U.S. Air Force attempts to save money in the Discoverer-2 program may be introducing extra risk for demonstration of a space-based radar. USAF had committed to providing two Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle boosters to lift the two demonstration satellites into orbit in 2005. But now the service wants to carry both spacecraft on one booster. The risk is that a launch mishap would wipe out the in-orbit demonstration and nullify almost the entire $700 million spent, program officials fear.
AVIATION SAFETY TRAINING IS OFFERING its Advanced Maneuvering Program to teach pilots of all skill levels how to recover from unusual attitudes stemming from unexpected upsets. Donald Wylie, chief pilot of the Houston-based company, said there is a need for more realistic training in proper recovery from stall and upset situations, especially if the aircraft is at a low altitude. He said most pilots, including those flying Transport Category airplanes, are not familiar with how to successfully recover their airplanes from various unusual attitudes.
Pentagon analysts note with interest that Israeli designers are working on a Predator- or Heron-class unmanned air vehicle with very long-endurance. Initially, they thought the Israelis wanted the UAV only to attack mobile targets like ballistic missile launchers. But now it appears the drone would carry several smart armor-killing weapons similar to the U.S.-made, air-launched Brilliant Anti-Tank (BAT) weapon, as well as a small laser for determining ranges and designating targets.
The former ICO Global Communications emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week as New ICO, preparing to offer high-speed wireless Internet capability rather than the previously planned mobile telephone service. The successful exit from Chapter 11 on May 17 follows an investment of $1.2 billion by a group of investors led by Craig McCaw. The move follows by 5 days the merger of Teledesic into ICO-Teledesic Global, a new holding company that controls the satellite assets of McCaw's private investment company, Eagle River Investments.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' net profit in 1999-2000 plunged to 4 million euros ($3.2 million) on $5.44 billion in revenues, down from a $186.3-million profit during the previous year. In January-March, KLM sustained losses of $73.8 million. Dutch carrier executives cited the soaring price of fuel, excess capacity and the proliferation of low fares as the main causes for such a severe decline.
Pilot representatives from Delta Air Lines and its code-share partners met last week to discuss forming a domestic pilot alliance. The organization would focus chiefly on safety and job security issues, according to officials of Delta's Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Assn.
Robert Lavallee has become Western U.S. sales manager for GKN Westland Aerospace Inc., Wallingford, Conn. He was a regional marketing director for Advanced Technical Products, Marion, Va.
Blake Bisson has been appointed vice president-sales of InterSense Inc., Burlington, Mass. He was a vice president-sales and marketing for Integrated Computing Engines, Waltham, Mass.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has put the Air Force and Navy on notice to support the JSF, warning that failure to do so may cost them the F-22s and F/A-18E/Fs they want. With reports mounting that JSF support is waning, Cohen spoke out. ``The notion that somehow, because certain aircraft, such as the F/A-18E/F models now coming off the line, or that funding has been secured for the F-22, that there is no need to support the JSF is simply wrong,'' he said. Message received? At least in part. Adm.
Chris Strong, head of AverStar's Houston-based International Space Station Electrical Power System (EPS) Independent Verification and Validation Team has won a NASA ``Best of the Best'' Quality and Safety Achievement Recognition Award. He was selected for contributions to the space station's EPS software development program. The work of Strong's team has been credited with ensuring the safety of the space station crew and the operational effectiveness of flight critical software.
RAYTHEON SYSTEMS LTD. HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED the first flight trials of its Identification Friend or Foe 4810 transponder on a British Royal Air Force F3 Tornado. The first squadron of F3s to be fitted with the new transponder is expected to be operational by midyear.
The FAA should distance itself from the RTCA decision-making process and take steps to ensure the advice it gets on air traffic control modernization represents a balance of the interested parties, the Transportation Dept. Inspector General says. Further, FAA officials should not participate as voting members on the RTCA Policy Board, or any committee. The IG said the problem is that ``the agency needs to avoid being seen, in substance and appearance, as giving advice to themselves.''
