A fuselage stretch and a ``speed kit'' are two items on a list of possible improvements to the 747 that Boeing officials are discussing with airlines. While Boeing has launched passenger and freighter versions of a new derivative called the Longer-Range 747-400, program officials are continuing to talk to operators about additional improvements for current and future 747s. One item being discussed with 747 operators is a set of large fairings Boeing has windtunnel tested which would be attached to the fuselage to increase cruise speed.
U.K. officials are warning the Pentagon that they view its commitment to the Joint Strike Fighter as a litmus test of whether the U.S. can ever be a dependable partner in military development programs. The verbal warning shot comes as U.S. industry and government officials are putting finishing touches on international teaming arrangements for the multibillion-dollar program, which is entering the home stretch before the Defense Dept. picks a winning contractor in October.
Defense Dept. engineers have for the first time demonstrated a method of freeing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from their dedicated ground stations, a development which supporters say could spur the combat use of the systems both within the U.S. military and in multinational operations.
Satellite designers at the U.S. Energy Dept.'s Sandia National Laboratories used a widely available commercial software program to spot and avoid a potentially serious obstruction during solar array deployment on an imaging satellite, building a computer model of the satellite and watching the arrays come perilously close to each other in a simulation of the deployment sequence.
Japan's Skymark Airlines this month began designating a special ``women-only'' section on board its flights. In response to complaints from women who say male seat-mates make them uncomfortable, the carrier is setting aside 10 seats on each flight, at no extra charge, for women more than 12 years of age. This move follows the growing trend in Japan of designating ``women-only'' areas at hotels, department stores and rail and bus lines.
A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC WORK BENCH that can be moved anywhere in the International Space Station to test and repair electronic equipment is now on the ISS. Xantrex Technology of Vancouver supplied a fundamental element--the programmable power supply--whose output can be selected from 0-150 volts DC and 7 amps, with current limiters to reduce the risk of arcing. Solar arrays provide a bus voltage of 120 volts DC; but for many uses, a variable power source is needed.
The first Atlas V Lockheed Martin/Pratt&Whitney Centaur upper stage has been delivered to Cape Canaveral from Denver on board a leased Antonov An-124 transport. An-124s have delivered European space hardware to the Cape in the past and will now be used by Lockheed Martin for all future Atlas V deliveries.The first Atlas V flight is set for May 2002.
Daniel MacLellan has been appointed sales director of FlightSafety Boeing Training International of Seattle. He was a regional marketing manager for FlightSafety International (FSI). Bob Stephenson has become Fort Worth-based corporate director of standards for FSI. He was assistant director of specialty training.
The super-heavy Antonov An-225 ``Mriya'' transport, which has been converted for use as a freighter, completed the first of 10 test flights on May 7 from an airfield near Kiev, Ukraine. It is scheduled to appear at Le Bourget next month for this year's Paris air show. Antonov paid $20 million to convert the aircraft, which was originally designed to transport the Soviet Buran space shuttle. The upgrade included the addition of modern navigation and communication avionics, a collision avoidance system and changes to reduce the aircraft's noise signature.
The Hispasat board of directors has authorized the issue of a request for proposals for a new spacecraft, Amazonas-1, to serve the Latin American telecom market and adjacent areas. The 5-metric-ton spacecraft, carrying 36 Ku-band and 27 C-band transponders, will be operated through a joint venture with Brazilian telecom operator Telemar (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 40). Bidder selection is set for midyear and the launch in late 2003.
The Norwegian Ministry of Defense has awarded Saab Training Systems a contract valued at more than $46 million to provide equipment and support for the Norwegian Army Combat Maneuver Training Center.
Legislation introduced by a pair of California congressmen that would return satellite technology export licensing authority to the U.S. Commerce Dept. is winning praise from the U.S. satellite industry. The Satellite Trade and Security Act of 2001 offered by Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Democrat Howard Berman would remove licensing authority from the State Dept., where it has resided since 1998. Interestingly, Rohrabacher had championed the shift from the Commerce Dept. to the State Dept., which the House approved 403-8. Later, he said the State Dept.
