We were all-business, with adrenaline-fueled "gains" turned full-up. Our F-4 Phantom had lost its primary hydraulic system; we were on backup. I read the checklist aloud as the front-seat pilot responded, reconfiguring the cockpit for an emergency landing. Nothing life-threatening yet, but if we lost anything else, ejection could fast-become the only option left. And we were over a populated area now, approaching the base. No place to dump a 50,000-lb. fighter and make a nylon approach, so let's do this right.
Steven R. Loranger has been named executive vice president/chief operating officer of Textron Inc., Providence, R.I. He was president/CEO of Honeywell Engines, Systems and Services.
As the commander of Apollo 17, Eugene A. Cernan walked on the Moon 30 years ago this month. To his dismay, his footprints are still the most recent that humans have left on the Moon. In a Viewpoint on the Next Century of Flight on p. 62, Cernan offers a novel idea for fanning public interest in space--and reinvigorating student interest in science and math. The Next Century of Flight is a five-year Aviation Week multimedia education initiative to explore the future of aviation and aerospace.
Sending and receiving communications at the same time or listening to enemy communications while jamming them has long been considered impossible. But researchers say the barriers to such electronic multi-tasking are giving way to digital advances such as sophisticated algorithms to manipulate data and increased computer processing speed.
United Airlines' fast-paced bankruptcy-protection proceeding swerved toward conflict Dec. 17 as the airline warned that it will move to nullify its labor contracts unless its unions provide much larger givebacks than they agreed to previously.
Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin placed versions of their competing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles on their launch pads here for tests last week, the first vehicle pad tests following their initial successful first flights. The second Boeing Delta IV flight vehicle was erected on Complex 37 (right) in preparation for the launch of a USAF Defense Satellite Communications spacecraft in February. Unlike the initial Delta IV mission in November, this vehicle will not be configured with solid rocket motors.
The U.S. Navy is pursuing an aggressive strategy to develop a land-based, endurance UAV to serve as an adjunct to its maritime patrol fleet. But barely out of the starting blocks, the initiative is running into funding problems that are likely to derail the service's plans to field a system by 2008.
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Michael Burris has been appointed assistant director of aviation for finance and accounting and Sabrina Attaluri environmental manager for the Kansas City (Mo.) Aviation Dept. Mike Roper has become assistant manager of Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City. Burris was director of finance and administration at the Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority, Allentown, Pa., while Attaluri was a facilities environmental specialist for the U.S. Postal Service. Roper was assistant director of operations at Kansas City International Airport.
Aeronavali, Alenia Aeronautica's maintenance, repair and overhaul arm, is slated to deliver the first all-cargo Boeing 767 twinjet by the end of 2004. The Italian group and Boeing revived an earlier plan, inked in 2000, to develop a freighter conversion program for the 767-200/-200ER. The encouraging cargo traffic forecast led to the renewed interest. Aeronavali's CEO Pompeo Sorice said, "Cargo, unlike some passengers, has no fear."
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP Technical team probes Ariane 5 EC-A failure Expected to recommend measures needed to establish reliability 20 K9 rover begins testing in NASA's 'Marscape' facility Carries instruments for exploring, recording data on Mars' surface 21 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS New missile defense plan bolsters multiple programs Unresolved funding and other obstacles could impact size of missile buy and the fielding schedule 24 Navy sets course for endurance UAV
To help mitigate the threat from terrorists wielding SA-7-style shoulder-fired missiles, the amount of time at low altitude during jet aircraft arrival and departure should be cut (AW&ST Dec. 9, p. 28). When I descend to Newark, for example, I may spend the last 20 min. or longer below 8,000 ft.--well within SA-7 range. Many other air carrier airports employ similarly high-exposure IFR procedures. Some of these could be altered to accommodate jet penetration-style arrivals and fast climbout departures.
Loss of the latest version of Europe's Ariane 5 with two expensive satellites on board won't have as big an impact on the worldwide commercial space insurance industry as it might have because the spacecraft weren't heavily insured. As a result, the industry is poised to turn in its first profitable year "after years of bleeding red ink," according to Phil McAlister of the Futron Corp., which closely tracks space insurance. So far in 2002 the insurance industry is in the black on space policies to the tune of $700 million, even with about $300 million in claims.
Doug Hacker has become executive vice president-strategy of United Airlines. He had been president of UAL Loyalty Services and the airline's executive vice president/chief financial officer.
The European Space Agency hopes to open negotiations with NASA early next year on a possible role in the U.S. agency's proposed Orbital Space Plane that would build on work ESA already has performed under the canceled X-38 program.
Activity in the U.S. and the Middle East appears to gives some credence to indications in Washington that war with Iraq could be as little as 6-8 weeks away. In the U.S., the Pentagon has called up 14,000 reservists in the last two weeks after months of declining totals.
Controllers were scheduled to make one last attempt to contact the Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour) spacecraft Dec. 20, and then give up the probe as lost if it didn't reply to their signals. As feared, Contour remained silent Dec. 18 during a 12-hr. session that used the 35- and 70-meter (115-230-ft.) Deep Space Network dishes to send startup commands to the spacecraft. A failure review team could issue preliminary findings as early as next month on why Contour apparently broke into at least three pieces near the end of a critical 50-sec.
U.S. government agencies held a three-day closed meeting in Washington on how to protect commercial airliners from man portable missiles, according to Aerospace Daily. The FAA and Transportation, Defense and State Depts. were involved in the meeting, which concluded Dec. 14. The findings were not announced.
Several successful flight tests in recent months weren't enough to salvage the B-1B's electronic warfare upgrade. The Pentagon last week issued a termination for convenience for the Defensive System Upgrade Program, which included installing a new techniques generator and fiber-optic towed decoy. The program ran into technical trouble last year when decoy testing encountered several problems and costs increased, causing Air Force planners to zero its Fiscal 2004 budget.
Ditmar Staffelt has been appointed aerospace coordinator of the government of Germany. He is a member of the Bundestag undersecretary in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Labor.
The "Cyber Center" for Northrop Grumman's new Cyber Warfare Integrated Network is outfitted with multiple capabilities to show diverse network-centric warfare data displays from a variety of aircraft, UAVs and ground command-center perspectives. The facilities will tackle issues such as advanced system analysis and distributed mission training, and they will be used to improve time-critical targeting analysis and concepts for "effects-based" net-centric operations.
Your article on Boeing fuel pumps failed to account for similar problems with overheating fuel pumps in other Boeing aircraft (AW&ST Dec. 9, p. 48). From 1982-93, five Boeing KC-135s exploded in flight or on the ground due to overheated body tank fuel pumps, killing 39 people. Indeed, after two fatal explosions within a month in 1989, the fleet was grounded pending a solution, which was to leave 2,000 lb. of fuel in each tank to cover and cool the pumps.
The U.S. government should set up a National Counter-Terrorism Center for the "fusion and analysis" of foreign and domestic intelligence on terrorists to preempt attacks, according to the latest report of the Gilmore commission. The report to Congress and the President was prepared by a panel led by former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore and staffed by Rand. The commission believes the new center should be independent of the new Homeland Security Dept.
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