Pentagon planners are busy surveying Pacific bases with an eye to increasing the flow of tactical military aircraft through these bases and allowing more bombers to fly from them in case of a military emergency in Asia. Facilities expected to be upgraded include Wake Island and Guam. The latter is to get B-2 hangars and deployment facilities for the B-1.
Ground tests conducted last month on board a NASA-owned Boeing 757 transport will lead to flight tests this summer of an image-capture system that could be used as a cockpit digital flight image recorder on commercial transports.
The Air Line Pilots Assn. is poised to attempt to block the FAA's latest plan governing Land and Hold Short Operations (LAHSO) because of safety concerns. The agency has set May 27 as a deadline for implementing the new guidelines, which were issued in late April to the airlines, pilot unions and air traffic controllers for review and comment. ALPA officials, however, said they are concerned that the FAA's latest plan ``falls far short of some key safeguards'' that the agency had agreed to maintain.
Air Canada and Canada's Competition Bureau last week reached an agreement on how the airline will proceed with the sale of Canadian Regional Airlines. The latter operates a fleet of twin-engine turboprops and Fokker F28 jets to 42 destinations in Canada and the U.S.
DYNAMICS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR PRESIDENT Madelyn Burley-Allen said nearly 50% of accidents attributed to pilot/crew error involved a lapse of attention with one task to the exclusion of another. Speaking at a recent corporate aviation safety seminar, Burley-Allen said when two tasks must be performed concurrently, pilots should not allow their attention to linger too long on one, and every few seconds alternate attention between tasks.
NASA has narrowed down the 2003 Mars launch opportunity to two possible missions, including a lander that would duplicate the design of the Pathfinder spacecraft which successfully landed on the planet in 1997 using an airbag system. The other option is an orbiter, which would be based, to the extent possible, on the design of the 2001 Mars orbiter. A lander would be assembled at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), while the orbiter would be built at Lockheed Martin Astronautics.
Roger Krone has been named vice president/general manager of U.S. Army programs and leader of the Philadelphia facility for Boeing. He succeeds Charles A. Vehlow, who has resigned. Krone was vice president/general manager of business management/chief financial officer for Military Aircraft and Missile Systems. He has been succeeded by Randy Simons, who was CFO for airplane programs for the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group.
Nick Bullen, principal engineer for manufacturing technology modernization for air combat systems for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems and Aero- structures, El Segundo, Calif., has received the Aerospace Design Engineering Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for achievements in gantry applied drilling technology.
Citing unfulfilled demand, Singapore Airlines says it wants flight rights into Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin as well as added services to Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta. CEO Cheong Choong Kong says the airline ``should get a chance to grow in India as it has exhausted all its entitlements'' under the current Singapore-India bilateral.
As of mid-May, stock prices of Atlantic Coast Airlines, Mesa Air Group, Mesaba Aviation and SkyWest Airlines had appreciated by an average of 30% since the beginning of the year. As impressive as this is, PaineWebber analyst Jamie Baker thinks these regional carriers still offer significant upside, due in no small measure to the growing dependence of major airlines on the smaller operators. ``Regionals . . . have never been viewed as more critical to the success of their major partners than they are today,'' Baker said.
Michael Gat has been named CEO of Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. of Tel Aviv. He was vice president-commercial and industry affairs for El Al Israel Airlines.
The number of hours flown by turbine-powered business aircraft is forecast to grow steadily during the next 10 years, but general aviation airports must keep pace by implementing improvements aimed at attracting and retaining traffic, according to a recent report by the National Air Transportation Assn. (NATA).
The absence of a national commitment to aeronautics technology increasingly jeopardizes the future of U.S. civil aviation, government and industry executives cautioned lawmakers last week. At a packed hearing of the House aviation subcommittee, aerospace authorities said fresh sources of investment--additional user fees or devoting more of the aviation trust fund to research--are less the issue than America's unwillingness to spend as liberally on air transport as it does on Social Security or national defense.