NASA, NOAA, Eumetsat and French space agency CNES are discussing a plan to build and operate a new oceanographic satellite as an integral part of the international weather forecasting system. The spacecraft, Jason-2, would be launched in 2005 as a follow-on to the existing Topex-Poseidon satellite and Jason-1, set for launch in August.
Germany's MTU and Pratt&Whitney Canada have run a new geared fan demonstrator on the bench for the first time. MTU supplies the low-pressure turbine for the demonstrator, dubbed ATFI (advanced technology fan integrator), which is intended to serve as a basis for new-generation aircraft engines. Meanwhile, rival Rolls-Royce Deutschland agreed to set up a compressor test joint venture in cooperation with Wildau University of the Applied Sciences. The move is part of a plan to make the German unit the center of excellence in compressor technology within Rolls-Royce.
Critical Canadarm-2 robotics tests resumed as planned on the International Space Station May 10 following continued progress to reinstate ISS command and control computer capability. The orbiter Endeavour was also returned to the Kennedy Space Center May 9, from Edwards AFB, Calif., on board a NASA Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, following the shuttle's Edwards landing on May 1.
Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd., the small-satellite maker spun off from the engineering programs at the University of Surrey, has grown too big for academic ownership and is seeking outside capital so it can pursue several commercial projects while shielding the public institution from entrepreneurial risk.
Horacio Sanchez has been appointed project coordinator for special outreach with the aviation resources program of the Experimental Aircraft Assn. Foundation, Oshkosh, Wis. Mark Leisses has been named director of event sales for the EAA.
William O. Schmieder has been nam- ed vice president of the General Dynamics Corp., Falls Church, Va., and head of international development activities. He was staff vice president-international.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian commissioned 58 Dassault Mirage 2000-5E/Ds at Hsinchu AB, 55 mi. west of Taipei, last week, two weeks after U.S. President George W. Bush approved the largest U.S. military aid package to Taiwan since 1992, the year the Mirages were ordered.
Officials at both Southwest Airlines and Orbitz have begun firing verbal salvos at each other as Southwest prepares to fight in federal court to stop the new travel Web site from practicing ``harmful representations'' of its fares and schedules to the consumer.
In an announcement eagerly anticipated in four cities--if nowhere else--The Boeing Co. said last week that it will move its headquarters to Chicago. It chose the former headquarters of Morton International Co. (best known as owner of Leslie Salt), a 36-story skyscraper just west of the Chicago River. In doing so, Boeing disappointed Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver, the rivals Boeing announced last March, and, of course, Seattle, where lumberman Bill Boeing established the company in 1916.
Michael Blunt, formerly head of alliances communications and special projects at British Airways, has been appointed vice president-public relations of the Oneworld alliance.
National Airlines President/CEO Michael Conway, echoing concerns of other new-entrant carriers, said a passenger bill of rights law, however well intentioned, is not the answer to improving airline service. Conway described such legislation as a ``patch-work solution'' that would make federal agencies responsible for monitoring compliance and exacting discipline. These are the same federal bodies ``that allowed the competitive environment to tilt so drastically'' in favor of larger carriers, he said.
The U.S. Air Force's YF-113G aircraft has been identified as a 1970s stealth testbed and as a MiG-23, but both of these are wrong, according to an observer and some USAF documentation (AW&ST Apr. 10, 2000, p. 18; Apr. 17, 2000, p. 33). The YF-113G was a ``classified prototype'' that was brought ``from design to first flight'' in a ``classified flight test squadron'' in the 1993-96 time frame.
A SIMPLE AND INEXPENSIVE TECHNOLOGY that could help improve air safety and capacity by greatly reducing blocked radio transmissions and ``stuck-mike'' interference has been stalled in the FAA for 18 years. American Airlines Capt. John G. Rutty (now retired) was pushing anti-blocking circuitry in the early 1980s that prevents the transmitter from activating when the receiver senses a signal.
