off on its August recess. The board plans one final public hearing to probe management, policy and budget issues at NASA, as well as an interview with former Administrator Daniel S.
New Kid on the Block Thales Avionics is banking on its pioneering role as supplier of the first interactive cockpit for a major civil transport to help carve a niche that has proven largely elusive in the business and general aviation market.
AUSSIE SAM Saab has won a $42.5-million contract from the Australian army for new air defense equipment. The short-range air defense system deal includes Saab Bofors Dynamics-built RBS70 man-portable laser-guided missiles, Lockheed Martin portable search and target acquisition radars and a tactical command and control system (TaCCS). Deliveries to the 16th Air Defense Regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery are to be completed by January 2006.
THE ENVIRONMENTALLY DRIVEN TRANSITION TO REMOVE LEAD from electronics is reanimating an old threat to reliability--tin whiskers. These single-crystal, electrically conductive hair-like structures grow from pure tin surfaces. In the mid-1980s, USAF discovered whiskers inside tin-plated lids of hermetically sealed hybrid circuits when investigating reliability problems with the then-12-year-old APG-63 radar system (AW&ST June 30, 1986, p. 65). Tin-lead alloys suppressed whisker growth.
